Customer Ratings & Reviews

Linksys EA9500 is a super duper router. It has a lot of non-removable antennas attached to the router and the size of this router is huge. It is not the size of our regular day to day home router, it is a 12" X 12" extra large size router. So, it is a heads-up if you don't have a big space for your existing router that you are planing to replace. You will need to make space for it. I was a little intimidated to set this router up at my house, because I am not a network IT guy. I am just a regular dude who can only follow simple instructions. When I looked at this enterprise-grade router, I was a little worry that I am going to have a hard time. But, there is a paper in the box for easy setup instruction saying just unplug your existing router connection and plug the EA9500 to replace it. I tried that and that was it. It was up and running after some time of warming up and rebooting. Followed the Linksys Smart Wifi Router setup instruction using web browser on my laptop and all of my devices were all connected without issue. It was a relief and good that simple setup is actually simple. The EA9500 has many bells and whistles. I can go "all-in" to set up multiple networks for each different kind of devices we have and set up different passwords for each layer of my network or I can opt for a simple route and don't bother with all the extras. I chose the simple way and I personally enjoyed the speed of this router and how it can handle a lot of Internet connections of many devices at the same time. My family has at least 15 internet devices (multiple laptops, smart TVs, tablets, smartphones, game consoles) in the house and easily half of them are connect to the Internet and working actively. My old router will occasionally drop some of my family's devices off the network or slow some of them down since it can not handle all of the connections at the same time. After I installed the EA9500, I don't hear any complaint from any of my family members. So, no news is good news. The actual speed of my internet isn't really improving because it can go as fast as the speed I pay for from our Internet service provider. The advantage here is it won't go slower as multiple devices are online at the same time. EA9500 offers many advance customizations, settings and layers of security features for the user's liking. I like the simple setup option for now, but will try all those advance features when deem it is necessary. Also, the 3-year warranty and 3-year tech support is a very good peace of mind that Linksys will have my back if there is any wrong with it.

I love this thing. It cost's a pretty penny but there is no better router out there. I have zero problems streaming 4K video while others in the house play games and watch Netflix all at the same time. I decided to finally keep my storage attached to the router as well, as the network speeds are fast enough to transmit files with pretty good ease. My main limitation is my internet connection. I was surprised how large it is though, it takes up a good amount of space on my desk to be warned. My unit I received had a fault which caused random reboots. I called the tech support people and they offered to replace it very quickly on warranty with little to no hassle. Kudos to them. Setup is extremely easy and this product it SMART. It can automatically update itself (if enabled). The 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks (x2) can all run simultaneously with the same SSID and the router will prioritize various devices, games or services if enabled. It seems you can only prioritize three through so that is a minor gripe as I would love to prioritize all my devices in order of most important to least. Parental controls are included and you can set this up by individual device connected through the network once you log into the router. There are also very powerful storage management if you have a device connected to one of the USB ports. There are two USB ports, one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0. I found this surprising that such a powerful router had a USB 2.0 port, I do not know why they did not put two 3.0 ports on it instead. Documentation is included on the disk and provides basic information on the router. The indicators on the unit itself are fairly basic and consist of white, blue status bars showing the state of the antennas. There is also a glowing Linksys logo which shows when the device is ready to be used. Aside from the size of the unit, I really have no gripes about the product other than the fact that it is expensive as earlier stated. But if you have the need for an extremely fast router, make heavy use of your network, want the best connection for gaming, or want to get rid of wires for high speed transfers once and for all, this is the router for you.

This is my second EA9500. The 1st one still works, but I wanted to upgrade to the newer quad-core version and sell my older one. My house is 2,800 square feet and there is one side of the house this router wouldn’t give a strong signal. A couple of years back I tried switching from this router to one of the mesh systems, big mistake. I did a lot of research of all the different mesh systems, their pros and cons, etc. and settled on one ( the VELOP) Nothing but problems, the same problems everyone on all the forums seemed to have. Look it up and you’ll see, (I did a review and posted it on Best Buy’s site at the time). It lasted all of a week before I was packing it back up to go back to the store. I set my old EA9500 back up and it’s just been chugging along with nary a blip. I wound up running a cat6 line from the router to the other side of the house and getting a range extender (Linksys RE7000 at the time but just upgraded to the RE9000) and setting that up as an access point using the Ethernet for backhaul. Since both router and extender are from the MaxStream product line I gave the extender network the same SSID and password as my main network, (very important that they match exactly) so my devices switch to the strongest signal seamlessly as I move around the house. Works just like a mesh system. I’ve had this new EA9500 (V2.0) for a little over a week and am very happy with it. The features I loved about the previous one are what I love about this one, 8 gig Ethernet ports, 8 very powerful antennas, very easy set up using the smart Wi-Fi app., and you can get as hands on as you feel comfortable with in regards to most of the settings. Love the parental controls, setting specific schedules to pause the internet for my kids devices, bed time etc. love being able to view and name all devices on my network so I can monitor who or what is connected. I can set up a guest network for all my IOT devices. At any given time I have 25 or more devices connected with no issues. I do wish I could set up my VPN service with this router, but it’s not a deal breaker. And the size can be a little intimidating if all you’ve had are little routers in the past. Bottom line, it’s a great router for a larger home if you’re looking for a single router set up. Mesh networks have their place. But if you look at the pros and cons for those systems every manufacturer seems to have the same cons, frequent disconnects, speed drops, limited features and support, firmware update nightmares, devices connected but not showing on network map with no rhyme or reason so features like parental controls or media prioritization are useless. And the list goes on. Every home set up will be different based on layout of the house, what it’s made of, how close your neighbors and their networks are to you etc. You’ll have to figure out what works best for you, but I would definitely recommend this router to a friend.

