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After connecting the router up to the power and modem, we can then access the router control panel to set it up. The simplest way of doing this is by entering its IP address into a browser but this may not be possible or some people due to conflicts with the modem. So, Asus provide a software utility which we can use to find the router and access the configuration page without conflict.
When accessing the control panel we are first instructed to input a username and password (user: admin, pass: admin) before we can make any changes. Then we are presented with a network map, visually displaying all connected devices. Alongside this there is a summary of the router settings including SSID, security type, and key. These can all be configured easily from this page.
The two USB2.0 ports in the back of the router let us plug in USB storage devices and share their files over the network. This function can be disabled in the control panel under the ‘UPnP Media Server' tab. Additionally, the USB devices can be accessed remotely over the internet via FTP. This can be configured under the ‘AiDisk' tab in the control panel. The USB ports can also be used to share a printer over the network.
The ‘EzQoS Bandwidth Management' tab provides a very simple interface for traffic prioritisation, letting us give priority for certain applications over others to optimise performance.
Under the ‘Advanced Setting' tab we can configure almost every setting we could ask for and more. But all the essential settings are configurable from the main page so we can't see a huge number of users ever using this tab.
The provided software utility has a few other functions which are worthy of a mention. The ‘Download Master' application lets us download files from HTTP, FTP or BitTorrent onto the attached USB devices. It also has a ‘Firmware Restoration' application which lets us update the router's firmware without hassle.
