Cisco Linksys E4200 Maximum Performance Wireless-N Router Reviewed

[jalyst]

Read the follow-up review, bit of a let down but I guess it's to be expected...
Don't think the 3700 or any other dual-band/dual-radio routers do much better in this regard (in RW terms) so no "biggy"!?

Thanks again Tim for your thorough and precise work.

 

[thiggins]

Don't think the 3700 or any other dual-band/dual-radio routers do much better in this regard (in RW terms) so no "biggy"!?

Actually, the WNDR3700 is better than the E3000 and E4200. See the WNDR3700 review.

 

[klas]

Actually, the WNDR3700 is better than the E3000 and E4200. See the WNDR3700 review.

It wasn't my real world experience that wndr3700 is better.

 

[thiggins]

It wasn't my real world experience that wndr3700 is better.

Which is what I noted in the reviews.

 

[tipstir]

Wi-Fi Range maybe but LAN To LAN Throughput you reported. How about MSC? What did you get. Since WNDR3700 is 4,000 what about this E4200?

 

[Unregistered]

Static IP with E3200

Anyone successfully connected a Linksys E4200 with a static IP address. I can't get it to accept the DNS1 and DNS2 IDs. The DNS ids have been verified valid.

 

[jalyst]

Actually, the WNDR3700 is better than the E3000 and E4200. See the WNDR3700 review.

I know, which is why I mentioned "RW" (real world)

It wasn't my real world experience that wndr3700 is better.

TBH I'd like to see this fleshed-out a bit more if possible...
I'm not seeing how it's a forgone conclusion that the 4200 is better in all RW terms.

Wi-Fi Range maybe but LAN To LAN Throughput you reported. How about MSC? What did you get. Since WNDR3700 is 4,000 what about this E4200?

Just one aspect for e.g.

 

[tipstir]

MSC = Max Session Connections 65,000 is the max most can even reach that.
some claim higher but those are bogus claims.

 

[EagleIDEyes]

E420 Follow Up Review: Comment and Question

Tim,

Thanks for posting the updated review of the E4200. I was an early adopter for this router and so far it has been working well for me. The only issue I've noticed so far is one of my wired PC clients seems to drop it's connection every so often, especially right after it comes out of sleep mode. One the most important criteria for me was wireless range which is one of the strongpoints for the E4200, at least for the 2.4GHz radio.

While I have a fairly busy home network (see below), I'm not sure the slowdown in simultaneous wireless performance will be too big of a factor for me. All high speed clients are wired into my 1Gbs network (especially the NAS's). Because I am well wired, I'm not sure I'll put the 5G radio to good use, at least not right now.

I did notice a one item in your follow up review that needs fixing. The graphic showing the test setup is, I think, backwards. The wireless clients are shown as wired and vice versus.

Finally - I have one question about the E4200. The e4200 is newly released and is at firmware rev 1. Would you expect parameters like simultaneous wireless throughput to change much as the firmware is updated over time? Or, are these types of performance characteristics difficult to improve through firmware alone? I suspect the latter but would appreciate your opinion.

My Small Network:
QNAP TS-419p+ (wired)
QNAP TS-219p+ (wired)
D-Link DNS-323 (wired)
Cisco VoIP Adapter (wired)
2 x X-Box 360's (wired & wireless)
Nintendo Wii (wired)
Sony Blu-Ray Player (wired)
3 x DirectTV DVRs (wired)
Slingbox Solo (wired)
3 Wired PC Clients
2 Wireless PC Clients
5 Smartphones
3 Zunes
HP Laserjet Printer (wired)
HP Photosmart Printer (wired)

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for pointing out the error in the diagram. It's fixed.

There could be minor improvement in simultaneous wireless throughput. But since one of the processors is used as the main CPU and BB/MAC for one of the radios, there will always be some effect.

As you noted and as I pointed out in the review, it would take a very busy WLAN with high bandwidth continuous traffic on both bands to notice any effect. And as long as there was enough bandwidth to go around, you'd never see an issue.

The flaw is more of academic than real-world concern.

 

[ualdayan]

I was going to get a WNDR3700 before the E4200 came out, but now I'm really just waiting for Amazon to get it in before I get it. Best Buy has it now for $149.99, but then you have to pay $6 shipping etc, whereas Amazon is free overnight for me and usually is lower than Best Buy's pricing. They have a page up now saying 'Coming soon, preorder' so I doubt it'll be much longer.

Has anybody ran into killer things they don't like about the E4200? I remember the WNDR3700 got glowing reviews, and it wasn't until people got their hands on it that people starting noticing buggy things.

 

[klas]

I am on my 2nd week and so far no regrets coming from wndr3700. I am a bit concerned about slight range decrease from specific spot in the house where I was getting 1 bar with my nexus phone and it went down to 0. Other than that been working great.

 

[ualdayan]

I am on my 2nd week and so far no regrets coming from wndr3700. I am a bit concerned about slight range decrease from specific spot in the house where I was getting 1 bar with my nexus phone and it went down to 0. Other than that been working great.

Did you mean E4200 or are you saying the people having problems with the WNDR3700 might just be unlucky? I've heard the antenna's seem to 'lose power' with the WNDR3700 for some reason - some people claim it gets so bad that they don't even have wireless in the same room.

