Linksys by Cisco WRT610N excels in dual bands with long range

Linksys by Cisco's unusual flying saucer design is common across its consumer range of routers, and the cable-compatible WRT610N is no different. Place it on a shelf in your living room and it won't stick out like a sore thumb.

It will do wonders for wireless performance too. It's a dual-band router with two radios, which means devices can access the network over 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously.

Other features worthy of note are four Gigabit Ethernet ports and a USB port that allows you to share external storage devices, stream files from it to network-attached UPnP media players, and even set up FTP access.

All-round performance was good. Once we'd upgraded to the latest firmware, we achieved file transfers from router to laptop of up to 118Mbits/sec at close range over 5GHz, and 85Mbits/sec over 2.4GHz.

This isn't quite as quick as the other simultaneous dual-band routers, but perhaps more importantly, it boasts good range in both bands; in our long-range transmit tests it outpaced every router on test in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

It did well in our torture tests too, allowing us to watch an iPlayer stream, listen to internet radio, make a VoIP call, connect to our office VPN and carry out file transfers without falling over or choking bandwidth to the audio and video streams.

Although lacking hardware VPN support, the WRT610N is otherwise a quick, competent dual-band router with good range at a reasonable price. For high performance wireless, it gets the thumbs-up this month.

• - Best Value -
  Buffalo's WZR-HP-G300NH is our pick for best value wireless router this month
• 
  Billion's BiPAC7300N wireless router is good value for under $150
• 
  D-Link's DSL-2740B, an impressively fast router for under $130
• - Labs Winner -
  DrayTek's Vigor 2110n a great value wireless router that's now on our A-List
• 
  TP-LInk's TL-WR1043ND wireless router suffers from poor range, low price and no dual band
• 
  Belkin's Double N+ wireless router excels with great performance and quick speeds
• 
  D-Link's DIR-855 wireless router suffers from poor range and sky high prices
• 
  Linksys by Cisco WAG320N lacks critical dual band function
• 
  Belkin's N+ ADSL router lacks whistles and bells, but gets job done
• 
  Netgear's WNDR3700 wireless router has the speed, but lacks the range
• 
  Netgear's DGND3300 ADSL router is let down by poor performance