Linksys WRT400N Wireless Router
- WLAN Standards: IEEE 802.11a IEEE 802.11b IEEE 802.11n IEEE 802.11g
- Antenna Type: Internal / Integrated Antenna x 1
- Security: WEP WPA WPA2
- Connectivity: Wireless
- Router Functionalities: DHCP Server
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Mid-range router with great wireless-N performance
Pros
Simultaneous dual-band operation, excellent wireless-N performance, good throughput and stability, DD-WRT firmware supported
Cons
No gigabit ethernet, a few firmware bugs, PPTP VPN passthrough doesn't work properly
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
A good choice if your primary interest is wireless-N performance over features.
The WRT400N is one of many recent Wireless-N routers from Linksys using their new signature "UFO-style" case with internal antennas.
If you have been looking for a new router, you have probably noticed that Linksys has a confusing array of current wireless-N models that all look the same. It can be difficult to figure out what the significant differences are. The WRT400N is one of the latest models, positioned to offer simultaneous dual-band operation without the other premium features of the more expensive WRT610N.
Features:
Here's what distinguishes the WRT400N and why:
1. Simultaneous dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz operation.
Most home routers have traditionally operated only in the overcrowded 2.4 GHz band allowed by the 802.11b and 802.11g standards, while only professional routers operated in the 5 GHz band using the 802.11a standard. High-end wireless-N routers can now operate in both bands, simultaneously if they have dual radio systems, as the WRT400N does. The range tends to be a bit shorter with the 5 GHz frequency since it doesn't carry as far or penetrate walls quite as well as 2.4 GHz, but there's much less chance of interference from other sources. The simultaneous capability would allow you, for example, to use 5 Ghz for a real-time video stream without interference from operating other wireless devices in the 2.4 GHz band at the same time (the Linksys WRT320N is an example of a dual-band router with only a single radio which must be operated in one band or the other, not both simultaneously). Of course very few laptops or other home WiFi devices currently support 5 GHz, but we may see more in future now that there are more consumer dual-band routers.
2. Two antennas per band (internal)
Wireless N routers can take advantage of having multiple antennas and radios (up to 4) to establish multiple data streams using separate signal paths at the same frequency (known as MIMO = Multi-Input, Multi-Output, or spatial diversity). The WRT400N has two internal antennas and radios for each frequency band. This is different from the older Wireless-G models with multiple antennas, as those models only had one radio which could switch back and forth between the two antennas to find the best reception, but could not use both simultaneously.
Some of the cheap wireless-N routers (like the Linksys WRT120N) have only a single antenna and radio, which means that they can't offer true wireless N speed. Technically they are not WiFi N certified, but most manufacturers have not yet adopted the approved labeling scheme (see http: //www.smallnetbuilder.com /wireless/wireless-news /31013-wi-fi-now-testing-single-stream-n). Most wireless-N routers have at least two antennas, like the WRT400N, theoretically allowing up to 300 Mbps speed. Premium models like the WRT610N have three, but there's a diminishing benefit from having more than two because the physical separation of the antennas on the home routers and the mobile receivers is not adequate to take advantage of them. In fact the comparison tests I have seen of two and three antenna models do not show any clear difference, and I don't know of any home Wireless-N routers with 4 antennas for one band.
An unusual design feature of the Linksys "UFO" models is that the antennas are internal. This is probably more for style than for function, but the radio performance doesn't seem to suffer. Internal photos of the WRT400N show that there are actually four antennas placed at the four corners, and they are used in diagonal pairs for each frequency band (http: //www.smallnetbuilder.com /content/view/30758/100/). There are no external antenna connectors, so you cannot change or augment the internal antennas as you can for some router models (although technically it's illegal to use an antenna with more gain than allowed by the stock antennas).
3. Four-port 10/100 Ethernet switch
Like most home routers of the past decade, the WRT400N has a standard 4-port Ethernet switch supporting 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps speeds. Many premium router models (like the WRT610N) are now offering Gigabit Ethernet switches. The extra speed could be useful if you have more than one computer with a Gigabit Ethernet port. I do have one, but since I have no other computers or devices supporting Gigabit Ethernet it would not currently be useful to me. Nevertheless, we can expect to see more Gigabit Ethernet in the future, so that lack of a Gigabit Ethernet switch on the WRT400N is a bit disappointing, even if it's an understandable cost-cutting measure to distinguish it from the more expensive Linksys models. Still, it's easy enough to add a Gigabit Ethernet switch on the wired side of the router later at a cost much lower than buying a new router.
