20 Best Wifi Router For Centurylink (2023 Updated)

Spent over eight hours trying to set up this modem. It was to be an exact replacement for the same modem provided by Century Link only much older. Century Link as of this date does not sell the C1900A VDSL2 modem, it only leases them.

I was hoping that one obtained from a third party would save me a leasing fee. Modem does not “hold” any wireless data for very long. It also disables the wireless network adapters on my two laptops.

It works fairly well when connected by cable but unreliable. Century Link is uncooperative in its reauthorization/provisioning procedures. Modem would not work consistently when connected to a desktop computer and two laptop computers.

Modem is lacking one firmware update. Equipment well packaged and received in a timely fashion. Sorry to have to return this modem as it appeared to be a good value.

I have a small A-frame cabin on airbnb as a vacation rental in Cle Elum, WA. I was worried that with my 1. 5 hr drive from Seattle the modem might not work. My Internet installer had to drive through snow w ice underneath on the curved road.

I told him to gun it at the bottom of the hill. He did & made it into the driveway. He asked to see my modem & said it would work! My 1st guests said the Internet was fast, so I’m very pleased with the product! Thanks!.

Very nice router. Fully program able with a colorful setup menu. Good transmission range. We have it installed in the lobby of our house and the range is adequate upstairs , downstairs and 75 feet into the yard.

It is not a new router to us, we leased the same one from CenturyLink but by buying one, we save money.

I bought this modem as it would work on both DSL and Fiber installations. It gives me the speed I need and was easy to install. It saves me money not having to rent a modem from the provider and lets me have better control over the settings.

Gateway\Modem was great except for a few blemishes. POWER CORD did not work. The power cord would not fit into the device. Not a common Power Supply either so You’d have to buy one special if it didn’t work.

The Linksys EA4500 is by far the best-performing wireless router I have ever used. Immediately before purchasing this router my ISP was Sprint, and I used their Sierra wireless AirCard 595U for four years (this I would not recommend, but wifi wasnt available in many places in my hometown when I got the aircardso it was basically my only option for any type of mobile internet access), and I had long been in search of a faster internet connection.

The aircard worked decently once I moved to DC; however, I soon relocated to North Carolina and the signal on the aircard was practically nonexistent, so my options regarding ISPs were quickly reduced to one, and the only internet service available was via Ethernet connection.

I quickly began searching for a router and settled on this highly-rated Linksys, and Im so glad I did. There was constantly a full signal in all areas of my home (approx. 1400 sf at the time), never had to restart the unit, or otherwise seek customer support or troubleshooting tips.

It was extremely easy to install and maintain. One of the most fantastic features of this unit is that its app-enabled, so we had the convenience of accessing the parental controls, settings, and basic network management from our mobile devices.

I have zero complaints or any type of dissatisfaction with this unit, its operation has been flawless from initial setup. This item is very highly recommended and worth every penny.

This router has meet, or exceeded my expectations in all of my areas of evaluation. In addition to building a good product, I,ve found the customer support provided by Linksysn to be oustanding. Their competent, speak my language and are willing to get involved in the process of helping me succesfully use their product.

Let me also comment on the E-BAY reseller that sold me the product. She was reseller EA12543 and it was a plessure working with her as well. She advertised her product truthfully as NEW IN BOX and thats exactely what she shipped to me.

She didn’t wordsmith the description like “NEW( conditional, may not be in its orginal box or factory sealed }. I would feel safe buying from her in the futre. Thank you for saving me a fair ammount of money on a top quality New product at a referb price.

Thank you E-BAY for your excellent support and willingness to do the right thing when required.

Works great since I set up. Stable wi-fi signals and beautiful white lights. Very light cosmetic wear on the surface except one missing foot base. It was coming with a non-original charger whose specs (Voltage, Current) do not match the router’s.

However, they somehow managed to work with each other. I am still planning to purchased a new charger per cautious. Overall, it was a good deal with the low price.

I searched a lot of reviews, the technicolor brand modems are known for being quality with very few issues reported, unfortunately for many Centurylink users, the Technicolor only seems to be distributed in very few select markets.

I have been running this modem from the very first second that it came in the door. overall it has performed near flawlessly, I did have one instance where the modem became very laggy. I rebooted it and it has been problem free ever since.

