Cisco-Linksys E2000 Advanced Wireless-N Router

This is my first experience with wireless anything. I did a ton of research online before finally deciding on this particular model. I did a lot of fretting and worrying about my decision and a lot of it was not necessary. I have a hard-wired desk top HP Media Computer, a Vonage phone, and use DSL from the local phone company. I purchased a Toshiba Satellite A665 laptop and thus needed to network on a small scale. Also, looking to purchase a Roku box for Netflix soon. I have used this router about 4+ months now. For someone completely ignorant about wireless it took me about 20 minutes to actually set it up from box to working. I admit to calling the Cisco-Linskys support line during setup with one dumb question. They were very helpful, didn't make me feel stupid, and even helped me finish my installation. I should have been able to do it alone. I was one connection from completion in the setup when I had a brain [...], uh, freeze, but it was probably brought on by fear and stupidity. I have contacted their support once since then, via online chat, with another very elemental question about wireless technology; again they were more than helpful. Their support certainly outshines (and out-communicates, if you get my drift) oh, I don't know, lets say...Hewlett Packard, Vonage, or Toshiba. In the time I have had the router I have had to reset it twice - this is a HUGE improvement over my experience with just my cable modum and Vonage box. Resetting it is easy, just unplug three cords, replug three cords, and your back in business in about three minutes tops. I believe most, if not all, of that problem is my DSL company since it happened a lot more before I went wireless. I have seldom lost my internet connection at the laptop computer level, tho it has happened a few times. I just clicked on the 'connect' link on the computer, reconnected with the router, and the internet was back up and working. I routinely use both computers fairly close to the router itself, but have tried my laptop in all other rooms of my house, which is a one-story and not too big (about 1200 sq, ft.) Nothing in speed or connection suffered. Have not taken the laptop outside my home into the yard yet. If there is a down-side to this router, it is that every once in awhile the video on an online video will freeze up while the audio continues on; the video portion will catch up later. I blame this on the router, but, I could be wrong, it could be my computer or actually any one of the other elements involved. I have used a Linksys hard-wired router in the past for Vonage router and I was not happy with the company or the device at all. But, having no wireless comparison experiences, and keeping in mind this is from a wireless newbie and a technical dunce, I can say the setup with this router was a piece a cake, much easier than what I had been reading, and the router itself has worked great and performed better than I hoped for so far. For ease of use and performance I would highly recommend the Cisco-Linksys E2000 Advanced Wireless-N Router.

I bought this router for my father-in-law after his neighbor decided to start password-protecting the router he was hooking up to. I was skeptical, as I read some reviews that indicated flaws (easy enough to find, if you're looking for those reviews). My experiences with this router were reasonable. I decided to skip the installation disk; when I bought my own Cisco router, I felt that the disc was grossly unhelpful. I'm reasonably experienced with routers, so it was easy enough for me to punch in the IP address and configure it through a browser. The router came online very quickly. I will say that some of the menus in the browser system aren't very intuitive. It took about 5 minutes for me to figure out how to password the router, and another five minutes for me to figure out how to change the name of the router. Since the router has been set up, all has gone well. Speeds are great throughout the multi-level home, and the router doesn't balk at having five to six computers drawing from its connection at the same time. There have been no connection drops, and I haven't had to reset my connection (something common with past Netgear routers). I would have given this router five stars, but Cisco-Linksys loses a star for having a needlessly complicated configuration system. It would be easy enough to make that a little more user-friendly. Still, a fine product.

After purchasing this router and putting it to use for about 2 - 3 weeks I think it is time to provide the pros and cons of this router. Pros 1. Non Wireless - The non wireless aspect of this router does very well at splitting up one internet connection between different computers. Does not affect the speed too much but if only one person is using it at a time then that computer will get the full speed. 2. Setup - If you are setting this up for only two computers on the non wireless hookup it is not entirely difficult. The main objective is you should use the CD provided so you can login to the router without using the IP address way. 3. Split up of connection - It does the job of splitting an internet connection between wireless and non wireless pretty good. But the settings is where the cons start. 4. Connection between walls - The setting I have it on is for N technology and I tinkered with the advanced settings for 5.0 ghz. Going through 3 walls it gives a good connectivity so staying connection does not seem to be a major issue. The problem of connection through walls only becomes apparent when other things interfere at 2.5 ghz level. Cons 1. Wireless - The wireless aspect of this router is okay to good at times but after usage becomes an annoyance. This router can be used in g/n technology. If you choose mixed signals of g/n it slows down drastically. If your computer can use n technology then setting it up in advanced settings is okay for tech savvy people but a major headache for people not tech savvy. In order to not create conflicts it appears one setting needs to be chosen so it's either g or n. 2. Wireless Speed - If you have properly set up the advanced settings in wireless then it works great for a period of time. After awhile one will notice it starts to slow down because it seems to have a type of buffer. An example is after awhile it works like CDMA when signals are sent in packets but only when requested. When one first begins using the wireless it acts like GSM packets constantly flowing without any problems. To compensate for this slowing down and buff like setting unplug the unit and modem then plug them back in to power cycle. It's a pain in the behind but works. Overall, it's an okay to good router if you are tech savvy and understand the concepts of n technology. Until one tinkers with the advanced wireless settings the default for wireless is not that good. For the price it is about right. If you are not familiar with how to login to a router, tinkering with advance wireless settings, testing different settings, and the concepts of G & N wireless technology then I suggest you pass this one up. Using complete default settings on this for wireless will disappoint most people. EDIT: After using this product for wireless it still works. On the other hand one truly needs to tinker and test the settings. After about two weeks it slowed to a crawl. I investigated and after playing with the advanced wireless settings I learned one must try numerous combination of settings with the beacon interval, fragmentation, and rts. It may seem confusing to people who don't understand the terminology and meanings. Beacon interval is how fast packets are sent out to keep the connection alive. Sometimes when this number is too high wireless loses connection or slows down. As of after 2 weeks of usage it still is up to speed now without any issues. But as mentioning one MUST test and tinker with the advanced wireless settings to find the right combination.

