Cisco-Linksys WET610N Dual-Band Wireless-N Gaming and Video Adapter

I bought the WET610N for my Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-Ray Player. My options were either wired, which I didn't want to do, or buy a proprietary dongle from Samsung. I chose the option that Samsung did not mention I bought the WET610N! The unit was easy to setup, and the instructions were clear. I've never been fond of using Linksys CD's to setup this kind of equipment, but I have to say it was painless and quick compared to some others I've seen. The value of this unit is simply that it will work with ANYTHING that wants a "wired" network connection. So, it doesn't matter if it's a video game system, a DVR type device, or as in this case a blu-ray DVD Player. For this reason, the unit is a great value and will be in use for a long time, even when the current equipment I am using it with now is long gone.

Update 10/31/10:

This product has worked *flawlessly* for a year straight! Highly recommended without reservation!

Update 10/2/09:

New firmware update available from Linksys 8/31/09 (I went from 1.0.01 to 1.0.03 today). After applying new firmware, the reported signal strength increased significantly. So did the consistency and reliability of pings (previously would vary between 2ms and 410 ms as well as skip an occasional ping now consistently below 5 ms!). I would recommend this product, but be sure to be running firmware 1.0.0.03. This update may address some (but not all) of the issues that previous reviewers experienced.

Original review:

Quick shipment from Amazon. As much as I dread Setup wizards, I used the wizard supplied on the CD-ROM, which I ran from my laptop, which is connected wirelessly via the wireless router. Connected bridge to router with the supplied straight-through Ethernet cable. The wizard quickly detected available wireless networks (I selected mine not my neighbors'). Asked me for passphrase (it knew I use WPA2 encryption) for router (Linksys WRT54G), waited a bit, then wizard told me to disconnect bridge from router and then connect the bridge to my remote device (in my case a home-theater-in-a-box) (HTIB) with an wired ethernet connection. A bit later, wizard announced setup finished. Instantly able to watch streaming Netflix and listen to Pandora on the HTIB.

Prior to running wizard, I added the MAC address of the bridge (it's on the underside of the unit) to the allowed list of "PCs") on my router's list of allowed MAC addresses. Second, I ensured that I had a sufficient range of DHCP addresses dispensed by the DHCP server on my router (total of 3 one for the laptop, one for the wireless printer, and now added a third for this bridge). Third, I had my router passphrase readily available to supply to the wizard.

I think that since I was well prepared, the setup was flawless and quick. I totally understand why wizards are used they're for novices to easily set up their stuff. In this case, I think it took the wizard less time to set up the device than it would have if I were to have chosen to set up the bridge manually (which is an undocumented option). A novice would have a struggle with a manual setup, I'm sure.

Signal strength on the bridge indicates to be a bit weak for business use, but for home use, it's working great for my sole application. One could certainly add more devices on the bridge side by connecting the bridge to a switch to provide additional Ethernet ports. Of course, the bridge will pass DHCP info to any device connected to any such switch. And of course, no address needed for a(n) (unmanaged) switch.

The only thing I'm uncertain about is this product's longevity. I did have an early Linksys WRT54G totally fail on me, but I'm hoping that having placed my current one on a UPS, this won't happen again. I have confidence in current Linksys products.

I hope Amazon buyers find this review helpful.

I recommend this product.

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After I got the unit set up, it works fine for my purposes connecting my blu-ray player to my wireless home network. The distance is short, less than 30 feet, and just in the next room. The connection will not carry a lot of video smoothly, but it works OK.

But if you are not able to handle a few set-up issues yourself, reconsider. It took me the second try to set up the device through their setup disk. Then it couldn't find my wireless network, which had 2 laptops on it and was running fine. I called technical support. The manufacturer CLAIMS to offer free technical support during the 1-year warranty. But when I called, the very day my unit was delivered, they wouldn't help me unless I bought extended coverage for their router I was using with it. I didn't have any problems with the router, but they wouldn't tell me how to connect my brand new ethernet bridge to the router because the router warranty had expired. Real ripoff. These things HAVE to go through a router so everyone who calls for technical support will have a router. I think this allows them to avoid giving any technical support on this unit without the customer paying. I figured it out myself eventually without the assistance of the very unhelpful representative.

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I purchased this device to connect my Samsung BlueRay 1600 player to my internet. I tried the Samsung Linkstik, but due to the position in my house and the inflexibility of the Linkstik, my connection kept dropping. I connected the Cisco bridge via a wireless connection to my NetGear 300n router and presto, no problems and downloaded movies began immediately from Netflix.

My only reason for the downgrade from 5 to 4 is that none of the documentation that I saw stated that it could only run one device through the bridge. I find that to be rather ridiculous for the price. At least two to four ethernet connections should have been enabled for $95. So my downgrade is related to the price for function rather than anything wrong with the device.

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Please be advised, the WRT610N + WET610N combo do not work as advertised.

I bought a WET610N to replace my Xbox 360's wireless adapter.

I have it connected to a WRT610N (which I assumed was the best of it's kind). I am using WPA2 personal with a static IP address and QoS. The WET610n disconnects every other day and has to be completely reconfigured from ground zero. Apparently this is a known issue ( ) It amazes me that Cisco is unwilling or unable to fix their flagship devices to work as advertised.

The issue is apparently related to the passkey re-authentication that periodically takes place in a WPA2 environment. I have changed that r-authentication from the default 3600 seconds to the maximum 7200 seconds; this has reduced, but not eliminated the problem.

DO NOT BUY THIS COMBO UNITL CISCO FIXES THE FIRMWARE.

In addition to my connection being less stable, the wireless sigle strength is no better between these two devices than it was with my Xbox 360s wireless adapter and my old WRT54G running DD-WRT firmware. As far as I can tell, "Range +" or whatever they call it is no more than a marketing gimmick.

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