Linksys Announces Cheaper Tri-Band Router

[thiggins]

Linksys' EA8300 Max-Stream AC2200 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Router has a 2x2 802.11ac design with one 2.4 GHz and two 5 GHz radios. The AC2200 classing comes from totaling maximum link rates of 400, 867 and 867 Mbps for the three radios.

The design has a quad-core ARMv7 processor, 256 MB of DDR3 RAM, 256 MB of flash memory, gigabit Ethernet WAN (1) and LAN (4) ports and one USB 3.0 port for storage and printer sharing. Linksys says the EA8300 also supports "Smart Connect" band steering between the two 5 GHz radios, airtime fairness, "seamless" roaming between the EA8300 and other Max Stream routers and range extenders and Amazon Alexa skills for controlling guest access and accessing network credentials.

The EA8300 is shipping now and lists for $199.99.

 

[RussellInCincinnati]

View attachment 8960​

Linksys' EA8300 Max-Stream AC2200 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Router has a 2x2 802.11ac design with one 2.4 GHz and two 5 GHz radios. The EA8300 is shipping now and lists for $199.99.

It will be great when general purpose routers with two 5ghz radios cost less than buying two routers, each with one 5ghz radio. Is that happening here?

Are the "mesh" appliances with dual, separate backhaul and client radios less expensive than buying two EdiMax BR-6478ac WiFi routers (about $65 dollars apiece) and using one as a backhaul bridge, and the other as a retransmitting access point?

 

[thiggins]

Are the "mesh" appliances with dual, separate backhaul and client radios less expensive than buying two EdiMax BR-6478ac WiFi routers (about $65 dollars apiece) and using one as a backhaul bridge, and the other as a retransmitting access point?

Let's see.
Orbi 2200 costs $349 for router and satellite.
Duplicating this with the Edimax would take 4 x $53 (current price).

So roll your own is cheaper, but not as compact. You may need to separate the router and bridge so radios don't overload each other.

 

[sfx2000]

Nice device - wee be spendy for what one would get at the ASP - but generally that'll be discounted at big-box and online...

I still don't get the utility of two 5GHz radios in the same box - but hey, it's marketing...

That's being said - Linksys does a solid job on the hardware itself for the most part - better than many.

And Linksys' software - it's an acquired taste - simple and functional...

 

[WhatIsOverkill]

View attachment 8960​

Linksys' EA8300 Max-Stream AC2200 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Router has a 2x2 802.11ac design with one 2.4 GHz and two 5 GHz radios. The AC2200 classing comes from totaling maximum link rates of 400, 867 and 867 Mbps for the three radios.

The design has a quad-core ARMv7 processor, 256 MB of DDR3 RAM, 256 MB of flash memory, gigabit Ethernet WAN (1) and LAN (4) ports and one USB 3.0 port for storage and printer sharing. Linksys says the EA8300 also supports "Smart Connect" band steering between the two 5 GHz radios, airtime fairness, "seamless" roaming between the EA8300 and other Max Stream routers and range extenders and Amazon Alexa skills for controlling guest access and accessing network credentials.

The EA8300 is shipping now and lists for $199.99.

Built my own X86 versions with OpenWRT (LEDE) and a PC Enginers apu2c4. Two QCA9880 selectable 2.4ghz/5ghz AC and a USB ralink for N. Looks ugly as sin with 6 dual band antennas for the QCA9880s. Got tired of buying new hardware everytime they update the radios.

 

[RussellInCincinnati]

Let's see.
Orbi 2200 costs $349 for router and satellite.
Duplicating this with the Edimax would take 4 x $53 (current price).

So roll your own is cheaper, but not as compact. You may need to separate the router and bridge so radios don't overload each other.

Did not realize this, thanks. In one case have put together two Asus AC68u routers to make backhauling extender, one a bridge to the other that is the new access point. They are only 4 inches away from each other (but on different 5ghz channels), perhaps should move them farther apart.

 

[arias]

No 10Ge on the WAN? What a dealbreaker.

 

[thiggins]

No 10Ge on the WAN? What a dealbreaker.

What modem do you have that has a 10GbE port?