Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Linksys WRT160N: A Wireless Router to Avoid

In the 9 years since I last purchased a Linksys wireless router, I assumed that they would have worked out the issues with enabling security. I was wrong. Linksys has made the process of configuring the router even more confusing. After spending an hour trying to get my iMac, 2 iphones and an XP netbook to access the network, I broke down and called Linksys. After TWO HOURS on the phone and trying dozens of work arounds, my devices were finally able to access the secured network. However, today is a new day and I’m again faced with the same exact issue.

So I’m returning the thing, and I will never buy another Linksys item. I should have bought an Airport Extreme in the first place, but I was lazy and didn’t want to drive to a Bestbuy or Apple Store, which actually would have been faster than the nightmare I went through with Linksys support.

Update 7/29/2009: I purchased the Apple Airport Extreme at the Apple Store. After plugging it in, the green light would not go on. I call Comcast (I have a cable modem) and they reset the modem. The green light then went on. I then installed the Airport Extreme software on the Mac, and configured the security. It took five minutes, and everyone in the house now has wi-fi access. We even have access for our guests, with a different password.

My only complaint is that the USB printer functionality simply does not work. I have a Dell laser printer and when it's plugged into the USB port of the Airport Extreme, I cannot print from my Vista machine that is attached to the Airport via ethernet cable. In addition, the computers cannot access each other's iTunes libraries. But other than these two issues, the wi-fi network works and works well.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

On my home network, I can access my iTunes library from other computers, but iTunes must be active on the computer you are trying to access. It pops up in the left column and you are prompted for a password to the other computer.
Hope this helps...

Anonymous said...

I just had a horrible experience with Linksys as well.
I have the same router which only connects to one of my computers. When I called the first time they didn't solve my problem and second time they wanted charge me 30 dollars for the toll free number, because it's 20 days after warranty.

Never again shall I buy their product.

Anonymous said...

some of the routers firmware maybe krap try updating the firmware created by 3rd party's look up Linux firm ware