Network Adapter 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. Click here for more info!

To help protect your data and privacy, the Router can encode all wireless transmissions with industrial-strength 256-bit encryption. It 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. Click here for more info!

Good

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. Click here for more info!

I ordered the Linksys WRT160N Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router with my new netbook. I had never had dealings with a wireless network or routers before and ordered the router not knowing what I was buying (someone had suggested I buy Linksys brand), or how I was going to install it. The companion DVD stepped me through the process. Although, after the first successful attempt of connecting my netbook to the network, it wouldn’t connect anymore. I didn’t know anything about “changing channels”, but a teen computer guru got me going again. A few days later, my modem had to be replaced due to age, and I became completely lost in trying to figure out why I once again couldn’t connect to my network. I finally paid Linksys support $9.95 to take over my computer remotely and fix the problem.
Best ten bucks I have spent in awhile. No more problems since. Click here for more info!

Bad

Made as cheaply as possible, often out of refurbished parts, the failure rate of any wireless router that costs less than a few hundred dollars is unreasonably high. I got lucky with my first linksys router and it lasted five years before clunking out. Many people who bought the exact same model never got it to work or had theirs die in a month or two.  Click here for more info!

I am using this with the Comcast internet srvice and it rarely works. The service works fine with out this router. I have spent hours on the phone with Cisco/Linksys support, and their solution is to unplug and replug in everything everytime I use it. Their support knows very little about installing the product securely. Terrible product, terrible support. Avoid buying this. Click here for more info!

The D-Link Xtreme N Gigabit Router (DIR-655) is a draft 2.0 802.11n compliant device that delivers up to 14x faster speeds* and 6x farther range* than 802.11g while staying backward compatible with 802.11g devices. Connect the Xtreme N Gigabit Router to a cable or DSL modem and provide high-speed Internet access to multiple computers, game consoles, and media players. Create a secure wireless network to share photos, files, music, videos, printers, and network storage. Click here for more info!

Powered by Xtreme N technology and equipped with three external antennas, this router provides superior wireless coverage for larger homes and offices, or for users running bandwidth-intensive applications. The DIR-655 also includes a 4-port 10/100/1000 Gigabit switch that connects Gigabit wired devices for enjoying lag-free network gaming and faster file transfers. Click here for more info!

Good

This router has all of the bells and whistles with the exception of dual band broadcasting. QoS, WISH, VPN, Port Forwarding, all levels of security, etc. It has Gigabit wired ports. You cannot get anything more elsewhere without doubling the price. It is all packaged within an attractive set up that provides hope that this will be your last router for quite some time. Set up is easy and straight forward. And, most importantly, you literally cannot get a faster router when within 30 feet.  Click here for more info!

Very satisfied. Smaller than expected. Fast enough to play HD-DVDs wirelessly to my notebook (Dell Inspiron E1505, 802.11BGN, 945GM, Core Duo (2) 2GHz, Vista Premium, Arcsoft Digital Theater, D-Link DNS-323 NAS). Great speed and coverage. 120 to 240 volts. Also handles HDTV perfectly via HDHomeRun device.  Click here for more info!

Setup was FAIRLY easy, but it bailed at one point and had me restart the computer and restart the setup process. But it seemed to recognize where we had left off and installed easily from there. It did not manage to log into my Netgear router to get settings, although it tried and failed. Didn’t matter as I was planning on changing settings from that setup anyway.  Click here for more info!

This router replaced an old Zoom which was cutting out and dropping the signal. The new D-Link supports four processors without any delay or down time, I could not be more pleased. Click here for more info!

This model was highly recommended by Consumer Reports and Amazon had the best pricing. The installation software that came with the router was very easy to follow and set up took less than 15 minutes. Because I have a desktop, not a laptop, I purchased the router so that I could stream Netflix movies to my television. It works wonderfully! Click here for more info!

Bad

I really wanted to keep this router but I couldn’t. My main problem was heat. After a few hours of use (just being on at all), this router was almost too hot to touch. I actually exchanged it figuring it must be a bad router but the new one was the same way. And, more importantly, when it got hot, I got intermittent lag via my wire machine on my internet traffic. Games that played flawlessly on my old Buffalo router started lagging; video started stuttering; downloads started pausing. Diagnosed it with my ISP as being on my side of their modem. When my old router was plugged in, all problems went away. D-Link tried to help me but there was a language barrier and no matter what we did with QoS and WISH, it didn’t go away. I had to return the router. Click here for more info!

I got the router working without significant problems. However, I bought it on the promise that I could plug in a hard drive to the USB and share it with computers on my network. Turns out it doesn’t expose a share — you have to install d-link’s “network usb utility” on each computer that will see the drive. I installed this, and immediately got a blue screen of death on my vista machine. Rebooting just led to more kernel failures. I couldn’t uninstall in safe mode, and there was no configuration option to turn it off. Eventually, I was able to unplug the network and reboot successfully, and after trying to uninstall from a full reboot I got…another blue screen of death. Router may work fine, but this feature is a dud. Click here for more info!