Cisco-Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router

by Cisco

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.6 x 12 x 10 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001AZ01EO
• Item model number: WRT610N
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (395 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,682 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 10, 2008

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer

The Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router is really four devices in one box. First, there's the dual-band Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect to the network without wires. There's also a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100/1000 Switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices together at up to gigabit speeds. The Router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection.

We've also included a Storage Link that lets you easily add gigabytes of storage space onto your network using readily available USB 2.0 hard drives--or plug in a USB flash disk for a convenient way to access your portable data files. The built-in Media Server streams music, video, and photos from the attached storage device to any UPnP compatible media adapter. And you can get to your files from anywhere in the world through the Internet. The Access Point built into the Router uses a dual-band version of the very latest wireless networking technology, Wireless-N (draft 802.11n). By overlaying the signals of multiple radios for each band, Wireless-N's "Multiple In, Multiple Out" (MIMO) technology multiplies the effective data rate. Unlike ordinary wireless networking technologies that are confused by signal reflections, MIMO actually uses these reflections to increase the range and reduce "dead spots" in the wireless coverage area. The robust signals travel farther, maintaining wireless connections much farther than standard Wireless-G.

With Wireless-N, the farther away you are, the more speed advantage you get. It works great with standard Wireless-G, -A, and -B equipment, but when both ends of the wireless link are Wireless-N, the router can increase the throughput even more by using twice as much radio band, yielding speeds much faster than standard Wireless-G. But unlike other speed-enhanced technologies, Wireless-N can dynamically enable this double-speed mode for Wireless-N devices, while still connecting to other wireless devices at their respective fastest speeds. In congested areas, the "good neighbor" mode ensures that the Router checks for other wireless devices in the area before gobbling up the radio band.

Since the Router can operate in both the 2.4 and 5 gigahertz radio bands at the same time, it effectively doubles your available wireless bandwidth. For instance, you could set up your network to handle video streaming on one radio band, and use the other band for simultaneous data transfer--avoiding any interference or collisions that would degrade the video performance. To help protect your data and privacy, the Router can encode all wireless transmissions with industrial-strength 256-bit encryption. It can serve as your network's DHCP Server, has a powerful SPI firewall to protect your PCs against intruders and most known Internet attacks, and supports VPN pass-through. Configuration is a snap with the web browser-based configuration utility.

The incredible speed of Wireless-N and gigabit wired networking is ideal for media-centric applications like streaming video, gaming, and Voice over IP telephony, and gives you plenty of headroom to run multiple media-intense data streams through the network at the same time, with no degradation in performance. With the Linksys Wireless-N Storage Link Router at the center of your home or office network, you can easily add storage, share a high-speed Internet connection, files, printers and multi-player games, and run media-intensive applications at amazing speeds, without the hassle of stringing wires.

Product Description

Linksys Ultra RangePlus, Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router The Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router is really four devices in one box. First, there's the dual-band Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect to the network without wires. There's also a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100/1000 Switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices together at up to gigabit speeds. The Router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection. We've also included a Storage Link that lets you easily add gigabytes of storage space onto your network using readily available USB 2.0 hard drives -- or plug in a USB flash disk for a convenient way to access your portable data files. The built-in Media Server streams music, video, and photos from the attached storage device to any UPnP compatible media adapter. And you can get to your files from anywhere in the world through the Internet. The Access Point built into the Router uses a dual-band version of the very latest wireless networking technology, Wireless-N (draft 802.11n). By overlaying the signals of multiple radios for each band, Wireless-N's "Multiple In, Multiple Out" (MIMO) technology multiplies the effective data rate. Unlike ordinary wireless networking technologies that are confused by signal reflections, MIMO actually uses these reflections to increase the range and reduce "dead spots" in the wireless coverage area. The robust signals travel farther, maintaining wireless connections much farther than standard Wireless-G.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

263 of 270 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ****HOW TO PROPERLY SETUP A WRT610N ROUTER**** VERSION 1.0 MODEL, February 8, 2010

By 

Juan C. Cruz (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router (Personal Computers)

Pros: Great speed. Wireless is only less than 5% slower than ethernet connection. USB link port is very solid.

Cons: Not designed for people who want plug & play devices with no knowledge of networking.

