Thoughts on the linksys ea9500 v2?

[F1nchy]

Nice! Btw to get the optimum wifi performance on the EA9500, switch off 'band steering'' so that you can manually choose which of the two 5ghz bands you want your devices to connect to. Manually select an appropriate channel on all 3 bands and select 'auto' as channel width.

Hi guys
Just jumping in on this if you don't mind...! I've just bought an EA9500 (v2) and had seen this comment before buying in and thought I'd ask about it. Why is it best to have two seperate 5ghz connections? And how is it best to set them up? Presumably with different SSIDs and passwords, but also on different channels?

I had trouble changing the SSID until I disabled band steering, but after that I couldn't get band steering back on anyway, just kept giving me an error.
Thanks

 

[psychopomp1]

Hi guys
Just jumping in on this if you don't mind...! I've just bought an EA9500 (v2) and had seen this comment before buying in and thought I'd ask about it. Why is it best to have two seperate 5ghz connections? And how is it best to set them up? Presumably with different SSIDs and passwords, but also on different channels?

I had trouble changing the SSID until I disabled band steering, but after that I couldn't get band steering back on anyway, just kept giving me an error.
Thanks

Its the because the router algorithms used for 5ghz band steering aren't always perfect and quite often you end up with one 5ghz channel overloaded with clients whilst the other is almost free, ie lopsided scenario. So IMHO its better to switch off auto band steering so that you have full control of the 5ghz channels.

This is how I have the EA9500V2 setup and it works great:

2.4ghz
channel: 6
channel width: auto
type: mixed
security: WPA2 personal

5ghz-1
channel: 44
channel width: auto
type: mixed
security: WPA2 personal

5ghz-2
channel: 157
channel width: auto
type: mixed
security: WPA2 personal​

 

[F1nchy]

Ah, thanks. I don't see to have the option for 157 on the 5ghz-2 - the highest I can choose from is 140.

Is it worth me setting the 5ghz-2 to type - ac only? So only AC devices can use that? And leave 5ghz-1 mixed?

 

[psychopomp1]

Ah, thanks. I don't see to have the option for 157 on the 5ghz-2 - the highest I can choose from is 140.

Is it worth me setting the 5ghz-2 to type - ac only? So only AC devices can use that? And leave 5ghz-1 mixed?

Yeah those settings should be ok. I'm guessing ch 157 isn't available due to your location, so choose the highest you can, ie 140.

 

[F1nchy]

Ah, great, thanks. I'm in the UK too, not sure why the router only gives me up to that. Can already see the difference to my Asus RTAC88U (that's gone back to Amazon) - more stable and not the dropouts I was getting, and I coudn't even transfer from my laptop directly to my NAS as it kept losing the connection.

 

[Marty Lyons]

Its the because the router algorithms used for 5ghz band steering aren't always perfect and quite often you end up with one 5ghz channel overloaded with clients whilst the other is almost free, ie lopsided scenario. So IMHO its better to switch off auto band steering so that you have full control of the 5ghz channels.

This is how I have the EA9500V2 setup and it works great:

2.4ghz
channel: 6
channel width: auto
type: mixed
security: WPA2 personal

5ghz-1
channel: 44
channel width: auto
type: mixed
security: WPA2 personal

5ghz-2
channel: 157
channel width: auto
type: mixed
security: WPA2 personal​

Hi all
I too have read with interest your comments about the EA9500, I currently have an EA8500 running extremely well, on that I have DD-WRT and am wondering if anybody has heard of that option or similar being available on the 9500

 

[psychopomp1]

Ah, great, thanks. I'm in the UK too, not sure why the router only gives me up to that. Can already see the difference to my Asus RTAC88U (that's gone back to Amazon) - more stable and not the dropouts I was getting, and I coudn't even transfer from my laptop directly to my NAS as it kept losing the connection.

5ghz channels 140-165 aren't usually available in UK/EU, however I bought my EA9500V2 from USA which does offer such channels.

 

[psychopomp1]

Hi all
I too have read with interest your comments about the EA9500, I currently have an EA8500 running extremely well, on that I have DD-WRT and am wondering if anybody has heard of that option or similar being available on the 9500

Unfortunately the EA9500 (any version) isn't compatible with DD-WRT or any third party firmware so probably not a good idea to use one if you're looking for advanced router features, such as using OpenVPN on it. However for ordinary routing and wifi range/speeds, its a superb router and amongst the best, if not the best 801.11ac class router out there

 

[CrystalLattice]

Unfortunately the EA9500 (any version) isn't compatible with DD-WRT or any third party firmware so probably not a good idea to use one if you're looking for advanced router features, such as using OpenVPN on it. However for ordinary routing and wifi range/speeds, its a superb router and amongst the best, if not the best 801.11ac class router out there

SmallNetBuilder review concluded, "the EA9500 is just another really expensive router that's unlikely to light up any of your pesky dead spots or handle a large number of devices any better than a much cheaper AC3200 class tri-radio alternative." ps Smartconnect doesn't work between 5 and 2.4ghz

 

[psychopomp1]

SmallNetBuilder review concluded, "the EA9500 is just another really expensive router that's unlikely to light up any of your pesky dead spots or handle a large number of devices any better than a much cheaper AC3200 class tri-radio alternative." ps Smartconnect doesn't work between 5 and 2.4ghz

The SNB review was for EA9500V1, this thread is about EA9500V2.

Different hardware gives different results