Cisco-Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router
by Linksys
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cisco-Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router
Customer Review: better than all the critical reviews would have you believe
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this router primarily because it was the most expensive, lol. I didn't really think it through at first. My main reason for getting it was that I had a Netgear wireless G USB adapter which I hated because of the poor software. I decided if I was going to buy a new adapter I would get an N adapter. So, I went an bought this router before I ever got the N adapter so that when I got the new adapter I'd be N ready.(I know, I did it backwards considering I had no problems with the old router, only the adapter). My previous router was an old Belkin G router. I had also used a Belkin N router for a short period of time (temporary housing while on an assignment for work). I eventually ended up with the Linksys WET610 dual band N bridge for my network adapter, after I bought this router. It's a good combination.
My observations on the WRT610N router;
1) Setup - Setup was extremely easy. One thing I should mention though is that I never even opened the disk that came with the router. I used the manual configuration through the web browser. The interface is pretty good, and I like the help feature that opens a new window and explains each of the settings on the page. I think the Belkin web interface is better, but this one is certainly functional and not difficult to use. Many people report problems with the setup, and all of them are using the setup wizard on the disk. My advice is either have someone who knows what they are doing set it up for you, or if you have the knowledge or think you can figure it out, then use the manual configuration. I should also confess I upgraded the firmware before even trying to use the router, so some of the problems others have experienced were probably fixed with the firmware upgrade.
2) build quality - plastic fantastic, just like all the rest out there but at least it looks cool. It gets super hot on the bottom, but that hasn't caused any problems SO far. LEDs look nice and give you enough information without having a silly screen.
3) features - I didn't realize it when I bought it, but the best reason to get it is the dual bands. I've got it configured now so that my desktop is on the 5Ghz N band and the laptop (which doesn't support N) is on the 2.4ghz band which is set to "mixed" to allow both G and N connections. Something many people don't realize is that your connection is only as fast as the slowest device connected to it. So, with the two seperate bands, I can set the 5ghz to N only and always get N speeds. The 2.4ghz band gives me 5 bars signal on my laptop in any room in the house which is much better than either the belkin G or N routers I tried. The 5ghz band doesn't give all that strong of a signal, but you have to realize that 5ghz is a shorter range technology which is why 802.11B and 802.11G were 2.4ghz in the first place. I don't suspect that this router is any weaker that any other 5ghz router, and in fact based on the signal strength im getting from the 2.4ghz I suspect it's probably stronger. However I don't have any other 5ghz routers to test it against. The nice thing is that I can have my dual band N adapter fall back to the 2.4ghz if I move it out of range of the 5ghz N only band. In any case, if you are going to be hooking up any G devices, such as a game console, media extender, or older laptop or adapter, then you will definately be able to benefit from limiting one of your frequency bands to N only.
This router also has alot of different firewall features, like letting you lock out connections by time (so the kids would not be able to use the internet when they are supposed to be in bed, etc.) or monitoring connections, or locking out connections by MAC address. You can also easily block or open specific ports. It also has a feature which lets you give priority to specific applications. I have it setup to give high priority to skype or MSN, so no matter what my webcam calls will be high quality. This is nice for the media streamer, the chatter, or the gamer as these can all benefit from priority in the router.
You can also attach a USB device and make it a Network Attached Storage drive. I have to admit I have not tried this feature although many complain it has a clunky interface. The only words of wisdom I can offer here are "BACKUP your drive, stupid" especially if it has anything on it because I've seen more than one report of some bonehead accidentally formatting the drive while trying to connect it.
Finally, it has a four port gigabit switch built in, which is nice for those who are going to be connecting multiple computers through wired ethernet. most of the other N routers are going to be 10/100.
4) value - at $199 most places this is definately one of the most expensive routers out there. It's almost a full $150 dollars more than the belkin 2.4ghz N band router and it's generally about $100 dollars more than most other N routers. However, the dual bands, the gigabit switch, the firewall and QOS (quality of service) features, and the network storage attachment all add value to this router. My advice is if you need any of those things, you won't go wrong with this router. If you don't then buy something cheaper, like a single band N router, and don't bitch about this one because of the price.
