Linksys WRT1900AC AC1900 Dual Band Wireless Router Review

[sfx2000]

All good - outside of Tim's review and follow up - the community has good feedback here -- both good and opportunities for Linksys/Belkin to improve upon.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=16736

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[homerica]

Hi,
Belated but better be late than never. Posters, it'd be nice if you mention what OS you're
using with this router. Most are Windows, but Mac or Linux too? Heard 5GHz speed degrades when working on Mac, any Mac user? No one tried eSata port? I am waiting for mine which is in the mail(BIG thanks to Tim Higgins)

Glad to know that I'm not the only one who had problems with WRT1900AC's 5Ghz wi-fi under OSX.

I could only get 600Mbit/s link speed when either my 2013 Macbook air or iMac (both AC capable) is connected to the WRT1900AC's 5G wi-fi network, sometimes if I turn the wi-fi off then re-enable it again to connect to the WRT1900AC's 5Ghz network manually, it might show 1Gbit/s link speed for a little while before automatically changing back to 600Mbit/s, however during the period the link speed was 1Gbit/s, it was impossible to load any webpages (same phenomena on both machines).

I had really high hope for the WRT1900AC and I admit that its 2.4Ghz distance was indeed better than my R7000, but after tinkering and bearing with the WRT1900AC's disappointing 5Ghz wifi for 5 days, I gave up and returned it.

I will be keeping my Netgear R7000 which delivers true AC performance and has been rock solid with two AC capable Macs since day one (bought my R7000 about 4 weeks ago).

Update: The bad experience I had with my first Linksys WRT1900AC was indeed caused by a faulty unit. I am on my second one now and couldn't be happier.
P.S. The wireless to Lan LAG problem of the Netgear R7000 came to my attention after plugging a headless mac mini server into the Router.

 

[sfx2000]

Glad to know that I'm not the only one who had problems with WRT1900AC's 5Ghz wi-fi under OSX.

I could only get 600Mbit/s link speed when either my 2013 Macbook air or iMac (both AC capable) is connected to the WRT1900AC's 5G wi-fi network, sometimes if I turn the wi-fi off then re-enable it again to connect to the WRT1900AC's 5Ghz network manually, it might show 1Gbit/s link speed for a little while before automatically changing back to 600Mbit/s, however during the period the link speed was 1Gbit/s, it was impossible to load any webpages (same phenomena on both machines).

I had really high hope for the WRT1900AC and I admit that its 2.4Ghz distance was indeed better than my R7000, but after tinkering and bearing with the WRT1900AC's disappointing 5Ghz wifi for 5 days, I gave up and returned it.

I will be keeping my Netgear R7000 which delivers true AC performance and has been rock solid with two AC capable Macs since day one (bought my R7000 about 4 weeks ago).

well... most folks would probably agree that I'm more Apple centric than many here...

No interoperability issues noted on the WRT1900ac that are iOS or Mac OS X specific - they all basically worked - very similar in performance to the Apple Airport Extreme 2012 edition (three stream AC1750 class, except that Apple does narrow channels only in 2.4Ghz, which disrupts Tim H's classification schema...)

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[htismaqe]

Do you use AFP for file transfers?

I used AFP for file transfers with my WNDR3700 back when I was running 10.6/10.7.

About the same time I upgraded to Mavericks I also bought a Netgear R7000.

Mavericks had an issue with large file transfers over SMB2 (Apple's new default for file transfers in Mavericks) so I just kept using AFP.

Unforunately, the R7000 didn't appear to know how to handle it. When connected over either wireless band, the second I would start a file transfer over 4GB in size, my wireless connection became unusable for multi-tasking. The AFP file transfer worked fine but consumed 100% of the available bandwidth. Not even ICMP would go through.

Switch to SMB, and everything looked fine (the transfer would error out at the end but that's a Mavericks issue).

Put the WNDR3700 back in, everything fine. Connect to one of my external 2.4GHz AP's - everything fine.

Netgear never did figure out what was causing it. I gave up.

 

[homerica]

well... most folks would probably agree that I'm more Apple centric than many here...

No interoperability issues noted on the WRT1900ac that are iOS or Mac OS X specific - they all basically worked - very similar in performance to the Apple Airport Extreme 2012 edition (three stream AC1750 class, except that Apple does narrow channels only in 2.4Ghz, which disrupts Tim H's classification schema...)

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Maybe I was unlucky to get a faulty WRT1900AC...

 

[sfx2000]

Do you use AFP for file transfers?

I used AFP for file transfers with my WNDR3700 back when I was running 10.6/10.7.

About the same time I upgraded to Mavericks I also bought a Netgear R7000.

Mavericks had an issue with large file transfers over SMB2 (Apple's new default for file transfers in Mavericks) so I just kept using AFP.

Unforunately, the R7000 didn't appear to know how to handle it. When connected over either wireless band, the second I would start a file transfer over 4GB in size, my wireless connection because unusable for multi-tasking. The AFP file transfer worked fine but consumed 100% of the available bandwidth. Not even ICMP would go through.

Switch to SMB, and everything looked fine (the transfer would error out at the end but that's a Mavericks issue).

Put the WNDR3700 back in, everything fine. Connect to one of my external 2.4GHz AP's - everything fine.

Netgear never did figure out what was causing it. I gave up.

Interesting - writing to the network drive on the Router/AP or to another server?

