Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router Reviewed

[aleicgrant]

I have had my 610n for awhile and so far things are ok. I have most of the house wired with cat6 so bandwith isnt an issue. I have two laptops with a wifi 5300 card and I get fairly good speeds.

I really no longer have any need for the 2.4ghz band so should I just shut those radios off?

what are the optimal settings for the 5.0ghz band

thanks !!!

 

[thiggins]

Sure you can shut off the 2.4 GHz radio if you don't need it.
The defaults should be fine for the 5 GHz radio.

 

[Unregistered]

I have owned and been operating these Linksys routers for a few weeks continuously now as AP's in my home network. To keep it brief here, I have noticed that these Linksys routers do not interoperate 100% well with my laptops that use Intel 4965agn and 5300agn wireless cards....

This is EXACTLY the behavior I've been noticing with my laptop which uses the 5300 WLAN interface. Just thought I'd confirm that tjis is not a singular experience.

 

[jdabbs]

Looks like the WRT610N is getting a refresh:
WRT610Nv2.

Haven't seen an OET filing yet so internals aren't public. Fixing the overheating issue and/or adopting the 400N's radios would make the 610N more appealing.

 

[jalyst]

Great...
So i finally get a 610n and now this revision is on it's way...
Always the way...

 

[claykin]

Looks like the WRT610N is getting a refresh:
WRT610Nv2.

Haven't seen an OET filing yet so internals aren't public. Fixing the overheating issue and/or adopting the 400N's radios would make the 610N more appealing.

Or you can just opt for the Dlink DIR-825 Rev B1. Uses the latest Atheros AR9002AP-4XHG configuration with a Ubicom CPU. Similar to the WRT400 except that the Dlink uses the Ubicom CPU (instead of Atheros) and that the Dlink has removable antennas and a Gigabit switch. I purchased a B1 the other day and so far it works great (provided that you upgrade the firmware to V2.02). The 2.4Gz range seems to be excellent and the 5Ghz about equal to other solutions I've tried.

 

[jalyst]

Or you can just opt for the Dlink DIR-825 Rev B1. Uses the latest Atheros AR9002AP-4XHG configuration with a Ubicom CPU. Similar to the WRT400 except that the Dlink uses the Ubicom CPU (instead of Atheros) and that the Dlink has removable antennas and a Gigabit switch. I purchased a B1 the other day and so far it works great (provided that you upgrade the firmware to V2.02). The 2.4Gz range seems to be excellent and the 5Ghz about equal to other solutions I've tried.

Not dual-radio/dual-band though is it? And proprietary firmware too no?
So the radio's the same as the 400n (think it has support in GNU/Linux land) just the CPU/switch controller is Ubicom?
I wonder if Ubicom is still entirely closed...

 

[claykin]

Not dual-radio/dual-band though is it? And proprietary firmware too no?
So the radio's the same as the 400n (think it has support in GNU/Linux land) just the CPU/switch controller is Ubicom?
I wonder if Ubicom is still entirely closed...

Yes the DIR-825 is dual radio/dual band (simultaneous). Uses the Atheros 9220/9223 radio combo (just like the WRT400).

I actually read in a few forums (including Dlink's) that the B1 revision no longer uses Ubicom so it may support open source firmware. Not sure if thats true. At the same time Ubicom recently announced Linux BSP support for their CPU's. So, maybe open source firmware will show up one day even for the Ubicom CPU based routers...

As far as I know there is no 3rd party firmware support for the WRT400. And, DD-WRT claims to have firmware coming for the WRT610, but it has not materialized as of yet.

 

[jalyst]

Yes the DIR-825 is dual radio/dual band (simultaneous). Uses the Atheros 9220/9223 radio combo (just like the WRT400).

I actually read in a few forums (including Dlink's) that the B1 revision no longer uses Ubicom so it may support open source firmware. Not sure if thats true. At the same time Ubicom recently announced Linux BSP support for their CPU's. So, maybe open source firmware will show up one day even for the Ubicom CPU based routers...

As far as I know there is no 3rd party firmware support for the WRT400. And, DD-WRT claims to have firmware coming for the WRT610, but it has not materialized as of yet.

What's all this 2t2r, 3t3r talk, has someone got a definition somewhere?
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=1438
Interesting thread, still reading...

Found this but I suspect it's someone talking crap
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22561109-
But this is lends hope....
https://dev.openwrt.org/wiki/WantedHardware

610n is kinda supported by dd-wrt, it's mostly working but unstable with 2 radios being used at load.

 

[claykin]

What's all this 2t2r, 3t3r talk, has someone got a definition somewhere?
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=1438
Interesting thread, still reading...

Found this but I suspect it's someone talking crap
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22561109-
But this is lends hope....
https://dev.openwrt.org/wiki/WantedHardware

610n is kinda supported by dd-wrt, it's mostly working but unstable with 2 radios being used at load.

This whitepaper is from 2006, but should be relevant today for the most part.
http://www.atheros.com/pt/whitepapers/atheros_Benefits_Real_3x3_whitepaper.pdf

I believe that many wifi routers with 3 antennas are actually 2t3r units (2 x transmit, 3 x receive). I'm not sure how 2x2 or 3x3 impacts performance in modern chipsets such as the Atheros 9002 series.