Conclusion;
There is certainly more to this router than most of the critical reviews on Amazon.com might lead you to believe. Certainly I think the vast majority of those that ranked it low either used the setup wizard, had a mac and tried to use the setup wizard, didn't know what the heck they were doing, or had the older firmware and didn't upgrade it. Probably also some sour grapes about the price I would guess. I like this router and I gave it four stars, primarily because it gets so darn hot, and also because other routers I've used have had a better web interface. It definitely deserves kudos for it's performance and it's features. I'm definitely not a brand loyalist, I've used AT&T, Trendnet, DLink, Netgear, Belkin, and Linksys products. They all had some things I liked and some I didn't. As for this router I do recommend it!
Customer Review: VISTA or DMA2200/DMA2100 users, don't do it - go with something else
Summary: 1 Stars
Linksys and all other router manufacturers advertises the greatness of the wireless 5ghz band (especially with 802.11n), but I'm beginning to have my doubts. It is true that the 5Ghz band is hardly being used so you'll have virtually no one to compete with,. However, the 5Ghz distance in no way compares to 2.4Ghz, and as a matter of fact, I find it to be quite terribe. At approximately 20 feet away, both my Linksys DMA2200 and HP notebooke barely get 1 bar using the 5Ghz N band with my WRT610N router. In comparison, while only using my 2.4Ghz WRT54g router, I get 5 full bars at that range, and at least 2 bars from anywhere else in my house.
I have all Linksys equipment in my house as I have been impressed with all of their 2.4Ghz in the past. However, I've recently upgraded everything to dual-band N equipment and found numerous flaws in each of the new devices, plus none of them really even play well together. My setup is: Linksys 610n router, DMA2200 media center extender, and a WUSB600N Dual-Band Wireless-N USB Network Adapter for my laptop - all of which are currently using the most up-to-date firmware. Other devices include a WRE54G extender and Nintendo Wii.
Problem #1) The LELA software with the new N devices doesn't even recognize that my DMA2200 is a media center extender. Using LELA, I should be able to select my media extender and allocate more bandwidth for streaming media. However, since my extender only shows up as an "unknown network device" those options are greyed out. I tried to manually change the device to a media center, but still no go. I suppose you can manually allocate bandwidth in the router setup somewhere, but considering these are all Linksys products, it's absolutely ridiculous that an option specifically incorporated in the LELA software for a Linksys Media Extender does not work!!!
Problem #2) If you are only using one system with the router, the router might actually work as intended. For most of us though there are going to be at least 2 or more systems connected to the router (wired, wireless, or a combination of the two) such as a PS3, Wii, laptop, PC, media extender, Xbox, etc. If that's the case, you're probably screwed because you WILL experience frequent dropouts... ESPECIALLY if just one those clients is a VISTA machine. Check the linksys forums and you will find that this seems to be a problem with all of the new linksyss routers (610N, 310N, and 110). Here is a microsoft article that explains the problem [...] do to a problem with the way VISTA accepts DHCP requests from certain routers. Unfortunately, there is no real fix for this, even with the suggested registry modification which really doesn't fix the problem.
Problem #3) Because of problem #2 I will never be able to get rid of the dropouts since my network is using one of Linksys's media center extenders. The DMA2200 is essentially a VISTA PC to some extent and accepts DHCP requests the same as a VISTA PC. Since it is not really a PC though, there is no registry modification that can be done to alleviate the VISTA problem (not hat the registry mod really works anyways). So as long as I try to use my DMA2200 wirelessly with my WRT610N router, the frequent dropouts will occur and there's nothing I can do about it. This is REALLY TERRIBLE since the DMA2200 is specifically designed to be used with the WRT610N router in order to take advantage of the 5Ghz band and wireless N transfer rates. You absolutely need 5Ghz wireless N to effeciently stream HDTV WIRELESSLY, but if you lose your connection every 10 minutes, it is impossible to watch any type of streaming media.
