Cisco-Linksys WRT160N Wireless-N Broadband Router
by Linksys
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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 |
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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: Stay Away From This Puppy!
Summary: 1 Stars
Ok, I never buy a product without searching through reviews, but, I recently purchased the WRT160N based on very early reviews when Linksys was shipping version 1. I have a version 1 in the office, and it works great, and has for over 1 year with linksys software. Unfortunately, I was unaware of the changes in version 2, which is what I received. Holy cow what a nightmare!!! I set it up through the admin feature (not the disc), and was going to use it so that I could use my current WRT54G (with dd-wrt software) as a bridge. Let me say that the hundreds of pages of write ups on forums and blogs are absolutely correct about version 2. It is pure crap.
I run an asterisk phone server at home and use it for my home business and our personal family lines. I count on my network equipment 100% in order to keep the phones working around here. Well, as soon as I hooked this puppy up, everything started going south. I was losing (wired) connection every few minutes. The unit could not resolve DNS 25-50% of the time. Long story short, I spent a full weekend trying to tweak this thing into working. I put in Linksys' latest firmware, 2.0.03 (build 22 thousand I think) and it still fails to resolve DNS a lot of the time. I finally got it to work ok after setting up a static IP address (gateway and DNS servers too) instead of getting it automatically. The problem is, I have a dynamic address and sooner or later, it will change.
This thing is going back today. I ordered a WRT54GL from Amazon which can be flashed with dd-wrt software. It's a shame that Linksys doesn't admit their mistake, replace these with something that works, and move on with life. The fact that you can purchase these today, and still experience the same problems that were being discussed in Linysys' own forums at least 10 months ago baffles me. Unfortunately, there are very few alternatives for purchasing a consumer grade router for $[...] or less that have any decent reviews. Seems to be hit and miss with most brands.
Customer Review: Performs as expected; no issues
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this router 5 Months ago after a fair amount of research online. I've been putting off buying a wireless router for 7-8 years now - i thought wired worked for me just fine. But every since we got it, it's opened a new world to me; now we found uses for our laptops that we didn't think of before. like watching online video in the kitchen with the family; or checking recipes online right from the kitchen or checking email without going all the way to the desktop.
The router does all that i needed it to, and was v2 (so i can flash it with DD-WRT, if necessary - haven't had the need to, so far). the router setup was a no brainer, all features work as intended. Has all the latest security features etc. I get pretty decent speed with it - haven't tested the 802.1N speeds, though. No issues with the range - i have it on the lower level of the house and get excellent reception on the deck outside on the upper level about 30-35 feet away thru interior walls and floor (i haven't tried longer distance than that). I'm happy with it.
I'm pretty technical, so I read about all the stuff you can do by flashing the firmware, without being sure whether i would really need to or not - i.e. the info made me kind of nervous whether the default firmware is somehow inadequate - but I needn't have worried. I also needed to know if the router would support older encryption protocols like WEP and newer protocols like WPA - since i have an older PowerBook and PCs and newer laptops. The Amazon website description didn't really give me this type of detail (neither did it tell me whether this was v1 or v2 of the router model). i bought it anyway and was not disappointed.
i went with Amazon despite another lower cost online site, because Amazon chose to give me great technical info to make my decision and for the peace of mind that if the product wasn't up to expectations i could return without any worries. i haven't needed to. :-)
definitely 5 stars.
Customer Review: First time wireless set-up and it works great!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this with the Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N USB Network Adapter, WUSB600N from Wal-Mart (sorry Amazon-couldn't wait for it to ship, wanted it now). I'm not a techie by any means but I love electronics, things with bells and whistles and are shiny make me pull out my debit card. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know I could make my desktop wireless by simply buying a router and a network adapter. It became necessary once I purchased my second PC a Toshiba laptop. Both needed to be connected to the Internet in two separate locations of my house. I actually talked to the salesperson at Best Buy about what I needed because I got my laptop there and I was all set. It's also secure so no one can use your network without entering in your long password. So you can feel secure conducting financial business over your network.
