Linksys EA9500 Max-Stream AC5400 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router Reviewed

[bluray]

Its going back to amazon, after few resets que unit keeps rebooting itself in infinite Loop.
Its a used unit from warehouse amazon deals (return by customer)

Probably they dont even check if the unit is in good working condition.

 

[sm00thpapa]

I received the unit, but it must be faulty
If i disable the guest network the 2,4ghz band is gone...

I'm on the latest firmware and don't have this issue.

 

[sfx2000]

My guess is he has a bad unit...

 

[Entourage]

I purchased the EA9500 in late November. For the amount I paid for this, I'm really not happy. My previous router was a ASUS RT-AC56U (AC1900).

I was hoping with this router I would get better signal in other parts of apartment on the 5GHz channel and possibly faster speeds. I don't believe I got either and it seems like this router is more flakey than my 2yr old ASUS.

When I'm playing games on phone with the 2.4GHz band, my ping is constantly spiking from 30-60 to 1k+ every 10 to 15 minutes. I thought it was the game server so I switched games but same shirt happened. So I switched to the 5GHz band and my ping doesn't spike as it did on the 2.4GHz band but I frequently get disconnected from the 5GHz band then it reconnects itself within 5 to 10 seconds. These disconnects are happening when I supposedly have "very strong" or "strong" signal and happen pretty frequently.

I have a galaxy s7 and when I connect to the 5GHz channel it appears I'm using MU-MIMO. I have band steering on.

Does anyone have any suggestion to what to do before I return this and go back to my ASUS router or order the nighthawk router? To be honest, I was leaning towards the nighthawk router from the beginning til I saw theach review putting this router above the nighthawk. Is anyone have similar issues?

 

[sm00thpapa]

I purchased the EA9500 in late November. For the amount I paid for this, I'm really not happy. My previous router was a ASUS RT-AC56U (AC1900).

I was hoping with this router I would get better signal in other parts of apartment on the 5GHz channel and possibly faster speeds. I don't believe I got either and it seems like this router is more flakey than my 2yr old ASUS.

When I'm playing games on phone with the 2.4GHz band, my ping is constantly spiking from 30-60 to 1k+ every 10 to 15 minutes. I thought it was the game server so I switched games but same shirt happened. So I switched to the 5GHz band and my ping doesn't spike as it did on the 2.4GHz band but I frequently get disconnected from the 5GHz band then it reconnects itself within 5 to 10 seconds. These disconnects are happening when I supposedly have "very strong" or "strong" signal and happen pretty frequently.

I have a galaxy s7 and when I connect to the 5GHz channel it appears I'm using MU-MIMO. I have band steering on.

Does anyone have any suggestion to what to do before I return this and go back to my ASUS router or order the nighthawk router? To be honest, I was leaning towards the nighthawk router from the beginning til I saw theach review putting this router above the nighthawk. Is anyone have similar issues?

I've had the same issues. I went to the X4S and all is good. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Entourage]

I've had the same issues. I went to the X4S and all is good. Just my 2 cents.

Is there a reason you went with the X4S instead of the X8 or AC5300? Or even the X6?

 

[sm00thpapa]

Is there a reason you went with the X4S instead of the X8 or AC5300? Or even the X6?

Band steering is a gimmick to get people to buy routers. In reality it doesn't work. The aforementioned routers are over priced and offer no better performance than the X4S.

 

[bluray]

I also purchase this unit, and im expecting some nice setup from my old linksys E4200 that already showing their age.
Purchase in amazon.co.uk using the code Code QSN9U7E4 and get discount of 43£.

tem Subtotal: £216.99
Postage & Packing: £6.65
Promotion Applied: -£43.40
Order Total: £221.70 (260€ or 275$)
Other prices in Europe are around +350€...

The main reason to chose the EA9500 was the 8 Lan ports + price + reviews, since theres more gadgets than people at my house i hope this model to be reliable.
The objective is also to remove the ethernet switch and bridge wireless router.

Wired
Anthem receiver
Lg Oled
Oppo
Nvidia Shield TV
Popcorn
Synology NAS
Apple TV
Satelite Box

Wireless
iphone 6
iPhone 5s
Shield Tablet 1
Shield Tablet 2
iPad Air 2
IPad 2
Macbook air 13
Macbook air 11
TV samsung (other room)

i will try to give my best impressions at later date..

