Cisco-Linksys WRT300N Wireless-N Broadband Router
by Linksys
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List Price: Our Price: $34.99 You Save: $116.59 (77%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cisco-Linksys WRT300N Wireless-N Broadband Router
Customer Review: HPD (Home Project Dude)
Summary: 4 Stars
Ok, a computer whizz I am not, but I can read instructions. I purchased this product, along with the PCI card and began the process. Got nervous so I purchased a Wireless For Dummies book. At the end of the day, it is the language of this equipment that can get you stumped (WPA or WEP, Access Points, firmware, network addresses, DCHP, etc). The equipment arrived and the install process began. I followed the instructions, sent in an email to get the address of the site where I could download firmware upgrades (very important to do this, but why the site wasn't listed in the instructions is a bit odd)...worked thru it all as per the previous reviews described (FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS). Lo and behold, at the moment of truth, the wireless network was up but it would not recognize the PCI card. Sent in another email to the Helpdesk, got a detailed list rehashing the instructions, did what I was told (including something that did not make sense) and the system completely failed (network was not available, etc). So, I started over, hit reset button on router and within 45 minutes the network was up and running and secure (don't forget that critical step). Overall, the install process took about 8 houts spread over 3 days.
Learned a great deal, and the product has been rock solid .... router 40 ft away from computer, network runs between 270 and 200 Mbps thru several walls. If they had an instruction set for this "dummy", I would have given it 5 stars....but the learning was worth it, as was the Wireless for Dummies book. If you are setting up a network....I would get this product
Customer Review: Stick with your Wireless-G
Summary: 1 Stars
My wireless G router died after 4 years of dutiful and satisfying service, so I replaced the router only (not my wireless cards), intending to upgrade the cards after recovering from the purchase price of the WRT300N.
I am not at all happy with it's performance. I am an IT person, so I am pretty technically savvy. I was able to easily set it up, including security and assumed that it would all function as reliably as my previous router.
WRONG!
For some reason, intermittently the speed of the connection drops from 54 down to 1 and then loses connectivity altogether. A "search for wireless networks in range" shows no networks. I then have to wait until the router decides to play nice with the wireless cards again.
Calls to tech support have resulted in repeatedly going over the same settings, flashing the firmware, resetting and reconfiguing everything, only to have it fail again 10 minutes after hanging up the phone.
I would not mind an infrequent failure rate, but this happens constantly and makes it difficult to do anything that requires a stable connection to the internet.
I suspect it may have something to do with the 2.4ghz cards in the PC's trying to talk to a snooty 4.8 ghz router, but I'm hardly anxious to shell out more money on this set up. The phrase "throwing good money after bad" comes to mind.
I'd say, if you are in the market for a wireless router, stick with the old technology (WR54G) and let the techies debug this baby.
Customer Review: Saved my Marriage
Summary: 4 Stars
Ok, I am only kidding but after listening to my wife complain with problems of not being online and having to restart her computer repeatedly (I had a Linksys b router from yesteryear) I decided to break down and come up with something different. I picked up the 300N and a PCI wireless N card for my wife's computer. Even though I am computer savy (had my own computer since 1987)and I am a computer hack (of course, reading all the entries it sounds like everyone is an expert)I embarked one Saturday on installing all of this with trepidation--tech stuff is so fickle. I am disappointed to an extent that there was not a manual--but I know why they don't include one---the average joe can be easily confused....so they created a simple wizard...and it works...this wizard is one of the best I have used for a product. I independently set up the WEP for security and I like it much better than the linksys B plus and it is much better security (256 encryption vs 128). My wife's PCI linksys N card went even more smoothly. My laptop G picked it up easily. The stability is what has impressed me. The speed is definitely an improvement but I am not giving numbers because so much relates to what DSL speed or cable speed one is using. I can tell a significant difference in downloads. The only reason I made it 4 stars-- I have only had it a month or so and there was no manual...I think a simple manual for the faint of heart might be usefull but I do appreciate the simple wizard provided for installation by linksys...Customer Review: stay away from this junk!
Summary: 1 Stars
While I've been very happy with my Netgear wireless router, I wanted something that would expand my connection range. What a HUGE mistake!
Once I've configured the setting to run in an 128 bit WEP encryption mode, I was able to connect to the admin page from my laptop but I could not get out to the internet. I checked my desktop that was directly connect to the router and that machine had no issues getting out to the web, so I knew my ISP service was fine.
I tried messing with all kinds of settings, including disabling my WEP encryption, but I was not making any progress.
So I tried using their online configuration tool and that really does nothing but set up a default LINKSYS SSID with no encryption which I've already tried without any success.
So I finally caved and called their tech support which routed the call out to India. Right away, I could not understand what the technicians was trying to say, except when they constantly had me unplugging the power from my cable modem and the router. We also tried configuring advanced settings without any success. The technicial finally tells me wireless card that is the problem, which is far from the truth, especially when I was able to get to the Linksys web admin page from my laptop and my connection was displaying strong signals.
After wasting 5+ hours messing with this piece of junk, I just re-enabled my Netgear router and will be returning this product first thing tomorrow morning.
Customer Review: Works, and is fast... but it's unreliable.
Summary: 2 Stars
I didn't have the problem others seem to have had with this router. I had it up and running (both wired and wirelessly) in only a few minutes using their web controls. And it's fast. My problem is with its wireless reliability. If I do large file copies or downloads over the wireless link, the router will suddenly stop speaking to my laptop. My laptop can *see* the router, but the router won't allow me to connect. Powercycling the router fixes the problem immediately, or I can wait an hour or so and things usually work again just fine. The same thing happens with my wife's laptop.
Another problem I've found is that if you disable SSID broadcasts, your laptop won't find it. For security reasons, I always disable this. Our laptops have never had an issue finding previous Linksys routers we've used when the broadcasts are off, but for some reason this particular router doesn't do well. I've played with the beacon settings and timings to no avail. As with all Linksys products (and almost all tech products in general these days), calling or emailing support gets you nowhere.
Linksys hasn't released an upgrade for my version of the router (1.1) since I bought it. You'd think they'd have a bugfix release, but no. There's no support from them at all. If you're using it for simple general home use (and not planning on any heavy duty data transfers), this router will probably be OK. But if you want a reliable router that doesn't drop the ball when you use it, look elsewhere.