Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys WRT320N Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

I have this router now for six weeks. Right out of the box it gave me great speed over wired Gigabit ethernet. But over a few days, the speed went down to good ol' dial-up times. Only a router reset gave back the full speed - for a few hours until the problem came up again.
There was long discussion about this problem over at the vendor forum, and finally the issue was solved by Linksys/Cisco (had something to do with UPnP, you don't wanna know the details).
So please do yourself a favor: Buy this router. It is the best device for a home great network with a fast internet connection. BUT immediately after purchase, upgrade the router firmware to Ver 1.0.03 build 10 (release date 08/13/2009). It will save you the trouble I had.

I bought this to replace my Linksys WRT54GS wireless router because I wanted the gigabit functionality for my wired network. I installed this router without using the included software. It worked instantly and flawlessly.
I have only had it for about a week. So far, I have nothing negative to report. The strength of the wireless signals is improved and my wired computers (3) transfer data at incredible speeds.
Installing routers successfully, especially wireless routers, requires a solid understanding of the technology and options available to you. I was actually hesitant to buy this router because of the negative reviews I read, but I wanted gigabit connectivity and this seemed like the best option. A lot of products get blasted, but its not always clear whether the problems lie with the products or those attempting to install and use them.
Suggestion: When installing wireless routers, I suggest filtering MAC addresses for wireless connections to only allow computers with the MAC addresses you have entered on your list to connect to your router.

Linksys by Cisco WRT320N Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router
We were connecting a Vista laptop running a Dlink N adaptor, a MAC laptop and a wired Vista desktop. This home/office configuration previously operated on a Linksys wireless G router. We have been using Linksys routers for several years. When the older G router finally failed, we stayed with the same vendor. We purchased a new Linksys WRT320N. Initially the WRT320N connected and appeared to be much faster and better. A few hours later we started having connection trouble. Our MAC laptop would lose the connection and need to be reconnected using the SSID and the wireless password. Both the MAC and the Vista laptop would separately lose connectivity to the WRT320N network. Our wireless distance was about 20 feet from the WRT320N router. Sometimes when we attempted to connect using wireless we would not see our network in the list of networks that we can connect to. Other networks around the neighborhood were visible. Once connected, the router was unable to maintain any type of load such as wirelessly watching a movie. An internet movie would fail in less than 5 minutes time.

PROS:
The wired connections seemed to work well. Wired router response time was good.

CONS:
The WRT320N ran very hot. We were careful to position the router to receive maximum air flow.
Under ideal conditions, Individual wireless sessions would randomly lose connection.
Under ideal conditions, Wireless connections were difficult to establish.
Under ideal conditions, Wireless connections could not support a consistent load.

SUMMARY:
After many hours of trying to fix connection trouble, we decided to pack it up and return it. We replaced it with a Netgear 3500. Once installed, all of the connection issues vanished. Wireless movie viewing worked without a hitch. Netgear wireless throughput was fast and good.

I'm your average end user. Not a geek, not a technophobe. I bought this when changing ISP's where the new modem didn't have a wireless router. I have a laptop/docking station, 2 pc's, 1 ethernet 3/1 network printer, and wireless samsung blu ray for streaming pandora and netflix (an excellent device, by the way). I thought the second channel would be good for the streaming media. I had significant trouble getting the linksys router set up. After 3 unsatisfying and lengthy calls to tech support over 10 days and multiple hours spent, I still don't have use of the printer or true interconnectivity of the pcs and laptop. The desktop interface is "pretty" and very intuitive, and the wireless "router-ing" aspect is working fine now. One of the tech support calls had to end because the technician wasn't familiar with the linksys wireless network tool! I wouldn't buy this product again due to the abysmal support. Note to Shah at Cisco support: I'm still waiting for you to call me back "within an hour" as you assured me you would...

First let me preface this review by saying, i do own this product and it saved me from jumping off the WIFI bridge to something like powerline which might have been the nail in the cauffin had i bought all that stuff and discovered it only works for computers that are on the same circut of your homes circuit box.

Anyway, if you're looking for a rocket science review of this sexy little device..press fast forward.. this is dedicated to those who just want a WIFI setup that works and solves your Range issue so they can get on with life!

This past Friday I called it quits and ditched all my Linksys G routers/access points/hodge podge WRT54g-DD-wrt gateway hookup stuff and threw it all in a box and hauled it to the craigslist section of the garage. Yes, I know if i had unlimited hours and my time was worth nothing, i could pop the top of those old linksys units and tinker with open source firmware till the next presidential election - But frankly, I'd rather enjoy my life.

so on to a 'N'ew chapter of success with WIFI "N" and G is now for 'G'oodbye

First I live in a typical newer home in the burbs and this SINGLE unit effectively covers all 3000sq ft home with ease. I positioned the Linksys N dual-band gigabit unit in my garage/home office area which is located on the 1st floor at the far west side of the house. After about an hour of snafus installing the setup software on Win7/and Vista (reason for 3 stars on setup).. Voila! I got it working and it was like my house started glowing with N! First thing i did was grab my Dell inspiron 1721 laptop (with built-in G adapter) and headed to the furthest side of house which is my master bedroom that is approximately 400-500ft away and on the 2nd floor (think diagonal opposites)

The laptop instantly found my new N WIFI SSID, I saw 4 bars, input my WPA2 passphrase (no 128 hex crap - simple human word i picked)and got a whopping 48mbs solid connection (not bad for a G adapter on N network).