Pros: Top of the line Wi-Fi signal for a residential router: 3 radios: 2 5Ghz radios and one 2.4 Ghz radio, that can be either configured simultaneously or independently. Intuitive web based configuration. - Assisted setup is straightforward. - Network map is very useful although it doest report signal strength. File sharing with one USB 3.0 port and one USB 2.0, but file transfer protocols are limited to SMB, FTP and DLNA. It can read NTFS drives. There is a push button on the side of the router next to the WPS button to turn off the WiFi radio, leaving the ethernet part of the router on. Supports guest networks with basic controls. 8 Gigabit LAN ports. 3 year warranty. Cons: Basic enterprise features like WPA2 Enterprise but with no support for SNMP. No wall-mounting holes: table-top only. Antennas are not removable, like on other Linksys routers (EA7500 has removable antennas) Functionality is limited when in Bridge mode. Parental controls are time of day filters for specific devices, and can block specific sites, but that's it. There is a mobile app for basic router management that's it's accesible via the "Linksys Smart Wi-Fi" account. Overall it's a great router. It's installed on the basement of a 3-stories house, and signal is very high though the house, very high to high in the backyard, and there's reception from a neighbor's. Ookla measured the same speeds (190d / 20u) from either wireless (mobile phone) or wired. This router should perform well when there are multiple devices connected over wireless and consuming data.

Let's get this out of the way first: the thing is HUGE. I underestimated the size of this router, so I was quite surprised when it was delivered. It's almost the same dimensions as my PS4 (and almost as heavy). This isn't a big deal to me, but you may want to see it in person at a local Best Buy to make sure it will fit where you keep your current router. SET UP: Setting up this router, as with most Linksys products these days, was very quick and painless. The small setup booklet included in the box walks you through the steps to connect the router to the internet and setup your new network. CONNECTING DEVICES: While I was able to connect all of our devices, I ran into connection issues with my laptop and one of the tablets that were using the 5-GHz networks. This router supports 5-GHz "band steering", which allows two 5-GHz networks to run simultaneously, and the router will direct each device to each network based on bandwidth requirements from the device. After disabling this feature (for now) and going with a traditional 2.4 and 5-GHz setup, all connection issues have vanished. This may be limited to my devices, or there might be an update coming from Linksys (I'll update my review if anything changes). PERFORMANCE: *See screenshot* As I said in the title, this router is a BEAST! I live in an older townhome-style apartment where the building materials forced me to use a range extender with my old router to maintain a solid connection while upstairs. Now, with this monster router, I don't need a range extender. I don't notice much of a speed drop when I'm upstairs and I show full bars on my phones+tablets. **Obviously your mileage may vary based on the size of your home/condo/apartment and the building materials.** OVERALL: I had all of our phones, tablets, and computers online either streaming music or watching videos (or both), and I didn't notice any sluggishness on any device (they were running as if they were the only devices on the network). At CES 2016, Linksys claimed that you could stream 4K content to up to 20 devices with this router. While I don't have that many devices to test, but from what I can test however, I believe them.

