Cisco-Linksys WRT160N Wireless-N Broadband Router
by Linksys
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Our Price: $117.18 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $14.75 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cisco-Linksys WRT160N Wireless-N Broadband Router
Customer Review: great priced n router
Summary: 4 Stars
Bought this because my old dlink g router wasn't cutting through very well to my upstairs studio, either to my new macbook or my xbox360. Documentation in the packaging is useless, but it's essentially a plug and play setup, automatically detecting the devices that are connecting to the network and customizing the signal. Setting a WPA2 secure network was even very straightforward with a little help from the internet. The good thing about this router is that it is common, and you can find a lot of info online through forums and such. I'm still only getting a 3 bar connection on xbox live (though there's not as much lag as before), and my upload speeds haven't improved from the g router; however, download speeds (regular web navigation, streaming video, etc) are much faster with this router.
One thing to note, which I overlooked, is that the wrt160n will detect all devices connecting to the network and then output according to the slowest device. I have an older laptop, as well, and because it is only g-capable, the wrt160n was only outputting 802.11g...so it was effectively just a g router. I hadn't realized that while this router is capable of doing all (a/b/g/n), it only outputs one at a time. I solved the problem by setting it to output N only no matter the connecting device, then connected my old dlink router to one of the LAN ports on the wrt160n to create a second wireless network for my older laptop. The wrt160n handled that beautifully.
Form factor is great, low profile with no antennae, looks good in any setting. I've had it for about six weeks and so far no real issues with dropping signals suddenly. Has happened once or twice, but not to the degree that some have described. Overall, I'm happy with the purchase. Wireless N for a very good price.
Customer Review: Sastifactory Product
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had this router for a month now and its operation has been close
enough to advertised to keep me happy. The unit is located in the
basement of our 3000 sqft daylight ranch house and reception is at two or
three bars throughout our home. That's with using "G" network notebook
computers as we don't yet have any "N" devices. I would expect reception
to be even stronger with that standard. At any rate, we can easily stream
movies from upstairs at either end of the house.
I was surprised at the flexibility of the router configuration options
for the price we paid. If you are knowledgeable about such things as
port forwarding, DMZ and optimizing for Bit Torrent or gaming, you will
have everything available to you that's needed.
We were not impressed with the included router desktop software, though.
It might be useful at times for troubleshooting or adding other wireless
devices to the network, but for day to day operation it's just not needed.
I recommend installing it, then disabling it from running at startup. Just use it when you think you need it.
If you use the included installation wizard on the CD, keep in mind
that you may need to power your modem off and on to complete the
connection to the router. If you get your local network up but have
no internet, try resetting your modem before pulling out all your
hair.
All in all, a pretty good product for the low price. If you would like
faster network speeds between your computers you might want to spend
a bit more and get a router with Gigabit support through the wired
ports. But we find transfer speeds to be acceptable here for this level of expenditure.
Customer Review: Not worth upgrading from a G router!
Summary: 1 Stars
I upgraded from a Linksys WRT54g ver 1.0 router in order to get more range (as I had heard that wireless N provided this even with G adapters). I was very disappointed.
The installation process was fine (assuming you know Linksys), although their software configuration tool crashed repeatedly. I got the router working with no problems.
Then I noticed the range was much worse on this router. I conducted my own tests using my internal Intel Wireless G adapter on my Dell Inspiron laptop. I conducted the tests with WirelssMon software program. I positioned the routers in the exact same spot each time, and the laptop was also in the exact same place each test. Here are my results of my signal strength testing:
Basement (right next to the router):
Wireless N (20 MHz): -40 dB = 67%
Wireless N (40 MHz): -32 dB = 75%
Wireless N (auto): -37 dB = 70%
WRT54G: -29 dB = 79%
Main floor (one floor above router):
Wireless N (20 MHz): -53 dB = 51%
Wireless N (40 MHz): -55 dB = 51%
Wireless N (auto): -54 dB = 50%
WRT54G: -44 dB = 62%
Front Porch (one floor above router, a bit farther):
Wireless N (20 MHz): -86 dB = 16%
Wireless N (40 MHz): not conducted
Wireless N (auto): not conducted
WRT54G: -71 dB = 32%
Main bedroom (two floors above router):
Wireless N (20 MHz): -74 dB = 27%
Wireless N (40 MHz): -72 dB = 30%
Wireless N (auto): -71 dB = 32%
WRT54G: -65 dB = 39%
Clearly there is a benefit to the WRT54G (by about 5-10%) in terms of signal strength. I have returned this router. I might try another Linksys with a stronger antenna (?WRT610N), but I was very disappointed with the performance of this router.
Customer Review: Good router - Not perfect - would buy again/recommend to a friend
Summary: 4 Stars
Ive had this router for about a year now. It looks good, runs cool, has blinking lights.
I don't use the software or the wi-fi protected setup, that seems to be the part people have mot of their problems with. I don't bother calling technical support. I just login to the router with the 192.168.1.1 and setup the wpa2 security/password. Something most people don't do to increase their security is turn off the SSid broadcast. Your network is then hidden from others, all they see is "wireless network", they have to guess the name before they cold even attempt to access it. Pick a random wacky name/number combo and your good.
I have the following connected:
-wired PS3/Xbox360/PC/Roku/AV Receiver
-wireless Laptop X 2/Wii/Android phone
PRO's- I stream Netflix/ and surf the web heavily and get 20+ mbps download speeds. I play online games with no issues, make phone calls with google phone. It has given me no issues when it is working properly.
Cons- It needs to be power cycled on occasion. When I notice things moving a little sluggishly, I reboot it, maybe every 3-4 months? BUT, how often do you reboot your PC? About a month ago the reboot didn't fix it, so I reset the router, then setup the security again. It has been working fine since, I have been streaming LOTS of netflix and surfing lots of WWW and it hasn't had an issue since.
Overall I am satisfied with this router. It's not perfect but its better then the alternatives from Belkin/D-Link/Netgear. It seems each of those has a major issue, or maybe its just that people don't know what they are doing. Maybe half are broken and half work fine witch all of the reviews for this router seem to suggest.
Customer Review: I really gave it a chance...
Summary: 1 Stars
Honestly, this router is a joke. I tried so hard with this thing. I got it for cheap, and should have known better. I did everything needed to get this thing running. I honestly expected to have to do tons of port forwarding and buying additional things, as well as spending time on customer support for hours troubleshooting. I gave it my all.
When finally it seemed I had everything working, I didn't.
I use it primarily for my computer in my room, one floor above the router and almost parallel to it, and for my Xbox and PS3. I did SO much. Went as far as to buy a wireless N adapter for it that cost 100 dollars. I moved the router in different areas and STILL. I had a WRT54G which was supposedly a horrible router, yet it worked 50 times better than this thing could ever seem to.
The problems? Well, now I have dead zones in my house. My laptop barely ever picks up a signal of which was formerly a full five bars. I constantly drop in and out. My video game systems are giving me a different error each time that I turn them on, to which has only been addressed as an unknown and unfix able issue by Sony or Microsoft.
All in all, I believe this router would be ideal for sitting 5 feet away from it with a small laptop, searching through amazon for a new router, but no more than that. It is not stable enough to support a home network and nowhere near stable enough to try and support a decent work network.
Sure, it's got all the bells and whistles that a linksys should have, but if the router can fail to deliver a signal to a room directly above where it's set up, how can one utilize such features?
A big waste of money and time. Just get something else.