Home >> Computer Add-Ons >> Networking
Home >> Computer Add-Ons
Linksys WRT600N Linksys Ultra RangePlus Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router with Storage Link | List Price: $199.99
Discount Price: Too low to display
|
Brand: Linksys
Binding: Electronics
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Features: - Internet-sharing Router and 4-port Gigabit Switch, with a built-in, dual-band, speed and range enhanced Wireless Access Point
- Two simultaneous, separate, radio bands double your available bandwidth
- MIMO technology uses multiple radios per band to create robust signals for maximum range and speed, with reduced dead spots
- Connect a hard drive or flash-based USB storage device to allow access to your music, video, or data files from within your network, or through the Internet
- Advanced wireless security and SPI firewall for protection from Internet attacks
The good, The bad & The ugly [Posted on 2008-07-07]
I've been using this router for a good 3 months now. I am an IT professional, operating a large home network with lots of devices. Bought this router in the hopes of a more reliable router and network. It's Broadcom-based with 300Mhz CPU (fast for a router) and 32MB of memory (plenty for a router).
THE GOOD: excellent and reliable router with lots of memory and features - just make sure you upgrade the firmware. It has TWO radios, one 2.4Ghz, one 5Ghz, each configurable separately to do whatever you want. Very fast CPU allows for fast enough routing to send FAXES through my VoIP line! Lots of memory - you can use it for things like VPN, BitTorrent and VoIP, including all at the same time! Third-party firmware also available (DD-WRT) and working quite well, maybe even better than Linksys' own (no Wide-Channel support on 5Ghz band with DD-WRT).
THE BAD: Until recently this router had a very buggy firmware, which made this it next to useless. Make sure you update to the latest firmware - go to the US Linksys website regardless of where you are located and get it (only the US one has the latest firmware for some reason!?!?). The new firmware (build from March 2008) fixes most of these problems. The G-connectivity is shaky: I am still very unhappy with it. Connection becomes unreliable on my laptop (Apple PowerBook G4 12") when I move more than 4-5 meters away from the router. That's "unrerliable" for my use, most people might find it acceptable. Interestingly, other computers do not seem to suffer from this too much. The problem does not seem to improve by changing firmwares, it appears to be a hardware compatibility issue with certain older adapters. I ended up using my OLD router as a G-access point to solve the problem. The StorageLink is useless for my purposes - too slow, you can't beat a computer acting as a file server. You would think the USB port would also accept a printer, but sorry - no print server included. No support for IPv6 - none whatsoever. I find this surprising for a high-end router.
THE UGLY: Linksys' technical support is still being their useless selves. You can just pretend they don't exist. If you have a problem, search forums on the matter. DD-WRT's forum is very very valuable in this area.
CONCLUSION: What do you want from this router? A reliable router? Yes, you get that. Feature-rich? Yes, that too. I am sending FAXES through my VoIP line, very impressive! So far I haven't seen it crash on me, it does what it was meant to, as long as you upgrade to the very latest firmware - do it immediately! Very disappointing G connectivity from my computer to my router. StorageLink is useless, even if 300Mhz were enough for that, would you want to divert valuable resources from routing? I didn't think so.
Excellent Speed/Options, could use better set up and NAS [Posted on 2008-07-10]
I purchased the WRT600N based on a review in a popular PC magazine comparison. I have been using the router for about a month now and use the wired connections (PC and Roku M1001 digital audio receiver), wireless connections (laptop), and USB port (hard drive attached).
Pros: Excellent Speed (wired and wireless), ability to attach a USB drive, quick set up for basic functions
Cons: Quirky set up for WPA2 security and USB drive
Out of the box it was easy to set up the router for a wired and wireless network (WPA security) using the included software. I was replacing a Netgear wired router and the software helped me through that with no problem. The software also walks you through connecting wirelessly to the network through an executable file you download from the Linksys site (very helpful if you are not familiar with networks). The software included shows a status of your network, internet connection and other PCs, laptops, devices attached to the network.
However, to take full advantage of the router requires a more advanced understanding of networks and hence the reason for dropping the rating from 5 to 4 stars. Using the included Linksys software you cannot enable WPA2 security on the wireless network. Also, while you might think of the attached USB drive as a "device" the Linksys software does not recognize it as a device on the network like one might expect.
However, not to fail, by using the router's web interface it is not difficult to enable WPA2 security, see that the USB drive is connected, disable broadcast of your address, and enable only certain MAC/IP addresses to connect to the router thus increasing the wireless security to about as high a level as you can. The web interface is a little quirky in its usability though.
