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Linksys WAG160N in Wireless routers

Verdict

Fast performance, slick design and excellent software, all at the right price.

Review Date: 15 Jul 2008

Price when reviewed: £54 (£62 inc VAT)

Buy it now for: £60.99

Overall Rating
6 stars out of 6

Features & Design
5 stars out of 6

Value for Money
6 stars out of 6

Performance
5 stars out of 6

PCPRO Recommended

As Linksys is owned by Cisco, the company that builds much of the infrastructure behind the internet, you'd expect a little of that know-how to trickle down to its consumer products.

But we've been a little underwhelmed by its routers in the past. Its WRVS4400N picked up average performance scores in our last routers Labs and scored four out of six overall. Its new WAG160N, however, is a different beast entirely.

Like Belkin this month, Linksys has bucked the beige box trend: this router looks more like a flying saucer than a piece of networking equipment. There's also a distinct lack of external aerials - two 2dBi gain aerials are built into the chassis - which adds to the clean look. This does mean you can't add higher gain aerials if you need to, but as a fit-and-forget product, no other router in this test can better the Linksys.

The Linksys performs well, losing out only to the Belkin in the average file transfer stakes. It achieved an overall average adjusted rate of 26.9Mb/sec, not far below the Belkin's overall rate of 30.1Mb/sec. Speeds were more consistent throughout the house, though, varying only between 34.5Mb/sec (in the kitchen) and 36.3Mb/sec (upstairs). Long-distance performance was less impressive at just 13.9Mb/sec, but that's still the third fastest here.

Where the Linksys impresses most, however, is in its software package and ease of setup. In addition to wizard-based setup on the router itself, you get an excellent disc-based wizard and Linksys' EasyLink Advisor software. Once installed, the latter provides a clear diagram of the devices on your network and how they're linked together, depicting connected clients and information associated with them. You can even click through and change settings from here - it's an excellent alternative to Vista's confusing collection of network administration tools and status views.

There are no swanky extras such as Gigabit Ethernet, dual WAN/ADSL ports or WDS bridging. The warranty isn't the most impressive either at two years RTB; and business features are on the short side - there's no WPA Enterprise or intrusion detection, for example.

But for just £54 this is a very good deal. It's half the price of the Belkin N1 Vision, doesn't sacrifice much in the way of speed or looks and is very easy to use. A worthy winner.

Author: Jonathan Bray

User comments

Yes, the Linksys has the most easiest software setup wizards I've ever come across

By nicomo on 11 Aug 2009

Yes, the Linksys has the most easiest software setup wizards I've ever come across

By nicomo on 11 Aug 2009

Looks nice, but a terrible product

If you're thinking of getting one of these I recommend you have a google about for customer reviews or visit the linksys forums to see the problems people are having with them. Personally I'm about to take mine back after numerous issues, some of which include:
Router randomly switching to wireless isolation mode, so that no machine on the network can see each other.
Overheating.
DHCP server issues, not issuing IPs.

The DHCP server built in is also about the most feature poor I've seen, you can only allocate a block of IPs for DHCP allocation, you cannot setup machine allocation on the modem, if you want static IPs you have to manually set the machines to their static IP details.

Terrible product.

By sewellj2 on 27 Oct 2009

Definitely a Lemon

Thoroughly agree with sewellj2. Terrible problems with DHCP. Avoid.

By 3feet on 18 Nov 2009

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Latest Prices for WAG160N-UK

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