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: 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: Excellent Router
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this router from Amazon.com last week and it arrived in less than two days using the free ground shipping method, so kudos to Amazon for setting the bar very high and exceeding my delivery expectations.
I received a WRT610N version 2 (v2) router. I installed the router in the exact same physical wiring configuration as my existing router which it replaced. Then I popped in the CD in my computer and ran the setup.exe and clicked next through all of the useless wiring diagrams which I had already done. Turned on the router when it asked me to, helped me setup network names for both 2.4ghz and 5ghz frequency, router password, and wpa2 encryption on each radio frequency in just minutes. Cisco Network Magic was also installed which can prove to be a useful tool to use but it's not essential in my opinion. There's nothing that I can't manually configure in my router that Cisco Network Magic requires a paid software license to do for you through an application interface and system service. Either way, I'll use it until the free trial expires.
I was up and running in about 10 minutes using two laptops wirelessly to the network and several hardwired devices. I also followed the advice of some other users and changed the wireless configuration to change the radio band on the Linksys WRT610N router from Auto to the Wide-40mhz channel (for the 5ghz network only, leaving the 2.4ghz wireless network setting to Auto-20mhz channel). In the web interface under the wireless menu, you can switch to "manual" to input these settings. I use the 5ghz spectrum for one of my laptops which I use as a wireless media server on my network to stream content to my PS3 using MediaMall's PlayOn software which I highly recommend (and it no longer hiccups while streaming data wirelessly to the router since I'm now using wireless-N instead of wireless-G as well as using the 5ghz spectrum).
Also, I had to buy a dual-band half mini PCIe card for this laptop so that I could use wireless-N on the 5ghz spectrum since my laptop only came with a 802.11b/g half mini PCIe card. You will not find half mini PCIe cards at retail brick & mortar stores. After some research, I went with the Intel Wifi Link 5300 chipset half mini PCIe card(this does not work on all laptops, read the specifications on Intel's website as to which system board chipsets it supports. Also note if your laptop uses a mini PCIe form factor or HALF mini PCIe form factor as mine does. You can get this information from the laptop manufacturer if you are unsure). Since my laptop also only had two antenna leads built in and the Intel 5300 dual-band half mini PCIe card had a 3rd lead, I installed a Tyco mini PCIe antenna that I purchased from Ebay for under $3.00. This allows my PCIe card to more efficiently utilize MIMO on the router and increase my signal strength and throughput.
For most of you, you might just prefer to use an external PCMCIA, Express card, or USB dongle to accomplish this task (and most dual-band cards already have 3 internal antennae). As for me, I wanted to have everything built into the laptop directly so there is nothing hanging out the sides. It's simply a preference. If you go with PCMCIA/Express/USB dongle, you can disregard the paragraph above.
Overall, I give this router 5 stars for ease of use and performance increases over my previous 802.11g connection. I will post my old and new router wired and wireless speed test results in the upcoming weeks.
Customer Review: All that you will ever need in a router
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, this router is probably more than you will ever need. I myself do not have a Gigabit network but I do have the router and the cables if my internet connection ever supports it. I wanted something that would be future-proof and at a somewhat reasonable price which this was even though it is still probably $50 more than most people would want to pay. It is very easy to setup and it works well with my current High-speed DSL modem, Cisco 677. The (4) Gigabit ports in the back of the router are the usual number that you will find but much faster. I have am currently using all of the ports with CAT-6 cables that I also bought on here and have already reviewed. The devices that I am connected to are: D*TV HD DVR, PS3, Xbox 360 Elite, Vizio SV422XVT Internet-ready LCD HDTV. Wirelessly I am connecting the following: Sony VAIO (Wireless-N), iPhone 3G, iTouch, PSP. The computer is where I can really see a difference from my previous Wireless-B router which was severely outdated. I figured that I had enough devices attached to my network that I could justify such a quality router. The range seems great as I am able to move all around my house with my wireless devices without a noticeable drop in speed. The dual bands (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz) seem to work in concert to give consistent connection speeds to all connected devices.
When you get the router, here are some things you will want to check/do:
1. Update to the latest firmware version: Administration>Firmware Upgrade
2. Make sure that you have V2 of this router:
a. on/off switch at the back of the unit
b. S/N starts with CTG01 instead of CTG11 for V2
3. Change the default system password
4. Use WPA Encryption - WPA2-Personal>WPA-TKIP or WPA2-AES
5. Setup Wireless Security for both 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz
6. Once everything has been connected, turn SSID broadcasting off
7. setup Port Forwarding, if needed for gaming consoles, see below
Port Forwarding Settings (Gaming):
Applications & Gaming>Single Port Forwarding-
Xbox 360 Live:
Customized Applications Ext Port Protocol TCP/UDP IP Address Enable
360_1 53 to 53 both 192.168.1.27 X
360_2 80 to 80 both 192.168.1.27 X
360_3 88 to 88 both 192.168.1.27 X
360_4 3074 to 3074 both 192.168.1.27 X
360_5 4500 to 4500 both 192.168.1.27 X
PS3 Home:
Customized Applications Ext Port Protocol TCP/UDP IP Address Enable
PS3_1 5223 to 5223 both 192.168.1.29 X
PS3_2 3478 to 3478 both 192.168.1.29 X
PS3_3 3479 to 3479 both 192.168.1.29 X
PS3_4 3658 to 3658 both 192.168.1.29 X
Hopefully some of the above settings help you. In conclusion, this is a great router that will meet all of your needs and can support a large home or small office network. Whether you need Gigabit connection speeds or not this router will do the job connecting all your Wired and Wireless-N devices. If you have the $ then it is a buy plus Amazon has the best price for this product that I have seen. If you do buy it, you won't be disappointed.
Customer Review: Another great Linksys product
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a long time Linksys user and fan and this product hasn't changed my mind about their products. Feature by feature this router is worth it price but only if you will use those features.
Things you may be paying for and not using ...
1. The regular user with no game units connected to the Internet will never feel the different between this model and its $89 single band counterpart.
2. If you are not going to have an online UBS drive configured as a NAS device you will also be wasting money with this product.
Not so great on this product...
1. If you need distance between your router and your laptop workstation, stick to the models with external antennas. I had an older model with high gain antennas and it had double the range than this particular one.
Things that could be improved ......
2. I understand the people who write the router web interface and the people who wrote the Network Magic, the included software may have never met still a hole in the features. This router allows you to connect an external USB drive and share it as a network NAS object. This can be configured from the router's building admin web app. Included with the router is Network Magic which allows you to manage and configure the entire network...well almost everything. Network Magic allows you to configure and manage shared folders from the workstations in your network, but it doesn't know how to configure or even see the NAS device attached to the router.
Now, after all that...
5 stars! The installation wizard and configuration software allows network experts and non computer people a like to setup and configure the new router and your network.
5 stars! The read/write speed on the attached USB drive is twice as fast compared with Linksys older netshare device.
5 stars! The included network management software, "Network Magic", makes network management and monitoring easy and fun. I gave the network to my 13 years old to manage and now he thinks he is Cisco Certified. There is a very small learning curve to start doing remote tasks from your desktop to your network devices.
6 stars (if possible)! I no longer have to change networks or help other family members change networks when the Xbox goes online. We have our router connected to a 10mips pipe and there is no changes at all on our network while any of the machines are downloading heavy media. I configured the Xbox as a expanded windows media device, connected our Blue-Ray player to the router and added 3 laptop to our NAS device to access our media library...I still open my laptop and my email and VPNs to work connect and the traffic flows as if I was the only person in the house.