Problem #4) As mentioned already, when the "N" 5Ghz range is working on the WRT510N router, the distance sucks compared to standard 2.4Ghz G, N or mixed mode networks. You can try to make it better by strictly using N products, disabling the 2.4ghz band all-to-gether, and using the wider 40mhz frequency, but it doesn't really help. The higher 5Ghz band is a more concentrated signal and therefore simply does not reach as far as the lower 2.4ghz band. I wonder why all of these new products state that the 5Ghz range will increase your distance, when in fact it actually makes it worse?
So... basically, this router does nothing that it claims too and is basically rendered useless on any network with a VISTA machine. This has not been addressed by any Linksys firmware updates or VISTA software updates so there is no reason to even consider using this router if you you're using VISTA or some type of VISTA Media Center Extender such as the Linksys DMA2200.
Although, I've always sworn by Linksys in the past, the amount of wasted time, frustration, and horrible support has really changed my view about them. I've reverted back to my old trustworthy WRT54g router and had to run cable through my house so that I wouldn't have to box my DMA2200 extender up and let it collect dust in the attic. It's really disappointing that I spent all this money to buy this equipment specifically because they're supposed to work together, but in fact they don't. Plus what's the point of having top notch wireless equpment if you have to run cables in order for them to work?
Customer Review: WRT610N Router
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this unit to serve as a wireless access point for my home. I chose this over the new Apple AirPort Extreme, which offers many of the same features.
The first thing I did was to update the firmware on the unit, since the version shipped on the unit was not the latest version available from Linksys. The upgrade process is very easy and straightforward. Since this router has been out for about 1 year old now, I recommend checking periodically with Linksys for new firmware updates.
The WRT610N supports two simultaneous 802.11N radios, one operating at 2.4GHz and the second operating at 5Ghz. The 2.4Ghz radio is also compatible with older 802.11G and 802.11B radios, so older computers can also connect via wireless. The 5Ghz radio is also compatible with 802.11A, although there aren't many of these devices in the consumer space.
I am currently using only the 2.4GHz radio and have four computers accessing via wireless: An iMac using 802.11N; an ASUS EEEBox using 802.11N; an HP TX1100US laptop using 802.11G; an IBM Thinkpad T43, using 802.11G.
Wireless security is available via WEP, WPA, and WPA2. I set mine up to use WPA2, and it was a breeze to get this up and running. I also set up a MAC filter to only allow the MAC addresses of the four PCs in my home to be able to connect via wireless. As a test I tried to connect with one of the home computers which was set up using WPA2, but I left the MAC address out of the allowed list, and it was not able to communicate via the wireless link.
Wireless throughput has been excellent, with 72Mb/s seen on the 802.11N systems, and 54Mb/s seen on the 802.11G systems. Signal strength is excellent, with the T43 and TX1100 both showing 100% signal strengh anywhere in the house (2 story home, 3350 sq ft). The WRT610N is on the first floor.
I plan to use the 5Ghz wireless band in the future for a wireless media distribution network.
Since the two radios operate simultaneously, and at different frequencies, the 5GHz media network will not be interrupted by data transfer activity taking place by the computers which are using the 2.4Ghz network. This capability is important, and is not available with many other wireless routers. There are other units on the market (including units made by Linksys) which support two radio bands, but they only allow one band to be operational at any given time. The Apple AirPort Extreme (Latest version) supports simultaneous 802.11N wireless radios.
The wired ports on the router connect at 10/100/1000Mb/s, which is great for future wired connectivity using gigabit ethernet. My Thinkpad T43 and iMac both have gigabit ethernet ports, and the WRT610N properly negotiated 1Gb/s speeds when they were connected to the ethernet ports. There are four built-in ethernet ports.
The WRT610N has a USB 2.0 connection which can be used to attach a shared storage drive. I am currently searching for a disk system that will be attached to the USB port so that media files can be accessed by all computers on the home network from this drive. I am also planning to have a central storage drive available for automatic backups of the PCs and iMac. I have read some cautions about using attached storage, mainly pointing to the limited hard drive formats that are supported. There may be issues with supporting a disk formatted with HFS+ for use with a Mac. NTFS is not supported by a Mac. FAT32 is supported by both PC and Mac, but has limitations with maximum file sizes.