Well designed. . . Well Built. . . Reliable. . . What else would you want except a great deal on one! Dont hesitate on this model unless you need ac WiFi then you need the C2100T.

Century Link, Embarq. Sprint send a poor grade of equipment as their standard router. they’re slow to connect and constantly dropping the connection. With this piece of equipment all those issues go away.

Fast internet, always connects and never drop a connection. Even works with my Ipad over 200 feet away.

Looked brand new. All the cables and power supply were new. Very pleased with the Seller. It works, but has less wireless range as my old C1000A does. Centurylink has issues with their firmware on these, even with the recent firmware release I updated to.

Some values are incorrect and/or missing in the GUI. System log is going a mile a minute with lots of entries, mainly system kernals with Firewall Wan Drops. 99% of Flash memory always being utilized, etc.

If you never need or use the GUI for troubleshooting your dsl line status/quality issues and don’t care about total Mbits used in a 24hr period it’s supposed to keep track of or which DNS server is set by default, it’ll most likely serve your needs.

For me though, with the firmware bugs, it doesn’t meet my expectations and my old C1000A is still a better gateway to use even with its shortcomings. So with that said, I do not recommending this model and give it only 2 stars due to Centurylinks buggy firmware.

This modem is definitely what you pay for. It works well enough most of the time and I am able to work from home and do what I need with minimal frustrations. The frustrations are worth sharing, though! Since using it, my internet has become very spotty and the quality of Zoom, Skype, and FaceTime video calls has gone way down.

Often my calls get dropped and I lose internet for a few minutes at a time at least handful of times a day. Overall, it does fine for a less expensive VDSL modem, but I think its worth paying more money for a higher quality one next time.

Works exactly the way I wanted it to work. Streamless wifi connection is now possible anywhere in my house. And it’s high speed with a gigabit connection. Keep in mind in order to get gigabit speeds, you must have another Moca bonded 2.

0 device on the network. Right now, I just have this one and a Moca 2. 0 router, so I’m getting half gigabit speeds. But that’s good enough. Some people say it needs a reset every so often, I have yet to have to reset it.

For a branded dedicated device, I was surprised with the ability to control and customize it’s options and features. The AT&T router my sister uses is barely useable and you can’t even control the DNS settings.

My modem came without anything broken or missing and it fired up right away.

I can’t tell whether CenturyLink’s service is bad or the modem is bad. It seems that the modem is moody meaning that it works when it wants to. Other people in our area are quite satisfied with century link.

It seems to drop all kinds of streaming, taking way too much time. Everything seems to “timeout” when working on Internet.

My previous 2. 4gz Wi-Fi network was reaching max of 6mbps at the longest distance in the house from the modem. Now the same spot goes up to 20mbps. The 5gz network wasnt even getting there, I had to use a repeater.

Now not only it does get there but also speed can go up to 30mbps. Close to the modem and both 2. 4 and 5gz networks go easily to 50mbps. Amazing, I am super happy, no complaints. However if you have a huge house you may need to place it in a central location.

It is a great product but doesnt do miracles!.

This modem greatly enhanced my internet connection 2-fold and has been working great since set up. It includes great range and the 2 bandwidths offer an extra high speed connection which I use the 5gHz option.

The setup is the only area I had trouble with. Connecting the cords was very simple however deciphering what setting I needed to change so the modem would connect took a bit of ‘Googling’. In order to connect the modem you are required to open up an internet browser and use Netgear’s program to finalise your connection.

The included instructions suggest that the modem will automatically connect and change server settings to the required settings however this was not the case. Netgear’s website has troubleshooting information but nothing that helped me.

After reading various blogs, etc I discovered I needed to look through Netgear’s program and find ‘Advanced Settings’ then change 2-3 setting types to ‘Automatically Detect’ as well as change the MAC address.

Once I had done this my connection worked with no issues. I’m not sure if everyone runs into the same issue or if that was just me but be prepared to change some settings if you get this modem. Chances are if you are buying this modem you are already a bit tech savvy however if you are not you may end up becoming frustrated until someone can help you.

Apart from the setup issue, I think this is an excellent modem for a reasonable price.

This is a great bit of kit and I am very pleased with it. I had problems with the generic basic modem routers sent by my ISP so looked into options from there. This design is a bit quirky but works so well.

