Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys WRT160NL Wireless-N Broadband Router with Storage Link (Compatible with Linux)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I've had several routers over the years, and this one is the best so far. Range is great, speed is great, but best of all is the setup. Has a CD that makes it very easy, and when you are done it gives you a diagram of your entire network, including the names of each computer. I've set up several routers over the years, so I know what I'm doing, but who wants to spend time messing with it? I believe just about anyone could do this one. I've had it about a month, and I love it.

Update: I found out that my download speed was cut by 85% to my HARDWIRED computer when the ethernet cable was routed through the router (which it has to be) and then to my desktop computer. I found this out accidentally when checking speeds, and then got on the Linksys website and ask for help. I got a response and they had me change some obscure (MTU) settings (which I still don't understand), and it fixed the problem. My issue is, NOWHERE in the instructions does it even hint that you might need to do this.

Otherwise, the router works fine. But if you get it, check the download/upload speeds before and after the installation.

very cool. the usb drive is EASY to map as a network drive with a letter and it works fast enough. right now i'm backing up from the drive wirelessly to my computer and it is transferring data at a rate of 1GB in about 20 minutes. to some that will sound slow, but to me thats VERY fast. especially when you consider the price at which you're getting this utility. you can turn a USB drive into a network drive. (mine is 250 GB external). i still have not read the instructions for the device yet. tomorrow i will look into customizing the security options.

i am terribly excited about now having a network drive from which all 3 of my computers can access files. no more storing pictures or music or files on 1 of the 3, now everything is stored on the "network drive" and backed up to my main computer. my wife and i love it. just $85.

also interesting is that the compression rate is currently about 20%, so i think that means by the time my current backup is complete, my 44GB network drive might be compressed to under 9GB. i'll see, but it should give you some idea.

as for the networking features, the signal is very strong and reaches in my basement, so my buddy down there is happy too.

i find the description of the network controls you get to be really understated. you can block and allow websites and computers and you get a lot of other useful controls. its very user friendly and the only thing you'll really need to refer to the manual for is to see how to access the usb drive from your computer - its EASY.

the tricky thing is restricting admin access to just yourself - trying to figure that out. will do it tomorrow. i hope this review helps. i would recommend to anyone to get this router -

i'm not a techie, so my expectations are "normal" and this has exceeded my expectations by far.

its very similar to using the network drive at my job. the best part of it all to me is that i now have all my files stored in one place and finally made good use of my external usb hard drive, which will now always be connected. can't beat that. good luck and vote me up if this review was helpful.

We went through three other brands, each time returning them for an exchange of another in their cheaper price range; finally we tried this Linksys and ta da!! it worked fantastically.

If you are like me and totally don't know how to install things on your computer, never fear, it comes with a CD that walks you through the process. If you know what you're doing you can skip the CD and browse the "Quick Installation Guide."

Yep, it costs more, but after returning three other cheaper ones, I am here to say this works great. We have not had a problem since.

It is absolutely absurd that it has been so many years since 802.11g first became the standard and I feel that with this Draft-N router we have actually taken a step backward. To sum it up, here are the pros and cons:

Pros:

Looks really slick with its glossy black form-factor design.

Cons:

Doesn't work as a router.

I have had a lot of luck in the past with my trusty Linksys wrt54g router. It's a disgusting blocky blue box but it is solid and trustworthy.

After installing this Linksys wrt160nl router, that process in itself a hassle, I configured it to run in mixed mode since not all of my devices are 802.11 draft-N compliant.

Comparing the two routers with a speed test ([...]), I found that the connection was even slower than my wrt160nl router. I also recently purchased a wireless printer to which my three computers (running Mac OS X, XP, and Vista) can connect via the router. The printer would constantly lose its connection because the router wasn't properly forwarding the packets.

When I tried to ping the computers on the network from the other computers, there was intermittent packet loss. File sharing was also intermittent, as was my connection to the Internet, which was in some cases lost entirely.

