D-Link DIR-865L or refurbished Linksys EA6500?

[cheenachatze]

Hi everyone,
I'm looking to buy AC1750 router for around $100. My options are a new D-Link DIR-865L (now on clearance) or refurbished Linksys EA6500. Anything else is at least $150 here (Canada). The Linksys received much better professional reviews, but many users complain that it drops connections frequently and curse Linksys support. The D-Link got poor professional reviews.

Anyone has good experience with either of these? Thanks!

 

[jlake]

My brother-n-law has the ea6500 and doesn't have any problems with it with about 15 wireless devices. When we visit, we don't have any problems either (don't have any AC devices though).

Often times when you read about connection problems, it's because the reviewers don't understand very basic steps when setting up or troubleshooting a wireless router. Basic setup and troubleshooting steps are in link below.

The ea6500 does not support third party firmware if that's important to you. It also does not support reverse NAT if that's important to you.

I've never used any dlink product so I can't comment.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=12453

Edit: I've never had to call linksys support, so I can't comment there. Usually you can figure anything out via forums or Google search or reading online PDF manual.

 

[stevech]

Opinion: D-Link is inconsistent in quality from one product to the next. Linksys has better track record. What Belkin does with Linksys... we'll see. Maybe they won't change it.

Tech support on all this consumer stuff is nill. They only make, what, $10 on one of these things? With overhead, G&A costs, that's not many minutes of labor - and why vendors have to use script-readers in the call centers.

Better tech support comes from vendors not living off of the consumer market- like ZyXel, Cradlepoint, Cisco Aironet, Engenious (Ubiquity - but their support is all forum-based).

 

[cheenachatze]

Thanks for the input! None of the stores I went to had either router in stock. I wanted at least AC1600 router. The cheapest models they had in stock were the Linksys EA6400 and the Netgear R6250, both for $150. Based on the SNB review, I went with the Netgear. I may still order the refurbished Linksys EA6500 and compare the two, since it's only $100. Fry's has the WD AC1300 (which is AC1750 class) for $80, but they don't ship it to Canada