Asus RT-N16 Tomato Setup

I was in the market for a new wireless router and my co-worker suggested this Asus RT-N16 router. I initially thought of buying Netgear WNR3500L but chose Asus due to one simple reason. Better Hardware Specs. The Asus RT-N16 has 128MB RAM while Netgear WNR3500L has 64MB. The CPUs are approximately equal (Asus - 533MHz and Netgear - 480MHz). But the tipping point for me was the availability of TWO USB ports as opposed to one in Netgear. This will help in connecting a Printer and an external drive.

One of the concerns for buying Asus was that it is not a big name in Network world and their firmware got bad reviews in Amazon and Newegg. However, I was planning on replacing the firmware with Tomato anyway, so it didn't matter to me as long as the hardware is good.

Tomato Installation Steps

I never played with Tomato or any router firmware before. I had a hardtime finding the exact installation instruction for Tomato on this hardware, so here is how I did it.

1. Download the Tomato USB Firmware from the link below. The version I downloaded was "Build 50 Kernel 2.6 Experimental for MIPSR2". Also, I downloaded the Ext Build because the VPN Build was causing some wireless issues.
   http://www.tomatousb.org/download
2. Extract the above rar file using WinRAR utility on your computer to a directory such as temp. (Preferably avoid directories containing blankspace).
3. Install the Asus Utilities software from the CD provided along with the router.
4. Connect your computer to the router via LAN cable.
5. Disable the firewall on your computer where you installed the Asus Utilities (required).
6. Power off your Asus RT-N16 router.
7. Press and Hold (with a Pen or any sharp object) the Restore button on the back of the router AND simulatenously Power ON the router. You may have to hold the Restore button for 5 seconds after Power on. The Power indicator will be flashing.
8. Quickly bring up Asus Firmeware Restoration utility on the computer. Ackowledge that the Firewall is disabled.
9. Point to the .trx file extracted in step 2 and click upload.
10. The Tomato firmware will be installed and the router will be rebooted.
11. Login to tomato using "root" and password "admin". (Default, you should change it immediately).
12. Click on the USB Support page under "USB and NAS" section and enable the following settings as shown in the screenshot.
    
    
    
    That is it. Now you are ready to use Tomato with USB Support on this router.

Note: Even though I bought this router because of its two USB ports, theoritically one Port should be good enough. You should be able to connect a USB hub to this one port and expand the available USB ports. However, I still liked having two USB ports on the router itself.