A call to tech support proved fruitless and frustrating, as well. Despite the promised 3-minute hold, we listened to advertising for more than 5 minutes before being booted to a voicemail system that invited us to leave our name and number. We did so but never received a callback. A later attempt netted us 30 seconds of talk time with a tech support rep, who then put us on hold for more than 10 minutes before we hung up in frustration. Likewise, Asus's hardcopy quick-start guide walks you through only the EZSetup process; it doesn't address the router's Web interface. The included utility CD purports to have in-depth user guides, and to be fair, it does--in Chinese. The only English guide is an electronic version of the quick-start guide.
The Asus WL-700gE offers 64-/128-bit WEP, WPA, and WPA2 for password protecting your network. It also offers MAC address filtering, SPI and NAT firewalls, and URL blocking. You can also manage user settings/permissions, as well, using the Web interface. The security features provided by the Asus WL-700gE are standard for routers.
The included Download Master lets you set up to seven BitTorrent streams at once, or up to 10 FTP/HTTP downloads. We started a BitTorrent download late in the evening, shut off our PC, and happily found the completed download in the mapped drive the next morning. When we first initiated the download, we were a bit confused as we stared at the Download Master window. Instead of updating continuously, it seems to update every 10 to 20 seconds, leaving you wondering at first whether anything is happening. It also took a long time for the progress bar and the ETA figures to appear, leaving us scratching our heads. The Download Master interface could certainly use some improvement for better usability.
Besides downloading content using Download Master, you can also set up a message board on the router or a public site (if you get a dynamic IP address from your ISP, you'll have to set up a dynamic DNS host). You can also network printers using the USB ports or increase storage capacity by attaching USB hard drives. If you have attached a USB hard drive, you can also set up mirroring, where the content of the Asus router's hard drive will be copied over to the externally attached drive for redundancy. Finally, using the front-mounted USB drive, you can quickly copy over the contents from an external hard drive to the router's drive by simply pressing the copy button. The content will show up in the router's Copy folder.
Performance
The Asus WL-700gE supports both 802.11g and 802.11b clients. Its performance pales in the face of the scores from the Draft N routers on the market but are more than sufficient for home wireless users. In mixed mode at 10 feet, it scored an average of 22.4Mbps. At 200 feet, again in mixed mode, it scored 11.6Mbps.
Service and support
Asus provides a two-year limited warranty for the WL-700gE router. As mentioned above, support is a mixed bag. Phone support is available 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. PT on weekends, but it's a toll call, which makes the extended hold times even less palatable. Asus's site offers product-specific FAQs, driver and manual downloads, a troubleshooting guide, and a user forum. Try to avail yourself of all of these options before calling tech support.
