-
"Linksys drops the ball again" on by dh21187
Pros: It hold papers down on your desk nicely.
Cons: No stable internet connection, USB storage option doesn't work, No stable firmware for product, Tech support is in India and cannot be understood, India speakers read from manuals and are rude.
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT. IT DOES NOT WORK.
I installed this unit approximately one week ago and it will not stay connected to the internet no matter what I have tried or Linksys technical support has. Their support staff is in India and they have no idea of what to do without reading from a manual. I spent hours on the phone with them being transferred from one person to the next who could not resolve the problems with the product. They originally claimed it was user configuration error, which wasn't true, as I spent hours with them and they could not find anything configured improperly to explain why the unit would not maintain a connection to the internet.
After several days of no help from India, I was eventually passed back to the US and spoke to Brian Beals, the supposed guru who could fix the problem, NOT.
I spent about an hour on the phone with him and he admitted the unit has an unstable firmware version installed on it from the factory. He sent me a new firmware version, 1.03.2, which he claimed would fix the problem, but it didn't. I now have no connection at all and have been forced back to using a direct connection from my PC to my cable modem to get an internet connection. He, rather than stay on the phone with me to ensure the firmware worked, rushed me off the line and said he would contact me if I was still having the same problem, which I am, but is now even worse. NICE CUSTOMER SERVICE.
Beals also mentioned there was a problem with the USB storage capability with the unit, which also doesn't work with most units also due to firmware problems. This explained why I couldn't see my NAS on my network after I plugged it into the WRT350N. GREAT JOB LINKSYS....
My repeated e-mails back to this guru have gone answered and I am stuck with a $160.00 paperweight on my desk now. I am going to request a refund from where I purchased it as Linksys has shown quality and service are not a priority to them.
It's been almost a month since the latest firware flash and it now seems to be stable. If it reamins this way, I would recommend this unit.Updated
Once again my router has gone paws up and stopped working for no reason. I spent an hour with Linksys who could not resolve the issue. I got it working today by flashing the firmware with an older version available on their website. It is now up an running again showing the problem with this unit is clearly a firmware issue. DO NOT BUY THIS UNIT... It will not work -
"Don't buy for Storage Link" on by hyteq
Pros: Fast ethernet and good configurability
Cons: Storage Link is extremely slow
Summary: The router itself has good speed for wired and wireless connections. One of its' main features is Storage Link, which allows you to connect an external USB harddrive directly to the router. It supports FTP access and file-sharing-like direct access to your external hard drive from within your network. The big drawback is that Storage Link is so slow that you'd be much better off just connecting your external harddrive to a computer on your network and using it from there.
The router is Linux based, which doesn't inherently support the NTFS file system. NTFS read/write capability was added to the firmware after the router was originally released, but the performance problem still remains.
I recommend buying the version of this router that does not include storage link. This way you get the speed of wireless G and gigabit ethernet without paying the additonal cost for storage link. Storage Link is virtually useless due to a lack sufficient performance. -
"Tough nut to crack" on by topamo
Pros: Fast, when it works.
Cons: Not easy to configure
Summary: I had a devil of a time getting the WRT350N to work. Like the last review, I spent long time with Linksys customer support, about 2 hrs. They were in the Phillipines, not India, though.
The Lynksys rep was friendly and tenacious, having me do everything short of standing on my head and reciting the Gettysburg address in Tagalog. All to no avail. She finally concluded that the unit was defective, and I should return it. (We did download the firmware upgrade, during our travails.)
Well, I was a bit more tenacious than she. I touched basis with Verizon tech support (my ISP) to see if they had any ideas. The help there was quick and correct. I was replacing an old Linksys router (and old b) with the WRT350N. She explained that I first had to "release" the first router from the modem (and, sure enough, in the router configuration there was that option.) I did it, and it worked. Five minutes, and done.
Another funny thing about Linksys tech support. I called back later for help on getting the wireless network up an running (which was sucessful). When I called back, they had no record of my previous discussions or problems.
This was about two weeks ago. Yesterday, the router stopped routing, for some reason. Under extreme pressure from our now unconnected household members, I spent an hour tinkering with the configuration settings. Nothing was different or amiss, yet no routing. In my tinkering, I finally cloned the MAC address, saved it, and it worked.
