Linksys EA9500 Max-Stream AC5400 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router Reviewed

[FattysGoneWild]

Like to hear about your experiences with this one. Didn't think you'd go back to Linksys *smile*.

I did not think so either. Sale price, 3 year warranty and better firmware support from Linksys. Most of all. Not many complaints. It seems solid. I get it tomorrow from Amazon. Plug play and for get it. I will see how it goes using factory settings with out tweaking any thing. Other then reserving DHCP addresses for each of my devices and turning off WPS.

 

[RogerSC]

I did not think so either. Sale price, 3 year warranty and better firmware support from Linksys. Most of all. Not many complaints. It seems solid. I get it tomorrow from Amazon. Plug play and for get it. I will see how it goes using factory settings with out tweaking any thing. Other then reserving DHCP addresses for each of my devices and turning off WPS.

Sounds like a path that should work, and that "not many complaints" thing sounds good, too. Please check back in when you have it all set up and have a feel for how well it works. I'm real curious *smile*.

 

[FattysGoneWild]

Got it all setup tonight. Total cake walk. No fuss no muss. Hooked everything up. Downloaded firmrware update. Followed up by doing a factory reset after. My only minor complaint was the 2.4GHz auto settings. Channel width auto. It done fine. Set to 20MHz. But channel selection. Major fail here. It put me on channel 2!!!! 1,6 and 11 are king as we all know. I moved to channel 6. And for good measure set channel width manually to 20MHz. I only have 2 devices using 2.4GHz. A printer and PS4. Everything else is on 5GHz. The size. Seeing pictures etc does no justice. This thing is a MASSIVE BEAST! It actually cracked me up just how big it is. Could they make it any bigger?!?!? It feels like a quality piece. Very solid. The 5GHz side. All defaults with band steering. Now the true test. Hammering my network. I have a 130mb/5mb with tons of internet use. Including Playstation Vue. Lots of tv watching with that alone. So far off to a great start. We will see how it goes from here.

Believe me when I say this. Its going to be put through the ringer on my network non stop!

 

[PhoenixV]

Got it all setup tonight. Total cake walk. No fuss no muss. Hooked everything up. Downloaded firmrware update. Followed up by doing a factory reset after. My only minor complaint was the 2.4GHz auto settings. Channel width auto. It done fine. Set to 20MHz. But channel selection. Major fail here. It put me on channel 2!!!! 1,6 and 11 are king as we all know. I moved to channel 6. And for good measure set channel width manually to 20MHz. I only have 2 devices using 2.4GHz. A printer and PS4. Everything else is on 5GHz. The size. Seeing pictures etc does no justice. This thing is a MASSIVE BEAST! It actually cracked me up just how big it is. Could they make it any bigger?!?!? It feels like a quality piece. Very solid. The 5GHz side. All defaults with band steering. Now the true test. Hammering my network. I have a 130mb/5mb with tons of internet use. Including Playstation Vue. Lots of tv watching with that alone. So far off to a great start. We will see how it goes from here.

Believe me when I say this. Its going to be put through the ringer on my network non stop!

I'll be curious to hear your result. I too just got one, it lost connectivity in 11 hrs 54 min. After power cycle, it happened again after 12 hours.

 

[FattysGoneWild]

I'll be curious to hear your result. I too just got one, it lost connectivity in 11 hrs 54 min. After power cycle, it happened again after 12 hours.

Really? Man not the news I wanted to hear. Are you using the band steering? Or using it manually? It picked channels 36 and 161 for me. I really hope band steering works good with this router. It was one of the selling points for me. Set it and for get it type of deal. This firmware is so minimal and basic. I cant believe you are having connection issues already. How many devices do you have? Here are mine.

Desktop (wired)
Desktop (wired)
Ooma Telo VOIP (wired)
PS4 Pro (wired)
PS4 (2.4GHz)
LG 65UB9300 4k tv (5GHz)
iPod Touch 6th gen (5GHz)
iPod Touch 6th gen (5GHz)
iPad Air 2 (5GHz)
HP Envy Printer (2.4GHz)

I try to avoid wireless as much as possible. I hate it. I already have 1 cord running from my room where the router is located to the living room. For my PS4 Pro. I would like to take the tv off of 5GHz. But that would mean running another long wire.

 

[PhoenixV]

Yes I use band steering with everything at defaults. The indicator remains on, its transmitting, but it loses connectivity with the internet.

