Wireless Router Hardware Great; Install Software Ain't
345938
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Linksys-WRT310N-Wireless-N-Gigabit-Router/dp/B000Z3XXR4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Linksys WRT310N Wireless-N Gigabit Router</a>
The hardware is all it is advertised to be and more.  But the install software isn't there yet.  Here's a brief summary of my experience.

My network management computer is a Dell laptop with a PC Wireless Adapter from Linksys.  I have a cable modem from Linksys.  Inserted the installation DVD and ran the setup application.  It asks me to connect the WRT160N uplink port to the Cable modem with a supplied cable.  Done.  It asks me to connect the Ethernet port on my computer to the number 1 port on the router.  Ooops!  There's no Ethernet port on my laptop.  And no provision for this situation in the installer app or the User's Guide.  Have been experiencing the long tech support queue that seems to plague everyone now and again.  We're working on a solution, which may be to use the web admin interface to configure the router.  If that works then why not use that interface than an installer app?  Just a suggestion to make things as easy as possible for customers.
2296229
Works great at a distance from router. External wireless didn't do the job.
1567482
I've used Linksys for years - this is my first Cisco/Linksys. For whatever reason my signal was unstable using WPA2. It was affecting not only my wireless devices, but also my desktop cabled from router. Had to change back to WEP - all is well. Really understanding Wifi and routers is an art that not many can pull off. LOL
4401064
Before I purchased the D-Link wireless router I was using one from NetGear. The NetGear router just didn't seem to have enough oomph! to get the job done, so I began online research to determine which replacement router I should consider purchasing. Universally, the D-Link seemed to be the most recommended.

While it's far from perfect, it does a really fine job of keeping my home network up and running. The network still goes down occasionally, but nine times out of ten the problem seems to stem from my ISP rather than from the D-Link Router.

The Network Magic software that is offered as a free 30-day trial with D-Link is the "icing on the cake," too. This software is easy to use, quite intuitive and can get the network back up and running in short order. I did read several reviews that pointed out that Network Magic doesn't do anything to restart a network that one couldn't do oneself, but the question I had is, why would anyone want to do all that "fiddling" if you could get software to do it for you?

I am VERY SATISFIED with both D-Link and Network Magic.

