# Linksys WRT160N - More trouble than it's worth?



## Soylent Joe (Apr 6, 2010)

So while I was on vacation to a city that had a Best Buy last weekend, I decided to take the plunge into Wireless N (or so I thought). They had the Linksys WRT160N on sale for $70 so *I got it*, but I have the opportunity to *return it for a refund tomorrow*. I just need some input here. 

Before I was using a ~5 year old Belkin 802.11g router, with low/average signal strength and no native security. What I got with the new was was a little better signal strength, faster download speeds, built in security, and a torrent of problems. Here are those problems and a few other things:



The software for it seemed to offer no practical benefits for me, and the wizard was failing to recognize the thing or something else anyway so I just quit it.

It wouldn't just let me connect up to the net. I had to flail it with resets, troubleshooting wizards, Ethernet controller disable's and re-enable's, and about anything else you can think of. After a random assortment of tortures of the like, I could finally access the net on my computer.

Once working, I actually got a much better signal to my PS3 upstairs (which was basically the whole point of the upgrade) and I haven't had a problem with it on the PS3 or my laptop so far.

Before, I had an unsecured wireless signal (hurrdurr) and now when you connect to my network for the first time you have to enter a password (note, just a password. Not to be confused with login problem below).

I get a lot of problems such as weird redirects, invalid URL's, and slow loads while browsing the web. For example, I get an "Invalid URL" when trying to access any TPU stuff besides the forum and I often get redirected to a guy named Sam Garcia's MySpace profile while trying to get on Facebook. It's just ridiculous.

Speedtest.net is showing that my download speeds have increased from ~10MB/s on the old router to ~20MB/s.

I can't find any way to hook up on my 2 computers using their USB wireless receivers. It's seeing the network but when I go to connect, instead of asking me for the connection password like it should it wants me to do some sort of user login for the network. I've tried every possible combination of user names and passwords that it could be (even the variation of ol' admin) with no success. I even tried reinstalling the receiver drivers just for kicks with no change.


So from what you've read so far, do these problems seem fixable? Do the pro's outweigh the con's or vice versa? Anything?


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## AKlass (Apr 6, 2010)

DD-WRT it! Or Tomato!


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## travva (Apr 6, 2010)

joe, one thing you should do that may fix a lot of your issues is to factory reset that router. find the little hole (!!!) in the back and push a pen or something into it for about 3 seconds or more. this will put it back at defaults. aklass is right though about alternate firmware. i have dd-wrt on my 160n and tomato on my wrt54g and both work perfect.


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## Soylent Joe (Apr 6, 2010)

travva said:


> joe, one thing you should do that may fix a lot of your issues is to factory reset that router. find the little hole (!!!) in the back and push a pen or something into it for about 3 seconds or more. this will put it back at defaults. aklass is right though about alternate firmware. i have dd-wrt on my 160n and tomato on my wrt54g and both work perfect.



I've reset it a few times but I'll do it again. How would one put the firmware on there and does it affect the warranty or anything? Also, what benefits do you get besides problem elimination?


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## Soylent Joe (Apr 6, 2010)

Anyone else? I kind of need to know soon...


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## ShRoOmAlIsTiC (Apr 6, 2010)

what version is it?  wrt160nv3?  if its a v1 or v3 keep it.  put dd-wrt on it.  its amazing.  the linksys gui sucks on it but once you get dd-wrt on there youll love it.


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## Polaris573 (Apr 6, 2010)

For DD-WRT Go here and find the instructions for your router.  It will void the warranty but you can always flash it back to OEM firmware and they'll never know.  Assuming you don't brick the router.


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## Soylent Joe (Apr 6, 2010)

I've got a V3 so I guess I could give it a try. Taking a look at the wiki right now to make sure I won't screw things up.


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## travva (Apr 6, 2010)

feel free to message me on msn if you have any questions man.


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## Soylent Joe (Apr 7, 2010)

Props go out to Travva for helping me get this thing working right. Still hitting a few bumps but it should turn out alright.


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