Linksys E1200 Wireless-N Router

• Enjoy the benefits of Wireless-N (802.11n) in your home ideal for surfing the web, emailing and printing wirelessly
• Connect your computers, wireless printers, smartphones, and other wireless devices at up to 300 Mbps transfer speed
• Enjoy broad wireless coverage provided by MIMO antenna technology
• Use four Fast Ethernet (10/100 Mbps) ports to directly connect wired devices
• Keep your network protected with customizable security settings, including WPA/WPA2 Personal and SPI firewall protection
• Give visitors password-protected Internet access on a separate network?so your visitors have access to the Internet, but not your computers or data
• Set up your wireless network in three easy steps using included Cisco Connect software
• Use Cisco Connect's Parental Controls to block specific websites and restrict Internet access during certain hours

I've used Linksys home routers for more than a decade and this is by far the best one yet in every respect. I didn't bother with their fancy new guided configuration software as I'm an experienced user. (I do suspect that inexperienced users might be almost as intimidated by the nifty new setup software, which transports the desired configuration to each new computer via a thumb drive, as they were by the older setup procedure; but that's another story). But I swear that the manual configuration took no longer than getting the shrink wrap off the outer box and undoing the twisty-ties -reset the admin password, give the SSID a name, select security type, and set a network password. That's it -all other factory pre-sets are exactly what you need and would expect. Total time for manual setup once the shrink wrap was off -perhaps 3 minutes at most, and most of that spent crawling under the desk to plug it in. As I used the same SSID and network password as the old Linksys box I was replacing, all the machines actually rejoined the new network and router by themselves (and switched from G to N protocol) as soon as I entered the network password into the router control panel, with no prompting. And finally, the new packaging, even though it shouldn't really matter that much, is nothing short of breathtaking. If you're used to staring at the funny blue box on 4 legs with the two ear antennae, suddenly you enter the 21st century with this new box -everyone familiar with Linksys products wants to touch it as if it's fine jewlery! It must be only 20% of the volume of the old box. A real triumph of industrial design, quite aside from the hardware and software.

Buy Linksys E1200 Wireless-N Router Now

As a certified 'senior' who's never dealt with a router before, I had absolutely no trouble setting up and getting connected. My 6 year old desktop is not wireless. My goal was to get a new laptop up and running via the router. By simply inserting the CD, I followed the instructions with no difficulty at all. I used a Memory Stick with data already stored on it, to then connect to my laptop. In less than 15 minutes both computers were up and running. The laptop is much faster than my desktop so I'm thrilled with that! (I live in a two story home and have had no connectivity problems from anywhere within the home; I haven't tried taking the laptop outdoors, but I doubt I ever will!)

Hopefully, my satisfaction is not short-lived and the router will give me a few good years.

Read Best Reviews of Linksys E1200 Wireless-N Router Here

I ordered this router after reading reviews of tons of other wireless routers available on amazon, and it works perfectly it is easy to setup (no troubles at all whatsoever), no blinking lights on the front of the router, very lightweighted and compact. Couldnt have asked for a better router for someone who is not tech-savy and for someone who just wants a simple router that works as specified and as per its 5 star reviews!

Want Linksys E1200 Wireless-N Router Discount?

The Linksys E1200 is an entry level router which provides basic Wireless-N capability at a very affordable price.

Its drawback is that it only supports the 2.4Ghz band of the Wireless-N standard. In more population dense

areas, this band is fairly crowded and performance is not optimal. It works well for basic Wireless-N capability

and if you are replacing an existing Wireless-G router so you can have a little extra wireless distance.

We have recently begun using our router for both wireless computing and for streaming video to our Hi-Def

TV and have sometimes noticed a slight lag time with a single band Linksys Wireless-N router. When we start

using the streaming video more and more, we will consider moving to the Linksys E4200 Dual Band in the future

as it supports both the 2.4Ghz for computer use and the less crowded 5Ghz for streaming devices.

In summary, the Linksys E1200 is a good basic model router for use in less population dense areas or where

the primary use is for wireless computing. We have used Linksys routers for years and are extremely pleased

with the overall performance.

Save 25% off

I would not recommend this router...or maybe its just the tech support. I was on the phone for the better part of the weekend with Comcast and Linksys. The router had been working fine for a few months before it started acting up. I called Comcast first who couldn't find anything wrong and I even switched the modem to eliminate that as an issue. I got on with Linksys and they informed me they would help even though it was outside the 90 window. I had to reset the router to factory settings and confirmed it had a DNS address. After over an hour we were able to get the router going.