The configuration was flawless it literally took less than 30-minutes to set-up the router and the network adapter on both my Dell desktop, which is 4 years old, and my new laptop. I'm sure it takes less time than that if your not watching TV at the same time. Once I finished the set-up I was able to move the desktop and put the laptop in it's place and tested out the laptop in the kitchen and the signal was still strong. My family loves it now that we are a two computer family. Even better I was able to set-up our Wii to the wireless network and now we can go online with the Wii.
Pros: Range is good for 1,500 sq. ft. home, the blue lights aren't so bright that they will glow in the dark when your sleeping and keep you up, set-up is simple--the CD takes everything step-by-step and there's only like 8 steps, your network is secured by a password and I don't turn my router off so I'm always connected and haven't experienced any dropped signals so far. Fingers crossed.
Cons: It's so pretty and shiny you might be tempted to keep the plastic film on it so your finger prints don't get all over it.
Customer Review: Do not buy this - just go to URL provided to see user feedback!
Summary: 1 Stars
Before I bought my WRT160N I was a bit worried about the negative comments. But since I have used Linksys for many years - the b router from way back; and then the WRT54GS g router - none of them give me issues. And since I work in the computer industry, I figure I will not have the problems that others posted here. Boy, was I wrong!
Install was easy - then immediately I have DNS issues - cannot resolve name such was www.cnn.com. I can do nslookup and that work. So it is the router - luckily my laptop has a separate wireless card and wireless access so a quick search shows hundreds of users having the same problem -just search on "WRT160N DNS issues" and you will see what I mean. I copied/pasted one of the links - Linksys Forum below -
http://forums.linksys.com/linksys/board/message?board.id=Wireless_Routers&thread.id=119107
Bottomline is - if you have WRT160N v2 build 11 you are out of luck - you need to find the build 08 Firmware and DOWNGRADE your Linksys router.
Like I said, my day job is Technical Specialist and I soon have it fixed - but the point being, I don't want to spend my weekend fixing a brand new router and downgrade it just because Linksys sits on its known problem (since Oct of 2008). And as far as I know, Linksys does not have a fix yet and since build 11 is the latest build, chances are if you buy this now (April 2009) you will most likely get build 11.
Oh, by the way, downgrade to build 08 means you now have DNS vulnerability.
Everything wireless in my house is Linksys - Linksys USB adapters, Linksys internet wireless cameras - but this is surely a big disappointment! As I was reading the threads, some have said that WRT310N may be better and it has 32m RAM. Not sure if that is true but I include it here for your reference. But next time I think I will go ck out some other vendors other than Linksys. My advice is to steer clear of this model!
Customer Review: Huge Speed Improvement and No More Dropped Connections
Summary: 5 Stars
I am truly impressed with this Linksys router!
We had a 5-year old Netgear G router which was fine when we had only two XP computers. It seemed reliable, despite dropped connections every once in a while. But when we added a new Vista computer to the network, it just wouldn't work properly. Dropped connections several times a day, and had to be restarted each time. We also had a heck of a time getting it to recognize all the computers on the network consistently. When it stayed connected we got an average speed of 9mbps down, 1.2mpbs up, which I figured wasn't too bad (based on the results at [...]). But the dropped connections were a big problem.
A sales guy at a local store recommended this Linksys N router, and I admit I was skeptical. After all, a router's a pretty simple device when you get down to it. But, not only did it solve the problem of the dropped connections, it doubled my web speed! Seriously; the test at [...] was almost 19mbps down and 1.8mbps up. I honestly thought I was on the Comcast 10/1 limited broadband plan, but with the Linksys router I realized I've got 20/2! For whatever reason, I was only getting 1/2 speed with the G router. Weird. Probably a software thing, though I did have the latest firmware for that particular Netgear router (though it was v3 hardware, and the current is v6, so I guess there are other differences.)
Anyway, setting up the Linksys was EASY. The software is incredibly user friendly, whereas Netgear was not at all (but again, maybe they've improved in recent years.) The only thing was wasn't quite clear was setting up advanced security, but I was able to figure it out. Also the manual said to install the hardware first, software second, but the insert in the package said to do this software first (which is correct), so there was some confusion up front.
All in all, I'm really pleased with this router's performance!