Well, it looks like my first EA9500 was indeed faulty, (its shame amazon warehouse deals dont test the used products properly.)
I ended to by another unit that got lost in the way, and finally a third purchase unit arrive with overnight delivery (finally).

1- At startup configuration step-by-step the unit fails the FW upgrade, i had success at second attempt, its strange but the faulty unit also failed the FW upgrade at first attempt.

2- The router is not in their optimal position, its at ground level under some open wood furniture, the antennas are big help to improve the wireless range.
After 3 brick walls (european house style) the router signal is weak enough in the last room, its fine for laptops but insufficient for tablets or phones with inferior connectivity.

3- I understand its my fault for not taking advantage of the Router performance with proper placement, but i really need to replace my old E4200V1 + the switch + Dead Tp-Link Universal Repetear and at same time hide it out-of-sight.

4- I tried to install few versions of DD-WRT on the E4200 to use it has wireless Repeatear but hadn't had much sucess due WAP2 conflict... Open wireless was not option, so gave up at this point.

5- My next step is to extend few meters of Cat6 and use the E4200 has LAN TO WAN to use the wireless or in alternative to get some Wireless Repeatear with Mu-mimo, i was looking for the RE7000 to remain in the same brand.

In overall im happy with the EA9500, its a very expensive unit, very large and likelly difficult to hide, i test the router in better localization (top of the TV furniture) and the wireless range (help of antenas) cover all house even after 3 brick walls.
Some of you might want to get cheaper Router + Extender for the same price of the EA9500, but i have a felling that when the DD-WRT firmware became available to this model (broadcom) it might be worth the investment for the next 5 to 6 years.

 

[FattysGoneWild]

Well, it looks like my first EA9500 was indeed faulty, (its shame amazon warehouse deals dont test the used products properly.)
I ended to by another unit that got lost in the way, and finally a third purchase unit arrive with overnight delivery (finally).

1- At startup configuration step-by-step the unit fails the FW upgrade, i had success at second attempt, its strange but the faulty unit also failed the FW upgrade at first attempt.

2- The router is not in their optimal position, its at ground level under some open wood furniture, the antennas are big help to improve the wireless range.
After 3 brick walls (european house style) the router signal is weak enough in the last room, its fine for laptops but insufficient for tablets or phones with inferior connectivity.

3- I understand its my fault for not taking advantage of the Router performance with proper placement, but i really need to replace my old E4200V1 + the switch + Dead Tp-Link Universal Repetear and at same time hide it out-of-sight.

4- I tried to install few versions of DD-WRT on the E4200 to use it has wireless Repeatear but hadn't had much sucess due WAP2 conflict... Open wireless was not option, so gave up at this point.

5- My next step is to extend few meters of Cat6 and use the E4200 has LAN TO WAN to use the wireless or in alternative to get some Wireless Repeatear with Mu-mimo, i was looking for the RE7000 to remain in the same brand.

In overall im happy with the EA9500, its a very expensive unit, very large and likelly difficult to hide, i test the router in better localization (top of the TV furniture) and the wireless range (help of antenas) cover all house even after 3 brick walls.
Some of you might want to get cheaper Router + Extender for the same price of the EA9500, but i have a felling that when the DD-WRT firmware became available to this model (broadcom) it might be worth the investment for the next 5 to 6 years.

DD-WRT is never coming for this model. So if you was looking forward to it. Better take it back now while you can. Only Linksys WRT line offers 3rd party firmware solutions for now and in the future. Linksys said that.

 

[sfx2000]

have a felling that when the DD-WRT firmware became available to this model (broadcom) it might be worth the investment for the next 5 to 6 years.

Let's get this out of the way...

WRT's are the Linksys path moving forward for Open Source 3rd party development...

 

[FattysGoneWild]

And as long as they continue to go the Marvell path with these WRT's. Run....... run fast and far away as you can.

 

[sfx2000]

And as long as they continue to go the Marvell path with these WRT's. Run....... run fast and far away as you can.

I have no problems at all with the Marvell baseboard on the WRT's - it's as strong as they come - the WiFi drivers have been an ongoing challenge in the *WRT community, but I've heard they are improving a bit (the Kong private DDWRT builds, along with Kaloz' fork on OpenWRT)...

 

[Pierino]

My wrt1900ac works great with kongs firmware.

