Cisco-Linksys WRT160N Wireless-N Broadband Router

10 Review to this product

• 

  BookBeetleBooks
  March 3rd, 2008 on 2:13 pm

  Rating

  I puchased this directly from Amazon.com. It was so easy to set up, it comes with a set up CD that does everything for you! No problems using my laptop in the other end of the house, nice strong signal. The unit is sleek and small, takes up very small space on an overcrowded workspace.
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  M. Delaney
  March 5th, 2008 on 9:03 am

  Rating

  FINALLY! A router that fixes all of the problems I was having. My old router, a D-Link Draft N had trouble connecting wirelessly with my Dell Laptop and my MacBook Pro. (Draft-N routhers don’t all conform to the same standards.) It did work with my iMac wirelessly and it did OK with my wired connections.

  So, I decided to tey an Apple Airport Extreme. It worked with all my wireless devices, but supprisingly did not do well passing HD TV Shows from my Media Center PC to my Xbox 360 over a wire!

  So, after much research I decided to try this Linksys. Since it just hit the market, I figured it would have better Draft-N support.

  So, with minimal configuration, this routher works with ALL my devices:

  (I have it setup with WPA/WPA2 Wireless security.)

  MacBook Pro (Draft-N Wireless)
  
  Dell Vostro Laptop (Draft-N)
  
  Apple iMAc (Draft-N)
  
  Apple iPod Touch (Whatever wireless it uses…)
  
  AppleTV (Wireless)
  
  Nintendo Wii (Wireless)
  
  2 Wired Windows PCs
  
  Playstation 3 (Wired)
  
  Xbox 360 (Wired)

  Plus it has no trouble passing the HD TV shows from my Windows Media Center PC to my Xbox360.
• 

  Martin
  March 12th, 2008 on 5:08 am

  Rating

  I noticed a lot of so so reviews and was wary until I read a professional review praising it’s easy set up. I decided to go for it and boy am I glad I did. I happen to be a novice setting up PC related stuff but this router was cake to set up. Be forwarned; however, my intention was to simply set up wireless with encryption and nothing else. I had no desire to set up a full blown network with file and printer sharing. I simply wanted encrypted wireless for my xp windows pc and vista windows laptop in the house. I figure I can print stuff by using the pc with the printer or using a flash drive so I had no desire in oversteaping my technical boundries.

  That being said… it was as simple as putting the disk in, following directions printing the encryption code and connecting the router. Easy as cake! I had more trouble configuring the recieving vista windows laptop and xp windows pc! Which wasn’t that hard either. The router is connected to my windows vista desktop and my windows vista laptop and seperate xp windows desktop are recieving the signal. It was as easy as plugging in the code to the recieving laptop and pc.

  The signal is always strong and no breaks in three weeks of constant use. Despite other comments, the signal strength is awesome even with the unit under a shelf. Unless you live in a 25 room mansion or set up the network wrong… you should have no problems. I have absolutely no complaints. The cherry on top is how awesome this router looks and with no antenna! You could easly hide this under a shelf but why would you want to! It’s beautiful and you could use it as decoration! I admit, it is pricey but well worth the money in the headaches you will save setting it up and the aesthetic factor. Highly recommended especially for novices who simply want wireless in their house.
• 

  M. Stokman
  March 12th, 2008 on 2:56 pm

  Rating

  This is an update to the March 2008 review. It now Feb 25th 2010 and no problems. In fact we now have expanded the office and have 8 lap tops running off this router constantly and and when we have visitors like recently we had 14 laptops running off of the same ONE router.

  So after 23 months no problems and the bandwidth continues to be constant and strong. We have various folks on it with Windows XP and Windows 7 now and no problems to connect to any of the computers. Can’t say enough how impressed we all are and we are in the tech industry.

  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  Overview – We are on AT&T DSL running the Elite broadband which is 3-6 Mbps. Our average speed is running 5+ Mbps here in the office and that is with Vonage VoIP phones (6 lines) and 4 laptops

  We just hooked up the the Linksys WRT160N Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N router in our new office onto 3 Dell laptops and 1 LG laptop. After the intial install on all the laptops running Windows XP Pro, we had only one minor glitch and that is a firmware upgrade needed on the Intel Wireless 4985 card on one of the Dells. It will not run currently on the Intel Pro Wireless card, everything G and below works fine. But it does run on Windows Wireless configuration just fine. We are all averaging 80 – 140 Mbps depending on how much load is on the line with the phones and broadband activity.

  I can not speak for the range of the unit yet since the office is only 1300 sq feet and we just hooked up the router, but I’m approximately 40 ft away with no problems. I’m so impressed how quick this is, I think I will go junk my Linksys Wireless G router and go buy another one of these for my home (Comcast Cable and Comcast Digital Phone which is also VoIP) just for the performance and good looks with the antennae now built in.

  Last thought, as I read these reviews people seem to bash the router when in fact typically it is the computer configuration or the wireless card that is at fault for not having the lastest firmware installed or the hardware not working. Another potential problem is if your system is standard broadband (CAT5 cable) this is the router you need. If you purchase the GIGABIT router and do not have the bandwidth or CAT6 cable, you may possibly get impeded results.
• 

  Camera Enthusiast
  June 8th, 2008 on 9:03 am

  Rating

  This was a VERY easy product to set up and start using. I would describe myself as having average to slightly above-average technical knowledge. The instructions were EASY to follow and set-up took no more than 5 minutes in total (total actual time!).