The only real issue I had with the router is connecting the USB drive. I had to use web chat to contact Linksys support twice. The first time I tried to connect the USB drive I could not see it on the network. Turns out the light on the router identifying a USB drive is connected was not lit. Unfortunately support had me reset the router but it didn't fix the problem. I found on the Internet that by attaching the USB drive and turning it on before powering up the router will take care of the issue and after doing that the USB light on the router was lit. Back to the PC and I still could not see the USB drive using the Linksys software so back to the support web chat. The person walked me to the web interface which showed that the USB drive was recognized by the router. Not sure why the included software would not show it but oh well, it is working.
Overall, I am very pleased with the purchase and would recommend this router to others. My experience level is advanced with respect to PCs and intermediate with respect to networks.
Great Wireless Connectivty, Limited Storage Link Capability [Posted on 2008-07-14]
I've had this router for several days, and generally am pleased with the wireless connectivity, using Wireless-N to my laptop (HP Pavilion with built-in Wireless-N card) Speeds have varied from 108 Mbps to 270 Mbps, sitting about 30 feet away from the router in another room. However, I am VERY disappointed in the Storage Link implementation, thinking that this would provide a Network Attached Storage solution without having to buy one of the expensive NAS boxes. If you are thinking like me about NAS, this is NOT the solution!!! Most of the reviews on this site don't go into much detail on the Storage Link feature, so I just bought this thing figuring I could make it work the way I wanted. Big mistake! Here are the details:
1. Router firmware version 1.0.36 Build 4 (one release up from what is currently on Linksys' web site.
2. Connected Western Digital My Book 750GB USB 2.0 external drive, first formatted via computer to NTFS, and then plugged in to the router's USB port.
3. Got everything set up properly including shared folders on external drive, user access, permissions, etc, and mapped network drives on laptop (Vista Home Premium) and desktop (XP Home) computers, so far so good.
4. Attempted (twice) a drive image backup of laptop using StorageCraft ShadowProtect Desktop 3.2 (latest release). Backup completed (44GB), and I could see the file on the external network drive, but file was corrupt and failed verification.
5. After much research, decided to re-format the external network drive using the router's formatting capability. Discovered that router will only format using FAT32, but proceeded anyhow, and again successfully set up shared folders, user access, permissions, etc.
6. Since FAT32 will not address files larger than 4 GB, decided to abandon a drive image backup, so tried a files-and-folders backup from the laptop using Genie Backup Manager Home 8.0. This was successful as long as I didn't try to back up so many files and folders that the resulting file was larger than 4GB.
7. Also copied individual files and folders over to external drive with no problem, but had to exclude a video file that was slightly larger than 4 GB.
8. Re-formatted the external network drive to NTFS again using the computer, and tried another files-and-folders backup from the laptop using Genie, this time purposely selecting enough files to push the backup file size over 4 GB. This should have worked since the drive was formatted to NTFS, but the backup failed twice.
Conclusion: Storage Link implementation only allows basic capability to move files and folders less than 4 GB in size due to it's FAT32 format limitation, and is totally unsuitable for using automated backup software to backup large numbers of files or do drive imaging to the network drive. So if all you want to do is move files manually to the network drive, and don't have any huge files larger than 4 GB, and don't care about automated backups, then Storage Link seems to work OK. However, IMHO, this is WAY too limiting, and does not even come close to a NAS solution. I'm returning my router today, because it is hard to tell when a firmware upgrade might be released that would remove these serious limitations. There are cheaper Wireless-N routers out there without this Storage Link (non)capability.
Overall a Good Router [Posted on 2008-07-15]
Overall I have to say that this router, being the first wireless router I've bought, does exceptionally well. While the price is a bit much as of this writing, you get what you pay for, in this case a wireless router that lets 802.11g cards enjoy the most they can while the 802.11n cards can perform to their uttermost potential. Using the setup from the Linksys CD made setting up the router painless and a breeze, but at the end of the setup, it told me that it had not recognized or found any internet connection. This was quickly resolved when I went to Linksys' support site, which gave clear and concise instructions as to what to do to resolve the issue, so if you do come up to problems using this router, don't hesitate to go to Linksys's website first to see if the problem to your issue is there (it was for me). After this issue was resolved, I was able to set up the network further through a web browser. Granted, the standard user may not know what all to configure here, but I am sure that a Google search or a look at Linksys's website would give them clear directions as to what to do. I am overall satisfied with the product and completely recommend it to those who have some computers with 802.11n cards and some with 802.11g cards. I look forward to buy another Linksys wireless router in the near future.
Great Replacement [Posted on 2008-07-22]
I was looking for a replacement router that would not limit my speed to the slowest machine. This was it. I have it configure so the slower machines are on the 2.5 Ghz band and my faster machines are on the 5 Ghz band at the same time. It did take an hour to set up. I would recommend this router to anyone with multiple demands.
Click here for more details and discount information...
|
){kind=link}