Customer Ratings & Reviews

I bought this router to replace a failing Cisco router. Out of the box this router is pretty easy to setup following the provided instructions. Though the included documents say the 5 Ghz band has limited range, I found that it covers my entire 2-story home and the 1900 sq. ft. garage/workshop out back with near full strength at the farthest ends of my property, full strength with the 2.4 Ghz band. I also saw an improvement in the WiFi speeds achieved. With my old router I would get around 15-25 Mbps, with this router I get around 50-70 Mpbs depending on the device. The down side is that this router is not 100% out of the box compatible with gaming systems, like PS4, PS3, XBOne. Out of the box I was able to connect to the PSN and XBox Live servers and play online games, but the connection regularly drops during gameplay. The PS3 & 4 both give IP fragmentation errors and state that NAT3 connection will not allow all services to work. The router seems to bounce around between NAT2 and NAT3. NAT2 works ok with PSN, but NAT3 does not. To get around this you will have to setup the router with port forwarding and static IP for each console you wish to use, so not an easy thing for a relative novice to set up the network. Have not done this yet, so cannot say for sure that it will work, but should. I have already had to return the first of these routers I got as after a month in service it started regularly dropping WiFi connections. A month into the replacement and I have not noticed any dropped connections on the 2.4 Ghz band, but my cell phone on the 5 Ghz band regularly drops and reconnects. May have to return for a second replacement if it continues.

Linksys AC2600 4 x 4 MU-MIMO Dual-Band Gigabit Router with USB 3.0 and eSATA (EA8500) I received this product for free as part of Belkin's Friends + Family Program. We have an embarrassing number of electronics that depend on wi-fi and I thought a new router would really make a difference in speed and connection strength. Unfortunately I didn’t see any difference in my wi-fi connections. Right out of the package, the router looks streamlined and built for speed. The only assembly required is to screw on the four antennas. Directing the antennas toward the areas in your home with the weakest signal should help with signal strength. If you live in a two-story or need signal in a basement etc…a quick online search will tell you how to direct the antennas. The router was very easy to set up. I guess you could call it plug-and-play. For most users, like myself, that don’t have the technical knowledge to do advanced setup this is ideal. I noticed I kept getting dropped signals. I thought it was something I had done to set it up wrong and did some basic trouble shooting. I could not get the router to maintain signal to all my devices—after a couple of weeks I had to disconnect it and set up my old router—we work online and can’t really be losing signal continuously. Perhaps when I have more time to research and figure out what the problems were, I will reconnect and try again. But at this time, I can’t really recommend this router for the average user. If you have a little technical knowledge and can trouble shoot or know someone who can help you this router could be an asset. PROS: Sleek, modern look 4 directional antennas Cons: No noticeable improvement in signal strength or speed (in my house) Dropped signals

I received this product for free as part of Belkin's Friends + Family Program When I opened the box it looked like star war space ship. Thought the size is big I liked the look. Setup was a breeze with the provided easy setup guide. Was able to get it up and running within 30 min. Installed the WiFi app for my android phone on my Samsung galaxy. I was impressed by the app. I liked the innovative idea of controlling the router from anywhere using your phone. Router speed and connectivity was little better than my netgear dual band router. Didn't feel a big difference according to the price difference. After couple days I noticed that I was not getting text messages on my phone. Text messaging was acting wired. I was getting the same messages every 15 minutes. First I thought it might be problem with my network so called customer support. Worked with them for a day troubleshooting the issue as they had never heard about such a issue. I was going to format my phone and re-install everything. But than I thought let me uninstall recently updated applications and installed apps. After I uninstalled the WiFi app suddenly I got bombarded by tet messages that I had missed from 3 days. Finally my messaging started working. Never heard of such issue caused by installing a app. Also I had noticed that the app was draining my battery. I had charge my phone every couple hours. To be honest I am not happy with the WiFi app. Other than that router is performing as expected. I would also like to suggest Linksys to come up with a regular power plug instead of a brick adapter that occupies more space on the surge protector.

This router fits all of the needs of my large family - even if we are all on line at the same time - and large home. Bonus - It was very easy to set up!

The wireless router has been dependable and I've rarely needed to restart it. I'm writing this review mainly because recently I needed to go to Linksys tech support. The issue I contacted them about was making my guess accounts work on the router. I turn them on and off depending on if we have guests for a party or some other event. The password feature did not seem to be working on the devices I was checking it with. The tech was very thorough and worked me through the problem which had to do with an old password that was memorized in my web browser and needed to be replaced. That was the main problem but there were some other issues too and the tech (tech chat) worked through it easily.

Have owned this wireless router for several years and still working perfectly. A power outage did require a reset and contacted customer service to assist. They were great and helped me locate a channel to use that had limited conflicts with neighbors wireless routers!

this so far has been a great router. the first one I got was DOA but took it and exchanged it. it has worked like a champ since

I received this product for free as part of Belkin's Friends + Family Program Previously I had issues with my devices dropping off the WiFi connection. This router is handling 8+ devices with no issues (1 roku, 3 computers, cell phone, printer, 2 tablets, and more). Range is excellent over 2500 sq foot .the Speed is excellent! and was super easy to setup and use.It has everything you need to get started right in the box and will be up and running in to time . i would highly recommend the product

This router is easy to setup, it took a little less than 15 minutes to setup. Some of the advanced menus are a little hard to navigate through, and are buried in the menus but most home users will not need to mess with these anyway. The size of this router is a little bit bigger than I expected, when I unboxed it, I didn't realize it was going to be this big. The power brick is also huge, but I guess when you are going to power a router with lots of features, you need a large power brick. The app is a really nice feature, my previous router, a Netgear R6200 had an app, but not quite as great and feature packed as this router. I'm able to do maintenance without having to login via a web browser. This is probably one of the strongest features of the product. The signal strength is probably the weakest part of this router. I live in a 2500 sqft house and lots of times the router will just not work. My existing router sitting right next to this router works without issue. I'm hoping a firmware update will expand the signal, but until then, I will continue to use my previous router. I recommend this router to anyone looking for a simple router to setup, but if you live in a large house or have a lot of area to cover, I'd recommend looking elsewhere.