I haven't been able to get the storage link up and connected to the wireless network. The PDF instruction manual is a tad inscrutable on the subject. I haven't given up.
In summary, the WRT350N has taken a lot more effort than it should have. Maybe there'll be a magic firmware upgrade that will right all wrongs. Maybe Linksys will solve world hunger, too. Who knows? -
"Great router, tons of features, a little over priced" on by punktdawg
Pros: easy setup, plenty of features, open source firmware onboard and other open source firmware mods available
Cons: price is a little high
Summary: First off let me start by saying, I am a geek. That said, I run a variety of machines on my network. My primary machine has multiple OS's. Fedora, Vista being the two I use the most. I have other machines in my house running XP, I also have a Apple Powerbook. I've seen a lot of complaints about compatibility with Vista, the only issue I ran into when putting this on my network was how Vista chooses to map the devices on my network with its LLTD mapper. No issues with the storage or accessing any computers on my network. The network storage was really fairly simple to setup.
Here are the steps I used:
Create a user account on the Linksys to use when accessing the storage by going to the Storage and then Administration tab.
While in this tab make sure your Linksys is set to the correct workgroup, by default Linksys uses MSHOME, which is the default workgroup for XP, not Vista(default for Vista is Workgroup). Make sure all computers and the router are set to the same workgroup.
Connect the storage device(in my case I just connected a thumbdrive for testing purposes and this worked).
Create the share. Click on the Share tab from the Storage tab. Create the share from whatever you want off the drive.
Open up network neighborhood and you should see Linksyswrt350n, or you can access it directly by typing \\Linksyswrt350n in explorer. You should get a prompt for a username and password. Use the password and username you configured on the Linksys. Thats it.
If you have any software firewalls on the machines trying to access the network storage it might be a good idea to turn that stuff off and also you need to ensure that File and Printer sharing is enabled in Network Properties.
XP: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040
Vista: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx -
"Initially skeptical, but pleasantly surprised..." on by kei78
Pros: Easy to setup
Cons: Operating temperatures seem to be warmer than my previous befsr81
Summary: I initially bought a wrt300 over a year ago, but i quickly returned it once i found out that the wrt350n was about to be released. I decided to wait and see what the initial impression from others about this unit and was dissapointed with all the negative feedback. I decided to wait until Linksys decided to get its act together and wait for a new firmware to be released.
Almost a year has past since this product was released and i finally decided to take a look in to it again... To my surpise, there hasnt been any recent updates, but i did notice that this unit was more readily available at local stores which i thought was a good sign. Before i bought my unit, i made sure i knew of the stores return policy which was either a restocking fee...or an RMA number which could be attained from their help desk in india.
I honestly looked at this unit from the worst possible side, but i was very pleasantly surprised. To sum everything up, it just works... i had everything setup with in 10 minutes... I tried 3 different USB keys, and 2 different external hard drives with NTFS and i had no issues reading or setting up my FTP. The gigabit lan seems to work great between my three pcs, and my wireless ("g" only as i do not have an "n" card) works well, although i did notice my signal not to be as strong as the wrt300 i had for a week last year. I have not had a chance to play with the streaming media server, so i really dont have any comments on that...my only real complaint would be that the unit seems to run alot warmer than my previous router.
I had also read that some people were having issues with regards to after having power outages, that the unit would not come back up properly and they would need to reset it, in order to get the unit to route again... So i trip the power to the room where i have the router and tested that and again, it just continued to work with no hassles. Granted, i have only had this for a week, i have had to do so much testing to make sure it was a "keeper" to make sure i would still be able to return the unit in the outcome i felt that this was as problamatic as others made it out to be.
So in the end, great product, but i do suggest anyone buying this unit to make sure to thoroughly test it to make sure they do not have the same problems as other have had (with in your stores return period)Updated
Well, to my surprise, linksys finally released the long awaited firm ware update. Now i did read about people before hand basically turning their routers into a paper wieght so again, i was expecting something catastrophic to happen... but instead...nothing but smooth sailings. The router took less then a few minutes to flash. I did as a precaution reset my router and my modem and when everything restarted everything worked just as it had before with all my settings intact. So far this router has been great...
Write a Review
Online Stores
| Store | Promotions | In Stock | Price | Total Cost | Initial Sort Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZDTronic | No | Yes | Tax: TBD Ship: TBD | $227.75 Shop Now | |
| See all prices | |||||
