Cisco-Linksys WRT350N Wireless-N Gigabit Router with Storage Link by Linksys
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Digital camera reviews of Cisco-Linksys WRT350N Wireless-N Gigabit Router with Storage Link
Digital camera Review: Storage Link is not ready for prime time.
Summary: 3 Stars
This router has a nice setup process. It appears to have better range, especially from one floor of my home to the next. And I'm seeing excellent transfer rates across gigabyte NICs that are wired directly to the router.
But it hardly makes up for two big issues: First, the Storage Link is not ready from prime time. Yes, there are some users that understand routers, group policies, and all of the other settings required to make this thing work. Mapping a Network drive is not beyond all users. Linksys does a lousy job describing how to setup and use this feature.
Yes, I read the manual. Yes, I surfed several forums for tips. And, yes, I did finally get it to connect. But the hassle factor is really high. And, for some reason the process to reconnect to the mapped drive is problematic. Eventually I unplugged the USB drive and returned it to its' base computer. I wanted a single repository of music and images, but Storage Link does not appear to be the solution.
A second issue is the preference for "wireless" connections. Where my wireless devices connected without a problem, I am still working to configure wired devices and my ethernet/network enabled printer. The setup wizard that makes everything seem so smooth and easy - also hides the ability to manually intervene. Renaming workgroups, users and computers is not my idea of a fun time.
I gave this router a 3-star rating based on the basic speed improvements (within my LAN) and simple wireless setup. You can find other products, even from Linksys, for $50-$60 less that will give you most of the same functionality, speed and range. If they would let someone dedicate a few hours to improve the User Manual this product could be a real winner.
Digital camera Review: Substandard
Summary: 2 Stars
I've been buying Linksys products for years without much disappointment, but I have to give this device a 40% rating. The ethernet and wireless features were fine, although I was not getting the kind of range on the 802.11 that I was hoping for (even though I have not switch my perephials over to N, I was under the impression that the G service would be somewhat improved). Internally, I never had a problem connecting between wired devices, but that should be a no-brainer. The feature that interested me on this router was the USB storage link features, which are pretty much useless. This is not a 'Media Server' in any sense of the word, and the data storage is rudimentary and problematic.
I connected a LaCie 500GB USB drive to it, and was able to get it to tell me that it was working properly, but never successfully wrote any data to the drive. Also, whenever I created a share on the external drive, my internet link failed and required a factory default restart. Every time. I tried every version of Linksys firmware to address this, and they all failed. I eventually flashed a 3rd party firmware to it, which seems to have bricked it for good. Good riddance, I say. I'm tossing this thing in the garbage and going with another brand. With hindsight, I wish I had paid more attention to the useful reviews on Amazon, rather than relying on my past experiences alone.
Digital camera Review: Terrible software and poor performance
Summary: 1 Stars
I am a tech guy, and this is a terrible unit and mine died after one week. Hey Linksys, or Cisco if you wish, change your software and make it more user friendly without having to go to the IP which most ppl know nothing aboutDigital camera Review: Up and running
Summary: 5 Stars
Product is functioning wonderfully! It's what we needed for our system and was not available at local stores! Thanks Amazon!Digital camera Review: Ver 1.0 of this router still has major firmware problems.
Summary: 2 Stars
This review is for the version 1.0 router with Broadcom chipset. Linksys has a habit of selling the same hardware with completely different internals, later versions of this router have a Marvell chip set and users with this chip set may have a different experience.
I bought this router in the hopes that I could replace a 12 year old OpenBSD/DEC Alpha box that had been doing my routing reliably for a number of years. I wanted something that would use less power, provide fast wireless, QOS and reliable routing. I purchased this router even after reading the poor reviews. I hoped the latest firmware would have most of the problems fixed. This was not the case. The router was fast when it was working, but it required daily reboots, or more than daily if it was under high load.
I have since re-flashed the router with DD-WRT v24 RC3 3rd party firmware (only works on ver1 of this router) and have not had to reboot the router since. I really cannot figure out how the single guy that maintains DD-WRT can create a more reliable firmware than Linksys/Cisco. I am glad the hardware works, and that I can use the router with DD-WRT... but I am very disappointed with the product out of the box from Linksys.