  I have a 4,300+/- sq.ft house and the range is good enough that the modem and router are on one end of the 2nd floor of the house, and my laptops are on the 1st floor on the opposite side of the house and they get a good connection.

  I have had Comcast broadband for the last month and I have thought that it was no faster than the AT&T DSL service I had previously had. Since I started using this router, I have noticed the internet to be remarkably faster.

  Anyway, I would recommend the product as being easy to install, providing a good connection to wireless devices, and providing a fast internet experience.
• 

  C. Cutler
  June 30th, 2008 on 5:13 pm

  Rating

  I bought this to replace an older Linksys wireless-G router that got hit by lightning. It was simple to set up, and works very well. Access by wireless is noticeably faster than the G version I had. I have had several brands over the years, and Linksys (a division of Cisco) always seems to work well right out of the box. The range is also better than the older G version, we consistently get 1-2 bars more than the older version on all 3 of our PC’s that are connected wirelessly.

  This router works great with the Linksys USB wireless card (WUSB600N) for the remote computers.

  Highly recommended, and the price is right too!
• 

  devildawgfan
  July 5th, 2008 on 6:54 am

  Rating

  I have this router installed in our basement office. I have set up a lot of equipment and normally bypass the installation disks that come with routers, but this disk was dead easy to use and had my network up and running quickly. Just make sure to shut down any firewall you may have running until you have finished the install disk. Speed and coverage are great, and I am able to watch Netflix streaming movies and our slingbox with no lag up in our bedroom on the second floor. As far as complaints with laptops dropping the connection, I went into the options on the router and gave my laptop a permanent ip address. Simply type the router’s ip address into your browser’s address bar. This will bring up a much more thorough interface to configure the router. The help manual on the included setup disk can give step by step instructions on how to do this for those that are not sure. Once at the web based router setup, on the first page that comes up, simply click DHCP reservation in the center of the page. You will see devices that are currently connected to your router. Simply check the box next to your laptop and choose add client. Now you have given your laptop a permanent reserved ip address. This stopped my laptop from dropping its connection. We are running an xbox 360, two laptops, two hard wired computers, one gaming adaptor, a Wii, one slingbox, and a old wireless b palm pilot with no connection drops or lag time. Highly recommend this router.
• 

  L. Lee
  August 28th, 2008 on 9:45 am

  Rating

  I bought this for replacing an older Linksys WRT54GL, which has trouble to reach a room at the other corner in my house. I have a Windows laptop, a Macbook pro, a linux desktop, and iPhone. All of them are happily connected with this new router from any location in my house without any problem.

  One thing I would like to mention: During the initial setup, wizard does not work — I suspect it is because my ATT DSL router uses 192.168.1.1 and by default the linksys router tries to use the same network for LAN. After I changed it to 192.168.10.1 for LAN on the linksys router (as I did for my older WRT54GL), now the wireless network works fine.
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  Low Tech Girl
  September 8th, 2008 on 3:53 am

  Rating

  I recently purchased a laptop with wireless capability and needed to buy a wireless router that had both wired and wireless capability to replace our old router running our wired network at home (two pc’s, one mac desktop and one macbook pro). I purchased the Linksys WRT160N Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router based on the reviews I read on Amazon. It has exceeded my expectations in every way.

  First it was stupidly simple to install. I followed the instructions on the cd and that was almost it. The software installs on only one of the computers (a big timesaver). The only hiccup in the process was that I needed to reboot the modem once the router was in place so the computers could access a new IP address and the instructions on the router cd do not address that issue (and maybe they can’t due to varying hardware requirements). The entire process took me about an hour, including a phone call to my internet provider to clear up the reboot issue.

  I am now happily working from my new laptop, sitting in my SkyChair in the backyard under the apple tree. It is my new office. Connection speed is fast, even with the router in the basement and the laptop outside. I look forward to enjoying warm autumn days working without walls, enjoying the sunshine while it lasts.
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  Ragamuffin Joe
  December 21st, 2008 on 11:32 am

  Rating

  I bought this router 5 Months ago after a fair amount of research online. I’ve been putting off buying a wireless router for 7-8 years now – i thought wired worked for me just fine. But every since we got it, it’s opened a new world to me; now we found uses for our laptops that we didn’t think of before. like watching online video in the kitchen with the family; or checking recipes online right from the kitchen or checking email without going all the way to the desktop.

  The router does all that i needed it to, and was v2 (so i can flash it with DD-WRT, if necessary – haven’t had the need to, so far). the router setup was a no brainer, all features work as intended. Has all the latest security features etc. I get pretty decent speed with it – haven’t tested the 802.1N speeds, though. No issues with the range – i have it on the lower level of the house and get excellent reception on the deck outside on the upper level about 30-35 feet away thru interior walls and floor (i haven’t tried longer distance than that). I’m happy with it.

  I’m pretty technical, so I read about all the stuff you can do by flashing the firmware, without being sure whether i would really need to or not – i.e. the info made me kind of nervous whether the default firmware is somehow inadequate – but I needn’t have worried. I also needed to know if the router would support older encryption protocols like WEP and newer protocols like WPA – since i have an older PowerBook and PCs and newer laptops. The Amazon website description didn’t really give me this type of detail (neither did it tell me whether this was v1 or v2 of the router model). i bought it anyway and was not disappointed.
  
  i went with Amazon despite another lower cost online site, because Amazon chose to give me great technical info to make my decision and for the peace of mind that if the product wasn’t up to expectations i could return without any worries. i haven’t needed to.

  definitely 5 stars.