NOTE: as I went around the house and enabled all the other older G-based PCs, I found that on on Windows XP and even some Vista machines, the wifi adapters didn't detect the new WPA2 based N network. So i had to go in and manually setup the WIFI network using the SSID and WPA2 passphrase. You must also pick the option that says "connect to this wifi network even when it is not broadcasting". But once I did that, all machines in the house had a reliable 3-5 bars no matter where it was in the house.

Linksys has a cool new network management software package called Network Magic Pro that comes with the unit (Trial Version then u must buy) but its really slick.. you can view all computers connected to your N network and see if the connects are live or dormant plus do a bunch of other cool stuff. After all was setup and done (about 2.5hrs later) I saw all 10 devices on my N network. Mix of laptops, desktops, xbox, ps3,etc .. all visible as little icons on this cool little network map. EVEN helped my kids XBOX connections!!!

I now plan to upgrade all my G network adapters to N soon and maybe even sooner since I found [...]

This N machine solved all my headaches and brought weeks of frustration hunting for solutions to G-connectivity finally to a close! Now Im going to relax kick my feet up and enjoy the superbowl without the whole house complaining the wifi is down..the wifi is down!!

GET THIS if you have G-connectivity problems. It works perfectly with G network adapters that maybe on your older PCs laptops. I did get an additional N network adapter to connect one of my media servers and the WIFI speed showed 5bars with 230MBs!!!! - so you see when you hook two "N" devices on both sides - it goes far faster than what most home network users will ever need.

Cheers!

I bought this router a couple of months ago. It was to replace my WRT54G. I read some reviews that said overheating were a concern, so I when I got mine, I propped it up vertically rather than allow it to remain horizontal.

I have had no problems with overheating, dropped connections or freezing. The router has worked exactly as advertised. The range for the wireless wasn't quite what I expected for my blue-ray player, so I ended up running a line under the house for that. But for my laptop, the N-band works like a champ.

The only thing I would recommend considering for this router is this: you must choose either the 2.4Ghz or 5.0Ghz radio bands. You cannot use both. So if you have a single device that is using 2.4Ghz, then everything must use that band. There is another Linksys router that broadcasts on both bands and handles devices on each simultaneously. I think if I would have read the specifications better I would have gone with that router even though it is slightly more expensive.

I bought this unit to replace an older D-Link unit that wouldn't work with my new computer. I decided to try a different brand because the D-Link had been having problems freezing up more and more frequently. At the retailer, they suggested Linksys as more of the Lexus brand. However, I've had nothing but problems with this unit. The software that accompanies the unit (Linksys Easy Link Advisor) was NOT easy. It failed to install 7 times in a row. When I call tech support, they were not able to diagnose my problem - it was obvious that the rep had a limited number of solutions to try, but didn't really understand what she was doing. I finally gave up as I'd been able to configure the router myself.

However, later that day I was getting blocked from using Google docs due to some "network defender" the router installed. Given that I wasn't able to install the software, I could not figure out how this was happening or how to turn it off. Against my better judgment, I called support again. I explained what I had been through, and the first thing she asked me to do was to uninstall the Linksys Easy Link Advisor - but of course it wasn't there, and she had obviously not listened to my situation. She put me on hold for - I kid you not - 20 minutes. When she returned, she said I'd have to call my computer manufacturer and have them adjust the registry - because the aborted installs had put something in the registry. And no, they wouldn't pay for it (as it was clearly my problem). Very frustrated, I asked to speak to a supervisor. Again, I was put on hold. I hung up after 10 minutes as I finally figured out how to solve the problem myself (I had put all that time on hold to good use). And I came here to warn others - DO NOT BUY LINKSYS. Their software is NOT intuitive, and their support is terrible.

I have the 310n and bought the 320n for my mother-in law, both will run hot out of the box but once I updated the firmware they cooled way down and performance was better and reliable

QUICK SUMMARY: In my home, this Linksys WRT320N router is working perfectly with both wired and wireless devices. My only complaint so far is with the router's user interface and logging features. The Gigabit Ethernet is terrific (if you've got Gigabit-enabled devices attached), and the wireless signal is very good throughout my home. Recommended!

Background: I've searched for an upgrade to my g-network, Microsoft MN-700 router for several months. I wanted only three things in a router: N-network speed, Gigabit Ethernet, at a cost of a hundred bucks or so. My first forray into the N-network world was the D-Link Wireless N Gigabit Router DIR-655. The router's interface on the DIR-655 was deplorable, but even worse was the firmware issues and some incompatibility with my network-attached storage drive, the Iomega StorCenter Pro ix4-200d 2 TB (4 x 500 GB) Network Attached Storage Server 34546, where the download speed coming from the NAS drive was barely a dribble (further testing showed it wasn't a problem with the NAS, but something with the DIR-655 itself). So this Linksys is my 2nd N-network, gigabit router. It's attached to a desktop computer, an Acer Aspire AH340-UA230N Home Server, and the two NAS devices. I also connect wirelessly from three different laptops.

