Cisco-Linksys WRT160N Wireless-N Broadband Router
by Linksys
|
Our Price: $129.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $14.95 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
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: Terrible customer/technical support
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased a Lynksys wireless router that was impossible to install because the required login and password were not given to me in the package contents. I called your technical support line and spoke to someone, which was nearly impossible to understand, for over an hour. He didn't know what he was doing and at one point wanted me to PAY him to remote access my computer to install the router. Obviously it's not my fault that the required information needed to install the router was not included in the package so it's not my responsibility to pay for services that would not have been required had the information been provided to me in the first place. Finally I was able to get him to understand that I would install the router all I needed from him was the information not provided in the packaging. Now 1 year later the router stops working. No rhyme or reason just stops! Again I call customer support and now I'm told that I'm out of warranty so I will have to pay for technical support or go online, which is impossible due to the fact that the router is broken. The women I spoke to was absolutely rude and repeatedly tried to pass the blame onto me. Saying there must have been a power outage and if I would have used a surge protector...Which I do by the way and I haven't had a power outage. And if I had you're telling me that your products fail when there is an outage and now it's my responsibility to pay to fix your defective equipment? Another one was that my computer is dated or bogged down... Again it's not but I appreciated the finger pointing anyway! So ultimately I'm told by your staff that I will need to purchase a plan or go online. That's it that's all she can do. I told her I wanted to speak to a supervisor and was told that wasn't going to happen. You need some changes to customer/technical support. They clearly are not helping you maintain customers. I am having trouble understanding how a router is working one day and just broken the next and clearly so does your staff as they repeatedly place blame on the consumer. I have never been more frustrated and disappointed with a company. You charge a lot for your products and then continue to charge your consumers so they are able to use them. How is that right? How do you choose to sell a product that you have no intention of backing or servicing? I would not recommend this product or any other from this manufacturer. Complete failure as far as your customer service and technical support are concerned.
Customer Review: standard crappy quality, superlatively bad customer service
Summary: 1 Stars
I am sadly resigned to the fact that inexpensive consumer wireless routers are junk.
Made as cheaply as possible, often out of refurbished parts, the failure rate of any wireless router that costs less than a few hundred dollars is unreasonably high. I got lucky with my first linksys router and it lasted five years before clunking out. Many people who bought the exact same model never got it to work or had theirs die in a month or two.
Fast forward five years and things are no better. I have helped relatives set up similar routers from this and other brands, and every time it is a crapshoot. More often than not, it seems, the router will either start wonky or become wonky pretty quickly. I bought a WRT160N and after months of tinkering with settings and placement within my house, I came to the fairly obvious conclusion that it was defective, and that I had wasted perhaps eight hours of my time on it.
As I said, I accept the above. I hope and pray every day that some smaller, more agile company will emerge that releases a reasonably inexpensive wireless router with a defect rate below 50%, but I'm not holding my breath.
What gets me with linksys is that the standard solution, return the wireless router and cross your fingers that the replacement works for more than a couple months, doesn't work. At least not easily. Linksys customer service seems explicitly set up to delay and frustrate people, perhaps in the hopes that they eventually throw up their hands and stick with their wonky router. They flat-out refuse to give cash refunds for defective products, only replacing their poorly-engineered and poorly-assembled crapbox with another poorly-engineered and poorly-assembled crapbox.
In the end, after hours of wasting your time with their tech support, repeating steps over and over, changing settings that could not possibly be the cause of the problems you are having, you have to pay to ship their defective product back to them and hope that they deign you worthy of receiving a replacement PoS.
Stay away from Linksys. Do not gamble that the Linksys product you buy will be one of the ones that works. If it isn't then the enormous hassle of dealing with them far outweighs any benefit their products might potentially provide.
Oh but one bright spot: it looks cool! If you are interested in a sleek, stylish, very expensive paper weight maybe this is the right choice for you.
Customer Review: Awesome choice for Mac owners, speed issues aside
Summary: 4 Stars
I have to start this review by admitting this router wasn't my first choice. After struggling with an old 802.11B router for a while, I decided it was time for an upgrade and went shopping. After a great deal of time and research, I settled on the Belkin F5D8233-4 N Wireless Router, an inexpensive Draft-N solution that got good reviews.
It worked well -- for about a month. Then, the router and my MacBook decided they were no longer going to play nice. My connection would drop every ten seconds, and sometimes it would fail to reconnect for hours on end. The Belkin, I decided, must be destroyed. I read the reviews on this Linksys model, and decided to go with it instead.
Thankfully, this solved the problem with my MacBook. Indeed, I have that laptop and another MacBook Pro hooked up to the Linksys, both without a single connection issue. Other items on the network are a desktop PC, a multi-function printer, a VOIP line, two iPhones, and a Tivo. All have behaved well. Better yet, the frequent power blinks we get here don't seem to phase the router -- after a brief power cycle, it gets back on its feet quickly.
