New Linksys MR9600 & EA7500V3 Wifi 5/Wifi 6/AX Router | Linksys users very few except Starhub users?

[86technie]

New Linksys MR9600 & EA7500V3 Wifi 5/Wifi 6/AX Router | Linksys users very few except Starhub users?

Note: Stick to thread.

Network products common brand would be Asus or TP-link.
Very seldom people talk about Linksys, I only use Linksys these
few years the EA8100.

Previous was Asus but due to having RMA many times I use Linksys instead.
Linksys network products in some shops are very limited rare
probably not so popular.

Lately I noticed on Linksys there are two new routers with support for mesh networking.

Linksys MR9600 Wifi 6/AX support

https://www.linksys.com/sg/p/P-MR9600/

Linksys EA7500V3

https://www.linksys.com/sg/p/P-EA7500V3/

I do not know a lot of mesh networking since my EA8100 can cover my entire house as I put on top of a very high cabinet.
Both the design are very stylish but EA7500V3 should be the cheaper
mode.

The MR9600 I think it will be expensive given the specs.
SRP not known yet and I have not seen either model in stores yet.
Linksys in my opinion, their router are stable and fast.

The key design will be the ventilation holes on top of the unit preventing overheating.
In the future I suspect there should be a model in between EA7500 and MR9600 which should be EA8XXX series.

 

[TanKianW]

Can flash OpenWRT?

https://openwrt.org/toh/start

The only reason to use Linksys at my time is for WRT.

The MR9600 does look sexy though.

 

[xiaofan]

Can flash OpenWRT?

https://openwrt.org/toh/start

The only reason to use Linksys at my time is for WRT.

The MR9600 does look sexy though.

Unfortunately after 2.5 years of discussion, openwrt still does not have WiFi 6 support.

https://forum.openwrt.org/t/802-11ax-routers/10484

As for EA8100, there was some work in progress stuff, but no official support.
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-support-for-linksys-ea8100-ah/52887/19

EA7500 v2 may work better with openwrt.
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/adding-openwrt-support-for-linksys-ea7500-v2/39416/48

I am using Linksys WRT1900AC as the main router since 2014, it has good support of OpenWRT, but I am not using OpenWRT. I only play with openwrt on my Raspberry Pi 3b+ and my TP-Link RE350.

Previously I used two Linksys WRT54G with Linux support and I was running potato firmware for quite some time prior to convert to Fibre Internet.

I picked up an EA7500 v2 without power supply, which people dumped. It actually works fine. But I feel the performance is not as good as my WRT1900AC so I do not use it.

 

[TanKianW]

Ya. WRT1900AC is good with OpenWRT.

WRT54G really brings back memories! Haha.

Too bad Linksys really lost a lot of its consumer router market shares to Asus through the years. While Netgear and Dlink managed to remain in the fight.

 

[xiaofan]

BTW, Linksys is more focused on Mesh routers now (MX5/MX10 Velop AX mesh, Velop, MR9600 AX Mesh, MR7350 AX Mesh, MR9000 triband, MR8300, and MR6350).

There are many models between EA7500/EA8100 and the MR9600 but mostly old models. For example EA8500 (and lower end sibling EA8400, EA8350), EA9300 and EA9500. Also the WRT1900ACS, WRT32X, WRT3200ACM are also higher end than EA8100.

Not many models are available in Singapore though. Velop MX5/MX10 AX Mesh, MR9600 AX Mesh, MR7350 AX Mesh, MR8300Mesh, EA8500, WRT1900ACS, Velop are listed in the SG website.

 

[xiaofan]

EA7500 V1 vs V2 vs VI.
https://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=316765

However, V2 sold in Singapore should be rated AC2600 class just like EA8100. Not so sure about V3.

Ref: Linksys special website for EA7500 v2 and EA8100 v1.
https://linksys-sh.com/stream-ea7500/

MAX-STREAM AC1900+ Multi User-MIMO Router offers two dedicated Wi-Fi bands that deliver combined speeds of up to 800 Mbps (for 2.4 GHz) + 1733 Mbps (for 5 GHz).

 

[hereiam7788]

Note: Stick to thread.

Network products common brand would be Asus or TP-link.
Very seldom people talk about Linksys, I only use Linksys these
few years the EA8100.

Previous was Asus but due to having RMA many times I use Linksys instead.
Linksys network products in some shops are very limited rare
probably not so popular.

Lately I noticed on Linksys there are two new routers with support for mesh networking.

Linksys MR9600 Wifi 6/AX support

https://www.linksys.com/sg/p/P-MR9600/

Linksys EA7500V3

https://www.linksys.com/sg/p/P-EA7500V3/

I do not know a lot of mesh networking since my EA8100 can cover my entire house as I put on top of a very high cabinet.
Both the design are very stylish but EA7500V3 should be the cheaper
mode.