I will agree with a lot of people regarding people that stated that this router is no good. Those people do not know what they're doing.
I bought a REFURBISHED version 1... and it works perfect. After reading so many bad reviews, I had the feeling that all refurbished WRT610Ns were probably from people who didn't know how to get it to work properly.


****HOW TO PROPERLY SETUP A WRT610N ROUTER****

1) Download the latest firmware to your computer from Linksys' website. Do this even before you receive your WRT610N. Reading all the comments about the firmware, I didn't even bother trying the stock firmware.

2) Upon receiving the router, plug in the power cable and plug it into the AC outlet. No CAT5 cables yet.

Once it powers up, hold the reset button for a few seconds until the power light starts to blink. Release the reset button.

3) Once it powers up completely, plug your computer to the router with a CAT5 cable. Log into the router. Upload the new firmware.

4) After the upload is complete, unplug the power cable from the router, wait a few seconds, then plug it back it. This is to be assure the load was good.

5) Wireless configurations:
#1 Rule: Do not use auto on both G and N. Set 2.5Ghz band for B-G only and to a certain channel (6 or 11 works best). And set 5Ghz band for N only.
#2 Rule: Do not use the same encryption on both G and N. Set different encryption methods (example., WPA2 for N, WEP for G)

6) Disconnect the CAT5 cable, and try connecting to the N-wireless (do not connect to G. this is for testing purposes) Once your pc connects to the N network wirelessly, log into the router wirelessly.

7) 5Ghz in its nature is a sensitive frequency. The higher the frequency, the weaker the signal gets... but also gets faster. With that said, the 5Ghz N portion needs to be tweaked to what works best.
- On your computer, open up the Wireless Network Connection Status window. Leave this window open at all time so you can see the connection speed (If you have more than one pc with wireless N, do the same thing).
- Log into the router via wireless N. Go to Wireless Advanced section. Band: do not set AUTO on the band. Start off with 40Mhz. From there, pick the first channel (44 or something like that).
- Now check the speed(s) of the pc connection(s). Try out ever 40Mhz band until you find the best speed. If no band is solid, then result to 20Mhz. Once most solid and fastest speed is achieved, save the configs.

COMPLETE!

USB Link:
The USB link worked great. But there are some pointers. I tried two harddrives. 320GB 5400RPM SATA and 320GB 7200RPM SATA. Both were clones of each other; clean NTFS formatted with nothing but videos and music. I would recommend to edit SHARE and click on SHARE ENTIRE PARTITION. It seems much more fluid with that on. Ok, after I named my drive, shared the whole partition, and clicked on access rights, I mapped the drive to each computer to test the stability and speed. I did have a problem with my music folder that had 355 sub-folders (individual albums); it would randomly see all 355 folders. It would see 210, then 340, the 290, etc. It was a strange behavior. Since both harddrives were clones of each other, I formatted one harddrive using the Linksys Router function. It formatted the drive to NTFS FAT2. First time I've used FAT2. After I copied the contents back to the drive, I tested it again. It actually finds the files much faster than before. Don't know why. I haven't had a problem with missing folders either. Everything is found instantly. So I would highly recommend to format using the Linksys Router function. I did test out between 5400rpm and 7200rpm to see which would be better for a media storage. Attached to the linksys, neither one of them showed an real differences. I tried file transfer, playing lossless music, pictures, HD movies... all had the same performance. So I would recommend to just pick a 5400rpm since it runs on lower power consumption.

Stress Test:
I ran a very thorough performance test to see if this router could handle it.
Laptop #1 - wireless N 300Mbps connection
Laptop #2 - wireless N 280Mbps connection
Laptop #3 - wireless G 54Mbps
PS3 - wireless G 54Mbps
Wii - wireless G 54Mbps
NAS Harddrive on USB Link port

Laptop #1 to download multiple 3-5GB files from the internet.
Laptop #2 was streaming an HD movie 1080p from the NAS harddrive.
Laptop #3 was streaming lossless music from the NAS harddrive (54Mbps is too slow for HD movies)
PS3 was in an online game session (Marvel vs Capcom 2) as a spectator watching everyone play
Wii was set to stream a tv channel (Japanese Wii)

Laptop #1 was downloading at 35Mbps (which is about 2Mbps slower than when directly connected to the internet modem without Linksys). So that was still downloading at flying speeds even with all the traffic. Laptop #2 had no problem streaming an HD movie. There was some bit delay if I paused the movie or FF. But playing the movie, switching languages on the fly, etc... had no problems at all. It played smoothly. Laptop #3 was playing flac lossless audio files while browsing through the folders with no problems. PS3 never lost the connection to the online game. And the Wii never froze with the tv channel. I ran this test overnight with no problems at all.