Michael Garee
3340185
What a royal pain to set up, but once its set up, it works well. I suppose the included software and features would make tons more sense if I, say, ran a chain of hotels or businesses that provided wifi, but I don't, so it just seems a bit much. The experience setting this up was quite similar to setting up my first Ubiquiti EdgeRouter, "ooh, nice, this feature and this feature and this feature" turns into "hey.....HEY.....ARGH I JUST WANT YOU TO DO XYZ" and "now I'm locked out...ugh...time to reset it". My initial hope was to put this on a routed port on my router, but no combination of settings I tried would work. I could always get the Unifi controller software to communicate with it, but it would just refuse to "adopt" when I configured it as such. I resorted to just adding its port to the switch0 and leaving it. Wifi speeds are good and the included "mapping" software is awesome. I added the AP on the Map (Google Maps overlay) and within a few minutes, my phone indicated "Connected via Wifi Assistant" indicating the AP had been added to Google's database. The AP can show who is connected and via what bands/network types and it even provides a utility to perform an RF scan to find the best open channels and identify sources of interference per channel. UBNT discover on my router does not find this AP but does find other things on my network, so no idea why thats the case. Also, the touted feature of "setting up login portals and generated, expiring passwords does indeed need as the documentation says, a machine running 24x7 with the Unifi Controller software active. If you fail to meet that requirement and have any of the "guest features" turned on, the AP will simply shut off the radios. So, say you set it up, get your main network going and get your Guest network up and get ready to head to bed for the night by sleeping your PC. Your wifi will die quicker than your machine can shut off. AP provides no web UI and the CLI you can SSH into is quite foreign (seems to be straight Linux/Unix as there are no friendly wrapper commands like in Vyatta or other OTT routing "OSes").
119723
The unit was received new in good condition. I installed it on a Windows XP SP3 installation, connected to a Netgear 54g Wireless 4 port router. Since the router had a different IP address and a different gateway setting than a Linksys router, I chose the manual setup option, entered my network settings, including WEP security key, and had it up and running in 10 minutes. I did later download and install the version 2.18 firmware update and version 1.3 setup utility from the Linksys website. This fixed a problem with switching between the computer speakers and the speakers on the wireless system, as well as adding Vista compatibility.  The great strength of this design is that I have over 500 gigabytes of MP3, FLAC, APE, WMA, and OGG music files and many music CD's. I also like to listen to internet radio stations , and I can listen to anything that I can access on my computer through my home stereo system in a different room wirelessly. No problem with DRM rights or only playing a few selected formats.
346536
I have two of these routers and they both work great!  Didn't bother with the software on the CD and just used my web browser to configure port forwarding and DHCP.  Firmware = 1.44.3.  Both routers are plugged into an 8 port switch with a Toshiba Cable Modem plugged into the uplink port on the switch.  Each router has it's own public static IP address.  Not a single problem with them in the last year or so that I've had them.
1493806
I got this router and immediately installed Tomato firmware from Shibby (http://tomato.groov.pl/?page_id=164) and some extra dB antennas (http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DMJI9TA/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_59). This router performs admirably in both speed and range though I do only have it running in AP mode (no DHCP, no routing, etc to bog down the CPU).
2773199
I haven't had it in operation long so can't comment on that but I agree with the guy who commented that the install was quick and easy if you know what you're doing!  Faffing around with a network manager (what the heck is a network manager?) and all the rest is pretty much greek to me!  Needs an "installation for non-techies" set of instructions!
4098008
I am remodeling and needed wireless flexibility for my desktop as it moved from room to room.  I was also going to upgrade my Linksys WRT54G router in hopes of better wireless performance but no need to now.
3725031
Installation was easy on HP laptop running XP (Home), got immediate detection of signal from my Apple Airport Base Station (I have been successfully running Airport network with several machines in my house for more than a year).  Although the Linksys Wireless-G was clearly talking to the Airport, it wasn't getting a correct IP or DNS via DHCP.  I was saved by another poster here who wrote: "Getting the 128 bit WEP configuration to work required asking a consultant for help. Apparently, you must enter the long security code versus the network access password. This obscure nuance was not obviously noted in the manual or on line documentation."  Reset the WEP password on the Airport, specified that in a control panel on the laptop and everything worked.  Compared to installing a wireless card on a Mac, this was ridiculously difficult.  But it now works.  ***** for performance, great range and * for setup, which averages to *** rating overall.
4047313
The hardware is nice, the software is where these lack.

The Unifi Controller must be actively running somewhere on the network for connecting devices to inherit the policy of the group they're assigned, if the controller isn't running the connecting device will inherit the connected SSID default policies settings.

Additional SSID's are not connectable after a switch reboot. The AP must be rebooted or the Unifi Controller software must be started.

The software only offers limited configuration with regard to schedules and other nitpicky things.
3239463
Replaced a Linksys WRT350N with this unit, and so far no regrets...

Setup was fairly simple, although I'm not a fan of the Cisco/Linksys setup program that hides many of the advanced setup options from you. Would have been nice if they read the existing configuration off my Linksys device, and then carried all of the settings forward to the new one, but alas, they didn't think of that.

Instead, I plugged the router into my PC directly (having no other network connections present) and let the setup program configure all the defaults. Once that was done, I went into advanced setup by pointing my browser to the WRT610N, and manually changed what I wanted. Sounds involved, but it's really no different than anything else out there.

I was happy to see that the router worked flawlessly with the DDNS service from DynDNS.

The wired gigabit connection seems a bit faster than my previous router. The network speed test site I use consistently reports 8-10% higher speeds on the new configuration, and local file transfers between two computers on the router also seems about 10% faster.

