HooToo Wireless Router AC1200, 4 Antennas USB 3.0 Port, Dual Band 2.4GHz / 5GHz WiFi Router

This is a real world review of the HooToo AC1200. I paid for this router so I am not a bias reviewer as some people are being accused of.This router is replacing my TP-Link 1043N with DD-WRT which was only 2.4G. I have had this router for about a week and it has pro and cons…Pro:- Despite not being shown anywhere in the manual the LAN and WAN ports are gigabyte speed- So far I’ve not had any reason to reboot it, been running rock solid for 7 days.- Once I changed a setting (see cons) it hooked up to my Chromcast2 without problem at 5G- Both 2.4G and 5G networks work fine and can see devices between both.- USB 3.0 and SD ports, speedy access.- Easy setup- Looks nice- Strong 2.4G signal- Netflix, Crunchyroll and MBL.TV playing great with no issues.Cons:- Antennas are built in so are not detachable– was hoping I could replace them with larger ones.- No DD-WRT (yet)- Firmware is VERY basic so is the manual.- Firmware only has password setting to access it not user and password.- No guest network- If you use Dynamic IP with your ISP you can’t change DNS settings and add an alt DNS server (as far as I could find)- Defaults 5G to 80 bandwidth which Chromecast2 had issues with, once I changed this to 20/40 it worked fine.- Signal on 5G is weaker than 2.4G, I know this is normal but it is worth mentioning.- No way to wall mount.

I have had this router for a couple of months now.There were issues with it out of the box but nothing major, tech support worked with me quite nicely.To any one purchasing this router the Firmware that is on the routers needs to be updated. Hootoo has made improvements on the firmware since the router was first sold through Amazon. The Firmware is readily available on Hootoo's website but cannot be installed from a thumb drive unless it connected to your computer.The Firmware is very easily upgraded through the Routers Configuration Menu.The firmware as shipped had some speed issues and did not support the USB Print Server function that is outlined in the manual and here on Amazon.Firmware V61102 resolved some speed issues but the USB Print Server did not work and was not available through the Routers Menu.The newly released V61111 had added the Print Server Functionality (I just did the firmware upgrade but have not tested this function however it is now included in the Router Configuration Menu Items).The USB port on the router can also function as a Network Storage which adds value that is not available on many routers that cost much more.The Wireless signal is quite strong and dependable.The Internal Switching reaches full speed.

Setup was straight forward. Signal strength was not adequate.. may work for a small apartment. We have a small single family home and the signal strength and speed dropped significantly when going to first floor (it was setup in second floor room).Now only the 2.4GHz works, 5GHz is pretty much non-existent. Even with 2.4 GHz, the speed drops significantly several times so we were unable to stream content consistently. Every now and then, internet connection would drop completely and significant time would be wasted in just trying to auto connect. Completely unreliable product.Skip this product. I replaced this with ASUS RT-N66R Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router and it has been working fantastic.

The setup of the router is straightforward. I had no issues getting access to the internet either wired to the device or connecting using WiFi. The strength of the signal is good but not significant better than other AC1200 type routers I have used.I did have a problem (or misunderstanding really) "seeing" the USB drive on the network. It turns out that even though you can set in the router configuration the name of the "SAMBA" share, the share does not automatically appear on Windows Explorer as other networked devices typically do. This caused me to believe it was not working. It took some time (a few days) for support to get back to me but in the end the answer was to directly access the share using the UNC path 10.10.10.252/share. It was a bit frustrating but I finally got things working relatively well. I ended up mapping a drive to it to make it easy for me to get to it without having to type the UNC path every time.Overall, it is a good router; I hope it will continue to work reliably for years to come. The price point for the features it provides is great. I would recommend it.