speedingcheetah
Senior Member
My wrt610n had a recovery mode and so did wndr3700, so did few other older routers, so its nothing new. Asus made it simpler through the use of software that you install on your PC.
One of the reasons I bought Asus routers is because of the long term firmware support as you have mentioned. But looking back, its not a good thing. They fix 2-3 things and in the process they brake 2-3 things, and dance continues on and on for 6 months now. Take Merlin out of the equation and 6 months would turn in to a year.
And don't get me started on DLink routers, had the worst experience ever. But their $40 switch work just fine.
Its too soon to say what kind of support and bug fixes Linksys will bring to the table, plus there is lack of user feedback at this time. But we should see a better picture with in next few weeks.
I have had nothing but bad experience with Netgear products. Never will buy them again. The models I had personally, did not have any recovery mode.
I have had very good experience with DLinks routers of the past, except for their newer model routers, those I have had nothing but issues with. Most of which were the same issue, no wifi transmitting even though it said it was.
As far as Asus goes, on my AC56U, I have only had a few issues with firmware updates breaking things, but there has always been a stable version to go back to that performed just as well. I am very happy and it was money well spent and my experience only keeps getting better with my Asus product.
Also, the more complex and feature paked firmware is, the greater the chance of bugs or random issues to pop up. You want basic firmware to make your router be just a router and perform that function best as possible...thats what Tomato or other firmware is for. (they also have builds that have extra features, or u can add them in yourself if you know how)