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[htismaqe]

Interesting - writing to the network drive on the Router/AP or to another server?

sfx

Writing to a Buffalo NAS connected to one of the GigE ports.

I should note - if I move my iMac into the main room and connect via GigE it also works fine.

So via GigE, fine. Via wireless to an external AP, fine. Via another wireless router (WNDR3700), fine.

Via wireless to the R7000, no go.

I have to transfer big files and the R7000 finally allowed me to use 5Ghz in my office. It cut some of my transfer times by SEVERAL hours. But I have to be able to continue to work while files are transferring in the background.

I ended up enabling FTP for that share and using Terminal to transfer large files. Functional but annoying.

 

[sfx2000]

Glad to know that I'm not the only one who had problems with WRT1900AC's 5Ghz wi-fi under OSX.

I could only get 600Mbit/s link speed when either my 2013 Macbook air or iMac (both AC capable) is connected to the WRT1900AC's 5G wi-fi network, sometimes if I turn the wi-fi off then re-enable it again to connect to the WRT1900AC's 5Ghz network manually, it might show 1Gbit/s link speed for a little while before automatically changing back to 600Mbit/s, however during the period the link speed was 1Gbit/s, it was impossible to load any webpages (same phenomena on both machines).

I had really high hope for the WRT1900AC and I admit that its 2.4Ghz distance was indeed better than my R7000, but after tinkering and bearing with the WRT1900AC's disappointing 5Ghz wifi for 5 days, I gave up and returned it.

I will be keeping my Netgear R7000 which delivers true AC performance and has been rock solid with two AC capable Macs since day one (bought my R7000 about 4 weeks ago).

One of the known issues with the previous firmware was that in 5Ghz, there is some degradation with the 11ac equipped Macs - they're looking into it, not sure if this has been explicitly addressed as of the current firmware.

Again, I didn't see any direct impact... but I've got a MacBook Air with 2-stream 11ac and a MacBook Pro with three stream 11n - Windows and Linux was tested again an Asus 11ac USB3 dongle (2 stream).

 

[sfx2000]

I ended up enabling FTP for that share and using Terminal to transfer large files. Functional but annoying.

You do know that you can mount FTP shares via Finder right?

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[htismaqe]

You do know that you can mount FTP shares via Finder right?

sfx

Can't write to them via Finder, they're read-only.

 

[htismaqe]

One of the known issues with the previous firmware was that in 5Ghz, there is some degradation with the 11ac equipped Macs - they're looking into it, not sure if this has been explicitly addressed as of the current firmware.

Again, I didn't see any direct impact... but I've got a MacBook Air with 2-stream 11ac and a MacBook Pro with three stream 11n - Windows and Linux was tested again an Asus 11ac USB3 dongle (2 stream).

My iMac (as you know now from the other thread you replied to me ) has N450 rather than AC, so it's not that.

 

[sfx2000]

Can't write to them via Finder, they're read-only.

Ah, that's right, totally spaced out that I have FUSE built and installed

 

[Raiu]

Just a quick question does the linksys router have the ability to share a USB hard drive over the net like the asus routers?

 

[htismaqe]

@ Raiu,

Yes, from the looks of the manual, it's identical to the EA6900, which allows you to configure FTP access from the Internet to your USB drive.

@ sfx2000,

I've been testing AFP file transfers tonight with the EA6900 and no issues at all.

 

[RogerSC]

@ Raiu,

Yes, from the looks of the manual, it's identical to the EA6900, which allows you to configure FTP access from the Internet to your USB drive.

@ sfx2000,

I've been testing AFP file transfers tonight with the EA6900 and no issues at all.

Sounds like the EA6900 is coming through for you, good to hear. You've been looking around a lot. Hope it just works for everything you need.

 

[sfx2000]

@ sfx2000,

I've been testing AFP file transfers tonight with the EA6900 and no issues at all.

see my note on another thread - specifically and on-purpose... the Samba implementation may not be as secure as you think... testparm covers local host, but one needs to scan from a client to see what truly happens..

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[Raiu]

I am thinking about picking one up at bestbuy tomorrow and seeing if it works out better then my 68r. I was watching netflix last night from my apple tv which is hard wired to the router and it just lagged or wouldn't load. I also get wifi drops randomly as well.

The only reason I can see my self sticking with the 68r is the Aicloud and native openvpn support.

 

[Deleted member 28741]

ASUS has certainly had plenty of time to sort out its problems, but they still persist.

Which problems exactly?

I probably shouldn't ask this question as I am the worrying type

 

[thiggins]

Which problems exactly?

I probably shouldn't ask this question as I am the worrying type

ASUS updates its firmware perhaps more often than other manfs. But each release introduces new problems as old ones are fixed.

All those forums devoted to ASUS aren't discussing how wonderful the routers are....

If it were not for Merlin's firmware, which is focused on fixing bugs vs. adding features, ASUS would probably not have the market position among router geeks that it has.

 

[GoNz0]

ASUS updates its firmware perhaps more often than other manfs. But each release introduces new problems as old ones are fixed.

All those forums devoted to ASUS aren't discussing how wonderful the routers are....

If it were not for Merlin's firmware, which is focused on fixing bugs vs. adding features, ASUS would probably not have the market position among router geeks that it has.

I agree, but he has merged yet another asus firmware further crippling the routers performance. If only he would add in needed features like picking what region you are in rather than EU or US only I may have picked up a 2ns AC68u rather than going to try a linksys WRT1900.