I received this product for free as part of Belkin's Friends + Family Program Pros: Easy set up out of box especially with the "smart set up" wizard Ability to change naming conventions of 2.4ghz, 5ghz and Guest network Great whole house coverage in two story home ios app very easy to use and allows renaming and device prioritization Cons: This is a big router! While you can wall mount it will take up a lot of real estate with the large antennas.

Very fast and coverage area is awesome as well. No lag even with 3 smartphones, computer and 2 tvs with Chrome cast running all at the same time. Coverage is more than enough for our home (1100 sqft ) and our whole lot (85'× 200'). Also no issues with connection in our detached garage.

I purchased this router 4 days ago. It was very easy to install and setup. All of our devices are now connecting without buffering! Even the logon and gaming time has gone from a crawl to fast. PS4 and PC gaming running at the same time, no lag. I am very happy with this purchase.

I bought this to replace the old n router I bought 4 years ago and the difference is like night and day. The range on this router is much better, the connection is more stable, and the setup and linksys software is very easy to use.

After our third brand/type we are happy! This one offers more than what it claims!

I've been doing a good bit of research on getting a router since I was switching ISP and wanted to maintain my own router instead of getting a leased one. SmallNetBuilder (good site that tests routers) ranked this one in its category tied 2nd with a TP-Link C2600. 1st was the Nighthawk X4S. I got the Nighthawk X4S first and while it performed well with speeds, Netgear's UI for configuration along with the Netgear Genie app, were both mediocre and not intuitive. I got the Linksys EA8500 and the setup was a breeze. The interface was excellent and looked modern. The Linksys Smart Wifi iOS app is amazing and has recently received a major redesign. The actual router itself is providing me with the speeds I'm paying for easily. I'm getting around 930 Mbps for both download and upload speeds with my laptop hardwired into the router. Streaming has been excellent with no buffering as well as no lag when gaming Online and others are streaming from Netflix/Plex etc. Could not be any more happier with this router.

We had another name brand router that we bought less than 5 months ago, it went. We have had Linksys before and are very happy with them. Should have bought a Linksys to begin with. I have one of these and am very happy with it: Linksys EA8500 Max-Stream™ AC2600 MU-MIMO Smart Wi-Fi Router. It was more expensive than I had planned on spending but well worth it.

I was desperate to replace my Asus AC87R. When I placed the order online there was only one review with a single star. However, I decided to take a chance. Ordered online and picked up from a store little far away from work/home. Hooked up and found constantly flashing Linksys logo on the top. Tried to access interface with default IP address and linksys given url. No luck! Checked available wireless network, linksys network nowhere to be found. Called tech support and explained the problem. First guy started with the templated trouble shooting and finally transferred to a specialized team handling with EA8500. They asked me to do some tricks like power recycling the device constantly 3 times between 2 flashing intervals and finally I was able to access user interface. Everything looked fine at this point and I was already on the phone with them nearly an hour. I had to hung up the phone and decided to continue with setup in a while. After 30 minutes when I returned there was a warning on UI that I am not connected to the router. Tried to refresh, nothing happened. Again I did the same trick as by power recycling 3 times and again I was able to access UI. This time I tried to change network settings etc. In less than 3 minutes again it is disconnected even before I could complete set up like changing wireless network name / password etc. At this point I gave up and reconnected my existing Asus router. It turned out that I have received a Dead router out of the box. Un acceptable quality control for an expensive router like this. This device is back to the store. :( There is no pros about this router so far and plenty of Cons. UI is extremely slow. I would say slowest UI ever experienced on a router. Could not do any further test.

I have a terrible home for Wifi This router delivers excellent speed all over the house despite my kids heavy use (X-Box) and neighbors with overpowered routers drowning out most channels. Better still was the Linksys support They walked me through the whole process of set up and configuration Great experience great results Oh... And I forgot to mention that they discounted the product in the store by $30.00 because of their price match policy for on line retail One of my very best shopping experiences all around, Retailer Check, Product quality Check, Support Check I am happy

This router has great wireless signal range and plenty of features. The interface was pleasant and easy to navigate. Come with a network map that shows all devices wired and wireless connected to the network. The only issues I had with it was one, could not connect to XBOX Live through the wireless, and two the quest network was on by default. It takes some serious configuration to get it to connect wireless to XBOX live. I just finally connect via Ethernet and had no further issues. All in all if these few issue are resolve those would be a excellent router. But if I was to say I would recommend this router I would say no because there are better options for the price.

The router has worked very well for the past 4+ years. Setups was too easy as I did not need support to be operational. However, as I have added equipment utilizing the router bands, I should have used them to assist in designing my home network to get maximum performance to handle these future additions that I did not forsee.