Linksys E3200 High-Performance Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Router
- Enjoy the power of high-performance, simultaneous dual-band Wireless-N technology (80211n) ideal for home entertainment
- Connect Internet-ready TVs, Blu-rays, game consoles and other devices at superior speeds up to 300 + 300 Mbps
- Double your network bandwidth with simultaneous dual bands
- Connect an external storage device to the built-in USB port to share your files at home or on the Internet
- Connect a printer to share among the computers on your network
The Linksys E3200 offers superior wireless speed (up to 300 + 300 Mbps), optimal range, and simultaneous dual-band technology to create a powerful network designed for home entertainment. Simultaneous dual-band Wireless-N technology allows for smoother and faster HD/3D video streaming. A built-in USB port lets you add external storage and printers* to share files across your network. An enhanced MIMO antenna array offers superior range and reliability. Plus, included Cisco Connect software gets
List Price: $ 119.99
Price: $ 119.99
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Routing Heaven… almost,
The Linksys E3200 is, without a doubt, an impressive product. It’s one VERY easy to set router that appears to operate reliably and even comes with a couple of notable bells and whistles. However, some of the ‘high performance’ claims proved to be slightly exaggerated and I wasn’t impressed by the quality of user support.
SETUP (5 of 5)
One question most of us ask ourselves before proceeding to set something as intimidating as a new router is ‘will I be able to make it work for me?’ The good news is that in this case the answer should be ‘probably or most likely yes.’ For a basic setup, you simply plug in the router, run the Cisco Connect app provided on a CD on a computer equipped with a Wi-Fi adapter and… you are connected.
Cisco Connect is a well-organized app that will help you add devices to the network – and once the router is app and running most devices will add themselves once you provide the password – allow for limited ‘guest’ access on a separate network, set parental controls, test your Internet connection speed and directly manage your router if you need to split your network for better performance, configure DNS and DHCP, advanced wireless settings, security, manage the attached disk if you have one, set access policies and so forth.
It gets as sophisticated as you need it to be and the good news is that both Cisco Connect and the router’s Web interface are are well organized and are backed by a very well written and quite detailed manual. I will post the link to the downloadable PDF as a comment to this review.
My basic setup completed in a couple of minutes and it took a couple of minutes more to register individual devices: laptops, desktops, printers, portable gaming devices, home servers, Internet radio. Anything that has a wired connection (4 10/100/1000 Mpbs ports are available) does not need any setup. The more sophisticated tasks, such as reserving IP addresses for printers and a media hub and ‘splitting’ the traffic into 2 separately named networks mapping into the router’s 2 frequency bands (2.4 MHz and 5 MHz) were equally easy and well covered by the manual.
It’s important that Cisco Connect is installed on one of your computers if not on all because the first thing it does when you start it is checking the router’s status and attempting to fix whatever problems if it detects any. To get ‘the latest’ I installed it from Cisco’s site and I didn’t experience any issues during or after the install completed.
PERFORMANCE AND RANGE (4 of 5)
Depending on your clients, the router can provide as much as 2 x 300 Gbps – this was a major improvement over the 802.11g router it’s replacing. This is a lot considering that the best I am getting from my ISP is 15 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream but today’s home networks have a lot of internal traffic if you use NAS devices, media servers or home servers that are set to run backups.
While the router supports 802.11 a/b/g/n the manual warns that best performance can be achieved when all clients support 802.11n and that one single 802.11a client can slow the entire network if present.
In practice I got consistent 150 Mbps on the 5 GHz band while in the same room at about 30 ft. from the router (except for a few minutes each day when the 5 GHz signal drops for no apparent reason – see the posted screenshots). With one floor in-between, 90 Mbps was possible but the 5 GHz band wasn’t as reliable or I could get a steady stream of 54 Mbps, sometimes better on the 2.4 GHz band. With 2 floors in between (router in the basement and my computer on the second floor and at the other end of the house, some 70-80 ft. away) the 5 MHz band became practically unusable (I will post some inSSIDer shots) and the 2.4 GHz band would get me 6-24 Mbps, still okay for Web browsing. The computers on the second floor right above the router get a steady 50-70 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band.
I would like to note that, while the router broadcasting on 2 bands does have its advantages the 5 GHz signal works best when you have line of sight to the router or one thin wall/floor in between. It’s not as good at passing through walls as the 2.4 GHz signal. It is possible to maximize performance by using a combination of wired plus 2 segregated bands but some testing and good planning is needed.
RELIABILITY (4.5 of 5)
The E3200 has been remarkably stable so far if I don’t consider the random signal loss on the 5 GHz frequency on the second floor. It’s fair to state that, when the default settings are kept, the router will automatically switch between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz and between the available channels on each band to maximize performance and minimize interference. Since I don’t have neighbors, I can’t say how the router would perform in a more crowded environment.
Due to a number of violent storms, we lost power for seconds at a…
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|fought with other Linksys models, this one nailed it,
If you only knew the troubles I had with the E3000 and E4000, even trying the better firmware versions offered by DD-WRT. Constant lock up’s and disconnects. I was about to throw in the towel with Linksys. Then, I tried the E3200. Easy setup, the Access Controls MAKE SENSE for the first time in Linksys history, and it handles a very heavy workload of video streaming and data. We saturate our 60meg internet connection from many different sources and NO PROBLEMS. Range is great. FINALLY, I’m willing to give Linksys a thumbs up (FOR NOW) on this router. Best available.
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|Router performance is good – USB drive has limitations,
The router performance is good and I’m happy with the speed/bandwidth compared to my older Linksys wireless N router. But, the USB drive connectivity for file sharing/backup has it’s limitation. I have a 3 TB harddisk, but the router detects only 750 GB of the space. Chat with customer service confirmed that they have not tested this router for 3 TB capacity drive. So, it appears to be a limitation right now. Perhaps, a firmware upgrade might fix this in future. But, as of now, my rating stays at 3 stars for false/incomplete advertisement about the Product.
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