Linksys EA8500 Max-Stream AC2600 MU-MIMO Smart Wi-Fi Router Reviewed

[SLK350]

I just bought a Linksys EA8500 today, coming from an ASUS RT_AC87U. Seems ok so far but it really seems to be lacking any sort of "Status" monitoring.
You can't see how much internet traffic is being used and by what device or CPU load, RAM usage, etc...
The QOS settings are pretty archaic too. They don't even list Netflix in the applications that you can prioritize.

Hehe... Got myself an EA8500 yesterday after getting tired of 1 year of headaches with the AC87U. The Linksys is looking good so far.

 

[psychopomp1]

+1 for the EA8500.

I've also gone from a Asus AC87R (my first ever Asus router) to the EA8500 and the EA8500 is far, far superior to the AC87R. The linksys just 'works', doesn't reboot by itself, doesn't overheat and isn't full of bloatware. On my TalkTalk Business VDSL2 connection in UK, i'm getting 75 mb/s down , 18 mb/s up using 80211.ac on the Linksys. And no, i don't work for Linksys!

 

[dfran1]

Hehe... Got myself an EA8500 yesterday after getting tired of 1 year of headaches with the AC87U. The Linksys is looking good so far.

+1 for the EA8500.

I've also gone from a Asus AC87R (my first ever Asus router) to the EA8500 and the EA8500 is far, far superior to the AC87R. The linksys just 'works', doesn't reboot by itself, doesn't overheat and isn't full of bloatware. On my TalkTalk Business VDSL2 connection in UK, i'm getting 75 mb/s down , 18 mb/s up using 80211.ac on the Linksys. And no, i don't work for Linksys!

I am defiantly finding better download speeds on the EA8500, by only 3 but more is more.
I had a max of 30-32 varied on the rt-ac87r, but on the Linksys I get 34.4-35 all the time down.

What are you 2 seeing? Better or same as 87r?

Amazon gave me my $100 for my last Asus 68r, so I got $232 amazon credit (total from the 87r also), I purchased this router at Bestbuy (due to I can return in 45 days if problems occur, tied of getting BURNED by Asus beta crap, that lots here swear by), Bestbuy priced matched the amazon $250 for the EA8500.
We all know I certainly don't work for or got any free Linksys router.
(look at all my posts in the past 2 years, all Asus ups and downs, mostly downs)

 

[psychopomp1]

I'm seeing slightly better wifi speeds on the EA8500 than on the AC87R, but like I said the main advantage of this (imho) is the stability of the router. Also since the EA8500 uses the same wifi chip for both 2.4 & 5 ghz radios (Qualcomm) you don't have to wait for the 5ghz radio to connect like you do for the AC87R.

 

[spinkick]

+1 for the EA8500.

I've also gone from a Asus AC87R (my first ever Asus router) to the EA8500 and the EA8500 is far, far superior to the AC87R. The linksys just 'works', doesn't reboot by itself, doesn't overheat and isn't full of bloatware. On my TalkTalk Business VDSL2 connection in UK, i'm getting 75 mb/s down , 18 mb/s up using 80211.ac on the Linksys. And no, i don't work for Linksys!

same here, its kind of boring, its just working. I dont have to tweak anything and I'm getting great speed and reliability. No cooling fans, no nothing like the 87u. I cant believe asus, being an "enthusiast" brand, could mess things up so bad.

 

[L&LD]

same here, its kind of boring, its just working. I dont have to tweak anything and I'm getting great speed and reliability. No cooling fans, no nothing like the 87u. I cant believe asus, being an "enthusiast" brand, could mess things up so bad.

That is why each model is reviewed and tested for 'fit for purpose' intentionally, rather than simply hoping that any 'brand' name goodwill will continue.

It looks like Asus put their junior engineers on this project. Hopefully they now have the education they need going forward with any new model they will be responsible for.

 

[TonyH]

+1 for the EA8500.

I've also gone from a Asus AC87R (my first ever Asus router) to the EA8500 and the EA8500 is far, far superior to the AC87R. The linksys just 'works', doesn't reboot by itself, doesn't overheat and isn't full of bloatware. On my TalkTalk Business VDSL2 connection in UK, i'm getting 75 mb/s down , 18 mb/s up using 80211.ac on the Linksys. And no, i don't work for Linksys!

Have you tried speed test with QoS on and off? See any difference?

 

[dfran1]

I have QOS on in my EA8500
And I still have the fastest speeds I have had on any router
I see no difference , my ps4 also has very little lag, that's my priority in the QOS for me, and QOS in this router works to.

 

[psychopomp1]

Have you tried speed test with QoS on and off? See any difference?

QoS made a difference of diddly squat both on the Asus & the Linksys.

 

[Gitsum]

I returned my EA8500. The fact that it has full Qualcomm hardware but they didn't implement Qualcomm's "Streamboost" for a dynamic QOS system made it not worth the money for me. I tried gaming on one PC and started a bit torrent feed on another PC and my game latency went sky high. The EA 8500 has NO upstream traffic control. It doesn't even have an internet usage meter. Lame.