I used this with a plug in Netgear MESH extender for upstairs. Together it makes a great setup and sorted the drops and bottlenecks I was getting continuously I used a free online meter (Netspot) to review the % of signal received with the old router, the new router they had sent me, and this router (in various positions too).

This router, for my set up, improved my received wifi by about 15% of available signal, plus working on dual band ac. Also, I suspect my overall download capability via copper is improved too from my speed tests with ADSL / ADSL2 / ADSL2+ / VDSL modes I was able to use this as a trusted quality item with a decent quantity of reviews available against so many alternatives on the market to sort out the issues I was having.

Recommended.

There are better options as this is an older outdated design. This is pretty much a basic modem and router with WiFi. It’s wireless a/b/n 300 mbps max single-band (2. 4 ghz) only, and doesn’t support MIMO.

It slowed way down with my 45 mbps DSL when I had multiple users on it streaming and on the Playstation multiplayer. You do get 4 gigabit ethernet ports in back, and it supports single button WPS. The web interface is nice though.

If you want a basic modem/router to go with your slower CenturyLink or other ADSL2 service, this is an okay option, but I recommend getting a modem and a standalone WiFi router with dual-band 2. 4/5 ghz and MIMO to get the most out of it.

Also, mine made a high-pitch squealing noise I couldn’t figure out.

Mine was bought used. Initially plugged in and confirmed it worked with my ADSL CenturyLink service of 7Mbps. All I had to do to configure was type in my CenturyLink username and password in wizard. Router password is stamped on back of router and previous user did not change it or I would have had to reset the device.

It worked at 7Mbps (speedtest actually shows 5Mbps which is normal). Then called CenturyLink and upgraded to 40Mbps which uses VDSL. Technician called me while at the local DSLAM box (or whatever they call it now) to let me know it should be ready soon.

I watched as my internet connection went down for a couple minutes and then came back up again. I didn’t even have to reset the power on the router. Speedtest showed I was getting 29-32 Mbps down and 3-5 up.

All was good. Specs say this will get up to 80Mbps service, maybe will try that in a couple years. 40Mbps service is fine for now. I have not tried the wireless yet as I have another inside router that does this.

Impressed that router does both ADSL and VDSL. FYI, CenturyLink balked a little at me providing my own DSL router. They said their policy is switching to being less open to users providing their own equipment.

They want you to buy from them or rent even if model is on their approved list. I suppose it makes it easier if users aren’t trying to use used/potentially broken routers that their tech staff has to troubleshoot, lowers their cost.

Or simply they make more money selling and renting the routers. The upshot of this new policy is they will ship you a router because “they have to” and invite you to immediately reject the package, send it back and be refunded on your billing.

When I recently signed up for CenturyLink broadband service, I checked the cost of purchasing a router from the company. When I saw that they wanted $99 (and for an unknown model), I decided to check other options for purchasing my own router.

I wanted one with four Ethernet ports for a direct connection to my DVD players, laptop, etc. (As convenient as wi-fi is, there are just some devices that work better with a direct connection. ) I also wanted one that had top ratings from other users.

Although I was doing a self-install of my CL DSL service, the CL tech was there putting in a new line for me. When he heard I had purchased my router on E-bay, he rolled his eyes and told me that the last time he worked with a customer who purchased a used router, it wouldn’t even light a single LED.

Well, I can tell you that the one I purchased from this seller has been working flawlessly ever since in was first connected to my DSL service. The signal strength is more than adequate for my small apartment, and the Ethernet ports work perfectly.

I even have two to spare, but I’m sure I’ll come up with some other device to connect (maybe a new weather station??).

Modem is as described. Plugged in, turned on and it connected to CenturyLink right away unlike used modems CenturyLink rents to users.

The model works great so far! I do not plan on returning it. Thanks!

It works well. Even though the turn up instructions were not in the box, turn up went well

My neighbor has security cameras and he wanted me to get them online but I found out he only has 5g modum so I came across used modums for less than half and when it arrived it looked new. I don’t understand that people like CenturyLink would even sell single modums anymore.

This is a dual modem, 2. 4 & 5g.

This unit replaced my old Westel modem and Netgear router. I’m paying for 10 mb., DSL. I used to get between 0.8 and 5.5 mb. , weak and unreliable. I now get 9.4+. Huge difference.

