sm00thpapa
Very Senior Member
$299.99 for a Belkin made router. I don't think so.
Linksys Goes Back To The Future For New AC1900 Router
- Thread starter Razor512
- Start date
sm00thpapa
Very Senior Member
I wish they would call these routers Belkin since they bought Linksys. Linksys routers are just not the same since Belkin bought them out.
I'm glad as heck that Cisco's no longer running the show, Belkin's the better of two "not so awesome" options...
Cisco was consistently incompetent, & regularly showed little-to-no respect for the F/OSS world from which it leached.
They had enough resources/time to utterly dominate the Home/SOHO/enthusiast sector, & do it in a MUCH better way than they did.
Never happened sadly. Just like Cisco once, now it's someone else's turn to "have a crack" with the Linksys brand.
Here's an idea....
How about assessing the device when it's out, rather than claiming to know how bad it is based on: (1) 0 RWT, (2) disliking Belkin?
Only fanboys for one brand or another think like that....
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I'm not sure if they wanted to dominate the enthusiasts sector. If only enthusiasts bought enthusiast routers, they could probably make money. The problem is that mainstream consumers, non-tech savvy noobs, and kids buy the routers. And they need a lot of technical support. Technical support costs money and cuts in to profits. If you read this forum, you'll see the vast majority of people buying asus routers now are not real tech savvy. Some of the people posting don't even have the patience to read/search a couple threads.
Router returns (due to user error), and technical support all cut heavily in to profits.
You can read here on this forum about people that don't even know how to go to asus website and read their PDF manual. Asus routers have shifted from enthusiasts routers to mainstream routers since there's a lot more mainstream users than enthusiasts in the general population.
They wanted to initially, they've a long history of failed ventures in that area & then sheepishly exiting, they just never seem to get it.
Moving to cloud-based admin* was one classic example, which they fortunately quickly backtracked from (but some damage was done).
Anyway, all that's a side-point to what we're discussing, which is;
"Knowing" something's crap before it's been rigorously analysed/tested, much less had time to "harden/stabilise"...
*the general concept wasn't necessarily "terrible", but how they were planning to implement it was
Moving to cloud-based admin* was one classic example, which they fortunately quickly backtracked from (but some damage was done).
Anyway, all that's a side-point to what we're discussing, which is;
"Knowing" something's crap before it's been rigorously analysed/tested, much less had time to "harden/stabilise"...
*the general concept wasn't necessarily "terrible", but how they were planning to implement it was
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The WRT1900AC is the first Linksys router since Belkin purchased Linksys not designed by the Cisco team.
So as Jalyst suggests, let's wait and see how it performs. Give 'em the benefit of the doubt.
Yeah sorry,I didn't mean to get off on that side point. What Cisco failed to recognize (with linksys) is that geeks are the ones that determine the popularity and thus profitability of a router. Mainstream consumers want to buy what geeks buy. Mainstream consumers read reviews from geeks on amazon that sound like they know what they're talking about and buy the same router. A mainstream consumer is always looking to geeks to tell them what to buy.
That's why asus has become so popular. Cisco/linksys did everything in their power to make a dumbed down router that geeks wouldn't like. And it backfired on them. All the geeks started buying asus, and mainstream consumers followed in their footsteps. Now Asus is having to deal with all the headaches of a mainstream consumer product that is being purchased in mass by a non-tech savvy user with no patience.
This new linksys router should offer the best of both worlds. A dumbed down cloud version for mainstream consumers and an open third party option for enthusiasts.
The Flip video that Cisco bought was the same thing. I've still got one. And I used to read their forums and the average user of a Flip video camera couldn't change a light bulb in their home without technical support. Cisco wanted nothing to do with that low tech level user. I can't say as I blame them.
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Beware of drinking your own (or our own) Kool-Aid.
Yes, the perception is that ASUS is the king of the router hill. But if you look at market share data (which I can't afford the very expensive subscriptions to), you can get a very different picture. The last data I saw did not confirm ASUS as the market leader.