Out-of-box experience: Pretty good. I used the installation CD even though I know how to configure a router through the router's IP address. The software unexpectedly loads NetMagic, a utility to help manage your network. If it were completely free, that'd be okay, but instead they give you a 7-day trial of the "Pro" version, after which it will automatically downgrade its feature set to the "Basic" version (unless you pony up $30 to keep the "Pro" version). To be honest, I don't think most people will care for this bloatware. I wound up rebuilding the desktop computer on which I installed NetMagic (for other reasons unrelated to this router), so I'm not even using NetMagic Basic. What I saw of NetMagic would only be interesting if you like testing your Internet speed and looking at a picture of all the devices attached to your router. Woo-wee.

More importantly, the router configuration went without a hitch, and was up-and-running very quickly, assigning IP addresses to my wired devices, and offering a secured connection to my wireless laptops.

CONFIGURATION: The default IP for the router is 192.168.1.1. You can optionally skip the CD install and just enter that IP into your browser to start manually configuring if you're experienced with router setups.

One thing I didn't like was that when I manually entered some port forwards for my home server, the router software doesn't show the name of the computer associated with the IP address. You have to know what IP goes with which computer. That's not as nice as the D-Link router, which showed both the IP address and the user-friendly computer name of each attached device. It's not a big deal to run ipconfig to get the IP info, just not necessary with better router software.

USABILITY: Gigabit ethernet between devices works like a charm! I can move gigabyte files in very short order through this router. Of course, it still works with 10/100 Ethernet, too.

The wireless range is very good! Using my existing, g-network laptops, I get no worse than 3 bars (out of 5) anywhere in my 3-bedroom, 2000 sq ft home. Mostly, it's 4- or 5-bars on each of my three laptops. Very happy with this aspect, as my old router struggled to stream Netflix movies to the TV using my laptops. I don't have any n-network devices to test with yet, but as I understand from others, you'll only obtain that ultra-fast, n-network speed when you're physically very close to the router.

I'm not experiencing any problems that would cause me to reboot the router. In fact, I've not done that even once since I installed it (one week ago). Seems very stable.

MY ONE BIG GRIPE: Aside from the fact that the router user interface is ugly (can't ANY router maker create great router software, too?) is that the router's log file is horrible! Let me preface this by saying that I've had intermittent, yet persistent, DSL connection issues for months now. The only way I can tell when the DSL drops in a day is by looking at the router's log file. On the Linksys WRT320N, however, the log file doesn't show you when the DSL signal drops, and when it has to reestablish a connection automatically. For most people, that is probably not a big deal (logging, in fact, is turned off by default) -- but it IS a big deal to me. It also seems to keep only a hundred or so lines of logging information. If I want to continue to diagnose my DSL issues with AT&T, I'll have to switch back to using my old Microsoft router.

CONCLUSION: Routers are one of those things that it either works great in your home network (and you take it for granted it's even there), or it doesn't. With Amazon's generous returns policy, I can recommend that you try this Linksys router in your own home, to see if it works as well for you as it does for me.

I hate to do this, as I've loved Linksys products for years and years, but the 320n router is just not reliable. I've been running it for 8 months and am tired of messing with it. The biggest frustration is that it needs to be reset every day. Otherwise, speeds bog down until they grind to a halt. I've flashed the router with the latest Linksys firmware, and have also run the third party DD-WRT firmware on it. The speed degradation happens with both firmware brands. I've had terrible luck with the wireless reception on this router as well. Signal strength degrades quickly - I get only 3/5 bars 15 feet away through 1 interior wall. The wireless connection drops frequently (though it does kick back in after 15 seconds or so - quite frustrating when streaming videos or gaming). I've tried it on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz - no improvement in signal strength or connection stability. When on 2.4, I run on a channel uninhabited by neighbors' networks, so interference isn't likely the culprit. That's something else I wish I'd realized when I bought it - while this router is dual-band, it is **NOT** simultaneous dual-band. You have to choose one band or the other. So if you happen to have one older draft-n device that doesn't support 5GHz, you're stuck on the 2.4GHz band. Newer n routers offer simultaneous use of both bands. Lastly, I have Comcast's 50Mb service. I can sustain 64Mb download speeds when connected directly to the cable modem, but when I add this router to the mix, my speeds drop to the mid-30's even through the wired connection. That's a horrible black hole of throughput. Again - same deal with both sets of firmware, so I suspect hardware issues.

All in all, this router has been a thorn in my side. It works... somewhat. Not well enough for me. I've read too many similar reports on the web to believe that I just got a lemon. It seems this model overall is a lemon. I'm happy for those that find it to work well! Wish I was one of them!