Cisco-Linksys WRT300N Wireless-N Broadband Router

So i was eager to upgrade to wireless N since all the new Dells came out with N cards. I researched around and found this router. then read all the horror stories of installing and setting up the router. well because i am a LinkSys guy and love their past routers, i asked myself, how hard can it be? It wasnt, that was about the easiest setup ever! I followed each step, did exactly what i was told to do and BAMM! router up and working! fast as heck! Now there was one little thing during installatin i did notice. at one point when the instructions said disconnect your old router, it had trouble identifying the new one. the setup wizard sent me back to the beginning and everythig worked just fine. so my advice, disconnect your old router first, put this in place. start the set up wizard. Woo hoo 130MPS! NICE!

Update 6-17-06: After having good results initially, I have been discouraged by the signal strength being inconstistent and bouncing around a lot. I would now rate this router two stars. Hopefully, future firmware updates will work out the kinks.... Hi, I bought this router on Amazon the first day that it was available. I was surprised and disappointed when I came back to write my review and other customers have been having problems. I am writing this review based on my own experience - which was nothing but good. I replaced my old router (which was a Linksys MIMO SRX) and I was up and running wired and wirelessly in about 2 minutes. I bought this router in hopes that it would improve my performance on my Media Center Extenders (MCX). The Linksys WRT300N Wireless-N Broadband Router (12X speed) made a noticeable improvement over my MIMO (which is 8X speed of normal wireless-G). My MCXs run smoother than ever and I do not any longer have the stutter or delay in videos when I fast-forward. I did not see any noticeable improvement over the 8X MIMO when it came to my laptop or on my wired workstation while running the interenet. That is probably because I was already getting all of the bandwith I needed with the 8X. If you have a standard G router, then this will dramatically improve your performance. But if you already have a MIMO router, then the Linksys WRT300N Wireless-N may not show noticeable improvement unless you are already having network congestion problems. I hope that Linksys can work out any bugs in the connection that some are experiencing because this is their best wireless router to-date.

Okay, I'm a retired computer geek with 30 years experience and I was upgrading my wireless network from 80211.b to 80211.n. Out of the box the WRT300N router was ready to go to work. I was not able to use the EasyLink advisor that came with the router because I already had a newer version installed (downloaded) but using what I already had installed all I did was upgrade the router and we were off to the races. Using 80211.b I was getting 11.0 mps throughput moving to 80211.n gave me 270.0 mps. Using the Speakeasy web site to measure my broadband speed I was getting about 2 mps download speed under the old protocol but under the new protocol? I'm currently getting about 8 mps download speed. I have not setup security as of yet. I want to do a little reading about WPA2 before I go there. We live in a rural setting right now so security isn't a real issue at the moment but I will be moving back to the Chicago area later this year so it is something I will need to address at some point. So, bottom line is: I love this router. It's not as bad as some have said to set up. I was actually impressed by the ease of setup. Buy this router, you won't be sorry. Oh yeah, the price here on Amazon was %10 (USD) less than anywhere else.

I have a unique situation where we only have access to broadband through a local wireless company as DSL is not available and cable is too expensive. Unfortunately, we need to have line of sight to the tower which is only available on our barn. The house is about 150 feet away so I needed something with a strong range. I was hesitant to get this router as it is a "Pre-N" router and not quite finalized. I tend to buy the latest technology but not before things become standardized. However, with my need for long range I didn't think I had other options. Setup went pretty smoothly. I was up and running in no time. The signal was excellent (about 80%). I'm not using this to share files on a network so the speed throughput was not important. Everything worked smoothly for a couple of days and then nothing. The router was no longer giving out DHCP IP addresses. The old 169 IP... :( Hours and hours of troubleshooting... releasing and renewing ipconfig, restarting the router, swithing many settings, trying static ip's, firmware upgrade, etc. and no luck. Then after one final reset, it assigned the pc an IP address again and I was back up and running. I hoped that the IP issue was just a fluke. Sure enough, 3 more days go by and again no IP. Hours of troubleshooting again but this time no luck. Frankly, I'm not exactly sure what the problem is. I don't think it is my PC (6 months old). I'm fairly knowledgeable about networking but this one baffled me so I gave up. I just bought a Linksys WRT54GS as I have had excellent performance from this router in the past in our offices. My only concern was the range. I then discovered I can get a high gain antenna kit that extends the range considerably. (Linksys HGA7T) By the way, the WRT54GS uses a TNC connector for the antenna so any TNC type antenna will work. Also, fortunately, the WMP300N Wireless-N PCI adapter will work with B/G/N so I can still use it with the G router. It has excellent antennas and hopefully between the high gain antennas on the router and this, I should pick up a decent signal. I can experiment with directional antennas if necessary. I wish the specs would specify whether or not the antennas could be upgraded and if so what type of connector. This info is hard to find. Anyway, I don't think the Pre-N routers are really stable yet. I've read a few magazine reviews stating that the Pre-N's actually performed worst than the Draft N specs. Oh well...