Plugged into Centurylink and connected and authenticated within 5 minutes. I am getting my subscribed speeds. That being said, seems wifi is kinda weak. I have slowed speeds in my master and no signal in garage which is the farthest point away.

Modem is centralized as much as possible to the home. I may try to bridge modem and use another router.

So far I’m very happy with the MR5200. I’ve only had it for a couple of weeks though. I have been the unhappy recipient of a long term power outage so this has been quite a test. ( Snowstorm packing very wet and heavy snow.

Many thousands if trees and power lines down. ) My 5g Samsung S20 for the first 4 or 5 days of the power outage couldnt get any internet, and the phone service wasn’t great. But, even though I have AT&T for my Samsung and my Netgear, the Netgear has worked very well.

When I couldnt get out with a straight shot on my phone, I was able to use WI FI phone service and that worked great. I bought a highly directional antenna for the netgear but with the massive amount of snow everywhere I haven’t been able to figure out where it needs to go.

However, even with one bar signal strength depending on where I set the netgear, I can still get enough data speed ( even during peak hours ) to stream 1080P video. I did think I had a WI FI issue with the netgear but have found its apparently a Vudu/Fandango problem.

( I seem to be having problems I never had until Vudu merged with Fandango. )The movie “Contact” keeps giving me “slow internet” warnings. I did several speed checks and at that time I was getting 60 mbps.

So no, it was NOT a internet connection issue. For experimentation reasons I tried several different movies on Vudu and only had trouble with ” Contact “. But get this. If I restarted the movie from the beginning, it was fine.

But if I did ANY FFWD OR REV it would hang up repeatedly after that. So never assume it’s anything in particular. Experiment. Let this be a warning to those of you like myself who has 100 videos I “Own” on Vudu.

I will not buy any more Vudu movies. If your internet goes down or has trouble or the service isnt working well, “YOUR” movie can be useless. Buy the Blu_Ray or 4K discs. Players are very cheap and give the best quality picture available.

And if you don’t “need” to have a movie right at its release date, they are cheaper than buying a movie online. Often even cheaper that renting a movie online. The battery in the Netgear lasts at least 8 hours.

(I havent pushed it. ) So thats a plus. On the occasion or two that I had any trouble a reboot fixed said problem. And it reboots pretty quickly. Ive been at this adress for ten years and this is the first time I’ve ever had fast and reliable internet.

I’m in a rural area and there are few choices available. And with this recent and Id say very harsh test of power lines, trees, and I’m sure cell phone infrastructure problems, I am really so very happy with the NetgearMR5200.

To repeat. The first several days of power outage, my new 5g Samsung phone was of little or no use. But even though I have the phone and the Netgear running on AT&T, the Netgear has not let me down at all.

Even with a mile of snow laden trees in between me and the closest cell tower/antenna.

I have been using the Orbi 4g router for almost a year now and have to say that I love it, the security is amazing. The functionality is incredibly user friendly and the best part is I can take it anywhere in my bag with my laptop and have 4g high speed internet anywhere I go.

The user interface is very easy to manage and understand. I would recommend this 4g router over every other on the market based on my knowledge of most of the others out there solely because of how secure it actually is, and it’s useability user friendliness.

I have been repairing electronics for about 20 years now and I highly recommend this router to anyone who wants the ability to have high speed internet where you might otherwise not be able to get it, or simply because you travel and this can be used in a vehicle quite easily with only an inverter.

I use this product daily and for streaming music nonstop as well as using it for movies and tv occasionally. Highly recommend product.

I’m using mine with Sunrise subscription in places far away where no fix-cable connections exist. I tested it for 2 weeks, specially for remote work / home work. It works great, fluently, and obviously speed and latency and quality of connection strictly depends to network coverage.

Please check it before with the provider. ​ Easy setup and first impression with touch display who it really inaccurate is (compared to modern smartphones) or similar devices. (Touch display of iPhone 4 was much much better).

I expected better precision and quality considered devices at same value / price. I set SIM PIN and it was not easy to insert it when booting device with such touch display. Hopefully SIM-unlock can be done with Netgear app or device GUI from you mobile.

By default it automatically adjusts band selection (5G, 4G+, LTE, and so on), also during usage. I figure out this also depends on provider network cell density user count / usage bandwidth. When rolling back to 4G, that is perceivable on performance.