The MR9600 I think it will be expensive given the specs.
SRP not known yet and I have not seen either model in stores yet.
Linksys in my opinion, their router are stable and fast.

The key design will be the ventilation holes on top of the unit preventing overheating.
In the future I suspect there should be a model in between EA7500 and MR9600 which should be EA8XXX series.

BTW, Linksys is more focused on Mesh routers now (MX5/MX10 Velop AX mesh, Velop, MR9600 AX Mesh, MR7350 AX Mesh, MR9000 triband, MR8300, and MR6350).

There are many models between EA7500/EA8100 and the MR9600 but mostly old models. For example EA8500 (and lower end sibling EA8400, EA8350), EA9300 and EA9500. Also the WRT1900ACS, WRT32X, WRT3200ACM are also higher end than EA8100.

Not many models are available in Singapore though. MX5/MX10 AX Mesh, MR9600 AX Mesh, MR7350 AX Mesh, MR8300Mesh, EA8500, WRT1900ACS, Velop are listed in the SG website.

i think that Linksys MR series is actually very good.

I have used MR8300, i have not used any wifi router that has a stronger coverage than it.

 

[hereiam7788]

BTW, Linksys is more focused on Mesh routers now (MX5/MX10 Velop AX mesh, Velop, MR9600 AX Mesh, MR7350 AX Mesh, MR9000 triband, MR8300, and MR6350).

There are many models between EA7500/EA8100 and the MR9600 but mostly old models. For example EA8500 (and lower end sibling EA8400, EA8350), EA9300 and EA9500. Also the WRT1900ACS, WRT32X, WRT3200ACM are also higher end than EA8100.

Not many models are available in Singapore though. MX5/MX10 AX Mesh, MR9600 AX Mesh, MR7350 AX Mesh, MR8300Mesh, EA8500, WRT1900ACS, Velop are listed in the SG website.

i have used MR8300 before, it is a very good router for its price now. only $159. better than spending money on any other wifi router.

I am sure MR9000 and MR9600 will perform even better than it.

besides, the MR series wifi routers have very good appearance too.

 

[xiaofan]

i have used MR8300 before, it is a very good router for its price now. only $159. better than spending money on any other wifi router.

I am sure MR9000 and MR9600 will perform even better than it.

besides, the MR series wifi routers have very good appearance too.

MR8300 (AC2200, about S$165) and MR9000X (AC3000, S$245) are very reasonably priced triband WiFi 5 mesh router.

However MR9600 may be a tough sell at around S$409 as a dual band AX6000 router, to compete against Asus RT-AX88U (S$459 with 8 LAN ports, dual WAN) and RT-AX86U (exclusive to SingTel with S$17*24 month=S$408, with 2.5Gbps port and dual WAN feature).

Same for MX5300 which is a tough sell (S$888 a pair) to compete with Asus Zenwifi XT8 (S$759 a pair) and Netgear Orbi RBK852.

Price is taken from Linksys Lazada Flagship Store. Other shops may have different pricing.

I like Linksys product due to its product reliability (and good support of openwrt for its WRT series of routers). My Linksys WRT1900AC just got retired as the main router after 6.5 years of use. Now I installed openwrt on it to play with OpenWRT. WRT series are still among of the best openwrt routers in the market (minus the Wifi driver issues because of lack of support from Marvell Wireless and now part of NXP).

I think Asus does not have the same HW reliability track record as Linksys. Still with three year local warranty and good local service support and arguably more longer term product life cycle support and 3rd party Merlin FW support, Asus has an edge over Linksys in the Singapore market.

 

[kashix]

MR8300 (AC2200, about S$165) and MR9000X (AC3000, S$245) are very reasonably priced triband WiFi 5 mesh router.

However MR9600 may be a tough sell at around S$409 as a dual band AX6000 router, to compete against Asus RT-AX88U (S$459 with 8 LAN ports, dual WAN) and RT-AX86U (exclusive to SingTel with S$17*24 month=S$408, with 2.5Gbps port and dual WAN feature).

Same for MX5300 which is a tough sell (S$888 a pair) to compete with Asus Zenwifi XT8 (S$759 a pair) and Netgear Orbi RBK852.

Price is taken from Linksys Lazada Flagship Store. Other shops may have different pricing.

I like Linksys product due to its product reliability (and good support of openwrt for its WRT series of routers). My Linksys WRT1900AC just got retired as the main router after 6.5 years of use. Now I installed openwrt on it to play with OpenWRT. WRT series are still among of the best openwrt routers in the market (minus the Wifi driver issues because of lack of support from Marvell Wireless and now part of NXP).

