WRT610N disconnects and does not work with Vista or media center extenders like the DMA2200

Question

Linksys and all other router manufacturers advertise the greatness of the wireless 5ghz band (especially with 802.11n), but I’m beginning to have my doubts.  It is true that the 5Ghz band is hardly being used so you'll have virtually no one to compete with.  However, the 5Ghz distance in no way compares to 2.4Ghz, and as a matter of fact, I find it to be quite terrible.  At approximately 20 feet away, both my Linksys DMA2200 and HP notebook barely get 1 bar using the 5Ghz N band with my WRT610N router.  In comparison, while using my 2.4Ghz WRT54g router, I get 5 full bars at that range, and at least 2 bars from anywhere else in my house.  
I have all Linksys equipment in my house as I have been impressed with all of their 2.4Ghz in the past.  However, I’ve recently upgraded everything to dual-band N equipment and found numerous flaws in each of the new devices, plus none of them really even play well together.  My setup is: Linksys 610n router, DMA2200 media center extender, and a WUSB600N Dual-Band Wireless-N USB Network Adapter for my laptop – all of which are currently using the most up-to-date firmware. Other devices include a WRE54G extender and  Nintendo Wii. 
Problem  #1) The LELA software with the new N devices doesn't even recognize that my DMA2200 is a media center extender.  Using LELA, I should be able to select my media extender and allocate more bandwidth for streaming media.  However, since my extender only shows up as an “unknown network device” those options are greyed out.  I tried to manually change the device to a media center, but still no go.  I suppose you can manually allocate bandwidth in the router setup somewhere, but considering these are all Linksys products, it’s absolutely ridiculous that an option specifically incorporated in the LELA software for a Linksys Media Extender does not work!!!   
Problem #2) If you are only using one system with the router, the router might actually work as intended.  For most of us though there are going to be at least 2 or more systems connected to the router (wired, wireless, or a combination of the two) such as a PS3, Wii, laptop, PC, media extender, Xbox, etc.  If that’s the case, you’re probably screwed because you WILL experience frequent dropouts… ESPECIALLY if just one those clients is a VISTA machine.   Check the Linksys forums and you will find that this seems to be a problem with all of the new Linksys routers (610N, 310N, and 110). 
Here is a Microsoft article that explains the issue
   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233/en-us 
Problem #3) Because of  problem #2 I will never be able to get rid of the dropouts since my network is using one of Linksys’s media center extenders.  The DMA2200 is essentially a VISTA PC to some extent and accepts DHCP requests the same as a VISTA PC.  Since it is not really a PC though, there is no registry modification that can be done to alleviate the VISTA problem (not that the registry mod really works anyways).  So as long as I try to use my DMA2200 wirelessly with my WRT610N router, the frequent dropouts will occur and there’s nothing I can do about it.  This is REALLY TERRIBLE since the DMA2200 is specifically designed to be used with the WRT610N router in order to take advantage of the 5Ghz band and wireless N transfer rates.  You absolutely need 5Ghz wireless N to efficiently stream HDTV WIRELESSLY, but if you lose your connection every 10 minutes, it is impossible to watch any type of streaming media. 
Problem #4) As mentioned already, when the “N” 5Ghz range is working on the WRT510N router, the distance sucks compared to standard 2.4Ghz G, N or mixed mode networks.  You can try to make it better by strictly using N products, disabling the 2.4ghz band all-to-gether, and using the wider 40mhz frequency, but it doesn’t really help.  The higher 5Ghz band is a more concentrated signal and therefore simply does not reach as far as the lower 2.4ghz band.  I wonder why all of these new products state that the 5Ghz range will increase your distance, when in fact it actually makes it worse?   
So… basically, this router does nothing that it claims too and is basically rendered useless on any network with a VISTA machine.  This has not been addressed by any Linksys firmware updates or VISTA software updates so there is no reason to even consider using this router if you you’re using VISTA or some type of VISTA Media Center Extender such as the Linksys DMA2200.  
Although, I’ve always sworn by Linksys in the past, the amount of wasted time, frustration, and horrible support has really changed my view about them.  I’ve reverted back to my old trustworthy WRT54g router and had to run cable through my house so that I wouldn’t have to box my DMA2200 extender up and let it collect dust in the attic.  It’s really disappointing that I spent all this money to buy this equipment specifically because they’re supposed to work together, but in fact they don’t.  Plus what’s the point of having top notch wireless equipment if you have to run cables in order for them to work? 
Message Edited by bobbodavis on 11-15-2008 07:37 PM

Answer 1

I have fixed all the IP adresses to avoid the DHCP problem but I still have problems.
I have sereval scenarioes:
1. MC < 1Gb wire > WRT610N < 5.0n WIFI > MX
I can see HDTV on this one but it disconnects
2. MC < 1Gb wire > WRT610N < 2.4b/g WIFI > MX
No HDTV and disconnections
3. MC < 2.4b/g WIFI > WRT610N < 2.4b/g WIFI > MX
No HDTV but no disconnections - but very slow and streaming like youtube
4. MC < 100Mb wire > WRT610N < 2.4b/g WIFI > MX
No HDTV but nice picture - testing for disconnections right now - 30+ min.
Result:
This test was very good. Stabil streaming, no disconnects for an hour. Won't support HDTV but the rest seem to work fine.
5. MC < 100Mb wire > WRT610N < 5.0n WIFI > MX
Not tested yet - looking forward to this - might bring me HDTV.
Result:
This gives HDTV but there is a problem with stability on the streaming but very difficult to see on the picture. Testing for disconnects - now tested for 30 min. - no disconnects.
This looks really promissing.
I am pretty sure that the WRT610N have a problem in the switching part of the router specially when it has to switch from 1G to WIFI. I bought the WRT610N to get HDTV on WIFI and Cisco markets the DMA and WRT610N as a perfect match. But it definately have problems - i still do not understand their silence about this.
I will come back with the last results when I have them
/John
Message Edited by Infraxpert on 01-05-2009 04:38 PM
Message Edited by Infraxpert on 01-05-2009 05:35 PM