Why You Can Trust CNET Linksys by Cisco WAG320N review: Linksys by Cisco WAG320N
The WAG320N establishes itself as a good all rounder by marrying good performance with useful software and a decent set of features. The dual band is not simultaneous though, it doesn't use 5GHz to its best potential, and the short warranty period is a cause for concern.
Linksys' "UFO" design has been with us for a while now, and continues to be one of the more attractive router designs on the market. The WAG320N is the ADSL2+ modem/router offering from Cisco's little consumer arm, and manages to not only fit dual-band under the hood, but works in some gigabit Ethernet ports as well. Keep in mind this is a not a simultaneous dual-band router — you'll either have to choose 2.4GHz or 5GHz wireless operating modes exclusively.
Linksys by Cisco WAG320N
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Specs at a glance
| Firmware tested | 1.00.12 |
|---|---|
| ADSL2+ modem | Yes |
| Annex M | Yes |
| 3G modem | No |
| Wireless protocols | 802.11b/g/n |
| Highest wireless security | WPA2 |
| WDS | No |
| Ethernet ports | 4x gigabit |
| USB print sharing/storage | Storage only |
| Accessories | Ethernet cable, phone cable, CD containing quick-start guide, manual, Cisco Network Magic free edition |
Connections
ADSL line, four gigabit Ethernet ports, USB port for storage, reset button, power jack, power button. (Credit: Craig Simms/CBS Interactive)
UI and features
Gone is LELA (Linksys EasyLink Adviser), Linksys' easy-to-use networking software. It's been replaced with Cisco's Network Magic — although Linksys has not included the full version of the software. This means that you can't use the software to share a printer, share a folder, perform an internet speed test, schedule when a PC on the network can access the internet, take a screenshot of another computer's desktop or track computer usage on the network without opening your wallet for the PC version, or opening it even wider to get Mac compatibility. You can, of course, do all of this already if you're computer savvy, but for those who aren't, it seems a little harsh that they're expected to pay more.
You can not only manage all your network connections through Network Magic, you can also see the topology of your network. (Screenshot by CBS Interactive)
You can also manage certain elements of your router without ever loading the web UI... (Screenshot by CBS Interactive)
...or other computers on your network, although some features require you to install Network Magic on the remote PC as well. (Screenshot by CBS Interactive)
Interestingly, the freely bundled version only supports Cisco hardware, while the paid version works wherever. We wonder why that isn't a big enough hobble for Cisco to bundle a fully featured version. Most likely because as it stands, no home networking competitor comes close to offering this kind of software, so it feels it can get away with handing out a cut-down version.
The web user interface (UI) is sadly less exciting, but is easy enough to navigate around, and highly featured. There is a help link to the right of every page that opens a pop up explaining all the options. True beginners will likely still be lost among the jargon, but those who are beginning to find their networking feet will appreciate the extra help.
Linksys keeps it simple, and thus, easy to navigate. (Screenshot by CBS Interactive)
Features above the norm are plentiful here; the first Ethernet port can act as a WAN port, and the router can clone MAC addresses. It can share folders on the attached USB storage via Windows sharing or FTP and can run a UPnP media server; there's also time of day internet scheduling, and on top of the usual firewall capability there's URL and keyword blocking.
Performance
After analysing the spectrum with InSSIDer, an empty channel of either 1, 6 or 11 is chosen for 2.4GHz wireless testing. The router is restricted to the 20MHz band and will only allow 802.11n clients. If possible, the MCS is set to 15.
We use iperf to determine throughput, running eight streams, with a TCP window size of 1MB, and an interval of one second. The test is run for five minutes in three different locations, on two separate occasions. The locations are in the same room as the router, one floor down around spiral stairs and with concrete walls and floors, and two floors down under the same conditions.
The wireless throughput is tested using three chipsets, the Atheros AR5008X, Ralink RT2870 and Intel 5100AGN, then all results are averaged.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Although it doesn't show up the 7800N for 2.4GHz performance, it does manage to come overall in second place. Let's check out the 5GHz performance.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
We should note the dual scores we've entered here for Belkin — for some bizarre reason when set to allow only N clients, the Play Max modem/router will not allow the Intel 5100AGN to connect. Turning this off allowed the Intel chipset to connect over 802.11g, greatly distorting the results. Still, it's disturbing that so widespread a chipset could have such issues with a router.
Besides this, there are a few interesting things happening here. Only Belkin's modem/router has a fast enough internal routing speed to take advantage of wireless N's throughput when fed by a gigabit port. Both Linksys and Netgear's models have limited throughput, hitting a ceiling for both location one and two despite obstructions and distance increasing between the two points. While this doesn't matter on the Netgear as its Ethernet is limited to 100Mbit, for the Linksys it's an obvious downside. If you want the most out of 5GHz wireless N from Linksys or Netgear, you'll need to invest in the stand-alone WRT610N or WNDR3700 routers respectively.
Location three is particularly challenging for 5GHz. The Linksys is the only one that makes a stable connection, and even then performance isn't great. We should also note that Linksys' own external dongle was all it would connect to — both the in-built Atheros and Intel chipsets failed to make a connection. The number shown above is the average over the three connections, but obviously the zero scores distort the results here: the actual throughput on the Linksys dongle for the Linksys and Netgear modem routers was 13.50 and 0.18Mbps respectively.
ADSL performance is simply measured by the sync speed on an Internode ADSL2+ connection to the St Leonards exchange, on Internode's very high speed profile. If the connection remains stable over a period of time, the sync speed is recorded.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Power consumption
We measured power consumption using a Jaycar mains digital power meter. It's important to note here that due to limitations of the meter, measurements are limited to values 1W and greater, and are reported in 1W increments.
The wireless radio was turned on, and an iperf test begun for measurement, using one wireless client and one wired.
| Juice Box |  |
|---|---|
| Transmitting | 9W |
| Idle | 7W |
Warranty
Cisco offers only a one-year warranty for the WAG320N — given Billion and Netgear offer two years, and D-Link, Asus and NetComm offer three years, Cisco's warranty can hardly be seen as competitive.
Conclusion
The WAG320N establishes itself as a good all rounder by marrying good performance with useful software and a decent set of features. The dual-band is not simultaneous though, it doesn't use 5GHz to its best potential, and the short warranty period is a cause for concern.