Linksys WRT600N Review:

The Linksys WRT600N 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 Linksys WRT600N’s 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 Linksys WRT600N 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 Linksys WRT600N 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 transfers — avoiding any interference or collisions that would degrade the video performance.

To help protect your data and privacy, the Linksys WRT600N Router can encode all wireless transmissions with industrial-strength 256-bit encryption. Linksys WRT600N 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.

Linksys WRT600N Features

• Internet-sharing Router and 4-port Gigabit Switch, with a built-in, dual-band, speed and range enhanced Wireless Access Point
• Two simultaneous, separate, radio bands double your available bandwidth
• MIMO technology uses multiple radios per band to create robust signals for maximum range and speed, with reduced dead spots
• Connect a hard drive or flash-based USB storage device to allow access to your music, video, or data files from within your network, or through the Internet
• Advanced wireless security and SPI firewall for protection from Internet attacks

Linksys WRT600N User Review:

I have had several wireless routers over the years, both Netgear and Linksys.

I developed problems with my internet connection. All PCs in my house would sometimes get a very slow connection. The problem had to be the modem or the router. I had my eye on the new “pre-N” routers for quite a while, and decided this was as good an excuse as any to buy a new router. (It turns out the problem was with my Modem, but that’s another story.) I especially liked the Linksys WRT600N because it is the first unit to offer two independent radios — one for 2.4 GHz and another one for 5 GHz.

The first thing I did was plug in the router and try configuring it with the Easy-Start CD. Not surprisingly, this did not work. The Easy-Start CD is a good idea, but if anything goes wrong, it gives very little indication of where things went wrong and what the problem might be.

I called Linksys tech support, and had a remarkably good experience. The technician spoke excellent English and was very knowledgeable. He didn’t even try to play with the Easy-Start program, but immediately jumped into manual configuration. It didn’t take long to find that I picked up a bad Ethernet cable. After that, configuration went quickly. To his credit, the technician recommended I configure WPA security. I didn’t do it because I am in a semi-rural area. The technician told me that the SSID for the 5GHz and 2.4 GHz radios had to be the same. I later found out this is not true. It makes a difference because it’s much easier to tell which frequency your PC is using if the SSIDs are different.

About a month later, I decided to use the USB disk drive option. I had a 200GB USB disk which I use for backup. I map it through file explorer and copy the files I want to back up. I wanted to be able to do this with any of the three laptop PCs in the house. I was able to connect the disk drive without any technical support. The trick is to work backwards through the configuration. Go to Storage / Administration FIRST. Configure the users. Then configure the groups. Then you can go to Storage / Disk and create your share folder. Then you will be able to map the share folder in Windows file explorer.

A couple of days after configuring the disk, I lost the disk connection and could not map my share folder. This time I used “chat” Tech Support. Again, the technician was knowledgeable. She successfully got my share folder mapped. She also suggested I use a different SSID for the two radios, which makes controlling the frequency the PC uses to connect to the router much easier.

The disk connection is still far from perfect. The problem seems to be with Windows. If I suspend my computer, then turn it back on; Windows tries to connect to the disk drive before the wireless network is up. It declares the drive not available. After that, things are ugly. I finally resolved the problem by *not* clicking “re-connect at log on”. When I want to back up some files, I connect the drive, back up, and disconnect. It’s hardly an ideal solution, but it works very reliably.

Like many Linksys products, the Linksys WRT600N runs a little warm. But I keep it out in the open. Heat has not been a problem.

I use the 2.4 GHz radio and a “G” connection with an older Dell and an older Sony laptop, both running Windows XP, SP2. I also have a 2.4 GHz Linksys G Wireless Print Server. I use the 5 GHz radio with an “N” connection with Dell XPS M1330; which dual-boots to Vista and XP. After several months of use, the router works very well with all.

By Dennis

Buy Linksys WRT600N Dual-Band Wireless-N Router