New AC4000 Max-Stream Router and AC1900 Cable Gateway From Linksys

[Julio Urquidi]

First, Linksys’ tri-band Max-Stream AC4000 MU-MIMO router (EA9300) is the latest addition to the Max-Stream line of wireless routers. Following the AC5400 EA9500 and AC2200 EA8300, the latest Max-Stream router is powered by a quad-core 1.8 GHz processor and delivers maximum data rates of 1625 Mbps @ 5 GHz (x2) and 750 Mbps @ 2.4 GHz.

The quoted link rates indicate a "tri-band" three radio, three-stream Broadcom-based design supporting 1024-QAM. It also means for most devices that don't support 1024-QAM, maximum link rates work out to 600 Mbps in 2.4 GHz and 1300 Mbps in 5 GHz for a total of 3200 Mbps, if you're counting.

Available Inputs include four GbE LAN ports, one GbE WAN port and a USB 3.0 port, while wireless connectivity is provided using six antennas and nine amplifiers.

Aside from having MU-MIMO and two 5 GHz radios, other features for the EA9300 include Airtime Fairness that lets faster devices get the throughput they’re designed for, Amazon Alexa skills for facilitating wireless access, Beamforming, SmartConnect band steering, seamless roaming when used with Linksys’ own Max Stream range extender (RE7000) and SPI Firewall for network security.

An upcoming firmware update will also add Dual WAN, link aggregation, DFS channel support, Open VPN and an advanced form of the already existing band steering feature.

Linksys also announced the shipping of its new cable gateway, the AC1900 Dual-Band Cable Modem + Router (CG7500). Made up of a combination of a DOCSIS 3.0 modem and an AC1900 wireless router, the CG7500 is compatible with cable packages from providers like Spectrum and Xfinity for up to 300 Mbps.

Powered by Intel’s Puma chipset, the dual-band CG7500 provides maximum link rates up to 1300 Mbps @ 5GHz and 600 Mbps @ 2.4 GHz. Inputs include four GbE LAN ports, one USB 2.0 port, and F-Type female connection for cable.

Pricing for the Linksys AC4000 MU-MIMO Tri-Band Router is $299.99, while the AC1900 Dual-Band Cable Modem + Router will cost $197.97. Both items will be available for purchase instore this weekend, while the gateway is currently available for pre-order from linksys.com.

 

[Makaveli]

at $300 dollars that is close to build your on Pfsense box territory.

 

[sfx2000]

at $300 dollars that is close to build your on Pfsense box territory.

pfSense might be really nice on the routing aspect... but most won't run WiFi on the pfSense box directly...

 

[sfx2000]

EA9300

Not WRT, not open... which might be something to some folks...

Linksys was pretty clear on this -- WRT is the open place, EA's are going to be walled garden...

 

[RMerlin]

ya wrong link correct one is here.

http://www.linksys.com/us/p/P-EA9300/

at $300 dollars that is close to build your on Pfsense box territory.

Expect a whole slew of routers this year that will hit the 300$ mark, based on the Broadcom BCM4908.

I can't get specific details on the EA9300, but a quick study of the firmware indicates it might be based on the BCM4908 + BCM4366E. No GPL available yet to confirm things out.

 

[sfx2000]

Powered by Intel’s Puma chipset,

I hope this isn't Intel's Puma6 chip - that's been a headache and a half...

Puma 7 looks better with DOCSIS 3.1... too early to tell at the moment.

 

[sfx2000]

Expect a whole slew of routers this year that will hit the 300$ mark, based on the Broadcom BCM4908.

And QC-Atheros chipsets... Qualcomm has done a nice job picking up Wave 2 stuff..

Marvell will always be in the middle...

 

[RMerlin]

And QC-Atheros chipsets... Qualcomm has done a nice job picking up Wave 2 stuff..

So far, QCA's products tend to be less expensive tho.

 

[KevTech]

I hope this isn't Intel's Puma6 chip - that's been a headache and a half...

Puma 7 looks better with DOCSIS 3.1... too early to tell at the moment.

Yes it is puma 6.

Latency and packet loss issues have plagued the puma 6: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31122204-SB6190-Puma6-TCP-UDP-Network-Latency-Issue-Discussion

But wait it gets even better as now it has been proven you can remotely DoS the puma 6 modems : https://www.dslreports.com/shownews...kers-Bog-Down-Impacted-Modems-Gateways-139486

Puma 7 is a bit better but it also suffers from the same latency issues the puma 6 has.

 

[Makaveli]

Expect a whole slew of routers this year that will hit the 300$ mark, based on the Broadcom BCM4908.

I can't get specific details on the EA9300, but a quick study of the firmware indicates it might be based on the BCM4908 + BCM4366E. No GPL available yet to confirm things out.

The specs on the BCM4908 look good.

I wonder what encrypted VPN speeds will be like on this thing.

• Quad core 64-bit ARM processor @ 1.8 GHz
• Zero CPU Wi-Fi offload to free up CPU resources
• BroadStream iQoS acceleration
• Dedicated security processor to enable hardware VPN acceleration
• 2.5Gb Base-X Ethernet WAN/LAN port for supporting fast connectivity to multi-gigabit modem or a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device
• Peripherals – Integrated SATA III, two USB 3.0 ports and three PCIe Gen 2 ports
• Low power – 28nm processor technology and advanced power management for more than 50% percent power usage reduction compared to previous solutions
• Support for Broadcom’s tri-band (AC5300) 5G WiFi XStream 802.11ac MU-MIMO with:
  • 3x BCM4366 4×4 radios, each with an integrated CPU for host offload processing
  • Providing a total of seven CPU cores (“Septacore”) with more than 9.6 GHz of CPU horse power
• Hardware acceleration for routing and USB storage

 

[RMerlin]

I wonder what encrypted VPN speeds will be like on this thing.

Look at posts on the Asus GT-AC5300, it uses a BCM4908, and has been available for a few weeks now, so people started running benchmarks on it.

 

[skypx]

I hope this isn't Intel's Puma6 chip - that's been a headache and a half...

Puma 7 looks better with DOCSIS 3.1... too early to tell at the moment.

@sfx2000

I was unfortunate to have the Arris SB6190 modem with the Puma 6 chipset, and when I had multiple downloads queued in IDM the download process would simply fail half way through.

Now I'm using a Netgear CM1000 with the BCM3390 chipset, and I have to say its like night and day. I have not experienced any issues whatsoever, plus I'm on Specturm's network (300/20) so firmware updates are non-existent. When it was provisioned tech support said it showed up as unknown on their network. So its unsupported but still working better that the Arris SB6190!

Personally I wouldn't touch a puma 6 device with a ten foot pole!

Beta firmware is being tested by COX, but I personally don't think it will get fixed!
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31340594-ALL-SB6190-and-CM700-latency-fix-firmware-ready-to-test