If you have a cable modem or ADSL router that uses 802.11g wireless, the Cisco Linksys E3000 offers a stylish way to upgrade to wireless-n. It has a dual-band design, able to work simultaneously on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. The E3000 is a low-profile unit, with no visible antennae, and stands only 35mm high. In its dark blue and black livery, with swooping curves, it has a smart yet discreet design.
From the back you can access the Ethernet input for connection to a cable or ADSL modem, along with four additional Ethernet ports for wired connection to other devices. All are gigabit-speed. Also on the back is a USB 2.0 port, to which you can connect external storage. Cisco makes it easy to connect and set up the E3000. A supplied configuration CD can be used in Windows and Mac, or you can set it up manually via an IP address. Automated setup is slick. Having connected the Cisco to our ADSL2+ modem, we had a working wireless network within minutes. The software offers an option to create an Easy Setup Key, which you can then install on to a USB thumb drive.
Both wireless radios are switched on by default, with a third service-set ID (SSID) for guest access. This is secured by a password, and not encrypted by the usual wired equivalent privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi protected access (WPA). Guests log in through a web page, and then enter a password created by the router. Confusingly, the router sets up 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks with the same name. When browsing for networks, we couldn’t see which radio band we were using until we’d joined it.
Like other wireless-n router makers, Cisco promises transfer speeds of up to 300 megabits per second (Mbps). And like every other wireless-n router we’ve tried, this is far from the truth. No matter how we tweaked the wireless settings, we couldn’t see a nominal Transmit Rate (TR) higher than 145. In our tests, at 1m and 10m ranges, the maximum we saw was 80Mbps. At 10m, the fastest throughput was 44Mbps, using 5GHz; and just 40Mbps using the 2.4GHz band. As a wired gigabit Ethernet router, the Cisco Linksys worked well, and we saw transfer speeds up to 840Mbps.