 

[spinkick]

I never use wireless for anything gaming related. Its just never reliable. Pings are always higher than wired.

What you need is a firewall to control the quality of service, and use the access point just for wireless. Thats what I do. Control who gets what bandwidth at what priority (im using sophos UTM) and the ea8500 is just fast AP. These stand alone routers are never good at QOS etc.

They may have a reason that their firmware doesnt have those features enabled (yet). The ac87u is a nightmare and unstable.

 

[sfx2000]

Hard to tell from the low-res pics, but after looking at the google device, I think that PIFA on the front end is connected to both radio's - not as an active transceiver, but to monitor overlapping networks and look for opportunities... when I look at the CCA on the AMP'd device, which is also QCA based, it's not present...

The 4 2.4G and 5G RF chains are all going to the dipoles on the edge of the housing...

If I had to do a cost reduction build, I know exactly where I would focus on - the 2.4GHz side - going with a lower end MAC/RF chip - maybe even 2 radios vs. 3, as many 2.4GHz clients are at best N300... but that's me - right now it's a 4*4:3 config, which is a bit spendy and little benefit to most..

 

[dfran1]

Just for the fun, and to make sure everything was perfect after a reset and reconfigure, I flushed my EA8500.
No, nothing was wrong at all, I just wanted to make sure things are perfect after a flush.

Results
Absolutely perfect after a flush, setup from scratch was even smoother than the first time.
Also I did some more download testing and I have now achieved an all time high with my ISP,
recap
max on any Asus router I was getting 30-31mbps
on my linksys EA8500 I see 35-45mbps now
AMAZING
Still absolutely no problems with the Linksys
-No dead WiFi spots
-No LAG
-No wifi drops
It just works, whatever Linksys is doing they are doing perfectly, unlike the rest (hint Asus).
I have no idea what garbage setup so called pro reviewers have, but now after owning this Linksys and 4 Asus routers before, (besides my apple, dlink, netgear)
I would give on performance a max on any Asus router 5 max (out of 10)(with the 87r falling in at 3) on this EA8500 a solid 10.

 

[sfx2000]

It just works, whatever Linksys is doing they are doing perfectly, unlike the rest (hint Asus).

The WiFi/RF performance - it's all QC/Atheros, with an emphasis on the Qualcomm side... Linksys has done a nice job of integrating things..

Just saying...

 

[remixedcat]

I returned my EA8500. The fact that it has full Qualcomm hardware but they didn't implement Qualcomm's "Streamboost" for a dynamic QOS system made it not worth the money for me. I tried gaming on one PC and started a bit torrent feed on another PC and my game latency went sky high. The EA 8500 has NO upstream traffic control. It doesn't even have an internet usage meter. Lame.

Amped's FW is even worse it just has packets/sec and not Mbytes/bits/kibbles... anything useful isn't present.

 

[red_pope]

I just like the greatness of publicity for someone special and particular toy's.

Here is my quick joke.

In my case, that will be GIJOE , which I named LEAKY sys.
Then Asus, the Tonka Toy truck ran him over at the end.
Still, they are still awesome toys.
But then you got Panda Joe, just piercing the walls as one bad Archer.
Then you will be reading the router testosterone testing results from Different folks with different strokes.

 

[psychopomp1]

Wow the EA8500 just gets better & better. I'm using the Asus PCE-AC68 802.11ac PCI card on my desktop & up until now i have to use the external antennae stand to get wireless link rates of 1.3gbps from all routers incl the Asus AC87R. But now i can connect the 3 antennae directly to the PCI card and BOOM! the wireless rates goes up to 1.3gbps...with other routers it never goes above 800mbps.

 

[chadster766]

Wow the EA8500 just gets better & better. I'm using the Asus PCE-AC68 802.11ac PCI card on my desktop & up until now i have to use the external antennae stand to get wireless link rates of 1.3gbps from all routers incl the Asus AC87R. But now i can connect the 3 antennae directly to the PCI card and BOOM! the wireless rates goes up to 1.3gbps...with other routers it never goes above 800mbps.

That's a super fast wireless card you have there.

 

[dfran1]

I found the info page of this router with everything there (link speed, wifi 2.4 or 5 GHz with mac,etc.), you just refresh it to get an update, not as fancy as other router brands but it does show more than any GUI in other routers.
http://192.168.1.1/sysinfo.cgi
of course you need a EA8500 router first

 

[sfx2000]

I found the info page of this router with everything there (link speed, wifi 2.4 or 5 GHz with mac,etc.), you just refresh it to get an update, not as fancy as other router brands but it does show more than any GUI in other routers.
http://192.168.1.1/sysinfo.cgi
of course you need a EA8500 router first

If it's anything like the WRT1900ac, don't leave it running - login to check settings... and then logout