On the E4200 how do you know that it's in 40Mhz or 20Mhz mode on the 2.4Ghz if you can't force it to either one? I want to have a 2.4Ghz 'mixed' mode AP, and a 2.4Ghz 'N-only' mode AP, then a 5Ghz N-only, but I want the E4200 to be the one with the 40Mhz channel width.

 

[klas]

I was referring that I have no regrets upgrading from WNDR3700 to 4200. I am finding that range improvement on 4200 while not breathtaking, has very slight advantage over WNDR3700 and it definitely feels faster in terms of loading webpages.

Now, I did notice this issue that I can't seem to figure out how to resolve. Basically, my upload cap with speedtests shows at 2 Mbps which as far as I know should be higher with Comcast. I've played with the settings and I can't seem to get around that cap. I changed QoS to Manual and set the bandwidth limit to 6 Mbps and that didn't do anything. Anyone has this issue?

 

[altdel]

Now, I did notice this issue that I can't seem to figure out how to resolve. Basically, my upload cap with speedtests shows at 2 Mbps which as far as I know should be higher with Comcast. I've played with the settings and I can't seem to get around that cap. I changed QoS to Manual and set the bandwidth limit to 6 Mbps and that didn't do anything. Anyone has this issue?

I'm on Comcast too, and noticed reduced upload speed after using the E4200. It turned out that "Upstream Bandwidth" in QoS was on "Auto". I changed it to "Manual" and set it to 6Mbps and I was back to the upload speed I used to get on speedtest.net.

I have the Comcast Performance plan with 12Mbps down and 2 Mbps up. Comcast has the so-called PowerBoost feature which let you burst up to 10MB on download and 4MB on upload. Because of this burst allowance, the speedtest always show higher speeds. I was getting 20Mbps down and 3Mbps up even though the sustained rates should be 12/2.

What speed plan are you on? Trying using a Manual Upstream Bandwidth 3 times the sustained upload speed and see if it makes a difference.

 

[tipstir]

Has anyone run a cloud sniffer test and see how both models perform in your dwelling.

Here's a test:

HP Laptop with Broadcom 802.11G AFterburn (6 years old now) Still the results are pretty good.

Belkin N+ (basement (family room) network hub closet) 2T/2R
D-link DIR-655 (main floor) home office) 3T/3R
TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND (second floor) bedroom) 3T/3R

Results

I also run 802.11n on those devices that use that. On 1080p stream from Youtube no drops over Wireless
3x routers are in APNs mode. Two are just APNs. Enough to balance signal.

 

[ualdayan]

I was referring that I have no regrets upgrading from WNDR3700 to 4200. I am finding that range improvement on 4200 while not breathtaking, has very slight advantage over WNDR3700 and it definitely feels faster in terms of loading webpages.

Now, I did notice this issue that I can't seem to figure out how to resolve. Basically, my upload cap with speedtests shows at 2 Mbps which as far as I know should be higher with Comcast. I've played with the settings and I can't seem to get around that cap. I changed QoS to Manual and set the bandwidth limit to 6 Mbps and that didn't do anything. Anyone has this issue?

QoS relies on having a fixed number (or at least no router out there has learned yet that on comcast it should expect the first 20MBs of a file to be as fast as it can be, and then for it to go to your speed tier). I don't think it's a coincidence that your normal speed tier is 12/2 and the router locked right into 2Mbps - and by setting it higher you're effectively disabling QoS altogether because later when you actually need that bandwidth the Comcast line will only be providing 2Mbps past the first 20MB (just enough to fool speed tests) but the router will be expecting 6Mbps.

 

[jalyst]

Is it worthwhile upgrading to WNDR3800 (avail. soon right?) or E4200 from a WRT610N_v1?
I'm reluctant to because there's pretty solid 3rd party fw (dd-wrt) for wrt610n v1 now.

But if the AP performance is greatly improved, then I'm prepared to go with more limited fw.
Especially since I'm considering using my little WRAP board + m0n0wall or dd-wrt as my router/gateway.

I'm also in the midst of completing a HTPC/PVR build...
So anything that increases my chances of getting semi-reliable HD over wifi is also a good thing

I would run Ethernet everywhere but it's not really an option where I live.

*update*
I've started a dedicated thread to get peoples thoughts/advice.
Upgrade to the new dual-band/dual-radio king OR supplement my WiFi w/an alternative?
Thank-you.

 

[thiggins]

If the E4200 is any indication, there is unlikely to be much advancement in wireless performance in the upcoming routers. You're still not going to get reliable HD streaming from N.

Have you tried powerline? (HomePlug AV)?

 

[klas]

I am not an expert in wireless technology and I didn't do any detailed by comparison in 5Ghz HD streaming, so I only have the following observations ever since I got WNDR3700 in 2009.

Both Zino 400 & MacMini 2010 HTPC has been working reliably with WNDR3700 setup in 5Ghz band. The signal always showed 4 bars and I get download speeds up to 9 Mb/sec from my QNAP NAS. The range between the router and HTPC is about 20 feet from upstairs to downstairs with 3 walls. I stream OTA TV (HDHomerun connected to router upstairs) and occasional 1080p content (from NAS) and never had any issues with unreliable signal. There was occasional stutter with 1080p content over wireless when I owned Zino, but not an issue with Mac Mini.

With E4200 there seems to be no improvement on the 5Ghz signal, although my download speeds improved by about 1 MB/sec. It appears to be dependant on how you place the router, but with E4200 you only can lay it flat.