Two hours later the wifi stopped working but wired directly worked correctly. I tried to recycle the router and called Linksys when this didn't work...after checking that it had DNS so the modem was fine. The person I talked too was less than compassionate and was more concerned with selling additional service fee of $40 for a $65 router that is still covered under warranty. He did some trouble shooting of my computer which is a work computer and it is well locked down to any changes....which I told him and he still attempted to change settings to no avail. In this environment I had 3 laptops(2 with XP and one Mac), 2 ipads and 2 iphones to troubleshoot with. The laptops could see the network sometimes and wouldn't connect unless wired, the iPad could connect but it took 20 minutes to download one page!

The tech recommended optimizing the computer and working with the computer vendor. I pointed out that I had three different types of computers and it would make no sense to work with each vendor to optimize it when the issues appears to be the router. He then recommended talking to a software engineer for a fee. He then said I could update to the latest firmware which I asked him which version that is...he said it was online. So while on the phone with him I saw I had the latest version. Lastly he recommended restoring to factory reset again which could damage the unit....does that make sense? Well it turns out this may be the only thing he was right about as when I reset to factory defaults it wouldn't let me finish the set up! I checked the modem again and it works fine. So that was another hour wasted on the weekend at a vacation home. So you tell me what is the point of a 1 year warranty if it means nothing? At this point I don't see a reason to get another Linksys product when I have one that won't function now....and again still under warranty!

Read More >>

Linksys E3200 High-Performance Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Router

• Enjoy the power of high-performance, simultaneous dual-band Wireless-N technology (80211n) ideal for home entertainment
• Connect Internet-ready TVs, Blu-rays, game consoles and other devices at superior speeds up to 300 + 300 Mbps
• Double your network bandwidth with simultaneous dual bands
• Connect an external storage device tothe built-in USB port to share your files at home or on the Internet
• Connect a printer to share among the computers on your network

The Linksys E3200 is, without a doubt, an impressive product. It's one VERY easy to set router that appears to operate reliably and even comes with a couple of notable bells and whistles. However, some of the 'high performance' claims proved to be slightly exaggerated and I wasn't impressed by the quality of user support.

SETUP (5 of 5)

One question most of us ask ourselves before proceeding to set something as intimidating as a new router is 'will I be able to make it work for me?' The good news is that in this case the answer should be 'probably or most likely yes.' For a basic setup, you simply plug in the router, run the Cisco Connect app provided on a CD on a computer equipped with a Wi-Fi adapter and... you are connected.

Cisco Connect is a well-organized app that will help you add devices to the network and once the router is app and running most devices will add themselves once you provide the password allow for limited 'guest' access on a separate network, set parental controls, test your Internet connection speed and directly manage your router if you need to split your network for better performance, configure DNS and DHCP, advanced wireless settings, security, manage the attached disk if you have one, set access policies and so forth.

It gets as sophisticated as you need it to be and the good news is that both Cisco Connect and the router's Web interface are are well organized and are backed by a very well written and quite detailed manual. I will post the link to the downloadable PDF as a comment to this review.

My basic setup completed in a couple of minutes and it took a couple of minutes more to register individual devices: laptops, desktops, printers, portable gaming devices, home servers, Internet radio. Anything that has a wired connection (4 10/100/1000 Mpbs ports are available) does not need any setup. The more sophisticated tasks, such as reserving IP addresses for printers and a media hub and 'splitting' the traffic into 2 separately named networks mapping into the router's 2 frequency bands (2.4 MHz and 5 MHz) were equally easy and well covered by the manual.

It's important that Cisco Connect is installed on one of your computers if not on all because the first thing it does when you start it is checking the router's status and attempting to fix whatever problems if it detects any. To get 'the latest' I installed it from Cisco's site and I didn't experience any issues during or after the install completed.

PERFORMANCE AND RANGE (4 of 5)

Depending on your clients, the router can provide as much as 2 x 300 Gbps this was a major improvement over the 802.11g router it's replacing. This is a lot considering that the best I am getting from my ISP is 15 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream but today's home networks have a lot of internal traffic if you use NAS devices, media servers or home servers that are set to run backups.

While the router supports 802.11 a/b/g/n the manual warns that best performance can be achieved when all clients support 802.11n and that one single 802.11a client can slow the entire network if present.

