Cisco-Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router

I presently have a few routers:Linksys WRT320NBuffalo whr-hp-g54Linksys wrt54g (x3)And now a WRT610NThis WRT610N is a "simultaneous" dual band router. That means at the same time it broadcasts a signal in the 2.4GHz band and the 5GHz band - key work is simultaneous - there are lots of dual band but that means one band or the other not both at the same time.The 5GHz is nice if you live in an area with A LOT of other radio traffic (like an apartment) as it will give you some different channels that are not used, cutting down on interference. However, the higher frequency 5GHz while stronger and can send more data has a much shorter range. 5Gz and the "N-type" routers are good for those that are physically close to their routers and need to send a lot of data.At my house I wanted the dual band so that I could give a wireless video box it's own channel. I have one of these Roku boxes and watch Netflix with it. Video takes a lot of bandwith so with this wrt610N I let the roku box have the 5GHz band and then the rest of my wireless stuff (like laptops, wii, DS gameboy, cell phone, etc) all have the regular 2.4Ghz.The 5Ghz bandwidth radio network is only available in about ½ my house, where I can pick up the 2.4GHz band anywhere. My point is don't buy N-type 5ghz because you want to extend your wireless range - YOU GET LESS RANGE it is faster but shorter. Many people buy 5ghz N-type routers and then post a negative review and blame the router. Like "It won't connect unless I'm 10 feet away" and my old wrt54G worked much better - stuff like that. These people don't understand routers or the technology they are using. As I said 5ghz has less range, but if you set up this router properly you will have two bands 5ghz & 2.4ghz. This will show up as TWO different hotspots for you to connect too. I've set up my laptop to automatly connect to the 5Ghz but then drop back to the 2.4ghz when the 5ghz is out of range.Amazon now is shipping the v.2 of this router, as of Jan 2010 - the router you get from Linksys/Cisco will have the newest version of the firmware. It is wise to check linksys's website to see if a more recent version of firmware is available and then install it. Upgrading firmware is really easy - you just download the file from the web, log into your router's admin screens and tell it to upgrade firmware. Takes 2 min. Note: earlier versions of this router did have lots of problems with heat and re-booting. My research is that these problems have been solved.Other notes:I'm big into xbox live and like most routers this has the DMZ feature. If find if I put the IP address of my xbox as the DMZ address, or open the ports in port forwording, then I get NAT type "Open" on xbox live. There are lots of web sites that tell you which ports to open (search NAT +XBOX). However, now that I run mutiple XBOX's have found that out of the box this router is giving me "open" NAT on XBOX live on my two xbox's - without any port forwording or DMZ setup.The linksys wrt320N router is dual band, but it can only broadcast one band or the other - not both at the same time.Con: These new linksys routers only have internal antennas. I like external as then can add a bigger one.Here is my advice - don't buy the 610Ns unless you have a need for dual simultaneous band. If you just want to get to 5G then the WRT320N will be fine. If you don't have a real need for wireless N or 5GHz yet but just want a good router then go with the buffalo. The buffalo runs dd-wrt really well. I take the buffalo with me when traveling and use it as a repeater to connect to open networks (save on hotel internet charges).The USB port will not drive a printer - but is really cool to hook up a USB hardrive that any computer on the network can use for storage. I run backup software on my compters and have them put their backup files on this drive. Or simply keep everything in the "my documents" folder and once a week or so copy the entire folder to the remote drive.I am a big fan of the dd-wrt firmware, but my personal experience is dd-wrt is not ready for the WRT610N v2. Using build 13401, I found that with both radio bands turned on, even in a very simple configuration dd-wrt would make the router go unstable after a few hours. With only one radio it worked great, but I needed both radios, I went back to the linksys firmware. In a few months dd-wrt will be work out all the bugs but for now the linksys firmware is fine.

O.k so I read the technical reviews and made the pop. My home has 6 laptops (3 HP models running Vista, 2 Dells running Windows XP SP3 and 3 desktops (2 HP running vista and 1 Dell running Windows XP SP3). I have a 3 story house, with the pc's scattered throughout. My current wireless network is 802.11 g/b and it works fine for the most part. However we tend to max this out at times, hence the need to go to the dual band. I currently have an existing local area network as well. My planned configuration was to use the router as a bridge rather than a router, that is it would be added down stream to my existing wired router.I will cut to the chaise.Installation 3 out of 5. Half way through the automated installation there was a stall and had to call Linksys technical support to get the installation complete.If you are using this as a bridge, that is expanding your existing wired network then the setting is different and no information is provided to guide you through this. It is important to note that that the hard wire connections are different when used as a bridge than as a router. I knew this from prior experience, but Linksys, kept insisting that the unit would not function this way. After mutiple attempts with Technical Support I was able to work with one technician to get this correctly set up the way I wanted.Network Coverage: 3 out of 5. I placed the unit on the third floor and was able to pick up strong 8012.11 b/g signal throughout the house for the most part. The 802.11 n network which was able to be detected on the first floor with 3 bars, and weak signal strength on the 2nd floor. When I moved the unit to the ground floor I got good receptivity on the 801.11g/b throughout the house, but again the 802.11 n was limited. I had to go within 10 feet of the unit, with the lap top and then the signal strength was still poor. Linksys gave me some tips on how to increase the signal strength but that was not permanent. In short do not fall for the 802.11 n pitch. For this reason I gave it 3 stars.I kept my old D-Link wireless 801.11 g network with the router housed on the third floor. That network was picked up with very good signal strength on the 2nd and 3rd floor quite well.So as I move through the house with any of the laptops having wireless G and N network connectivity I can connect to any of the 802.11 g or n wireless networks, but with very limited success with the 802.11 n.If you are planning on keeping an existing wireless network you will need to give any new ones created a new name. Performace Stability: 5 stars. The unit has not failed since I have had it, and I have had serious downtime with the D-link unit, that required repeated resets. In this area the unit outperforms all the others I have used in the past.So in summary, know what you want to do and what problem you are solving before buying this unit, not because it provides 802.11 n wireless technology, makes it a great buy. Hope this helps.

Was perfect

Product and service as stated.