I think Asus does not have the same HW reliability track record as Linksys. Still with three year local warranty and good local service support and arguably more longer term product life cycle support and 3rd party Merlin FW support, Asus has an edge over Linksys in the Singapore market.

The Linksys that was good during the WRT54G era is long gone.

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[xiaofan]

The Linksys that was good during the WRT54G era is long gone.

Haha, I used WRT-54G from 2005-2012 and 2010-2014 for Starhub Cable online. And then WRT1900AC for SingTel fibre from 2014 to 2020.

I was thinking of buying Asus RT-AX58U before I saw the news of RT-AX86U. Now RT-AX86U is out but I will wait for a while to see if I want to buy it or not.

I am thinking of switching to x86 mini PC based wired router running OpenWRT/pfsense since I have already decent APs (Huawei AX3 Pro AX3000 and SingTel Mesh Router AC1900) with good enough coverage (not excellent but acceptable).

 

[hereiam7788]

MR8300 (AC2200, about S$165) and MR9000X (AC3000, S$245) are very reasonably priced triband WiFi 5 mesh router.

However MR9600 may be a tough sell at around S$409 as a dual band AX6000 router, to compete against Asus RT-AX88U (S$459 with 8 LAN ports, dual WAN) and RT-AX86U (exclusive to SingTel with S$17*24 month=S$408, with 2.5Gbps port and dual WAN feature).

Same for MX5300 which is a tough sell (S$888 a pair) to compete with Asus Zenwifi XT8 (S$759 a pair) and Netgear Orbi RBK852.

Price is taken from Linksys Lazada Flagship Store. Other shops may have different pricing.

I like Linksys product due to its product reliability (and good support of openwrt for its WRT series of routers). My Linksys WRT1900AC just got retired as the main router after 6.5 years of use. Now I installed openwrt on it to play with OpenWRT. WRT series are still among of the best openwrt routers in the market (minus the Wifi driver issues because of lack of support from Marvell Wireless and now part of NXP).

I think Asus does not have the same HW reliability track record as Linksys. Still with three year local warranty and good local service support and arguably more longer term product life cycle support and 3rd party Merlin FW support, Asus has an edge over Linksys in the Singapore market.

yeah. MR8300 is very affordable and the coverage and speed are good enough for its price too. I managed to get it from challenger at $159 with the add-on purchase of Linksys Velop WHW0101 AC1300 at only $10 to extend the wifi signal as a mesh child node. totally worth it deal.



now it is still at $159 but without add-on deal.

agreed that MR9600 maybe a tougher sale still.
the price is at $399 now only though.

personally i will not invest in wifi 6 wireless router yet as the price is still high at more than double the price of wifi 5 but in real life the experience on mobile devices will not make a big difference.

i will stick to wired connection on my laptop for the maximum speed only.

i love linksys products becos of its look seriously speaking. haha. i am particular about appearance.

Asus to me is overrated. i had used their wifi router before, dun find it stable and it is totally not durable. will never go for asus.

 

[badsector]

i love linksys products becos of its look seriously speaking. haha. i am particular about appearance.

Asus to me is overrated. i had used their wifi router before, dun find it stable and it is totally not durable. will never go for asus.

i dun really care much abt looks. seldom need to check/look at them

my 1st/last linksys was WRT54, very good router...
move on to Asus N66...AC86..AX86...all asus now.
i've 0 issues with Asus. No RMA/breakdown before also

and i'm still using my Asus RT-N66

but those asus routers with 1Gb RAM. it maybe over-rated if you are just a normal users.

 

[xiaofan]

i dun really care much abt looks. seldom need to check/look at them

my 1st/last linksys was WRT54, very good router...
move on to Asus N66...AC86..AX86...all asus now.
i've 0 issues with Asus. No RMA/breakdown before also

and i'm still using my Asus RT-N66

but those asus routers with 1Gb RAM. it maybe over-rated if you are just a normal users.

The problematic ones seem to be RT-AC87U and RT-AC88U where quite some users have problems. But some people love them. Quite some reports of RMA for AC88U in this forum.

RT-AX92U's lack of support of AX in mesh mode is probably another flop.

Then some people seem to have a bit of problems with RT-AX88U initially (pretty okay now) and Zenwifi XT8 initially (should be okay now).

Good ones like RT-AC68U and RT-AC86U (arguably one of the best AC routers in the market) seem to be pretty okay.

Low end ones like RT-AC1200G+ and RT-AC2600 receive good feedbacks as well.

New generation of AX routers like AX56U and AX58U seem to be pretty good. Let's see AX86U will be like RT-AC86U or not.

