Linksys by Cisco WRT160NL Wireless-N Broadband Router with Storage Link
Monday, 8th March 2010
- Internet-sharing Router and 4-port Switch, with a built in speed and range enhanced Wireless Access Point
- Great for media-intensive applications like streaming video or music, and gaming
- MIMO technology uses multiple radios to create a robust signal that travels farther and helps reduce dead spots
- Storage Link lets you connect a hard drive or flash-based USB storage device to allow access to your music, video, or data files from anywhere within your network
Product Description
The Wireless-N Broadband Router with Storage Link is really four 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. The Storage Link feature lets you connect a hard drive or flash-based USB storage device directly to your network to easily add gigabytes of storage. Access your music, video, or d… More >>
Linksys by Cisco WRT160NL Wireless-N Broadband Router with Storage Link
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5 Comments
A Paul
Monday, 8th March 2010 at 13:53
It did not recognize my internet connection, finally i had to configure manually. Wireless worked okay but the speed was low[Speed test from dslreports]. the ethrnet port was also dead
Rating: 1 / 5
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S. Jamieson
Monday, 8th March 2010 at 15:03
The only thing is that I would have liked gigabit ports. I hope that openwrt ports everything over, but I know not all of the drivers are available for switching. linksys should really release an open source router, instead of a router with linux already on it, meaning they only have to provide the source for the items that they use that is already in linux. It’s annoying.
Rating: 4 / 5
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Alfa B.
Monday, 8th March 2010 at 18:01
Very disappointing. The http interface drops every 10 minutes and the storage every 5, making it useless. Don’t even think about storing music or movies on the connected HDD. To reactivate, a reboot is required. I really hope there will be a firmware update soon.
Rating: 1 / 5
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Gerald F. Nursement
Monday, 8th March 2010 at 20:05
After spending a long time with tech support we determined that the unit was faulty. The wireless feature was unable to log into an IP. I returned it with no trouble but went with another brand instead.
Rating: 1 / 5
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W.N.R.
Monday, 8th March 2010 at 20:54
I have a direct, full-time cable Internet connection, I have owned many Linksys wired and wireless products and was looking for an draft-N wireless router with the ability to attach USB storage. Well… the features are all there and they work – as long as you have a connection to the wireless router. Keeping any of my three wireless laptops and two wireless IP cameras (all 802.11g devices) associated with the wireless router literally became an hourly task for my family. After spending multiple hours with my ISP isolating where the breakdown was occurring (at the WRT160NL), I purchased the business class Cisco/Linksys RVS4000 (wired router) and WAP4400N (wireless access point) devices as replacements. And although they came in much higher ($380 combined) than the $99 I paid online for my WRT160NL, my network speed, reliability, and QOS have all improved. If I didn’t have so many association reliability problems with the WRT160NL (would constantly disassociate my wireless clients) I could almost live with the WRT160NL’s lower throughput speed and poor QOS performance. The poor QOS performance was evidenced by the WRT160NL’s inability to adequately prioritize my VOIP (Vonage) traffic over my browsing and IP camera traffic resulting in choppy and broken VOIP conversations.
One of the features present in the RVS4000 is IDS/IPS (intrusion detection/intrusion protection service) – which is completely absent in the WRT160NL – has led me to believe that the lack of IPS/IDS features in the WRT160NL makes it susceptible to DOS/DDOS (denial of service/distributed denial of service) attacks from the Internet (all Chinese IP’s btw). Some experimentation with settings and a review of several days of IDS/IPS logs leads me to believe that DOS/DDOS attacks on a wireless router (through the cable modem) can cause the forced disassociation of wireless clients with the WRT160NL. When my RVS4000 (gigabit router) IPS/IDS is active, it prevents my WAP4400N (wireless access point) from dropping my wireless clients. These forced disassociations appear to be correlated in time to the Internet side DOS/DDOS attacks. In addition, IMO the QOS capabilities in the WRT160NL do not work as advertised or at best are inadequate given the router’s inability to deal with DOS/DDOS attacks while maintaining reasonable (>1 hour before dropping) wireless connectivity of my 5 802.11g devices.
So in summary, I would only recommend the WRT160NL for home or business users IF it is being used behind (downstream from) a robust IDS/IPS firewall – my WRT160NL, cable modem, and client security software was obviously not up to the task alone. Without a way to shield the WRT160NL from the ever-present DOS/DDOS attacks, not only is your network vulnerable to attack and exploitation (a separate problem not specifically related to the WRT160NL) but your wireless LAN reliability and performance will (likely) greatly suffer.
Rating: 2 / 5
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