3 iPads - Air 2
2 iPhone - 7's
1 iPhone - 6s
3 MacBooks
1 Apple Tv - last generation
1 Apple TV - current generation
1 Amazon Tap 2.4 ghz
1 Netgear 5 ghz USB stick
1 ASUS RT-68U as access point - wired
1 Dish DVR - wired
1 Femtocell - wired

When it loses connectivity with the Internet, it is losing connectivity for both wired and wireless devices. Let me know what your experience is.

 

[FattysGoneWild]

For sure I will let you know.

**EDIT**

Just moved my PS4 Pro from wired to 5GHz wireless. See how it goes. Since they are close to each other. I wanted to finally lose the cord going from my room to the living room. 30ft of cord gone now.

 

[FattysGoneWild]

I'll be curious to hear your result. I too just got one, it lost connectivity in 11 hrs 54 min. After power cycle, it happened again after 12 hours.

Just a little update. While still early. Its way passed the 12hr mark here and not a single hiccup with any thing. I hope it continues. I wanted to ask you. After you upgraded the firmware. Did you follow up with a factory reset? If you did. And still having the connection issues you are having every 12 hrs or so. I would probably get an exchange. You might have a bad unit on your hands.

 

[PhoenixV]

Can you tell me what version your router is? The version should be found right next to the model number on the sticker affixed to the bottom of the router. Thanks

 

[FattysGoneWild]

Says V1.1

 

[PhoenixV]

That might be it. Mine is the original version. Time to exchange, but stupidly they said they don't put the version number on the box, only the device!

 

[FattysGoneWild]

Yeah that is pretty lame. I was so excited getting this router. I completely for got to check the hardware version number.

 

[FattysGoneWild]

Okay. Had my first complaint from a family member today. One of the iPod Touch 6th gen just dropped out of no where and lasted about 5 minutes. I was asleep. It was a hard drop as the wifi icon was completely gone with in the iPod screen. It came back to life by itself after those 5 minutes. I will continue to monitor. That has been the first hiccup so far since its been online Friday evening.

 

[RMerlin]

Okay. Had my first complaint from a family member today. One of the iPod Touch 6th gen just dropped out of no where and lasted about 5 minutes. I was asleep. It was a hard drop as the wifi icon was completely gone with in the iPod screen. It came back to life by itself after those 5 minutes. I will continue to monitor. That has been the first hiccup so far since its been online Friday evening.

Are you using a DFS channel?

 

[FattysGoneWild]

Are you using a DFS channel?

I am taking advantage of the band steering. Well trying to. So its all on auto pilot atm. This was a big factor for me with that band steering offering. Set and for get it. The router selected channel 36 for radio 1 and channel 161 for radio 2. If I set things up manually. I lose band steering. I want to believe the router is smart enough to handle it correctly and balance 5GHz devices well.

 

[L&LD]

I am taking advantage of the band steering. Well trying to. So its all on auto pilot atm. This was a big factor for me with that band steering offering. Set and for get it. The router selected channel 36 for radio 1 and channel 161 for radio 2. If I set things up manually. I lose band steering. I want to believe the router is smart enough to handle it correctly and balance 5GHz devices well.

It's not just up to the router to handle it correctly. The clients need to play nicely too.

 

[sfx2000]

Are you using a DFS channel?

iOS 8 capable clients and later all support DFS on the client side, no problems there...

(what I mean by IOS8, is machines that can run IOS8 or later, the iPad 1st Gen, stopped a lot earlier but even it supports DFS)

 

[RMerlin]

iOS 8 capable clients and later all support DFS on the client side, no problems there...

I was more thinking along the possibility that he might have been kicked off a DFS channel, which could explain the disconnections.

 

[sfx2000]

I was more thinking along the possibility that he might have been kicked off a DFS channel, which could explain the disconnections.

Could be - esp if band steering comes into play and the router sent the device out into a place where it had poor coverage or an association failure..

 

[FattysGoneWild]

According to the firmware. Gasp you are actually able to check this! Since Linksys firmware is always so bare bones. Surprised. Any ways. Here is a picture of how things look currently. If it is a DFS issue. I am quite surprised it would fart so bad with a hard disconnect and not correct itself. Well it did. But like 5 minutes later by itself. I was told the connection by that device just came back on like nothing even happened. Everything else was working fine on the network. It was just this iPod Touch 6th gen with the issue.