Maybe a “5G only” option miss, with the intention to stay to 5G as far as it can. I also had the chance to try it with a Panorama Antenna DMM-7-38-2TS9 and do some speedtest. In one far away (from city) place I had following values: [Location, Ping ms, DW Mbps, UL Mbps] Inside building, 37, 94, 35 Outside building, 36, 43, 60 Inside building with antenna, 37, 100, 12 Outside building with antenna, 29, 35, 68 OK, these are numbers….

And also tests where not executed many times, it was just to have and idea. And general impression is, that using this antenna also in other places, work experience is little more fluently in latency, no timeouts.

In general inside device antenna seems to be really good! I finally found this M5 device, quite expensive!!.

This router is a great entry level Wi-Fi 6 router. Speeds are great and it’s been pretty reliable. My only real gripe with it (and the reason I’m giving it 4 stars) is the requirement of using the Linksys app to setup the router.

It took me way too long to set it up as the app refused to let me sign up for an account (something you really should NOT need on a local device) and I was forced to do it from the Linksys website. Then it kept refusing to acknowledge that my modem was connected and just kept saying I had no internet connection.

Any attempt to try and set up the router the old fashioned way (through the default gateway address) just led to more frustration as it just tells you to download the app. Overall good hardware (especially for the $100 I paid for it) but just an awful software experience.

For anyone without a good understanding of how to troubleshoot technical issues, steer clear of this thing. However if you can get past the hurdles of setup I would recommend it. (As long as it’s on sale).

The first bad sign was when it took multiple attempts to get it to connect during setup. Once I got it set up and running, everything seemed great, and it was generally showing between ~1-1. 2Gbps, though it frequently dropped to a few hundred for some unknown reason and required me to disconnect and reconnect to go back up to 1Gb+ again.

The main reason I got it was so I could connect a 5-bay USB HDD enclosure and access the drives over the network, and it worked seamlessly, and so I thought all was good. Immediately, though, I started having issues with disconnects while transferring or reading data to/from the drives.

Because of this, it took me over a week to do what should have taken a couple days, because I had to keep restarting things after they would run for hours only to fail due to a disconnect. Twice when it happened I was lucky enough to see it happen, which allowed me to go check on the router and see that it was booting up, meaning it was randomly restarting on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, this joke of a router has basically no troubleshooting capabilities built in, not even having such a basic feature as uptime to be able to see how long it’s been running and, therefore, how long ago it reset itself.

Even enabling the logs proved fruitless, since there were about six or eight lines after running for a while and rebooting again, so I can only assume it clears the logs on reboot, which obviously makes them useless.

Another issue was that it would randomly not be accessible via IP to access the Velop interface even though I could ping it and had connection to the internet and my drives, and trying a different browser didn’t help, either.

I would have been willing to chalk the issues up to a defective product and try again, but I’m sorry, I’m not going to bother with a “router” that doesn’t even have the most basic of diagnostic tools.

This thing is a pathetic joke and is just destroying Linksys’ name, though I shouldn’t be surprised since it’s now owned by Belkin. Don’t waste your time on this toy.

Years ago we had at least one other Linksys networking device – likely one of our first routers. It performed well enough that I certainly did not rule out another Linksys device when our Apple Time Capsule stopped working.

Within the past year I heard many newer routers were much easier to set up than in the past. Although I would not say this was completely “plug-n-play”, it was easier than I remember – and worked well with both Apple and non-Apple devices.

We have Amazon Echo, Google HomeMini, and even an Apple Home device. All rather seamlessly connected to the router. I liked Apple’s AirPort Utility app, so I was pleased to see Linksys had a similarly visual interface to see which devices were connected to which band (2.

4 GHz or 5. 0 GHz) of the Wi-Fi router. You can select icons to mirror the appearance of your actual devices (i. e. smartphone, TV, Echo), but not every device had a matching icon. I was surprised to see over 30 devices were connected to the router.

Some devices were not easy to identify with the identifying information in the Linksys app. This was definitely not a deal-breaker, but a little frustrating. Our internet went down for a couple of days after installing the AC1900 – not because of the Linksys device, but an ISP issue.

As with any router (and modem), we simply unplugged the network devices and plugged them back in, and we were up and running after the cable company resolved their issues. About a week after buying this router, it went on sale at Best Buy.

