Cisco-Linksys WRT100 RangePlus Wireless G Broadband Router with MIMO

by Cisco

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.4 x 5.8 x 6.7 inches ; 11.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000WCUQ8W
• Item model number: WRT100
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,526 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 2, 2007

Product Description

The RangePlus Wireless Router is really three devices in one box. First, there is the Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect to the network without wires. There is also a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices together. Finally, the Router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great product, HORRIBLE installer, January 10, 2008

By 

Michael A. Behr "mabehr" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys WRT100 RangePlus Wireless G Broadband Router with MIMO (Personal Computers)

I was replacing an old router that conked out all the time, requiring us to pull the plug and restart it. This new one, once we got it properly installed and configured, works just fine. The speed is pretty good: we're actually seeing a 30% improvement, for no discernable reason!

One of the reasons I bought this was because the range is supposedly good, but it hasn't worked out for me. It says it in the name: RangePLUS! With MIMO. However, my NYC apartment apparently has lead walls, or forms some sort of gaussian surface, because the signal does not make it from one bedroom to the other.

My BIG gripe is with the installer. Linksys/Cisco made a huge effort to make it idiot-proof, with a really nifty wizard to make installation a breeze. Cisco's effort FAILED, bigtime!!! Omigosh, was the installer impossible to use. It forced security on me when I didn't want it: during the initial install you can turn WPA/WEP off, but later on when you say you want to change it, WPA and WEP were my only choices! I wanted to lock down the router using MAC addresses... but couldn't do it from the wizard. I *can* do it from the web interface of the router, but Linksys/Cisco doesn't make it easy to figure out the right username and password (the username is the empty string... in other words, there is none!). Also, the wizard keeps autodetecting devices on my network - or ones that were trying to connect to my network, I'm not sure - that I had no idea what they were, nor do I have any idea how to get rid of them from the display! (They're not connected now, since I succeeded in locking the router down.)

All in all, once you get it configured, it appears to be a great piece of equipment. But getting it configured SUCKS!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Performs great once it's setup., March 12, 2008

By 

FYX193 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys WRT100 RangePlus Wireless G Broadband Router with MIMO (Personal Computers)

I've had this router for about 4 months. Initially it was more of a pain to set this up using the product wizard software. I am used to WRT54GS which is what I replaced for the WRT100 router. The older WRT54GS Linksys router was much easier to setup through the web browser interface. I tried initially setting this WRT100 router up the same way, but for some reason it would not login at first. I tried the software wizard route next, and it setup the router fine. Once I did this I uninstalled the wizard software and was able to login to the router via a browser and make further changes to the routers setttings. From that point on I can access the router and make changes as necessary through the web browser.

The nice thing about this router is that it has 802.11N Draft 2.0 compatability. It's not advertised as a wireless N router, but when setting it up from a web browser I can choose to use 802.11b/g/n mode. When using WPA2-AES security encryption it actually enhances my speed performance on my Toshiba Laptop with integrated dualband Intel 802.11N wifi. Instead of getting a 54Mbps connection, I get a 70Mbps connection. All of my older PC's using linksys 54GS PCI adapters have no problem finding the connection and staying connected at 54Mbps. Range is perfect for my 2 story house w/basement. I get an "Excellent" to "Very Good" signal on my desktop PC's and an "Excellent" on my Toshiba Laptop.

I also have connected to this router with an older laptop using a Netgear RangMax WPN511 PCMCIA card. This is a MIMO Super 108G card, and it connects to this router with an "Excellent" or "Very Good" signal at a constant 54Mbps rate.

I have had a total of 7 PC's wirelessly connected to this router for a LAN Party as well as a Linksys 54G Print Server. This is the most I have had connected at the same time, and I experienced zero problems with the router.

It handles DHCP very well compared to the WRT54GS router. Once a PC is connected to the router, the DHCP will assign it an IP address, and then you are given the option to reserve the assigned IP address to that PC's MAC address. This simulates a Static IP address for PC's connected via the DHCP. You could just manually assign Static IP addresses, but this is just easier IMO to have only one place to be able to change IP addresses etc...

The router also handles Peer-to-Peer applications better than the WRT54GS router. I can have more open connections at a time when using a BitTorrent application without the router bogging down. It can and will bogg down if you open too many connections, but it still handles the connections better.

Other than the initial setup process via the software, the only other issue I have with the router is the time it takes to save changes on the router. It seems to reboot the router every time you click the save button on the web browser. It takes even longer when making changes and saving them through the wizard software that linksys provides. It would be much less of a hassle if we could make all necessary changes to the router and have a single save button at the top of the firmware's webpage.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Time is not on my side, March 15, 2008

By 

Seabecker (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys WRT100 RangePlus Wireless G Broadband Router with MIMO (Personal Computers)

I bought the WRT100 from Amazon. Since I have used many of their products before, I did not use the setup utility, but simply configured everything manually. It is very much like the WRT54G family. Configuration was easy and predictable.

For me, signal strength is much better than the 54 series. I use it in the B & G modes only, without a MIMO adapter.

My problem is the internal clock. It doesn't keep proper time and Linksys has again failed to write correct/updated USA Daylight Savings Time rules into their firmware.

A week after I first installed it, I noted the clock was fast. About 4 minutes/day. There is no way to set the clock except reset the router and let it find a time server. After reset the clock is correct. This is a big deal for me because I use time-based Access Restrictions. I on-line chatted with Linksys and they went through their normal "update the firmware" routine. I did that to no avail. Linksys gave me authorization to return it to them, but their online system didn't work. I exchanged it via Amazon with no issues.

The replacement now has the same issue. Plus, last week when we moved to DST, the router didn't. I had to tell it I'm in a different time zone. I assume that I'll have to undo this fix in a few weeks. The new router's clock is still 4 minutes/day fast. I do not yet know what my final resolution will be. I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has a clock issue.