Cisco-Linksys E4200 User Review
Posted by hotstubb on August 24, 2011
Installing this router was a breeze. Just slip the CD into the computer and follow the instructions. A few extra step steps is needed to connect several computers to the network, but nothing that cannot be figured out. The best router I have setup and owned so far. We run a roku box and two tablets pretty much constantly and we purchased this router because my ten year old netgear router couldn’t keep up and had to continuously be reset. This new one hasn’t had any problem keeping up. It has been great and allowed us to attach our backup hard drive to the network for easier sharing and backing up our devices. The router is very attractive. I’m so glad they were able to create a design that is still functional and doesn’t require it to be put in the closet because it looks like techno garbage.
Secondly, the router has very good throughput, range and reliability if it’s set up properly. I currently have an old laptop serving as music streamer with a usb adapter, another laptop, a wireless printer, and an iphone connected to my router. But running all these different devices on it’s basic or auto setting was resulting in very poor performance and reliability for the usb adapter, printer and iphone. I would find that setting up 5ghz and 2.4ghz as the same name was part of the problem. Also setting 20mhz/40mhz on auto was the second problem.
It seems that my usb wireless adapter would connect to the router through the 2.4ghz band… but then it would disconnect as it tried to then “improve” it’s connection by switching to the 5ghz band. If it was connected to the 2.4ghz band… it’s through put would vary from an estimated 144Mb/s to 56Mb/s. Actual performance would go from 5-7 MB/sec on the good side down to .1 MB/sec on the bad side. This was caused by the switch between 20mhz/40mhz bands. It took a lot of fiddling and testing to figure out which devices like what bands and frequencies.
Ultimately, I set the router in this fashion.
5ghz named as “Network 5″.
20mhz/40mhz as auto.
Wireless-N ONLY.
Channel as auto.
This ended up being the fastest bandwidth I could get on devices that liked 5mhz
2.4ghz named as “Network 2″.
20mhz only. (40mhz was very unreliable but it would almost always try to force it in auto)
Mixed mode.
Channel 1.
This was the best setting for older devices and ones that didn’t really play well with 5ghz. Like the usb adapter, printer, and iphone. Also putting older devices which were only wireless-G on this band helps keep the faster 5ghz network, clutter free from too many devices and from having to cater to non wireless-N signals.
The only real major negative I have with the router is the file server with a usb device. It can only sustain 7 MB/sec over a wired network. While the usb device attached straight to the computer is approximately 3 times that speed. My relatively ancient WD Netbook sustains 8 MB/sec easily.
Note.. I have not updated my firmware from stock. So I don’t know if things are improved or worsened if you do so.
Overall, this is the best router I’ve used to date. It’s not only fast and reliable. But, it’s has a lot of utility to ensure at least moderate performance and basic file server access. I would remove half a star for the slow file server speed… But, since I can’t, I’m ok with rounding up to 5 stars. Especially since I was able to get this router for $140.00 tax free at another online store.
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