Within their price match parameters, Best Buy quickly matched their own price. But even at about $160, this device was worth the price, as it kept me from having to invest hundreds more for a mesh system – we live in a 1,000+ sq ft condominium.

Even the associate at Best Buy felt that would have been overkill.

Got this at a very low price, like 1/4th of the list price, which is good value. 5GHz coverage is excellent, the user interface is also good, even though the first setup is kind of tricky. If you only use the 5Ghz band, it’s very good, but unfortunately I could not use 5GHz and 2.

4GHz at the same time. It works for a while, then the 2. 4GHz band just dies (visible, but cannot connect). I have no idea why, tried all kinds of settings, read all forums, etc. I find this a typical problem with many dual band routers – for some reason using dual band setup is very unreliable.

(I have tried 5(!!) different kinds of routers. ) I have now change to using two separate routes for b/g/n 2. 4Ghz and ac 5Ghz, and that works perfectly.

802. 11ac is now the default wifi protocol, with the entry point being AC1200. The next step up from AC1200 is AC1750 and AC1900, etc. AC1750 and AC1900 are both extremely similar to each other in that they are both 3 stream routers, the AC1750 is an earlier chipset that relied on an AC transceiver for 5ghz and an N transceiver for 2.

4ghz whereas the newer AC1900 uses an AC transceiver for both 5ghz and 2. 4ghz (commonly Broadcom). Broadcom also uses its TurboQAM to increase maximum link rate in 2. 4ghz from 300mbps to 600mbps as 80mhz bandwidth is not possible in the 2.

4ghz band. Add this to the 1300mbps link rate at 5ghz and AC1900 supplies a possible 1900mbps across both bands; AC1750 supplies 450mbps on 2. 4ghz and 1300mbps on the 5ghz or 1750mbps in total. However, in order to get these super high link rates you will need an AC1900 router, an AC1900 client and 40mhz bandwidth (on 2.

4ghz). The first is easy, we have many AC1900 routers to choose from, the second is not so easy as few AC1900 clients are actually sold or included in mobile devices, and finally being able to use 40mhz on 2.

4ghz is almost impossible due to the amount of congestion at this frequency, any interference from other nearby networks will cause the router to fall back to 20mhz. Why buy AC1900 then, if you can’t get its rated performance? Perhaps faster file sharing from USB 3.

0? Or better 2. 4ghz due to the newer AC transceivers? With all of that out of the way what do I think about this router? Setup was simple, power down router and modem, swap out router, power up modem then power up router, once done final setup was performed via browser on a networked connected PC.

I like the simple GUI that Linksys is using, it is definitely is user friendly but in my opinion is not quite so informative as other GUI’s in competing routers. I was able to hang the router on the wall where my existing router sits, however the orientation of the screw holes was weird and forced the router to be suspended with the antennas all pointing to the left and the Ethernet ports pointing to the right.

It did not affect performance but forced me to re-route the Ethernet cables! I work from home and having a speedy wireless and wired connection is vital, especially as I run my own network server with multiple VM’s running web based applications.

Most of my mobile devices all have modern AC chipsets, some of which are even mu-mimo enabled and my main work laptop has an Atheros AC wireless chipset that is good for 300mbps on 2. 4ghz and 867mbps on 5.

0ghz. I should point out that most users want a wireless/wired network that can take full advantage of their internet speeds. My cable connection provides a maximum of 65mbps down and 25mbps up so, to get the best from my internet connection, my wireless devices should all be able to ‘talk’ to the router at these rates or higher! Being a geek I have an inherent need to test technology and routers are a bit of a hobby of mine.

My test routine remains constant, I test network speeds only and do this using my laptop with the Atheros AC chipset at a set location, 40ft away from the router with 2 drywalls in between. The router is always set to channel 6 on 2.

4ghz in 20/40mhz mode and channel 153 on 5ghz in 80mhz mode. WPA2 AES security is enabled. I then use Totusofts Lan Speed software to send packets of data to and from my laptop via wifi on both 2. 4ghz and 5.

0ghz to a wired PC on my network and record an average upload (write) and download (read) speed. For this review I actually tested 4 routers, AC1200, AC1750, this AC1900 and my current default AC2600 mu-mimo 4 channel router.

To cut a long story short, all of the routers performed very similarly to each other, except for the AC2600 router which out-performed them all by quite a margin. The EA6900 was able to write from one wired pc to another wired pc on my network via Ethernet at 689.