Conclusion: This router works. It's very fast, stable, and had no problems. Just make sure you configure it properly. One piece of advise regarding wireless cards, stay away from the Intel N cards. They work poorly with the Linksys N routers. I tried three different Intel N cards and two Linksys N routers. I was never able to achieve a 300Mbps connection with any configuration.

I hope you will find this review helpful.

295 of 312 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Router - If You Need It, July 14, 2008

By 

Travis McGough "wtmcgough" (Montgomery, AL USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router (Personal Computers)

Updated:
As my title states it is a very good router, but only if you need it. The simultaneous feature only means that you can have items connected to the 2.4GHz band or the 5GHz band. However, please note that this does not mean that your laptop can connect to both at the same time. (I know some people who thought that it would.) That being said, what this feature is good for is if you are surfing the web on your laptop and are also streaming some high definition content to your television. That is when this router is beneficial, or if you are sharing the router with other people this can be a good feature allowing you to keep your own band without slowing down your bandwidth. But if you are like most people who will only be using the router to mainly surf the web on your laptop, then this router is not for you. It has too many features and is not worth the price.

The only complaints I have about the router are very minimal. Before I upgraded the firmware, anytime my laptop was connect to the 5GHz band it would lose the connection. The firmware update solved that problem. The other complaint involves the software that comes along with the router. While trying to install the software on my Vista desktop computer, it took over thirty minutes just to get it installed, and it still seemed a little "buggy." To me it was easier setting it up without the software, as I did on my Mac laptop. If you are skilled with Windows, you can also setup the router without the included software using the wizard found built into Vista and Win 7.

One downside to this router that I have noticed is that it does not have as good of a range as my other Netgear 2.4GHz wireless-N router. My laptop does not pull as strong of a signal from it even being just a few feet away, as it does on my other. My distance is also shortened quite considerably. However, my primary uses are using it within adjacent rooms, so that it not as big of a concern. It just does not get the same range outdoors as my other.

So if you are an advanced computer user who has a fully networked home then this is the router for you, or if you are somewhere with a lot of other signals causing interference such as a dorm, office, or apartment then this router can be good as you have the option to swap over to the 5GHz band without having to reset the router. *The 5GHz band has less interference so you get a cleaner signal but it cannot travel as far.

But, all-in-all, if your needs are simpler, then don't waste the extra money for features you don't need.

After a year of using the product:
Well I have had the product for close to a year now, and it works like a charm. I use it in my college dorm and find it to be perfect as I can use the 5GHz band and not have a lot of interference to my signal. The 5GHz band also seems to stream data slightly faster, which is beneficial when watching YouTube videos or an Amazon video-on-demand movie. Again, if you need the product - buy it - else look for something more reasonably priced. I might suggest the Netgear WNR834B. That is the router I have at home and it works wonderfully - also has a really nice range, even outdoors.

Also, when I last wrote this article I forgot to mention that one nice feature found on this router is the gigabit ethernet connections. This is wonderful for when transferring content from a desktop computer to a laptop or for a home media server. It has a much higher transfer rate than routers using the megabit connections. Please note that last time I had updated this article, I had said that the speed was not close to a "1 gigabyte per second" transfer rate. However, that was incorrect. The router has gigaBIT connections not gigaBYTE ones, which is a huge difference. My thanks go to the reviewer who pointed that out for me in the reply section.

116 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to set up, make sure to upgrade firmware, July 14, 2008

By 

Simcha - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router (Personal Computers)

I replaced an existing wired router/wireless access point combination with the WRT610N. The replacement was painless, taking about a half hour, including retyping all of my DHCP reservation and port forwarding information.

The only glitch was that running the Linksys EasyLink Advisor (a tool that among other things, shows you everything connected to your router) reset the router. This is fixed in the latest firmware (level 17, my router shipped with 16).

Speeds have been good. I only have one machine that is connected with Draft-N, and it has been able to connect about 4-5 times faster than my Wireless-G connections on the 5Mhz band. My Wireless-G connections have had consistently better quality than through my old WEP54G Access Point.