Linksys’ WRT610N - Two wireless networks for the price of two

Nearly everything uses Wi-Fi these days. From when an 802.11a adaptor was a very expensive upgrade to your notebook computer – and PC desktops had to suffer under the yoke of the blue cable regardless – we’ve progressed in a relatively short time to a world where mobile phones flit from network to network, and media players and games consoles chew through data from the air like nobody’s business.

The downside to having everything sans cable is that there isn’t infinite bandwidth available in the radio spectrum. As more and more devices use the 2.4GHz spectrum in a local area, the throughput for all devices drops. That might not sound all doom and gloom, but if you’re living in an apartment then you probably already know the frustration of an overloaded 2.4GHz band. The traditional response was to go and buy all your equipment to work on the 5GHz band, which is currently less cluttered (except for cordless phones), but the number of devices that have 5GHz compatibility built in is much fewer, so it’s a more expensive route.

Linksys has released the solution to the problem: a dual 2.4Ghz and 5GHz 802.11 Draft N router, the WRT610N. Unlike some other wireless routers which allow you to select the band you’re running on, the WRT610N runs two Draft-N networks on 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously. But what’s the use of that, you ask? It lets you pick and choose which devices to migrate over to the faster 5GHz band for increased throughput, while still maintaining 2.4GHz connectivity for devices that can’t use 5GHz (like many notebooks and the iPhone). Linksys’ example is splitting your network in two, using a data or business network on 2.4GHz – suitable for lower bandwidth tasks like email and web browsing from notebook computers – and a media or entertainment network using 5GHz, connected to your media centre and gaming consoles where you’re more likely to see the throughput speeds where it’s most important and less likely to move around.

Using the 5GHz spectrum does have some considerations, as the higher the frequency of the network, the less penetrative power it has – and, therefore, the less likely it is to offer solid connections through multiple walls in the building. 2.4GHz will usually reach further.

The kit

Linksys provided APC with the new wireless router, the WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router and a USB WUSB600N Wireless-N USB Network Adapter with Dual Band for testing purposes.

The WRT610N uses a new design from Linksys with a very sleek appearance. More interestingly, the unit’s antennae are built in to a “wing” around its top, so there are no adjustable antennas to get in the way. The rear of the WRT610N sports five Ethernet ports, four for the unit’s 10/100 switch and the fifth dedicated for the connection to your ADSL or cable modem. A single USB port for connecting external storage (more on this later) or printers, plus the inevitable power connection, rounds it off.

We found the installation of the unit a little hit and miss. A directed install process using the Linksys EasyLink Advisor wasn’t without its hiccups. The basic install directs the user to remove the Ethernet cable from their PC and plug it in to the WRT610N, connect another cable to the PC and pray while it configured automatically. Now, this will work if you’re going from a single connection from the modem direct to the PC, but if you’re using a modem/router in the first place, or upgrading your network to take advantage of the dual 2.4/5GHz functionality, it’s just not going to work without some manual configuration (namely disabling the WRT610N’s DHCP server).

After we got nowhere using the initial installer (it couldn’t see our internet connection at all, prompting us to remove the Ethernet cable from the “internet” port, pop it in to the switch and turn off DHCP on the router via its web interface), the installer kicked off another application – “LELA”, or the Linksys EasyLink Advisor. This directed us to create, name and secure the wireless networks on the WRT610N, a process that went much smoother than the initial hardware installation. We use the term networks here on purpose, as the WRT610N presents two distinct Wi-Fi networks to compatible adaptors. The default naming schema is “linksys” and “Linksys_media” at 2.4GHz and 5GHz respectively. The initial setup assigns the same security key to both, but separate passphrases can be assigned later on via the router’s web interface. Devices on the different Wi-Fi networks can communicate through the router.

At this point, we installed the Linksys WUSB600N Wireless-N USB Network Adapter with Dual-Band on our test notebook, disabling the internal Wi-Fi adaptor. The install process uses a similar CD-based setup to the router. This time it was quick, easy and clean, detecting the WRT610N right off the bat and connecting to the 5GHz network without a hassle.

We dove once more into the Linksys software world, with a further look at LELA. At this stage LELA becomes more of a network management tool, providing a named network map (with remote configuration of devices possible if they are also running the software).  For simple networks, which the vast majority of people have, LELA will give you a good idea of what’s running on your network and how it’s connected. APC Labs don’t really run a simple network, so LELA’s picture of what was going on was far from reality. Of note, LELA was not able to identify systems running Linux on the network, just identifying them as a “Network Device” rather than as a PC (or server). To be clear on this point, we’re not penalising Linksys or the LELA tool for its inability to place itself on the map here, as the environment it was connected to is extremely atypical compared to its intended usage.

Taking it back to square one, we created a mini test network just for the WRT610N, using an ADSL modem/router (set to a straight modem mode) and the two test systems. The initial installer went off without a hitch this time, so it does work as advertised for a simple setup.

The WRT610N includes functionality beyond a simple wireless router. Though nothing groundbreaking, the WRT610N includes an SPI firewall, which allows for specific blocking of ActiveX, Java, Cookies and proxy connections. Further functionality includes a time-based URL as well as protocol (block those MMO ports between certain hours) adjustable on a per PC level and an FTP server accessible both internally and externally from the internet.

Possibly the most value comes from the WRT610N’s ability to act as a network storage interface. A USB hard disk drive can be connected to the unit’s USB port, then the storage is shared across the network (with a unique IP address) as available space. The WRT610N can also act as a UPnP media server from the USB disk drive, sharing music and video across the network to devices that can use UPnP media configuration.

Performance and final thoughts

The APC office is crowded with 2.4GHz traffic, and our Wi-Fi throughout suffers accordingly. On the 5GHz band there’s very little (one low-strength network visible, and as far as we can tell, no cordless phone transmission), so we expected to see big differences in results between the two. When connected via the 2.4GHz band at around 2m distance, the connection ambled between 39Mb/s and 109Mb/s, transferring files at around 4.5MB/s. On the 5GHz band, our connection stuck mostly between 80Mb/s and 122Mb/s, with transfers happening at an average of 7.8MB/s, a result that clearly speaks for itself.

Connection speeds and throughput dropped accordingly as we put space and walls between the router and the test system. We didn’t see a huge difference between the drop-off of the 5GHz network compared to the 2.4GHz network as we put more obstacles in the way, and we did run out of room in the office to test it at longer ranges.

The beauty of this product is that you’re not forced to choose. The WRT610N allows you to use the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands as required, when you need to adjust for range or throughout, as well as offering a sane upgrade path from 2.4GHz WiFi to a 5GHz network. The hardware works fine, with good throughput at both frequencies. The setup software, though good enough if starting a network from scratch, isn’t flexible enough to adapt the device’s configuration beyond a very simple network, so expect to have to get your hands dirty in the device’s web interface.