50mbps and read at 869. 23mbps which was faster than the AC1750 and AC1200 routers. I put this down to a faster, up to date cpu/chipset and more internal ram. At 2. 4ghz the EA6900 was able to write at 18.

84mbps and read at 52. 24mbps and at 5. 0ghz the EA6900 was able to write at 31. 85mbps and read at 65. 56mbps. Not bad considering that I was testing at almost 40ft from my router with 2 drywalls in between! This router was easy to setup, easy to use, has a pretty good interface and mobile applications to allow for remote access.

Performance was really no better than AC1750 or AC1200, which is what I expected. The router has been consistent and reliable with no downtime so far and performance is leagues ahead of any N class router.

1 star off for weird wall mounting and lack of firmware updates. Would I rush out and buy AC1900 over AC1200 or AC1750? No! Performance is no better and range is the same, however at this price I see no reason to buy an entry level router.

I bought this to replace recently purchased EA 6350, which although a good router, was not as robust for 11n devices on the 2. 4ghz channel. Set up was simple – screw on the antennas, plug in the modem to the router and to my notebook, opened a browser and it went right into the set up page.

easy-peasy. Speed/range/connectivity are all great. We have between 9 – 12 devices between computers, network storage, tablets, smart phones, printer, and Roku and all get the bandwidth that they need.

We have a ton of SSIDs nearby (well, over 20 anyway) and an environment with a lot of potential interference, but have no problems with a strong-stable signal to all our devices. *This is hardware version 1.

1. I have read reviews mentioning that the EA 6900 ran rather hot. mine does not! In fact I’d say that it runs noticeably cooler than my previous routers. (I do not know if those were hardware version 1) A few observations/recommendations: 1.

This is a great router for those who desire some flexibility but the Linksys WRT series are better for the die-hard network pros out there. This is a good match for anyone from a casual “I want to plug it in and have it work” type to someone who wants a moderate level of control (such as myself).

2. On that note, I do wish that Linksys would include documentation that goes into explaining how to set up each band for the best performance based on what folks are running on it. The defaults which are geared towards running ANY device that you may have are not necessarily the best settings for those who have all 11n or above devices.

A little judicious tweaking of the settings can result in superior network performance. 3. Yes, it has some limitations, but I LOVE Smartware! It is not aimed at those seeking to have finite control over every aspect of their network, but includes everything that the majority users will ever need in an easy to access/understand format.

4. I seldom use on-line chat support on tech products, more often than not an adventure in frustration. I was pleasantly surprised when I used Linksys’ on line support chat. Not only did I get the right answer on tweaking my network settings.

but got a very detailed explanation as to why those settings were recommended. The EA 6900 is best suited for anyone who wants a very good performing router, that once set up to their individual needs will probably “set it and forget it” (which is likely why the led’s are in the back of this unit).

Network pros out there should check out the Linksys WRT series.

I have no problem with the seller, the manufacturer is to blame. WiFi range is less than my old C1000Z and the DSL connection is poor. I bought this one since it has the 5 GHz band. I should have gone with a higher-rated unit.

This one is the second bad unit I have bought. (Different sources) Sorry, but this one is a do not buy. The internal firmware is for the C1100Z, not the C3000Z so there is some problem with the manufacturing of this model.

I’ll try a different brand next time.

Very easy set-up and great performance. Purchased this for my parents who have DSL and an old CenturyLink modem that would randomly cut out and drop their internet connection; requiring a reboot of that modem to reconnect.

This C3000Z was a simple swap of devices; log into the new modem via lan connection and IP address. Go to quick set-up and put in the necessary authentication information as it was stated from the old modem.

Up and running within a half hour. It’s been running flawlessly and with more download speed for the past couple weeks. Very happy with purchase.

This type of modem is required for Centurylink bonded-pair connections. In my area they wanted $150 for it, but I got a much better deal here. I’m not using the wifi portion so I can’t comment on that (I have a more capable standalone router) but internet-wise it works well.

I’m currently getting 80/40 Mb/s speeds through it (though it can go as much as 100/12 – roughly a total of 115-120 Mb/s split between down/up as centurylink allows). It allows bonded-pair, so roughly 2x the 60Mb/s combined up/down max of a single DSL line (currently the fastest you can get without going for Fiber).