Tried connecting with an XBox 360 from the other room. It consistently did not connect. Tried boosting the channel width and saw no clear advantages.

As a computer professional, I am always disappointed when things don't work properly and there is no reasonable way to fix them. I don't know how Cisco managed to completely ruin Linksys' once decent router after Cisco took over Linksys, but it was a job well done.

I may try to contact Cisco and ask if there's a use for this thing other than a glossy black paperweight and try to get any speed boost I can out of it, since this was given to me for free to begin with. But I really don't recommend buying this thing unless you're a masochist. A router should just work. Maybe now that the 802.11n standard has been approved (again, this is a DRAFT-n router), you'll start seeing companies fall in line and update their firmware or build better routers. Until then, I'd give 2002 a call and see if they have any of the working routers left.

I purchased this router for 2 specific reasons. First and foremost, I wanted the Storage Link function in order to add a quick and easy substitute for a separate home server or NAS box. Second, I wanted to upgrade from my current wireless G router to N.

This router worked fine as a router. The network was easy to configure and both of the laptops we use in my home connected without issue. Both machines run Vista Home Premium.

The router did, for some reason, cause our laptops to have problems accessing our D-Link wireless print server. Both laptops had accessed the server flawlessly for months prior to swapping out my old router, but now Vista on both machines had recognition problems with the print server, sometimes seeing it on the network, sometimes not.

The Storage Link function was hot mess from the start. I attached a 500G external drive with NTFS formatting (supported, according to the Linksys info), but it wouldn't show up on the network from either laptop or when I logged into the router config portal. On occasion, the hard drive would show, but I was unable to access it. I spent hours researching the Web, trying to find any answers as to what the problem was and how to fix it. I found lots of posts about the problem, but just about every one had a different suggested fix and none of them worked. I called Linksys support, spent 2.5 hours on the phone with Tier II technical support and was finally told that they couldn't help me unless I got an XP machine to diagnose the problem. I was given a ticket number and told to call back if I needed more help. Of course, I didn't call back. I returned the router to Amazon that day.

I have always used D-Link and NetGear products in the past. This was my first, and most likely my last, experience with Linksys.

I would have given 1 star, but as a router this worked fine. The Storage Link, which is a secondary function(but the more important one to me) is what drove the rating down so low.

Linksys has only two N routers with the storage link WRT160NL and WRT610. Linksys was my first choice since WRT54GS worked for many years flawlessly to select a maker was easy and out of two choices of &85 vs $140 it made it easy too. (I don't need megabyte wired connectivity). I have two laptops with Windows XP and Vista Home Premium. Setting up the network was easy and without any issue. As a router it is very good product and easy to install. It also shows a chart where you could see your network - what is connected and what is not. It makes it easier to see where the problems on the network could be.

I also have a 500GB WD external hard drive with music and movies. Connecting the hard drive was a nightmare!!! My reaction was since I don't have Networking Degree I guess I don't know what I am doing. So I called Linkys. Great, right? No. After I spent 4 hr with tech support just to hear they could do nothing to make it work. They called it defective and asked me to return it. During tech support time I gave them full permission to completely take over my computer. They tried to help for several hours. After I couldn't wait any longer they were happy to quit too.

Reading reviews about the same problems with WRT610 it was time to change brands.

Amazon was great! I printed return label online and reused the box. I got full refund without a phone call.

I use D-Link RangeBooster N Dual Band Router DIR-628 now. The only minus of this one is you cannot access the external hard drive from two computers at the same time, only one user at the time. I don't know if Linksys would let me do it either.

PS: IF YOU HAVE TO CALL TECH SUPPORT AND YOU FEEL THE TECH PERSON IS AN IDIOT HANG UP AND CALL AGAIN. It worked for me with Belkin, Linksys and Dlink.

I'm sitting in my living room writing this review on my laptop. The wireless router I'm connected to (the one I'm reviewing now) is another room... in another building!