4. Atheros chipset
The chipset is not prominently mentioned in router specifications, and you might never know that different Linksys routers are based on different chipsets from different manufacturers. So why would you care? Three reasons: 1) Different performance characteristics; 2) Compatibility with your wireless Draft-N devices; 3) Ability to run third-party firmware like DD-WRT, Tomato, or OpenWRT.
The Atheros chipset used in the WRT400N shows particularly good wireless performance in comparison tests with the Linksys Broadcom-based routers, and perhaps I'm especially fortunate that my Asus laptop uses an Atheros Wireless-N chipset for best compatibility.
Missing features:
One other popular premium hardware feature which the WRT400N does not have is a USB host port allowing it to act as a network file or print server with an attached USB drive or printer connected. This would be useful for people with several computers sharing a common file server or printer on a home network, albeit the file server performance tends to be quite slow with the routers which have this feature.
Wireless performance:
In a word, Excellent.
My previous Netgear and Belkin wireless-G routers both suffered some performance dropouts around my house. It was particularly annoying that my wireless connection to the TV downstairs for streaming video would vary up and down from Very Good to Low, and occasionally drop entirely. I also found that on some days the interference from my neighbors would completely disable my remote wireless webcam for hours at a time.
But with the WRT400N, I get a stable Very Good to Excellent connection everywhere around the house. Normally I can get a full 300 Mbps wireless N connection to my laptop if I force a Wide 40 MHz channel, although that can often drop to 130 Mbps with the router on the normal Auto setting and my neighbors using WiFi channels nearby. Actual throughput is only about double that of a good 54 Mbps wireless-G connection, but it's a big improvement in reliability.
I can't say how well the Auto setting works to pick channels with the least interference, as opposed to picking channels manually, but it's nice to have when there are plenty of neighbors in the area with competing WiFi networks.
Sorry I can't tell you anything about the 5 GHz performance. Unfortunately it looks like Asus didn't include 5 GHz capability with the Wireless-N radio in my laptop, and I don't know of any other device at home or in the office which might have 5 GHz capability I could use to do a test. You can bet I will be looking for 5 GHz capability on the devices I buy in the future.
The router is equipped with screw slots for vertical wall mounting, but obviously you can't change the angle of the internal antennas, and Linksys offers no guidance on whether there is a preferred orientation. Moving the router around to different locations and orientations, I do notice some apparent variation in signal strength at different remote locations, but I think it would still be usable at any of those locations and orientations.
You can find some more detailed wireless performance comparison tests on the WRT400N at http: //www.smallnetbuilder.com/ content/view/30775/96/, but as always it's how it performs in your own house that counts.
Technically this is a draft-N wireless router, as are all the others currently available, since the final 802.11n standard was only finalized recently, but I'm not aware of any compatibility problems related to differences between the draft-N standard and the final version.
Other performance tests:
It doesn't generally crash or freeze on me yet in normal day-to-day operation, but it has a couple of times when changing settings. Also I have several times had it freeze when left running unattended for a few weeks - a couple of times for unknown reasons, once when the Daylight Savings Time change happened. I therefore wouldn't consider it completely reliable for long-term unattended operation.
100 Mbps wired Ethernet throughput seems fine.
DNS lookup performance seems fine (unlike my previous Netgear router, which was quite slow in DNS lookup tests).
My own stress tests of the internet interface with lots of simultaneous connections and heavy traffic don't seem to cause any problems, although I have no easy way to do a detailed performance test.
This model supports Qos (Quality of Service) setting to prioritize certain types of traffic like VoIP calls, but this feature is of limited value on a home network. It also supports WiFi MultiMedia (WMM), a variant of QoS which is supposed to automatically prioritize streaming multimedia traffic over a wireless connection, but in practice WMM is poorly supported by apps and servers at the moment (see http: //www.smallnetbuilder.com /wireless/wireless-features /30837-does-wi-fi-multimedia-wmm-really-do-anything-part-3).
There is unfortunately a bug with the PPTP VPN passthrough. It can take half a dozen retries or more for the WRT400N to get connected to a PPTP VPN. I can usually get a connection eventually, and it works once it's connected, but the process usually takes several minutes. Judging by the support forum posts, Linksys has known about this bug for a long time, but it's still not fixed in the latest firmware.
Update March 2010: Linksys has released new firmware (rev 11), dated about a year after the initial firmware. It lists a number of revisions and bug fixes, but it does not fix any of the problems mentioned here. On a more positive note, a preliminary version of the 3rd-party DD-WRT firmware is now available for the WRT400N.