Muy bueno

Ok, a computer whizz I am not, but I can read instructions. I purchased this product, along with the PCI card and began the process. Got nervous so I purchased a Wireless For Dummies book. At the end of the day, it is the language of this equipment that can get you stumped (WPA or WEP, Access Points, firmware, network addresses, DCHP, etc). The equipment arrived and the install process began. I followed the instructions, sent in an email to get the address of the site where I could download firmware upgrades (very important to do this, but why the site wasn't listed in the instructions is a bit odd)...worked thru it all as per the previous reviews described (FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS). Lo and behold, at the moment of truth, the wireless network was up but it would not recognize the PCI card. Sent in another email to the Helpdesk, got a detailed list rehashing the instructions, did what I was told (including something that did not make sense) and the system completely failed (network was not available, etc). So, I started over, hit reset button on router and within 45 minutes the network was up and running and secure (don't forget that critical step). Overall, the install process took about 8 houts spread over 3 days. Learned a great deal, and the product has been rock solid .... router 40 ft away from computer, network runs between 270 and 200 Mbps thru several walls. If they had an instruction set for this "dummy", I would have given it 5 stars....but the learning was worth it, as was the Wireless for Dummies book. If you are setting up a network....I would get this product

I was a little worried after reading some of the reviews here, but after checking some other websites, I decided to go ahead with the WRT300N. My previous Linksys router was an 802.11b router, which was working fine until the power supply finally died (after 4 years). My house is fairly large, and with the router located at one of the house, I used to suffer from a lot of weak signal areas on the second floor and in the family room with the old router. Where I used to receive barely 10% signal strength, I now get 65-80% strength with this router. The Setup Wizard is easy to use, and I was able to insert my network SSID and switch to the new PKS encryption mode easily (much easier than having to type the WEP128bit hex-decimal key). All in all very happy, although I am comparing it to an 802.11b router not an 802.11g, but I would whole heartedly recommend this product.

had it up and running in under 10 minutes. even got the matching pci adapter. it ran beautifully. the desktop claimed it was working faster than a 10/100 ethernet jack. but then the router flaked out briefly a few hours after. i didnt make anything of the hiccup. the next day i noticed my reception slowly declining while i was sitting still on my laptop, after 10 minutes the wireless signal was simply gone. when i pulled up the site survey it showed the router humming along, full bars. too bad it wouldn't connect to it unless i unplugged the router, let it sit for a while, and plugged it back in. mind you, the latest linksys firmware was installed. the next day more of the same, in increasing frequency. id be so fed up that id start to go online to find a new router only to realize that i cant because the lousy internet was down. im not in any way new to wireless routers, and i am extremely proficient in computers. and im running right now without issue on my time tested d-link. this is not any problem with my laptop or desktop or dsl modem, this is all on linksys' shoulders. this router just plain stinks. or at least version 1 of the chipset (which is what amazon sent me, version 2 with the intel chipset might be better, but ill never know since linksys just lost my business). my 2nd linksys in 2 weeks. the last linksys im ever buying.