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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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cisco-Linksys WRT300N Wireless-N Broadband Router
Customer Review: Good Router, Tech Support has Tanked!
Summary: 3 Stars
The Linksys WRT300N is a good router, but after having it for a year, I had to ditch it for NetGear, and it wasn't so much that it didn't work, but when I tried tech-support for the second time (I used it during the initial installation) when I added my wife's computer that ran on Vista, I had to go through several "unknowledgeable" people, who sounded like they were from India who were not trained in tech support. I fault Cisco and the Linksys people, not the folks from India, for the poor tech support.
What Linksys does not tell you is that instead of the usual installation program, if you can connect to the Internet, go to www.linksys.com/connect .
I have used this program for adding a second LAN to my orginal LAN, and it worked flawless, and I have to tell you, that is perhaps the most complicated set-up you will have to use.
When you go to www.linksys.com/connect, you will see that the download will work with BEFSR11, BEFSR41, BEFSR81, BEFW11S4, WRK54G, WRT100N , WRT150N, WRT330N, WRT350N , WRT54G, WRT54GC, WRT54GL, WRT54GR, WRT54GS, WRT54GX, WRT54GX2, WRT54GX4, WRT600N and WRTSL54GS models, too.
After you download the program and "click" on the executable file, you will go through a wizard that will cover 95% of all installations you may have. If that doesn't work, call tech-support! 800-859-2379.
Would I buy Linksys's WRT300N, again, sure. But, I wouldn't expect much if I couldn't get it to work myself.'
Customer Review: Expensive Disaster
Summary: 1 Stars
Installed a WRT300N for a client who wished to access the internet wirelessly from a garage about 150' behind the house (open space in between). Signal wouldn't carry through the metal garage building so I set up a Linksys access point at the garage to act as a bridge; the access point was wired to the remote computer. After several hours of tweaking, nothing. After another hour and a half with Linksys on the phone a third line tech chimed up with the info that that particular access point won't work with this router and indicated a router which can be configured as an access point.
Purchased the second router, an appropriate cow-pie like POS from Cisco. Before I wasted more time trying to make it work, I called back to Cisco's tech support and spent almost an hour trying the settings they indicated all to no avail. ANOTHER second line tech finally admitted that nothing works with the WRT300N to create a bridge and actually the two adapters my client had on older laptops would be spotty at best even though one of them was Linksys (both were G's).
I treasure the WRT54G's. If a client with one wants to upgrade or doesn't need them anymore, I latch on to them post haste and recycle them. I wonder how a company that made such a stalwart iconic piece of equipment as the WRT54G, could foist such garbage as the WRT300N on the public.
Customer Review: the most expensive paperweight i have ever purchased
Summary: 1 Stars
had it up and running in under 10 minutes. even got the matching pci adapter. it ran beautifully. the desktop claimed it was working faster than a 10/100 ethernet jack. but then the router flaked out briefly a few hours after. i didnt make anything of the hiccup. the next day i noticed my reception slowly declining while i was sitting still on my laptop, after 10 minutes the wireless signal was simply gone. when i pulled up the site survey it showed the router humming along, full bars. too bad it wouldn't connect to it unless i unplugged the router, let it sit for a while, and plugged it back in. mind you, the latest linksys firmware was installed. the next day more of the same, in increasing frequency. id be so fed up that id start to go online to find a new router only to realize that i cant because the lousy internet was down. im not in any way new to wireless routers, and i am extremely proficient in computers. and im running right now without issue on my time tested d-link. this is not any problem with my laptop or desktop or dsl modem, this is all on linksys' shoulders. this router just plain stinks. or at least version 1 of the chipset (which is what amazon sent me, version 2 with the intel chipset might be better, but ill never know since linksys just lost my business). my 2nd linksys in 2 weeks. the last linksys im ever buying.Customer Review: Works well - but not 12x faster.
Summary: 4 Stars
I ordered the WRT300N to replace an existing linksys WRT54G router and accompanying USB pc cards. The installation was pretty easy - just make sure you are aware of any issues you may have with your cable modem. For us, we had to reset the cable modem - using a hidden button - to allow the router to connect to the network. Once that was done we were online with no problems.
Once those type of issues are taken care of the product works well. I do see an increase in connectivity speed (54Mbits with the old 54G and 270 Mbits with the new 300N). As far as actual speeds for downloads and gaming, I see less of an increase, but it is still faster, maybe by 75% or so.
The range is also very much improved - I get good signal everywhere and I also pick up about 5 new wireless networks that I have never seen before - so make sure you secure your netwokr as others are likely to see you now too! Related to security you may want to consider using PSK2 instead of WEP as it is less vulnerable to hacking.
One thing to consider is that the 802.11N is not standardized yet, they are still working on the final draft - so make sure you download and install firmware and driver updates as they become available. Each update seems to give a little better speed and coverage.
Customer Review: Out of the box speed.
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay, I'm a retired computer geek with 30 years experience and I was upgrading my wireless network from 80211.b to 80211.n.
Out of the box the WRT300N router was ready to go to work. I was not able to use the EasyLink advisor that came with the router because I already had a newer version installed (downloaded) but using what I already had installed all I did was upgrade the router and we were off to the races. Using 80211.b I was getting 11.0 mps throughput moving to 80211.n gave me 270.0 mps. Using the Speakeasy web site to measure my broadband speed I was getting about 2 mps download speed under the old protocol but under the new protocol? I'm currently getting about 8 mps download speed.
I have not setup security as of yet. I want to do a little reading about WPA2 before I go there. We live in a rural setting right now so security isn't a real issue at the moment but I will be moving back to the Chicago area later this year so it is something I will need to address at some point.
So, bottom line is: I love this router. It's not as bad as some have said to set up. I was actually impressed by the ease of setup.
Buy this router, you won't be sorry. Oh yeah, the price here on Amazon was %10 (USD) less than anywhere else.