Wireless Protected Setup:
WPS is a new feature intended to allow easy setup of WiFi security for devices that support it. Basically you click the WPS button on the router and on the device you are trying to connect, and for 2 minutes it bypasses security and allows the two to automatically communicate the required security settings for normal operation. There are some more detailed WPS options in the browser interface, such as entering a PIN number for devices which require that.
Let me just say that I think this is a bad, bad idea. During the 2 minutes that WPS is active, anyone nearby who is scanning for this vulnerability could permanently compromise your security, and you would have no idea. Since there's a nice button on top of the router, you could easily press it accidentally without meaning to - or anyone with momentary access to your router could press it without you noticing. There's a little WPS LED that blinks while it's active, but you'd never notice without looking closely. Linksys has not provided any way to turn this feature off or disable the button.
In addition I have seen a serious security bug where this router accidentally enables remote web access to the admin interface while still showing it as disabled in the settings.
Physical design:
It looks fine, although I'm not a particular fan of the "UFO" style. It's quite thin, but it takes up a bit more table-top space horizontally than traditional router designs. The important cooling slots in the depression on the top are more vulnerable to being covered accidentally or having small objects fall into them. Obviously you can't stack anything on top of this router. The all-blue LEDs fit the color scheme, but don't show as much information as multi-color LEDs.
At least the wireless performance doesn't seem to suffer from the non-adjustable internal antennas.
I'm always surprised by the lack of a wireless On/Off button on these routers. It would be a useful and cheap security measure, especially since there's no way to see from the indicators when wireless clients are connected, and the status page that shows which wireless clients are connected is buried deep and obscurely in the web interface (it's under Wireless MAC filtering). It also wouldn't hurt to have a power on/off button; I find it ironic that the manual suggests turning the router off when not in use as a security measure, but the only way to do that is to unplug it. And while we're at it, an internet disconnect button would be nice as well.
Web interface and functionality:
Most of what I expect in a router is there, and not too difficult to find, especially if you are familiar with other Linksys routers. One major lack is that there is no SNMP remote management interface, nor is there any way to monitor the amount of traffic through the router. I was easily able to transfer all the settings from my old Netgear router in a few minutes and have the WRT400N appear exactly the same to my network and applications. One more minor bug: the url wrt400n.com which is supposed to be a shortcut to the admin interface only works if the router is set to use the default Linksys admin IP address of 192.168.1.1.
Indicators:
The WRT400N has the standard row of indicator lights along the front, one for each of the four Ethernet LAN ports, the Internet/WAN port, and the wireless AP. As usual they light up to show connection, and blink to show send/receive activity. They are all monochrome blue LEDs, another style element adopted by Linksys. There's an error in the WRT400N manual - it claims for the Internet indicator "The LED lights up Green when it is connected to 10/100 port and Blue when it is connected to a gigabit port", but it doesn't - it's obviously an incorrect cut and paste from another model. I have seen one bug with the indicators: often the Wireless indicator gets flipped to an inverted state, reversing off and on.
Documentation:
Router manufacturers traditionally don't include a printed manual in the box, since they assume you will have internet access, and the WRT400N is no exception. Linksys goes one step further by not including any connection or configuration information in the Quick Start guide. All they tell you is to run the included CDROM first. I didn't bother installing the CDROM software, since it's just a dumbed-down way to access the settings available from the router's web browser interface at IP address 192.168.1.1. While some people new to routers might appreciate having the software setup assistance, I think the Linksys is going the wrong way by removing all other printed information from the package. They should at least include a diagram of how to connect the router, directions to access the web interface with your browser, and an appropriate warning about wireless security. At least they included printed information on where to find tech support and the online manual. It's not difficult to download a pdf copy of the manual, and aside from sketchy technical detail and a few typos, the information supplied is adequate.
Warranty and Support:
No warranty information is provided with the modem, but the online information says 1 year.
Linksys generally provides pretty good online technical support information, and they do have 24/7 support. However I have found Linksys human technical support to be similar to other manufacturers, which is to say, not very useful (e.g., see the PPTP VPN problem above). Also note that Linksys diligently monitors their support forums to delete any comments critical of Linksys, so don't be surprised that there's a lack of information there on some of the more serious problems.
Box contents:
Router and power supply, CDROM, Quick Start guide which says only to run the CDROM, one Ethernet cable. That's it!