My office, where I keep the router, is in a converted garage apartment behind our home, at least 200 feet away. Although my laptop's wireless signal indicator says my signal is low, it still says the speed is 65 Mbps, which is the same I'd get with my old router if the signal was excellent.

I'm very happy with the Linksys WRT160NL. I have not had to restart it yet, the speed and range are totally great (I can sit in bed and stream movies on my netbook while my wife works next to me on her laptop with no lag whatsoever), and install was quick and painless.

I had one of these for a while (now returned to the store).

On the plus side, setup is easy. I didn't use the install disk, just the web access to the router. Help menus in the setup system are very useful. There is a very sophisticated system of controlling access (for example, cutting off a particular computer between certain hours.) Very useful when your 13 year old gets her first laptop. Router seemed to work fine, performance was fine, with two MAJOR exceptions, and a few minor complaints.

1. The router would crash about every other day. I was never able to determine any reason. It didn't just stop running, but slowly functional areas would stop working - the web interface would not longer work. Then a new wifi connection couldn't be started. Eventually everything ground to halt, and if I hadn't by this time, the device needed to be power cycled. Since the switch portion worked fine all this time, my guess (just a guess)is that the embedded Linux failed. Since it crashed slowly over some time (hour or two) my additional guess is that there is a storage leak in the OS, or some internal table got corrupted. In any case, this wasn't acceptable.

2. Performance in the attached USB port (Storage Link) started off as slow, and slowed down even further over a period of time. Other people on the Linksys web site reported similar experiences. I had intended to use this port with an attached 1.5tb disk as a household backup, but the speed is so slow its not a useful solution. Since this was one of the main reasons that I paid a premium price for the router, it made no sense to keep it.

Other, minor, complaints:

-The router has a log, which is erased on rebooting. Making the log useless in trying to track down the problems.

- I replaced and old Netgear wifi router that wouldn't cover my whole house with the Linksys, because it advertised on the box its extended coverage area. I could detect no improvement.

- Support comes out of the Philippines, at least every time I called. Nice people, but they don't really know anything about networking or the router. They look in the same database that I do, and couldn't contribute to solving the problems (which weren't solved).

So... its back at Fry's. On to Netgear.....

I bought this router back in June. At that time, the reviews on Amazon were very positive. What a difference 5 months make! I agree with the other reviews - this router is very unstable and constantly drops connections. I've performed an internet search and this is unfortunately a very common problem with this router.

The 30-day period is long gone, so I can't return it, but I continue to hope that a future firmware upgrade will improve this router's performance. In the meantime, buyer beware!

If you are in the market to buy a router that has an option of connecting a usb hard drive. Do not make the mistake of buying this router. It just does not work or honestly I could not get it to work even after spending a lot of time chatting with cisco support. They only support a few hard drives. If you don't have one of these you are simply out of luck and you would just not be able to use your exsiting drive on the network. Unless you plan on buying one of the disks in the list below. I have not tried it with the list below and don't intend to buy a disk to try this router out. Don't waste your time and money on this router. Based on the conversation there would not be a firmware release any time soon either.

This is from their site

Hard Disk Drives:

Maxtor OneTouch 1TB

Maxtor OneTouch II 300GB

Western Digital My Passport Essential 160GB

Western Digital MyBook Essential 500GB

Western Digital MyBook Premium II 1.5TB

USB Flash Drives

Apacer AH320 1GB

Ativa 2GB

HP v125w 16GB

Kingston Data Traveler 2GB

Kingston Data Traveler 16GB

Memorex TravelDrive 2GB

PNY Attache 128MB

Sandisk Cruzer Micro 1GB

Sandisk Cruzer Micro 8GB

Sandisk Cruzer Titanium 4GB

Sony Micro Vault 2GB

Transcend JetFlash V60 4GB

Transcend JetFlash V60 8GB

Hard Driver Enclosures

NuSlim NS2151S 2.5" IDE

Philips SPD5200CC 2.5" SATA

Prostar N350U2 3.5" IDE

Vantec NexStar SX 2.5" SATA