In practice I got consistent 150 Mbps on the 5 GHz band while in the same room at about 30 ft. from the router (except for a few minutes each day when the 5 GHz signal drops for no apparent reason see the posted screenshots). With one floor in-between, 90 Mbps was possible but the 5 GHz band wasn't as reliable or I could get a steady stream of 54 Mbps, sometimes better on the 2.4 GHz band. With 2 floors in between (router in the basement and my computer on the second floor and at the other end of the house, some 70-80 ft. away) the 5 MHz band became practically unusable (I will post some inSSIDer shots) and the 2.4 GHz band would get me 6-24 Mbps, still okay for Web browsing. The computers on the second floor right above the router get a steady 50-70 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band.

I would like to note that, while the router broadcasting on 2 bands does have its advantages the 5 GHz signal works best when you have line of sight to the router or one thin wall/floor in between. It's not as good at passing through walls as the 2.4 GHz signal. It is possible to maximize performance by using a combination of wired plus 2 segregated bands but some testing and good planning is needed.

RELIABILITY (4.5 of 5)

The E3200 has been remarkably stable so far if I don't consider the random signal loss on the 5 GHz frequency on the second floor. It's fair to state that, when the default settings are kept, the router will automatically switch between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz and between the available channels on each band to maximize performance and minimize interference. Since I don't have neighbors, I can't say how the router would perform in a more crowded environment.

Due to a number of violent storms, we lost power for seconds at a time several times in the past few days. Whenever that happened, the router came back on its own and I was able to resume work without having to reestablish a VPN connection or the chat session on WebEx with a Cisco support rep.

EXTRA FEATURES (4.5 of 5)

The E3200 is chuck-full of advanced features including strong security and encryption and the ability to optimize it for gaming (not tested yet) and, of course, the most visible being the USB port through which you can share files off an attached disk with control over access level on the local network and over the Internet.

On my features wish list... I wish it was possible to actually control the signal strength because the 5 GHz band is clearly underpowered. Also, while it is possible to remotely reboot the router, it would have been nice if a physical 'off' switch was available.

WARRANTY AND SUPPORT (2 of 5)

There is a 1 year more or less standard limited warranty. The full terms are posted at Cisco's site so I'm not going to go into details. My experience with routers and this is my 4th or 5th wireless is that, if they work, they last forever.

The support... I can't say that I had a happy experience. Before I Googled for '5 GHz signal strength' I thought I'd ask a Cisco support person about it over a chat session. I also wanted to ask about the on and off loss of connection over the 5 GHz band. What followed was a long, sterile and at times absurd 58-minute chat session (Cisco did email me the time-stamped transcript) with an offshore person struggling with a script and asking me to perform meaningless activities instead of telling me that 'yes, the 5 GHz signal is weaker'. Eventually she did say that 'yes, the 5 GHz signal is weaker' but only after I asked the question several times. As for the occasional connection drop, I got the standard 'install the latest firmware update' even though she knew that I had the latest firmware version for the router (one of the first things she asked) and she knew that the router was set to automatically download and install firmware updates.

I believe that my chat was part of the initial 90-day live free support that Cisco provides. In addition, of course, there are posted FAQs and discussion boards. Cisco also offers some 'paid' support but they don't say whether it's coming from offshore underpaid workers or from technicians who can actually help solve problems. My view is that the manual is so well written and the quality of the router is so high, not much support should be needed.

MY RATING

The quality of human support and the over-hyping/marketing of the dual band capability (nice to have but not a quantum leap into super-high performance) are dragging down my rating into the 4 star territory. By the way, 4 stars means 'I like it' but not 'I love it'. Fact is, I almost love it because this is a very good product but... not perfect.

This may not be the best n-router out there Cisco does sell a higher model for a few dollars more but I suspect it's all the way there at the top. I can't see how you can go wrong with this one.

____________________________________________________

TIME CHECK: 11 MONTHS SINCE INSTALLATION

May, 2012: almost one year of nearly-flawless operation proved that the E3200 is stable and dependable and its operation comes close to 'zero maintenance'. It rarely needed rebooting while operating under sometimes extreme stress with multiple devices doing 'video', VPN and online gaming. I am now replacing the E3200 with the slightly more capable (larger bandwidth) EA3500.

--

>> Brush your teeth, it's the law!

Save 38% off

Read More >>