While I am not currently using the WRT610N as a firewall, I did review all of the setup screens to see what features are available. It offers a complete list of capabilities that anyone would expect of such a device, and they are very easy to configure.
The unit gets slightly warm while operating, but never too warm. It is an attractive unit, and will look good in nearly any location. It does not have an internal fan, so it is totally silent while operating.
I did not use the Linksys setup process (Linksys EasyLink Advisor, or LELA) that is recommended by Linksys. The unit ships with a CD, and the user is strongly cautioned that he should insert the CD to help with initial setup of the WRT610N. It will step you through the basic setup, so that you can have it talking to your ISP, enable your wireless network, etc. Since I am very familiar with setting up these devices, and was only going to use it as a wireless Access Point, I chose to skip the LELA process and set up exactly what I needed. I recommend this to anyone who is already familiar with setting up a Linksys router. You'll save time, and get the WRT610N set up exactly how you would like. Just power up the WRT610N, connect your PC via an ethernet port (not wireless), open your browser and point it to 192.168.1.1 to begin.
Customer Review: Great if you need true dual band - not good (yet) for dd-wrt
Summary: 5 Stars
I presently have a few routers:
Linksys WRT320N
Buffalo whr-hp-g54
Linksys wrt54g (x3)
And now a WRT610N
This WRT610N is a "simultaneous" dual band router. That means at the same time it broadcasts a signal in the 2.4GHz band and the 5GHz band - key work is simultaneous - there are lots of dual band but that means one band or the other not both at the same time.
The 5GHz is nice if you live in an area with A LOT of other radio traffic (like an apartment) as it will give you some different channels that are not used, cutting down on interference. However, the higher frequency 5GHz while stronger and can send more data has a much shorter range. 5Gz and the "N-type" routers are good for those that are physically close to their routers and need to send a lot of data.
At my house I wanted the dual band so that I could give a wireless video box it's own channel. I have one of these Roku boxes and watch Netflix with it. Video takes a lot of bandwith so with this wrt610N I let the roku box have the 5GHz band and then the rest of my wireless stuff (like laptops, wii, DS gameboy, cell phone, etc) all have the regular 2.4Ghz.
The 5Ghz bandwidth radio network is only available in about ½ my house, where I can pick up the 2.4GHz band anywhere. My point is don't buy N-type 5ghz because you want to extend your wireless range - YOU GET LESS RANGE it is faster but shorter. Many people buy 5ghz N-type routers and then post a negative review and blame the router. Like "It won't connect unless I'm 10 feet away" and my old wrt54G worked much better - stuff like that. These people don't understand routers or the technology they are using. As I said 5ghz has less range, but if you set up this router properly you will have two bands 5ghz & 2.4ghz. This will show up as TWO different hotspots for you to connect too. I've set up my laptop to automatly connect to the 5Ghz but then drop back to the 2.4ghz when the 5ghz is out of range.
Amazon now is shipping the v.2 of this router, as of Jan 2010 - the router you get from Linksys/Cisco will have the newest version of the firmware. It is wise to check linksys's website to see if a more recent version of firmware is available and then install it. Upgrading firmware is really easy - you just download the file from the web, log into your router's admin screens and tell it to upgrade firmware. Takes 2 min. Note: earlier versions of this router did have lots of problems with heat and re-booting. My research is that these problems have been solved.
Other notes:
I'm big into xbox live and like most routers this has the DMZ feature. If find if I put the IP address of my xbox as the DMZ address, or open the ports in port forwording, then I get NAT type "Open" on xbox live. There are lots of web sites that tell you which ports to open (search NAT +XBOX). However, now that I run mutiple XBOX's have found that out of the box this router is giving me "open" NAT on XBOX live on my two xbox's - without any port forwording or DMZ setup.
The linksys wrt320N router is dual band, but it can only broadcast one band or the other - not both at the same time.
Con: These new linksys routers only have internal antennas. I like external as then can add a bigger one.