 

[bluray]

One month use:
with the EA9500 + Range extender RE7000 theres no issues with my units, everything works fine.
The Seameless Roaming works has advertised, perfect integration with Router.

The best place:
I stretch the EA7000 position from one Room (green light) to the other room (yellow light) meaning that the extender is little too far away (not optimal position) , but still the connection has being stable to leave this way.
Ive used netspot (free Mac) on computer to analyse the signal range and neighbors channels in different positions of the house, and some app called wifi sweetspots (free iPhone) to check the download speed.

With so many Wifi/ethernet devices around the House the Duo EA9500 + RE7000 can handle everything very well, its doing their Job.

Real world use:
I recently bought some Phillips Hue (Zigbee Hub 2 generation) + Smart bulbs, this Hub connects the Router by ethernet (act has bridge) thats uses Wi-fi to control the bulbs , what i did was take the lights to the most remote part of the house and they still work fine, meaning the Wireless is getting there.

I also rip my blu-rays using MakeMKV thats about 30-40gb each file, to avoid Rip errors for direct transfers to the Nas, first is RIP to the Laptop, then i upload to the NAS, to transfer 60Gb it takes about 10/12 minutes, in my previous Router it would take at least 1 hour to transfer the same 60gb using the same 5 Ghz network.

Im planning to add more SmartThings devices in next couple years since the Market grows at fast pace, and a stable wireless around the House its a good start to avoid issues.

Please note:
That in Europeans Houses the walls are mostly made with ciment/sand/limestone brick masonry) and the American Houses walls are insulated with fiberglass insulation and the interior walls use drywall (sheetrock), that means the Wifi Signal will be crap and will struggle a lot more in Europeans House.

 

[FattysGoneWild]

I have decided to disable band steering and setup manually. Was having that issue again every once in a while with a device disconnecting then coming back a few seconds later. How do my settings look? Picture attached. Should I change any thing? As for devices. I even them out with 3 on each 5GHz band.

5GHz 1
X2 iPod Touch 6th gen
iPad Air 2

5GHz 2

PS4 Pro
Laptop
4k tv

**EDIT**

I also just changed Channel width to auto on both 5GHz bands.

 

[sfx2000]

With Linksys SmartWiFi - if the option is available for the 2.4GHz (not all have this) - consider the Network Mode as 802.11b/g/n rather that "Mixed"

Other than that - looks ok...

Some thoughts however, based on experience with another "Smart Connect" device...

Use common SSID's for 2.4GHz and 5GHz(1), and another SSID for 5GHz(2)...

 

[FattysGoneWild]

With Linksys SmartWiFi - if the option is available for the 2.4GHz (not all have this) - consider the Network Mode as 802.11b/g/n rather that "Mixed"

Other than that - looks ok...

Some thoughts however, based on experience with another "Smart Connect" device...

Use common SSID's for 2.4GHz and 5GHz(1), and another SSID for 5GHz(2)...

2.4GHz I looked for b/g/n only. But, I only have choices as mixed, n only, g only. So I left it on mixed. I am a bit confused on the common ssid's? What do you mean? I left the default one for 2.4GHz. But I did change 5GHz 1&2 bands to custom names. Smart connect is not being used now even for band steering. I turned it off as seen in the picture. Am I missing something?

 

[FattysGoneWild]

I also had a question about balancing devices manually with the 2 5GHz bands. I am just trying to even them out as I go is that fine? I just added a Linksys WUSB6100M usb adapter for a desktop tonight. So I have 7 devices in total using 5GHz wireless. I have 4 on 5GHz1 and 3 on 5GHz2.

2.4GHz

PS4
HP wireless printer

5GHz 1

X2 iPod touch 6th gens
iPad Air 2
Desktop

5GHz2

PS4 Pro
4k tv
Laptop

 

[thiggins]

Band assignment is not just about number of devices. You also need to watch device capability. Unless airtime fairness is used, slower devices will limit total bandwidth available on a radio. "Slow" devices aren't just N or 1x1 AC. A distant 3x3 AC device can also be slow.

 

[FattysGoneWild]

Just noticed when using the smart connect feature for band steering. It sets channel width on both 5GHz bands to 80Hz. Even though it says channel width auto on the main screen. So I wonder if that is part of the reason it does not play nice with certain clients as well some times.