Cisco-Linksys WRT160N Wireless-N Broadband Router Review. The Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router is really three devices in one box. First, there s the Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect to the network without wires. There s 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....
"Beautiful looking and easiest set-up ever!" 2008-03-12
By Martin (Tucson, AZ)
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.
"Fixed all my problems" 2008-03-05
By M. Delaney (Woodbridge, VA USA)
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.
"Linksys WRT160N Ultra - 2010 UPDATE" 2008-03-12
By M. Stokman (North CA)
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.
"Fast and easy install !!" 2008-03-03
By pat (Salem, OR USA)
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.
"Great product, truly long range" 2008-08-28
By L. Lee (Bay Area, CA)
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.
By Martin (Tucson, AZ)
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.
By M. Delaney (Woodbridge, VA USA)
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.
By M. Stokman (North CA)
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.
By pat (Salem, OR USA)
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.
By L. Lee (Bay Area, CA)
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.