Overall:
I give the WRT400N a very good rating for the wireless performance, and almost everything else seems to work fine except the PPTP VPN support. Some of the minor firmware bugs are annoying, as is the general unwillingness of Linksys to invest in fixing them after the product is a few months old. I wish it had gigabit Ethernet, but I don't actually have a need for that right now, and it's easy enough to add a separate gigabit Ethernet switch later.
If you have been looking for a new router, you have probably noticed that Linksys has a confusing array of current wireless-N models that all look the same. It can be difficult to figure out what the significant differences are. The WRT400N is one of the latest models, positioned to offer simultaneous dual-band operation without the other premium features of the more expensive WRT610N.
Features:
Here's what distinguishes the WRT400N and why:
1. Simultaneous dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz operation.
Most home routers have traditionally operated only in the overcrowded 2.4 GHz band allowed by the 802.11b and 802.11g standards, while only professional routers operated in the 5 GHz band using the 802.11a standard. High-end wireless-N routers can now operate in both bands, simultaneously if they have dual radio systems, as the WRT400N does. The range tends to be a bit shorter with the 5 GHz frequency since it doesn't carry as far or penetrate walls quite as well as 2.4 GHz, but there's much less chance of interference from other sources. The simultaneous capability would allow you, for example, to use 5 Ghz for a real-time video stream without interference from operating other wireless devices in the 2.4 GHz band at the same time (the Linksys WRT320N is an example of a dual-band router with only a single radio which must be operated in one band or the other, not both simultaneously). Of course very few laptops or other home WiFi devices currently support 5 GHz, but we may see more in future now that there are more consumer dual-band routers.
2. Two antennas per band (internal)
Wireless N routers can take advantage of having multiple antennas and radios (up to 4) to establish multiple data streams using separate signal paths at the same frequency (known as MIMO = Multi-Input, Multi-Output, or spatial diversity). The WRT400N has two internal antennas and radios for each frequency band. This is different from the older Wireless-G models with multiple antennas, as those models only had one radio which could switch back and forth between the two antennas to find the best reception, but could not use both simultaneously.
Some of the cheap wireless-N routers (like the Linksys WRT120N) have only a single antenna and radio, which means that they can't offer true wireless N speed. Technically they are not WiFi N certified, but most manufacturers have not yet adopted the approved labeling scheme (see http: //www.smallnetbuilder.com /wireless/wireless-news /31013-wi-fi-now-testing-single-stream-n). Most wireless-N routers have at least two antennas, like the WRT400N, theoretically allowing up to 300 Mbps speed. Premium models like the WRT610N have three, but there's a diminishing benefit from having more than two because the physical separation of the antennas on the home routers and the mobile receivers is not adequate to take advantage of them. In fact the comparison tests I have seen of two and three antenna models do not show any clear difference, and I don't know of any home Wireless-N routers with 4 antennas for one band.
An unusual design feature of the Linksys "UFO" models is that the antennas are internal. This is probably more for style than for function, but the radio performance doesn't seem to suffer. Internal photos of the WRT400N show that there are actually four antennas placed at the four corners, and they are used in diagonal pairs for each frequency band (http: //www.smallnetbuilder.com /content/view/30758/100/). There are no external antenna connectors, so you cannot change or augment the internal antennas as you can for some router models (although technically it's illegal to use an antenna with more gain than allowed by the stock antennas).
3. Four-port 10/100 Ethernet switch
Like most home routers of the past decade, the WRT400N has a standard 4-port Ethernet switch supporting 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps speeds. Many premium router models (like the WRT610N) are now offering Gigabit Ethernet switches. The extra speed could be useful if you have more than one computer with a Gigabit Ethernet port. I do have one, but since I have no other computers or devices supporting Gigabit Ethernet it would not currently be useful to me. Nevertheless, we can expect to see more Gigabit Ethernet in the future, so that lack of a Gigabit Ethernet switch on the WRT400N is a bit disappointing, even if it's an understandable cost-cutting measure to distinguish it from the more expensive Linksys models. Still, it's easy enough to add a Gigabit Ethernet switch on the wired side of the router later at a cost much lower than buying a new router.
4. Atheros chipset
The chipset is not prominently mentioned in router specifications, and you might never know that different Linksys routers are based on different chipsets from different manufacturers. So why would you care? Three reasons: 1) Different performance characteristics; 2) Compatibility with your wireless Draft-N devices; 3) Ability to run third-party firmware like DD-WRT, Tomato, or OpenWRT.