 

[86technie]

The problematic ones seem to be RT-AC87U and RT-AC88U where quite some users have problems. But some people love them. Quite some reports of RMA for AC88U in this forum.

RT-AX92U's lack of support of AX in mesh mode is probably another flop.

Then some people seem to have a bit of problems with RT-AX88U initially (pretty okay now) and Zenwifi XT8 initially (should be okay now).

Good ones like RT-AC68U and RT-AC86U (arguably one of the best AC routers in the market) seem to be pretty okay.

Low end ones like RT-AC1200G+ and RT-AC2600 receive good feedbacks as well.

New generation of AX routers like AX56U and AX58U seem to be pretty good. Let's see AX86U will be like RT-AC86U or not.

For me:
Asus RT-AC87U->RT-AC88U

Both I had RMA many times due to WAN port unable to connect to internet or random internet disconnection.
When Starhub release the EA8100, I had been using the EA8100 even since.

If you ask me why these models had issue, I suspect either:
- Not compatible with Starhub
- Heat, unlike Linksys there are holes for better ventaliation.

It's weird that Asus mid or lower end seems to be more stable than higher end probably due to the chipset used.
Now thinking either MR9000 or MR9600 but MR9600 price is still quite ex.

So I will wait a while until price stabilized than I buy.

 

[kashix]

yeah. MR8300 is very affordable and the coverage and speed are good enough for its price too. I managed to get it from challenger at $159 with the add-on purchase of Linksys Velop WHW0101 AC1300 at only $10 to extend the wifi signal as a mesh child node. totally worth it deal.



now it is still at $159 but without add-on deal.

agreed that MR9600 maybe a tougher sale still.
the price is at $399 now only though.

personally i will not invest in wifi 6 wireless router yet as the price is still high at more than double the price of wifi 5 but in real life the experience on mobile devices will not make a big difference.

i will stick to wired connection on my laptop for the maximum speed only.

i love linksys products becos of its look seriously speaking. haha. i am particular about appearance.

Asus to me is overrated. i had used their wifi router before, dun find it stable and it is totally not durable. will never go for asus.

Used so many Asus over the years, pretty solid performance with the exception of AC88U. My experience with Linksys is so bad. Will never go for Linksys again.

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[xiaofan]

https://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/tec...e-linksys-s-new-wi-fi-6-e9450-easymesh-router

Linksys E9450 launch, now exclusive to SingTel.

Looks like PS5 mini.

From another thread.

Indeed. It is a tough sell at S$399 listed price as the spec is similar to the Asus RT-AX82U at S$329 (both AX5400 and use the same Broadcom tri-core CPU).

https://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/tec...e-linksys-s-new-wi-fi-6-e9450-easymesh-router

S$10 per month is only limited to first 100 customers and for sure a good deal. Later it will be S$14 pet month or S$336 in total.

With Asus RT-AX88U current promotion price of S$359 (Courts, a few times already, lowest was S$299 from Challenger but limited sets), this Linksys E9450 is a tough sell.

******
The E9450 Wi-Fi 6 router will retail at S$399 per node.

As we said earlier, at launch it will be available via Singtel at the special introductory price of S$10 a month to the first 100 Singtel customers to sign up for or re-contract Singtel Fibre 1Gbps at S$39.90 a month (U.P. S$49.90a month) online. Subsequently, customers can purchase a single E9450 node at S$14 a month (U.P.$16 a month) with any Singtel fibre plan.

The Linksys E9450 will roll out normally through other channels from 10 December 2020.

 

[kashix]

https://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/tec...e-linksys-s-new-wi-fi-6-e9450-easymesh-router

Linksys E9450 launch, now exclusive to SingTel.

Looks like PS5 mini.

From another thread.

Don’t see what’s so impressive about this. Lol.
Enjoying my ax86u!

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[xiaofan]

Don’t see what’s so impressive about this. Lol.
Enjoying my ax86u!

Good to know and I agree that AX86U is great. It is just I am waiting for the price to go down to the AX88U promotion price range (S$359).

On the other hand, Asus is kind of too dominant in the local router market, especially on the high end. So it will be good to see Linksys catching up as well since it is lagging behind Asus and Netgear.

And hopefully TP-Link and D-Link (both are good at the lower end) will come out with better product as well on the mid to high end product.

To have more competition (but not cut throat competition ) is always good to consumers.

 

[xiaofan]

https://www.wi-fi.org/product-finde...d&sort_order=desc&categories=6&companies=2337

EA8100 v2 and EA7500 v3 are pretty new.

Latest Velop is MX4200, not available in SG.

Latest E series AX routers
E9350, E8450 and E7350, not available in SG.

E9450 was not listed in the above website.