Linksys vs netgear

[jim trudel]

hi,

I had the wrt1900acs and it was pretty good but I gave it to my father and now I need a new one. Im looking for a stronger, great speed and stable. I want to use it with DD WRT, with VPN. Probably from flashrouters and those 3 are at the same price : netgear nighthawk r7800 x4s ac2600 vs linksys wrt3200acm vs linksys wr32x.

what do you think?
thanks

 

[Trip]

The Linksys models are Marvel-based and nearly identical, save for the 32x having the Killer engine, which will only work with systems that have Killer-brand NICs in them, so if you can get the 3200ACM cheaper, that's the better value, plus less excess code and parts inside to potentially bork a DD-WRT/OpenWRT install.

The Netgear is Qualcomm-based, slightly more powerful wireless, but not by much, but it has had a bit better history of stability with OpenWRT (mostly due to the Winbond flash switch Linksys did mid-way through the production run). All things considered, I'd lean towards the R7800.

That said, though, if you're open to OpenWRT, which is almost as easy to deploy as DD-WRT now, as most images come with the LuCi web GUI installed and enabled, you might also want to think about the ZyXEL NBG6817, which is essentially the same Qualcomm hardware as the Netgear R7800, just in a less-overpriced package. IMHO, it's the true open-source sleeper right now.

Best of luck with your pick!

 

[sfx2000]

Recently replaced an older WRT1900ACS with an R7800. Performance is similar between the 1900ACS and the R7800 for most clients.

The WRT's were cool, as they did actually have decent range and performance, despite Linksys' lack of updates over time.

Netgear's WebUI is a bit old, but all the important stuff is there... and there is @Voxel that does do custom spins based on the Netgear firmware.

FWIW - WRT32x and WRT3200ACM are pretty much the same HW, just different SW - I'm moving away from Marvell based devices as they recently sold off the Wireless assets to NXP, so not clear what the future is going to hold for driver updates inside the board support packages, and also puts into question OpenWRT/DD-WRT driver development.

 

[jim trudel]

Recently replaced an older WRT1900ACS with an R7800. Performance is similar between the 1900ACS and the R7800 for most clients.

The WRT's were cool, as they did actually have decent range and performance, despite Linksys' lack of updates over time.

Netgear's WebUI is a bit old, but all the important stuff is there... and there is @Voxel that does do custom spins based on the Netgear firmware.

FWIW - WRT32x and WRT3200ACM are pretty much the same HW, just different SW - I'm moving away from Marvell based devices as they recently sold off the Wireless assets to NXP, so not clear what the future is going to hold for driver updates inside the board support packages, and also puts into question OpenWRT/DD-WRT driver development.

ok, so if you tell that the performance is similar between the R7800 and the wrt1900, so I guess the wrt3200acm would be faster for sure? Btw, I want to install dd-wrt so the linksys are supposed to be good on it..

 

[sfx2000]

ok, so if you tell that the performance is similar between the R7800 and the wrt1900, so I guess the wrt3200acm would be faster for sure? Btw, I want to install dd-wrt so the linksys are supposed to be good on it..

They're all going to perform about the same, so the 3200ACM is going to be similar to the 1900acs, and the R7800 is also similar.

Don't believe the marketing hype.