The Atheros chipset used in the WRT400N shows particularly good wireless performance in comparison tests with the Linksys Broadcom-based routers, and perhaps I'm especially fortunate that my Asus laptop uses an Atheros Wireless-N chipset for best compatibility.
Missing features:
One other popular premium hardware feature which the WRT400N does not have is a USB host port allowing it to act as a network file or print server with an attached USB drive or printer connected. This would be useful for people with several computers sharing a common file server or printer on a home network, albeit the file server performance tends to be quite slow with the routers which have this feature.
Wireless performance:
In a word, Excellent.
My previous Netgear and Belkin wireless-G routers both suffered some performance dropouts around my house. It was particularly annoying that my wireless connection to the TV downstairs for streaming video would vary up and down from Very Good to Low, and occasionally drop entirely. I also found that on some days the interference from my neighbors would completely disable my remote wireless webcam for hours at a time.
But with the WRT400N, I get a stable Very Good to Excellent connection everywhere around the house. Normally I can get a full 300 Mbps wireless N connection to my laptop if I force a Wide 40 MHz channel, although that can often drop to 130 Mbps with the router on the normal Auto setting and my neighbors using WiFi channels nearby. Actual throughput is only about double that of a good 54 Mbps wireless-G connection, but it's a big improvement in reliability.
I can't say how well the Auto setting works to pick channels with the least interference, as opposed to picking channels manually, but it's nice to have when there are plenty of neighbors in the area with competing WiFi networks.
Sorry I can't tell you anything about the 5 GHz performance. Unfortunately it looks like Asus didn't include 5 GHz capability with the Wireless-N radio in my laptop, and I don't know of any other device at home or in the office which might have 5 GHz capability I could use to do a test. You can bet I will be looking for 5 GHz capability on the devices I buy in the future.
The router is equipped with screw slots for vertical wall mounting, but obviously you can't change the angle of the internal antennas, and Linksys offers no guidance on whether there is a preferred orientation. Moving the router around to different locations and orientations, I do notice some apparent variation in signal strength at different remote locations, but I think it would still be usable at any of those locations and orientations.
You can find some more detailed wireless performance comparison tests on the WRT400N at http: //www.smallnetbuilder.com/ content/view/30775/96/, but as always it's how it performs in your own house that counts.
Technically this is a draft-N wireless router, as are all the others currently available, since the final 802.11n standard was only finalized recently, but I'm not aware of any compatibility problems related to differences between the draft-N standard and the final version.
Other performance tests:
It doesn't generally crash or freeze on me yet in normal day-to-day operation, but it has a couple of times when changing settings. Also I have several times had it freeze when left running unattended for a few weeks - a couple of times for unknown reasons, once when the Daylight Savings Time change happened. I therefore wouldn't consider it completely reliable for long-term unattended operation.
100 Mbps wired Ethernet throughput seems fine.
DNS lookup performance seems fine (unlike my previous Netgear router, which was quite slow in DNS lookup tests).
My own stress tests of the internet interface with lots of simultaneous connections and heavy traffic don't seem to cause any problems, although I have no easy way to do a detailed performance test.
This model supports Qos (Quality of Service) setting to prioritize certain types of traffic like VoIP calls, but this feature is of limited value on a home network. It also supports WiFi MultiMedia (WMM), a variant of QoS which is supposed to automatically prioritize streaming multimedia traffic over a wireless connection, but in practice WMM is poorly supported by apps and servers at the moment (see http: //www.smallnetbuilder.com /wireless/wireless-features /30837-does-wi-fi-multimedia-wmm-really-do-anything-part-3).
There is unfortunately a bug with the PPTP VPN passthrough. It can take half a dozen retries or more for the WRT400N to get connected to a PPTP VPN. I can usually get a connection eventually, and it works once it's connected, but the process usually takes several minutes. Judging by the support forum posts, Linksys has known about this bug for a long time, but it's still not fixed in the latest firmware.
Update March 2010: Linksys has released new firmware (rev 11), dated about a year after the initial firmware. It lists a number of revisions and bug fixes, but it does not fix any of the problems mentioned here. On a more positive note, a preliminary version of the 3rd-party DD-WRT firmware is now available for the WRT400N.
Wireless Protected Setup:
WPS is a new feature intended to allow easy setup of WiFi security for devices that support it. Basically you click the WPS button on the router and on the device you are trying to connect, and for 2 minutes it bypasses security and allows the two to automatically communicate the required security settings for normal operation. There are some more detailed WPS options in the browser interface, such as entering a PIN number for devices which require that.