The range appears to be quite good, but I have to admit that my duplex isn't exactly cavernous. Nonetheless, I've taken the MacBook and the iPhone well into the backyard, putting some distance and a couple of brick walls between the devices and the router, and have experienced no loss of coverage.
Speed, unfortunately, is the only spot where I've been less than enthused. Don't get me wrong -- it's pretty quick, especially if you're accustomed to an 802.11B connection. However, the Belkin I first tried put this Linksys to shame. Well, when it worked, at least. It was blazing fast, and I found myself a little disappointed at being slowed down. I haven't done any official tests for this, however. Moreover, the Linksys is plenty fast, and I'm a relatively high-demand user, much to my ISP's chagrin.
Setup is easy and, if it's important to you, this router is one of the most attractive on the market. Better yet, I didn't have any MAC address issues like I've had in the past with other routers (that is, Belkin). Within 10 minutes, I was up and running, cursing Belkin and praising Linksys the whole time.
All together, this router is a solid purchase. Reliability has been wonderful, and I can live with slightly decreased performance. If you're a highly wired weirdo like me, don't hesitate to buy!
Customer Review: Linksys WRT160N Ultra - 2010 UPDATE
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an update to the March 2008 review. It now Feb 25th 2010 and no problems. In fact we now have expanded the office and have 8 lap tops running off this router constantly and and when we have visitors like recently we had 14 laptops running off of the same ONE router.
So after 23 months no problems and the bandwidth continues to be constant and strong. We have various folks on it with Windows XP and Windows 7 now and no problems to connect to any of the computers. Can't say enough how impressed we all are and we are in the tech industry.
Overview - We are on AT&T DSL running the Elite broadband which is 3-6 Mbps. Our average speed is running 5+ Mbps here in the office and that is with Vonage VoIP phones (6 lines) and 4 laptops
We just hooked up the the Linksys WRT160N Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N router in our new office onto 3 Dell laptops and 1 LG laptop. After the intial install on all the laptops running Windows XP Pro, we had only one minor glitch and that is a firmware upgrade needed on the Intel Wireless 4985 card on one of the Dells. It will not run currently on the Intel Pro Wireless card, everything G and below works fine. But it does run on Windows Wireless configuration just fine. We are all averaging 80 - 140 Mbps depending on how much load is on the line with the phones and broadband activity.
I can not speak for the range of the unit yet since the office is only 1300 sq feet and we just hooked up the router, but I'm approximately 40 ft away with no problems. I'm so impressed how quick this is, I think I will go junk my Linksys Wireless G router and go buy another one of these for my home (Comcast Cable and Comcast Digital Phone which is also VoIP) just for the performance and good looks with the antennae now built in.
Last thought, as I read these reviews people seem to bash the router when in fact typically it is the computer configuration or the wireless card that is at fault for not having the lastest firmware installed or the hardware not working. Another potential problem is if your system is standard broadband (CAT5 cable) this is the router you need. If you purchase the GIGABIT router and do not have the bandwidth or CAT6 cable, you may possibly get impeded results.
Customer Review: Good product, appalling customer service
Summary: 4 Stars
After considerable deliberation about what brand of wireless router to buy, I went with this Linksys model, as I had previously used a wired Linksys router that had performed well for the past few years. I also purchased a Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N USB Network Adapter(WUSB600N) for a second computer.
Now that the router is working, I am very happy with the product, I am getting a strong signal, fast connection and good coverage throughout my 2600 ft^2, two-level house.
However, when I got first tried to install the product, I ran into all types of problems. I tried to use the installation software that came with the router, but even after repeated attempts, the set-up procedure failed, as the router failed to recognize the active internet connection. I could verify that the connection was active because when I re-connected the old router to the modem, the Internet was detected immediately.
At that point I called Linksys customer service. The call started off badly because there was so much background chatter at their call center that I could hardly hear the person I was speaking with. After describing the problem, the person I was speaking with repeatedly put me on hold while she relayed my problem with their technician. This three-way conversation went on for 20 minutes, and despite asking I was never given the opportunity to speak directly with the technician, only with the operator, which seems ridiculous when you are calling for technical assistance. In the end, she basically told me that it wasn't their problem and I needed to speak with my Internet provider to see why I wasn't getting a connection, even though I repeatedly pointed out that I could get an immediate connection with the old router attached.
At that point, not being particularly technically savvy, I called a local computer repair company to come to my home and install the router. He diagnosed the problem in about 2 minutes (the MAC address was not correct), unfortunately at the cost of about $100 for the service call.
I had read about Linksys's reputation for poor customer service before, but had not experienced it personally before now. Bottom line, this is a good router and it works well, but if you run into problems with installation or operation, don't look to Linksys for help. You'll have to deal with the problems yourself.