I needed a new router since my old D-link basically stopped working. I was looking for something with a decent range, fast throughput speeds and ease of use. I definitely found a winner with this router. You really can't go wrong with Linksys/Cisco they make the best in my opinion. This router is no different. Easy to setup out of the box, easy to install and change settings such as password and log in. The best part is you can create a guest log in username and password so that you don't have to give out your routers information to anyone who wants to use it. This makes it great if you sometimes share your router with friends but don't want to have to give out your personal password. Been using this router for a couple months now and it's great. Still fast, hasn't crashed or needed to be reset. Speeds are always high both wired and wireless and the range is pretty decent. It's definitely shorter than some of the long range routers but I knew that going in. Not that this matters to me but some people might like how sleek it looks. With the antennas being internal the router itself really is sweet looking with the silver and black. Anyway if you are looking for a great easy to use router for the right price definitely go with this one!

My old linksys router was constantly getting knocked out 3 or 4 times a day and required re-boot. I upgraded to the Cisco E2000 last week. Set up was a breeze as long as you have windows managing your wireless connection. I didn't and I had to switch over to a windows managed connection. Once I did, the cisco software took care of the rest including all the security set up. I also turned off the guest access based on other reviews that I have read. I don't have wireless N on my home computer yet so I'm running the new router with my old wireless G computer and it's working flawlessly. I also hooked up my smartphone to the home network with no issues. In addition, I hooked up my work laptop. That computer is fairly new and may have wireless N on it because I noticed a great increase in speed. The router has been working for a week now with full coverage of my entire house and no interruptions or re-boot's required so far. Great product and value for the price I paid through Amazon.

I went ahead and got this router since I needed to upgrade. The reviews on both Amazon and CNET about this router were really good and decided to check it out for myself. This router even though is a generation behind in the Linksys series and even without the latest bells and whistles, is a very strong competitor. CNET's speed tests showed this router faster than even the newer dual band routers which was pretty good in my book. The only negatives that CNET indicated was the lack of a usb port (for network sharing) and true dual band output (you have to select it if you want 2.4gHz or 5gHz). Options which unless you are a way advanced user, you wont miss. Set up was a breeze, the router was set to a good channel (I highly recommend downloading inSSIDer to give you a better picture of what network is broadcasting in what channel), allowing it to play nice with the neighbor's networks. With my previous wireless router, which was a wireless g router, the speed and connectivity would suffer if there were more than one device using it. That's were this puppy shines: I was able to connect to netflix faster than the old router and not only that, I was able to connect to netflix in my laptop and on my blu-ray at the same time without any problems! Still streaming netflix on my laptop I was able to sign on to Xbox Live and even downloaded an update in no time. The internet client is a nice feature but I left it off just in case. I can always turn it on from the Cisco Connect program if I need it. So if you need a no frills router that will get the job done, this is for you.

If you have used Linksys routers in the past, this one is about par for the course. It's very easy to use and easy to set up. Wireless performance is good. The parental controls are a joke and a waste of time - they are not automated with a service that knows what sites are good and bad - it's just manual. Also, if you use the Web Interface to change the defaults of the router config - like SSID, etc., then the fat client on the desktop no longer works. Not a big deal for me, as I use Blue Coat K9 and or McAfee for parental controls - but if you are a very technical user who likes to customize AND want P controls - this may not be for you. Beginners and non techies should really like the ease of use and have no problems getting up and running in a few minutes. The price is so cheap, that this is almost a commodity. I only gave it 4 stars because they should not even be advertising that it has parental controls - it essentially does not. I also gave their tech support very low scores - but I have not bothered to contact LinkSys support in years. Last time I did, the tech told me I needed to install NetBEUI on my computer to fix the issue, and then got angry when I explained that NetBEUI has nothing to do with an IP router. For reliability, LinkSys has always been pretty good. I have had 4 or 5 LinkSys routers, and only one of them died - and that was after about 4 years of using it - by which time I needed to upgrade to the latest wireless spec, anyway.

Router works, but it's important to know beforehand that the installation software only comes on a CD, no download available apparently. So if using a modern laptop away from home, you need to pack an external CD. It is possible to also connect directly via ethernet cable, but again, if setting up using a modern laptop that doesn't have an ethernet port, you'll run into problems.