Let me just say that I think this is a bad, bad idea. During the 2 minutes that WPS is active, anyone nearby who is scanning for this vulnerability could permanently compromise your security, and you would have no idea. Since there's a nice button on top of the router, you could easily press it accidentally without meaning to - or anyone with momentary access to your router could press it without you noticing. There's a little WPS LED that blinks while it's active, but you'd never notice without looking closely. Linksys has not provided any way to turn this feature off or disable the button.
In addition I have seen a serious security bug where this router accidentally enables remote web access to the admin interface while still showing it as disabled in the settings.
Physical design:
It looks fine, although I'm not a particular fan of the "UFO" style. It's quite thin, but it takes up a bit more table-top space horizontally than traditional router designs. The important cooling slots in the depression on the top are more vulnerable to being covered accidentally or having small objects fall into them. Obviously you can't stack anything on top of this router. The all-blue LEDs fit the color scheme, but don't show as much information as multi-color LEDs.
At least the wireless performance doesn't seem to suffer from the non-adjustable internal antennas.
I'm always surprised by the lack of a wireless On/Off button on these routers. It would be a useful and cheap security measure, especially since there's no way to see from the indicators when wireless clients are connected, and the status page that shows which wireless clients are connected is buried deep and obscurely in the web interface (it's under Wireless MAC filtering). It also wouldn't hurt to have a power on/off button; I find it ironic that the manual suggests turning the router off when not in use as a security measure, but the only way to do that is to unplug it. And while we're at it, an internet disconnect button would be nice as well.
Web interface and functionality:
Most of what I expect in a router is there, and not too difficult to find, especially if you are familiar with other Linksys routers. One major lack is that there is no SNMP remote management interface, nor is there any way to monitor the amount of traffic through the router. I was easily able to transfer all the settings from my old Netgear router in a few minutes and have the WRT400N appear exactly the same to my network and applications. One more minor bug: the url wrt400n.com which is supposed to be a shortcut to the admin interface only works if the router is set to use the default Linksys admin IP address of 192.168.1.1.
Indicators:
The WRT400N has the standard row of indicator lights along the front, one for each of the four Ethernet LAN ports, the Internet/WAN port, and the wireless AP. As usual they light up to show connection, and blink to show send/receive activity. They are all monochrome blue LEDs, another style element adopted by Linksys. There's an error in the WRT400N manual - it claims for the Internet indicator "The LED lights up Green when it is connected to 10/100 port and Blue when it is connected to a gigabit port", but it doesn't - it's obviously an incorrect cut and paste from another model. I have seen one bug with the indicators: often the Wireless indicator gets flipped to an inverted state, reversing off and on.
Documentation:
Router manufacturers traditionally don't include a printed manual in the box, since they assume you will have internet access, and the WRT400N is no exception. Linksys goes one step further by not including any connection or configuration information in the Quick Start guide. All they tell you is to run the included CDROM first. I didn't bother installing the CDROM software, since it's just a dumbed-down way to access the settings available from the router's web browser interface at IP address 192.168.1.1. While some people new to routers might appreciate having the software setup assistance, I think the Linksys is going the wrong way by removing all other printed information from the package. They should at least include a diagram of how to connect the router, directions to access the web interface with your browser, and an appropriate warning about wireless security. At least they included printed information on where to find tech support and the online manual. It's not difficult to download a pdf copy of the manual, and aside from sketchy technical detail and a few typos, the information supplied is adequate.
Warranty and Support:
No warranty information is provided with the modem, but the online information says 1 year.
Linksys generally provides pretty good online technical support information, and they do have 24/7 support. However I have found Linksys human technical support to be similar to other manufacturers, which is to say, not very useful (e.g., see the PPTP VPN problem above). Also note that Linksys diligently monitors their support forums to delete any comments critical of Linksys, so don't be surprised that there's a lack of information there on some of the more serious problems.
Box contents:
Router and power supply, CDROM, Quick Start guide which says only to run the CDROM, one Ethernet cable. That's it!
Overall:
I give the WRT400N a very good rating for the wireless performance, and almost everything else seems to work fine except the PPTP VPN support. Some of the minor firmware bugs are annoying, as is the general unwillingness of Linksys to invest in fixing them after the product is a few months old. I wish it had gigabit Ethernet, but I don't actually have a need for that right now, and it's easy enough to add a separate gigabit Ethernet switch later.
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