What is true, or at least a consistent message from multiple vendors at this year's CES, is that more consumers are buying the highest-end routers they can get their hands on, i.e. AC1900, even if they don't have AC clients.
The thinking is that with the big investment they have sunk into smartphones, internet streamers, smart TVs, etc., what's a $200 router?
On the other hand, the bulk of router sales are still based on price, with $60 - $70 as the average price.
I understand that. The buyers of the $60-$70 router are more influenced by price than anything. I've seen it first hand. That mainstream consumer (and there's a lot of them) can't really be marketed to (on anything) unless it's by price. I'm certain that Walmart sells a lot of $60-$70 routers. Inexpensive tires will always make up the bulk of tire sales. Nothing will change that. Dale Earnhardt Jr. himself probably couldn't talk that mainstream consumer in to spending an extra $20 per tire.
I'm talking about the next level of mainstream consumer. Amazon still has Asus RT-N66U leading the way. Linksys hasn't held a place in the top 10 on amazon in quite a long time.
I'm sure Asus routers have helped open doors for their other products too and vice versa. I'm pretty sure Asus has a number 1 selling computer monitor on Amazon too.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Computer-Routers/zgbs/electronics/300189
Amazon sales lists are just one (albeit major) data point...
We'll need access to wide-ranging market data (which costs $) before knowing* how well/bad X OEM is doing at X price point worldwide.
Anyway, why the continued massive digression, can we get back on-topic, please.
*Well, one can never really "know", but one can come pretty damn close!
We'll need access to wide-ranging market data (which costs $) before knowing* how well/bad X OEM is doing at X price point worldwide.
Anyway, why the continued massive digression, can we get back on-topic, please.
*Well, one can never really "know", but one can come pretty damn close!
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sm00thpapa
Very Senior Member
True Tim only time will tell. I have faith in this router.
From contempt on the basis of 0 info. (other than it being made by a different co.) to "faith", you are a man of extremes.
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You sure about this, coulda sworn the latest draft AC standard didn't "require" 4-stream, & that MU-MIMO was still an option via 3-stream.
L&LD
Part of the Furniture
Your statements may all be true; but I'm pretty sure that the WRT1900AC does not include that.
The chipset doesn't support it.
You know all this with absolute certainty how exactly?
L&LD
Part of the Furniture
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=97255&postcount=11
A couple of the other posts in the thread also indicate the same thing for me: this is not an MU-MIMO router.
A couple of the other posts in the thread also indicate the same thing for me: this is not an MU-MIMO router.
L&LD
Part of the Furniture
You're reading what you want to read.
Not all posts say that. Neither does the marketing documentation from Linksys state anything about MU-MIMO - it is a huge selling point and I would not believe they missed that.
As I've mentioned in the other thread; until I see confirmation that it is actually implemented and works; it is vaporware.
Not all posts say that. Neither does the marketing documentation from Linksys state anything about MU-MIMO - it is a huge selling point and I would not believe they missed that.
As I've mentioned in the other thread; until I see confirmation that it is actually implemented and works; it is vaporware.
You need to settle down, you seem to think I'm arguing it exists, I'm asserting/assuming nothing.
If a co. mentions they support MU-MIMO in their marketing, would you automatically take their word before there's a device available for testing.
The 1st step we can take toward ascertaining one way or the other, is to get the OEM to confirm it's planned for implementation upon release.
The final step & conclusive litmus test, is having it & testing it...
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Ok, guys, take it easy. I've put in a request to Linksys.
MU-MIMO is limited to a maximum of four clients and both AP and STA must support it. But it does not require a 4x4 system.
The Marvell AC chipset used in the WRT1900AC does not support MU-MIMO.
Current routers can't be firmware upgraded to MU-MIMO. New chipsets, like QCA just announced, therefore new routers are required.
MU-MIMO is limited to a maximum of four clients and both AP and STA must support it. But it does not require a 4x4 system.
The Marvell AC chipset used in the WRT1900AC does not support MU-MIMO.
Current routers can't be firmware upgraded to MU-MIMO. New chipsets, like QCA just announced, therefore new routers are required.
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