Linksys Wireless-N Broadband Router WRT300N

The possibilities of 802.11n are certainly enticing. With it, you can move massive digital photo collections onto a network hard drive in seconds instead of minutes, stream high-definition movies stutter-free over Wi-Fi to a beautiful plasma TV, and share MP3s with other people on your network in the blink of an eye. Enter Linksys' Wireless-N Broadband Router WRT300N, which aims to satisfy all of your speed-hungry networking cravings. 

 

The router is based on the draft specification for 802.11n, effectively one-upping previous MIMO models by using three antennas on the router, plus three receiving antennas on the matching Linksys Wireless-N Notebook Adapter WPC300N ($119). In addition to adding serious throughput gains to home networking, the WRT300N uses new MIMO technology to scatter a wide signal over two 20-MHz channels–twice as many as previous MIMO models. The result is the best wireless speed of any router: about 120 Mbps of constant throughput in a typical home environment. That data rate jumps even higher (to about 140 Mbps) in a setting where there are no other wireless signals present–which is, admittedly, highly unusual.

 

The WRT300N does an excellent job of pushing its signal around a typical home environment, even one with sheetrocked walls, textured ceilings, competing signals from nearby access points, and portable phones. In our tests, the WRT300N even outclassed the Belkin Pre-N in terms of making sure a powerful signal was available in all corners of a 3,000-square-foot home, on every level. High-definition video files never stuttered when we played them from a network storage device, and even when multiple users connected, the signal stayed strong.

 

Making the jump to 802.11n now comes with some early adopter caveats. For one, there's no guarantee that the routers and cards being sold today by Linksys and other vendors will be upgradeable to the final standard, which is scheduled to be ratified in mid-2007. If it turns out that this router is firmware-upgradeable, we'd suggest Linksys first address the impact legacy devices can have on the network. With an 802.11b-enabled laptop connected to the WRT300N, throughput dropped from 120 Mbps to about 40 Mbps. On the other hand, we didn't notice any degradation when we used a Palm Treo 700w outfitted with an 802.11g card.

 

Other than the much stronger signal and new three-antenna design, the WRT300N is nearly identical to previous Linksys routers, including the simple installer program and configuration screens, as well as basic SPI firewall protection.

 

Linksys may have a short-lived position at the top of the wireless networking hill. Competing draft-compliant 802.11n routers and cards from Belkin, Buffalo, and Netgear are all starting to hit the market, and we'll be able to tell you how those models stack up in upcoming issues.

 

For now, however, the Linksys WRT300N is the whole-house speed champ. It's the first router on the market to consistently beat a 100-Mbps wired Ethernet connection, even from 50 feet, making it a good choice for multitaskers who use their network for more than only surfing.