The new Linksys WRT160NL is an upgraded version of the popular WRT54GL, i would go so far as to say its a mean, lean, sweet-ass machine! The only thing we’ve got to ask us is why on earth doesn’t it have gigabit LAN? Putting that aside, the router has some great features such as 802.11n compliance, Storage link, and the router its actually running (sit down) a (are you seated??) GNU/Linux operatingsystem! The guts of the machine are a 400MHz processor, 32MB RAM, and 8MB flash memory, plus two external antennas for wider coverage. You can also stream media from USB drives through the USB port to UPnP devices (personally i have a 1TB disk hooked up, and its awesome).
Specifications
Okay that was the official jumbo. My setup consists of a crappy laptop(with n-capability), running Archlinux distribution (which results into a awesome laptop) and a Playstation 3.
- Model WRT160NL
- Standards 802.3, 802.3u, 802.11b, 802.11g, Draft 802.11n
- Ports Internet, Ethernet [1-4], USB, Power
- Buttons Wi-Fi Protected Setup, Reset
- LEDs LAN [1-4], W-Fi Protected Setup™, Wireless, Internet, Power
- Cabling Type CAT 5e
- # of Antennas 2
- Connector Type R-SMA
- Detachable (y/n) Yes
- RF Pwr (EIRP) in dBm
Draft 11n: HT20: Typ. 17 +/-1.5dBm @Normal Temp Range (2 Chains)
HT40: Typ. 15 +/-1.5dBm @Normal Temp Range (2 Chains)
802.11g: Typ: 15 +/- 1.5 dBm @ Normal Temp Range
802.11b: Typ: 19 +/- 1.5 dBm @ Normal Temp Range - Receive Sensitivity
802.11n HT40/MCS15 270 Mbps: -67 dBm 10% PER
802.11n HT40/MCS0 13.5 Mbps: -75 dBm 10% PER
802.11n HT20/MCS15 130 Mbps: -69 dBm 10% PER
802.11n HT20/MCS0 6.5 Mbps: -79 dBm 10% PER
802.11g 54 Mbps: -74 dBm 10% PER
802.11g 6 Mbps: -84 dBm 10% PER
802.11b 11 Mbps: -86 dBm 10% PER
802.11b 1 Mbps: -92 dBm 10% PER - Antenna Gain in dBi
802.11g: 2.4 GHz <= 1.8dBi
Draft 11n: 2.4 GHz <= 1.8 dBi - UPnP able/cert Able
- Security Features WEP, WPA, WPA2, RADIUS, SPI Firewall
- Security Key Bits Up to 128-Bit Encryption
- Supported File Systems for Storage Device FAT16, FAT32, NTFS
Environmental
- Dimensions 7.98″ x 6.27″ x 1.30″ (202.79 x 159.18 x 33.14 mm)
- Unit Weight 9.98 oz (283 g)
- Power 12V / 1.5A (switching)
- Certifications FCC, UL, cUL, IC, RSS210, CE
- Operating Temp. 0 to 40°C (32 to 104°F)
- Storage Temp. -20 to 60°C (-4 to 140°F)
- Operating Humidity 10 to 80%, Relative Humidity, Noncondensing
- Storage Humidity 5 to 90% Noncondensing
Package Contents
- Wireless-N Broadband Router with Storage Link
- Setup CD-ROM
- User Guide on CD-ROM
- Quick Installation Guide
- Ethernet Network Cable
- Power Adapter
- Antennas (2, R-SMA)
- USB Extension Cable
Minimum Requirements
- Internet Explorer 6 , Safari 3 or Firefox 2 or Higher for Browser-Based Configuration
- CD-ROM Drive
- Wired or Wireless Network Adapter with TCP/IP Protocol
- EasyLink Advisor software and Setup Wizard require Up-to-Date Windows XP, Vista, or Vista 64-Bit Edition
- Setup Wizard Also Runs under Mac OS X 10.4 or Higher
After opening the box i immediately got impressed by its sleek physique(check out the picture in the top), some might go as far as to say its beautiful (yes I’m one of them). After looking at the “Use the CD first warning” and quickly throwing that nonsense away, i connected the wires, and cast a magic spell, and what do you know, the spell must have worked since its the first time I’ve installed a new router and everything just works. To my amazement everything worked out-of-the-box, no configuration needed (if you look aside from the obvious wireless encryption and such). High five Linksys! The configuration pages on the router (192.168.1.1) are intuitive and well designed and contains all the settings you might want. It has options for Wireless security (duh), VPN, DDNS, Storage, Firewall, Application control, logging, yea well you name it.
As I don’t have the skills to measure/monitor the routers performance, I’ll just give you a extreme dumbed down version. I tried to move 1080p video file (approx 10GB) from the computer to the harddrive connected to the router, I’m using WPA2 encryption and the transfer rate were from 4MB/s to ~6MB/s, no lightning speed here but fast enough(and faster than 802.11b/g). As far as comes to signal strength, I had 97% signal strength about 5meter from the router, through a wooden wall, and a brick wall. Not bad!
Oh about the Storage link/Mediaserver , in my case it required some tinkering because the router didn’t want to format the drives for me (even though I THINK it’s capable of doing so), so I had to format the drive from my laptop. I made one big NTFS partition, and connected it back into the router. After some time (5-10sec) it popped up in the storage tab in the router configuration interface. From there on it was quite easy to setup, just create a user for the Samba share (so you can transfer files to the drive, without having to disconnect it from the router etc), and create the paths to what you want to share (in my case, root), enable UPnP and selecting rescan interval and sharepath (again because this is for the mediaserver). After that i booted up the PlayStation 3 to see if it popped up, and it did. 1080p movie streaming are no problem since my PlayStation 3 is connected to the router via cable.
Sadly as of now there aren’t any working custom dd-wrt firmwares for this bad boy, but the router is pretty new so there’s still hope. But to be hones I cant see the point of using dd-wrt, as the firmware that comes with the router is pretty decent and robust. The only thing that’s lacking is to be able to SSH into the router and install thirdparty software, such as bittorrent and such. Not a necessity, but still.
Pros:
- Fastest router I’ve tried
- Easy configuration (works out-of-box)
- Good access/restriction control
- Very good mediaserver or storage server
- Good encryption support
- Good signal strength
- Running GNU/Linux
- Pretty cheap
Cons:
- No gigabit LAN ports(WHY?!)
Conclusion: It’s all gravy!
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I have ordered one myself now! Can’t wait for it to arrive in the mail! Great review Skulbru!
Openwrt (which is usually the first to support new hw) already has experimental support, so a dd-wrt on this thing is in the nearest future.
I’m considering this router myself, and support for 3rd-part firmware is a great plus, but not a necessity as you pointed out.
Nice to see that you measured real-time performance, I haven´t really said good data on that before.
Yes, I’ve been eagerly watching OpenWRT’s custom firmware progress, I cant wait to test it. Thanks for the positive feedback
Is it just me or does the wrt160nl has 3 antennas (2 external – removable) and one internal. Even their site says it has 2 antennas. hmmm…. I remember reading about it in the manual (or somewhere like that) , also right now i have taken off the 2 external antennas, so I am using another antenna. I am writing this connected through the wireless network of the wrt160nl. My network still has coverage, although a bit weaker on the signal side.