On the wireless side, I'm getting a consistent 93 megabits on my 802.11N clients, up from 80 megabits on the WRT350N. Range of my 802.11N devices also seems somewhat better.

The 802.11N implementation seems to work with all of the devices I have, including a few Apple computers. Earlier 802.11N products have struggled with the Macs, but this one seems fine.

I use the storage link function with an inexpensive USB hard drive to host an FTP site on the Internet. Although poorly documented, there's a built-in FTP server in the WRT610N, and if you point the FTP port to the router, you get an instant FTP site that references whatever content you expose through the USB port. In conjunction with the DDNS service I use, this gives me a quick and simple way to access some of my data across the Internet.

One missing feature I'd love to see is the ability to run dual networks in parallel (that is, two SSIDs). Most of my computers are WPA2 capable, but I have a few older devices (printers) that only work on open networks. At the moment, this means I need two wireless access points - one for the 802.11N devices with WPA2 and one for the older devices. Would be nice if Cisco could give me a way to service both in one package.

The Cisco/Linksys "EasyLink Advisor" network management software is cute, but unfortunately very limited. If you're like me and have multiple networks and a broad mix of wired and wireless devices, you can do better.
125659
I wish I bought the one with the external antenna, which is why I give this only 4 stars. Still, this WiFi is VERY stable, and I was able to easily upgrade the software onboard. It can run off normal OpenWRT (it comes with a modified version from the OEM), and it's easy to upgrade it to vanilla. Everything works fine out of the box though - I just figured I'd install the OS clean to make sure I wasn't introducing any security hazards. It's completely usable with the OEM software, still has the package manager and the OpenWRT OS.
4576918
Feature-wise and coverage-wise, you can't beat this router. It's a great deal for a dual-band high-performance home router with included cloud storage and NAS support, parental controls integrated with OpenDNS, and the ability to create public guest networks on both WiFi bands.

Another reviewer mentioned troubles with the v1.0.0.40 firmware causing the 2.4 GHz WiFi to fail intermittently. I wish I had read this review before I automatically upgraded my firmware as recommended by the router's web UI on my first WNDR3800. After four support calls and endless hours troubleshooting intermittent WiFi outages on the 2.4 GHz band I ended up exchanging the router for another with Amazon (this transaction was absolutely painless, btw). Upon receiving the replacement router, the new router again prompted me to update the firmware just after registration. This time, rather than blindly following this prompt, I decided to google "wndr3800 v1.0.0.40 bug" to see if there were any negative reviews. One of the first search results was a Netgear support thread with several folks complaining about this firmware release, apparently some interoperability issue with Android phones and sleep mode. Anyway, long story short, the users recommended downgrading to v1.0.0.38 if you experience issues. Rather than upgrade to 1.0.0.40, I downloaded 1.0.0.38 from their support site and updated the router using the firmware upload/upgrade functionality of the built-in web UI. Since then it has been working like a champ.
1603909
I'm using this as an additional access point (AP mode), and the coverage is phenomenal. The latest update does not allow flashing alternate firmware, so beware those that want DD-WRT, Asus Marlin, or Tomato. I had hoped to install custom firmware and use this as my router, but the lack of custom updates leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth. I'll be replacing my current router with one advertised to support open source firmware. That said, this router works wonderfully, and has great coverage.
2597777
I bought this product to use as a Wireless Access Point (that is, to establish wireless connectivity to a wired ethernet network). I could never make it work using Linksys' directions or their tech support help.

However, I updated the Linksys operating system with dd-WRT's software and now I love this device.

You can find very good instructions for replacing the Linksys operating system with dd-wrt's product, at this web site:

[...]

The dd-wrt product is free. (However, they do as for a small donation if you like their products.) Trust me: don't dink around trying to make Linksys' operating system work; instead, replace that product and enjoy a wireless router that operates flawlessly.