Cisco Linksys E4200 Maximum Performance Wireless-N Router Reviewed

[claykin]

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)?

www.ruckuswireless.com ?

 

[thiggins]

Ruckus will not submit product for testing. They insist their products are specifically for media streaming and will not agree to have them tested with our methods.

Besides, they are focused on carriers, and don't really want retail customers. So forget support.

 

[jalyst]

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)?

Thanks for your thoughts, tis appreciated.

I guess you're right in that the E4200 should be a rough indicator for what sort of improvements we can expect.
As it's unlikely the WNDR3800 & others are going to make dramatic leaps beyond it.

I guess I was hoping with some of the tweaks mentioned in my thread, that I could get WiFi speed up to acceptable levels.
But all those tweaks are quite superficial, so that's probably just wishful thinking.

No I haven't tried HP AV2 yet....
Next step in my thread is to decide upon which of my 5 "supplements" is best to go with.

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.

Thanks, it sounds like there's definitely scenarios in which it'd work quite handily.

But I imagine one could easily "upset the apple cart" so-to-speak...
Better to have some supplementary network infrastructure in place, along with some decent WiFi clients.

I have mostly newish 802.11n client adapters....
But the media front-ends will need 1-2, & the printer must go if I don't want the 2.4Ghz WLAN falling back to 802.11G.

Ruckus will not submit product for testing.
They insist their products are specifically for media streaming and will not agree to have them tested with our methods.
Besides, they are focused on carriers, and don't really want retail customers. So forget support.

Shame, sounds like an intriguing option for retail customers!

 

[chop69]

Does the E4200 have an internet traffic meter? It may not be a major selling feature, but with a 250GB/month cap and a 24/7 torrent server I have to keep track.

 

[altdel]

Does the E4200 have an internet traffic meter? It may not be a major selling feature, but with a 250GB/month cap and a 24/7 torrent server I have to keep track.

No. You'll have to wait for DD-WRT or TomatoUSB support.

 

[klas]

Well I thought that E4200 stopped surprising me, but when I needed to copy 3GB file from my NAS to Envy 14 laptop this morning I was getting stable 5.5 MB/sec transfer. It's amazing to me because WNDR3700 at the same distance through 3-4 walls and about 40 feet from upstairs to downstairs was giving me bellow 1 MB/sec. This was on 2.4 Hz band obviously and early in the morning when the wireless traffic was low, in the evening this number seem to drop to 2-3 MB/sec.

Anyway, if anyone has trouble with weak signal on WNDR3700, it's worth to try E4200. I'll probably be adding powerline products in the mix as well to extend the range, but that's only for the clients that have weak wireless cards or without one.

 

[Jheroen]

is it possible to hang up this router, in the bottom of the product are there gaps?

if there are gaps i could hang it up with the connectors on the downside so that the hot air stream can move through the router and left it on the upper side.

i think it's better so that i can't get overheated too quick

 

[thiggins]

There are no mounting slots on the bottom.

 

[Jheroen]

There are no mounting slots on the bottom.

hi tim,

thanks for your reply.

during the tests did you mention this router went (too) hot? others like the E3000 and the 610 320 etc all flat routers after the wrt54g had sometimes heatproblems.
did you mention any?

 

[RamGuy]

So the conclusion is that from a wireless performance perspective there is a slight improvement in regards of 802.11n 2.4GHz average performance compared to the leading wireless performing products like DIR-685 and WNDR3700?

And in regards of 802.11n 5.0GHz performance things aren't really been improved at all? Still the same sluggish 5.0GHz performance averaging slower than 2.4GHz performance..


Whats really the point with 802.11n 5.0GHz in the first place? If you get higher AVERAGE / STABLE download / upload performance with 802.11 2.4GHz @ 40Hz compared to 802.11n 5.0GHz @ 40Hz? Even close ranged 2.4GHz seems to offer better performance, so why use 5.0GHz? Is it meant to be some backup solution if you live in a place with like 10x+ 2.4GHz network close by?

 

[jalyst]

^ some good questions raised.

 

[thiggins]

during the tests did you mention this router went (too) hot? others like the E3000 and the 610 320 etc all flat routers after the wrt54g had sometimes heatproblems.
did you mention any?

I didn't notice whether the router ran particularly hot. Both the main processor and Gigabit switch have heatsinks.

 

[Jheroen]

allright thanks Tim
i own a dir 825 rev b1 atm, good idea to switch?

 

[claykin]

allright thanks Tim
i own a dir 825 rev b1 atm, good idea to switch?

Try DDWRT. Made my 825 B1 tolerable until I get tired of it. DLink has been lazy and slow resolving issues with this router. Plus I got a decent range boost after switching to DDWRT. It runs the radios with a bit more power, even at the DDWRT stock settings. Nothing earth shattering, just a bit better than I had before. Plus now I don't need to power cycle it twice a week.

 

[thiggins]

allright thanks Tim
i own a dir 825 rev b1 atm, good idea to switch?

Buy it direct from the Cisco store and try it risk-free for 90 days to find out for yourself. That's the only real test.

 

[Jheroen]

Buy it direct from the Cisco store and try it risk-free for 90 days to find out for yourself. That's the only real test.

allright, going to check it out i don't know if people from europe can buy from the cisco store; we'll see...

 

[Jheroen]

Try DDWRT. Made my 825 B1 tolerable until I get tired of it. DLink has been lazy and slow resolving issues with this router. Plus I got a decent range boost after switching to DDWRT. It runs the radios with a bit more power, even at the DDWRT stock settings. Nothing earth shattering, just a bit better than I had before. Plus now I don't need to power cycle it twice a week.

sure, i checked out but the dd wrt firmware isn't working properly with a lot of people... indeed the latest 'official' firmware for this router is back in 2009
i think i am going to cisco also to solve the voip (sip) troubles i have. the siemens c470 ip still reconnects also in the middle of conversations very annoying

 

[x-cimo]

Does anyone else have issues setting the router wireless to N only?

If I do, I still see the SSID in win7 list, but I am unable to join the network...

 

[cc666]

no problem

I actually have both 2.4 and 5.0 at N only and it works perfectly. No problems.

Charlie C

 

[Jheroen]

well... has anyone good or bad experiences with this router, in the next week it becomes available in the netherlands and when there is no better choice i will buy this one to replace my dir825 rev b