Here is my advice - don't buy the 610Ns unless you have a need for dual simultaneous band. If you just want to get to 5G then the WRT320N will be fine. If you don't have a real need for wireless N or 5GHz yet but just want a good router then go with the buffalo. The buffalo runs dd-wrt really well. I take the buffalo with me when traveling and use it as a repeater to connect to open networks (save on hotel internet charges).
The USB port will not drive a printer - but is really cool to hook up a USB hardrive that any computer on the network can use for storage. I run backup software on my compters and have them put their backup files on this drive. Or simply keep everything in the "my documents" folder and once a week or so copy the entire folder to the remote drive.
I am a big fan of the dd-wrt firmware, but my personal experience is dd-wrt is not ready for the WRT610N v2. Using build 13401, I found that with both radio bands turned on, even in a very simple configuration dd-wrt would make the router go unstable after a few hours. With only one radio it worked great, but I needed both radios, I went back to the linksys firmware. In a few months dd-wrt will be work out all the bugs but for now the linksys firmware is fine.
Customer Review: poor!
Summary: 1 Stars
Nothing positive to say about this router after using it for 10 months.
Very hard to set up, it's CD is lousy and useless, and you WILL be calling Linksys India to get the help in setting this up, and it's not even easy for them. They come up with one or two things that you, the user, would never, ever have come up with to set this thing up.
Once set up, it is slower--yes, slower--than my older Linksys wi-fi. I was gravely disappointed in this, noticing youtube videos, etc. would download slower than my past experience with wi-fi (and yes, I set it up right--remember, I spent 30 minutes on the phone with Linksys setting it up for me). The passcode and guest codes are complex and prone to failure, and are so much a boondoggle that many turn off the security altogether rather than struggle with it day in and day out.
The final straw was about 9 months of ownership, the thing would need resetting frequently, and I spoke with Linksys (India) and they wouldn't even help me over the phone without a credit card and payment! I told them I was within the one year warranty and was having warranty related issues, and they said they could not even speak to me without tech support payment, which kicks in after 90 short days! You'd better get all your questions answered in three months, or the Cisco giant will turn your pockets inside out just to figure out their overly complex and poorly engineered device. If I agreed to pay them on a credit card, and if the problem was THEN determined to be hardware related, they'd reimburse me for the payment. If not, tech support would be billed to me.
The problem IS hardware, as I limped along for another month with this piece of junk and it disconnected 2-3 times daily (even though direct line Ethernet working on my main PC throughout, so it's not my cable internet provider or the modem) and I can't even get them to think about honoring their warranty without paying on my credit card. I called Cisco back and told them to assume it's hardware, because I know it is, and I want a replacement under one year warranty. They said they'd approve a return with email validation and I would get an email in one day. I never, ever got any email from them.
As other reviewers below, and especially those at the online Forums note, the Cisco series runs hot, and has known issues with "dropped signals"--it's bad engineering, backed by useless tech support.
Just to prove the point, I bought a D-Link Xtreme 655 router, installed it two days ago, and it is an absolute breeze to install, and a complete pleasure, actually, and is much faster than the Linksys even when running 5-6 devices simultaneously. And I have not had any cut outs/lost signals and resets in the 48 hours I've been running the D-Link, which is seventy dollars on Amazon. Simple, effective, easy setup, long range, and a fantastic device that I wish I had known of earlier. See the D-link 655 on youtube, plenty of gamers love it's speed and versatility. So far, heavenly.
Not only will I not buy another Cisco product, I have sold their stock from my portfolio--their stock, when the entire market and esp tech is running like angels, is down for the year. I know Cisco is cutting corners now, buyers know it, the stock price reflects it, and the once "horseman" of the tech industry has competition with servers from so many angles now, and makes inferior routers, the heyday for Cisco and CEO John Chambers is over. The sun has set on Cisco. Mark my words, CEO Chambers will get sacked by Cisco in 2011-2012. He has lead the Cisco airplane right into the ground.
D-Link 655 is great (so far), and after a few months I'll jot a review on it. Hope this helps someone thinking about this device, and stay away from Cisco. Even when it was working, it was a bear to set up, and was slow as a school zone bus stop. Run away!