When Tim tested the WRT400 he got excellent results and that is a 2t2r design. Hopefully Tim will retest the DIR-825 B1 so we can see how Atheros third gen XSPAN design works.

Yes, the DIR-825 B1 may be using the Atheros 7161 WNPU in place of the Ubicom. The FCC pics for the B1 sure look very close to the Atheros reference design. **UPDATE** B1 revision uses the AR7161 WNPU and the Linux source can be downloaded from ftp.dlink.de.

I am aware that there is a alpha/beta version of DDWRT for the WRT610N. That said, from reading the forums postings this version seems to have plenty of issues and is not ready for real world deployment.

It would be interesting for someone to review the DIR-825 B1 source code to see if its real and whether there is a possibility to support open source firmware.

 

[thiggins]

All current draft 11n consumer routers are at most two-stream, meaning they only use two transmit streams, even if they have a third transmit channel.

Each transmit stream provides a maximum bit rate of 150 Mbps. So a two stream router maxes out at 300 Mbps. The upcoming three-stream routers will have maximum connect rates of 450 Mbps. Four streams are possible for 600 Mbps, but don't hold your breath for them.

 

[jalyst]

All current draft 11n consumer routers are at most two-stream, meaning they only use two transmit streams, even if they have a third transmit channel.

Each transmit stream provides a maximum bit rate of 150 Mbps. So a two stream router maxes out at 300 Mbps. The upcoming three-stream routers will have maximum connect rates of 450 Mbps. Four streams are possible for 600 Mbps, but don't hold your breath for them.

Well if each stream is 150Mbps, then I guess it's entirely understandable why all current 11n consumer routers are "at most" 2 stream.
With that sort of bandwidth per 'stream', I'd imagine they'd be pushing it to remain constant.

So it'd be silly to rush ahead with 'yet more' streams, at least in the short-term.
Lame how OEM's claim to have more streams and hence 'insinuate' their product is potentially better...

 

[thiggins]

With that sort of bandwidth per 'stream', I'd imagine they'd be pushing it to remain constant.

One of the "dirty little secrets" of draft 11n is that its throughput variation is much higher than 802.11g. I have been told by one chip manufacturer that the issue is high bit error rate, which can be corrected with techniques that sacrifice speed for steadier throughput.

But I was also told that manufacturers are unwilling to reduce speed, since that's what they think is the primary criteria that consumers use to buy wireless products.

Lame how OEM's claim to have more streams and hence 'insinuate' their product is potentially better...

The bigger-is-better game has been going on in Wi-Fi since the beginning. It has gotten some manufacturers into trouble (and lawsuits). But while the advertising techniques / claims may have changed, the game goes on...

 

[jalyst]

One of the "dirty little secrets" of draft 11n is that its throughput variation is much higher than 802.11g. I have been told by one chip manufacturer that the issue is high bit error rate, which can be corrected with techniques that sacrifice speed for steadier throughput.

But I was also told that manufacturers are unwilling to reduce speed, since that's what they think is the primary criteria that consumers use to buy wireless products.

Tis silly, they should just start from something that is far more realistic from the outset and work on improving speed form there. Something like 100Mbps is more reasonable IMO....

 

[janne]

Looks like the WRT610N is getting a refresh:
WRT610Nv2.

Hmm... and just when I was about to make an order and the decision wasn't easy either, since most routers seem to be rather bad. Maybe I'll have to wait until v2 arrives, even though I'm getting my fast internet connection in less than a week.

Hope it won't be long...

 

[thiggins]

In general, manufacturers rev products to reduce costs. Occasionally if they find that they have really screwed up by choosing a troublesome chipset, they'll change to fix that problem.

 

[janne]

In general, manufacturers rev products to reduce costs. Occasionally if they find that they have really screwed up by choosing a troublesome chipset, they'll change to fix that problem.

I was kinda hoping for a solution to the overheating problem some people seem to be experiencing.

 

[Unregistered]

Hmm... and just when I was about to make an order and the decision wasn't easy either, since most routers seem to be rather bad. Maybe I'll have to wait until v2 arrives, even though I'm getting my fast internet connection in less than a week.

Hope it won't be long...

Does anyone happen to know anthing about the availability of the 610N v2 yet? The wifi certificate is dated july 06, 2009. I was just about to buy a 610N, but I saw that v2 is on the way. I'd rather wait for that, if it's not too far away..

 

[Unregistered]

I purchased this router about 2 months now with no problems. 2.4ghz is mixed mode and 5ghz is N. I have 2 computers on 2.4 plus my neighbors. I have 2 xboxes on 5ghz. On 5ghz I am streaming movies on my xbox with no problems. I have a dect 6.0 cordless phone which make s a huge difference as far as interference. My connections are always stable.

Take your time and set up your router correctly

Give it time. You will probably experience what everyone else here has, as well.

 

[Unregistered]

I don see a problem with it running on wireless-N on the 2.4ghz frequency. However speeds are rather unstable though. But i realise 1 problem with mine. Its performance decreases over time and i have to reboot it. I am currently using this firmware though

1.00.02 B10 Jan. 21, 2009

As for wireless N on the 5ghz frequency i can say connection drops are very frequent and the connection speed varies a lot from time to time.