I've had the pleasure of testing a great router by Linksys these past few days. The Linksys AC5400 Max-Stream Triband Wifi router. I've owned no less than three 5Ghz capable routers in the past few years. My experience has been coverage is so poor on this band that anything more than a few dozen feet from the router is honestly useless. I'm happy to say that this Linksys delivers where my others have failed. On my previous routers, it's been almost a necessity to install 3rd party router software (DD-WRT) to get the most out of them. I'm happy to report that the included "Smart Wi-Fi" software included on this model met or exceeded all my expectations. Initial Impressions When I first opened the box for the AC5400, my first words where "this thing is huge." Clocking in at 10" by 11" by 1.5", this router is almost cable-box big. Coming attached are no less than 8 antennas. I did have to stifle laughter at its sheer scope and seeming ridiculousness. However, I shut my mouth after using it. Inside you will find a quick start guide and a documentation CD. I recommend following the simple install instructions and using the web to get answers to any questions you might end up having. You will find the router well packed and protected in its packaging, and its antennae easy to position and generally well built. The unit features a power switch, 2 USB ports (one USB 3.0), 8 gigabit Ethernet ports, and one WAN port for your modem or gateway. Setup For setup, I went the route of just removing my old router and putting in the new one. Once the router started I was greeted with a setup page once I connected with one of my computers on the wired network and attempted to hit any website with Google Chrome. A nice touch that really speeds and simplifies setup. Following the easy wizard, I had the router on the Internet in a matter of a few minutes. I went through the setup of creating a "Linksys Smart Wi-Fi" account which promised to allow me to connect and configure the router using a smartphone app. The setup process will walk you through setting up WPA2 security and setting your SSID's. I had no problems whatsoever in getting this going. Once finished I was able to set my port forwards and my other "advanced" settings without trouble. I feel this is a router meant for novices and power users alike. Software Beyond the setup, the included router firmware allowed me all the options I need from setting port forwards, reserved DHCP addresses for my media server, and allowing connectivity remotely through its compatible Smart Wi-Fi app on the Google Play store. I was even able to remotely and quickly enable a guest Wi-Fi account for visiting friends while I was at work by just entering my Linksys account information I created during setup. It was a snappy, simple, and flawless experience, which sums up pretty much my entire experience with this router. Performance In a word: fantastic. I was able to get wonderful coverage at 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz anywhere in my 1600 square foot home, and really anywhere in my yard. Before hand, my 5Ghz coverage barely even registered outside, and the edges of my yard nearly no coverage at 2.4Ghz. Many times when mowing I would end up just using my data plan while listening to music because of the weak signal, now this isn't a problem at all. My yard is extended about 60 feet behind my house for reference. Using an Internet connection speed test app, I was able to get my FULL bandwidth (currently 60Mbps) over Wi-Fi, which was extremely surprising and very refreshing since my cheaper router barely clocked in at 30Mbps when nearly on top of the router. Streaming, latency, file transfers and time to connect on Wi-Fi are all much improved from my 2-year-old Netgear router. Overall I'm extremely satisfied with the performance of this unit. Extras The included USB ports can be used to connect a USB mass storage devices like a thumb drive or external hard drive. I tried a Samsung EVO solid state disk drive with a USB 3.0 interface and an off the shelf USB 3.0 thumb drive as a test. Using a computer connected to the gigabit Ethernet port, I was able to get sustained 40MB (megabyte) per second transfer rates on the internal network. Respectable, but not a fast as my Linux based media server which with the same drive can deliver around 100MB/s. I think this is still more than adequate for file sharing with family and friends on your home network. The router also supports DLNA which will let your smart TV, PlayStation, or computer to stream video off of the device. I had a good experience with this. The software makes it a snap to do simple open sharing with the devices on your internal network, but you can also take it to the next level and add user accounts and dedicated folders that only certain people can access. As for hosting your own file storage "cloud" with the device, it offers only minimalist features. You can (if you enable the username and password access features) serve your files as an FTP server that you can access from the Internet. I would have preferred apps like OwnCloud which is a Box like server package you can run yourself, secure FTP, or SSH File Transfer Protocol, but the offering is adequate and performs well if you can stomach your passwords going over the clear on the Internet. If you do use this feature, I recommend using a password that isn't your router or Linksys password and not storing your most private files using this service. I also recommend apps like FolderSync on Google Play that will let you automatically sync your files including your recently taken photos automatically to the FTP server that you can then retrieve on your computer from the local network sharing feature. If you are going to use the FTP service, I also recommend you take advantage of the Dynamic DNS features so you will have a nice URL to refer to your router no matter where you are. The router supports automatically updating the provider when you IP address gets changed by your Internet service provider. For mine, this only happens infrequently, but for many this is a must have feature to enable you to find your network when you are away. It supports a couple of dynamic DNS providers including no-ip.com and makes it a snap to set up. I wish it supported FreeDNS which is my dynamic DNS provider of choice, but the offerings that are compatible are adequate. I also LOVE the fact it has 8 wired gigabit ports. I'm using most of them as I prefer my Rokus, PCs, media server, and a printer is connected to the wire, as this offers the best performance for files and media transfers. Final Notes Having nothing but bad or confusing experiences with routers and included software so much that I need to install custom software (DD-WRT) on them, I wasn't expecting much from this router, but I was blown away at the convenience, performance, and simplicity of the Linksys AC5400. In general, this is a fantastic router that I would recommend to my tech friends, gamer friends, and my not-so-tech-savvy family members alike. The simple and final word is: you won't be disappointed.

Did I mention how big this thing is? When Linksys offered to send me a sample in exchange for my honest opinion I jumped at the chance. It's the biggest router I've ever seen and probably more suitable for a commercial installation, we ran 7 iPhone, three tablets, and a laptop and you couldn't even begin to tell it was working hard. The Multiple user, multiple output system is so rock solid that it's amazing. With everyone streaming videos (some chose HD) not one person complained about lags. This is truly the best router that money can buy. Speaking of which... You probably saw the price, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this review... It's kinda pricey, but with a three year warranty and rock solid performance, it just may be worth it. Especially if you handle a large number of people who demand top WiFi connection.

This is a really well made router, it has a surprising amount of heft to it, which is a good thing, because it is obvious that it has plenty of quality electronics packed inside. I decided to weigh it on a digital scale to see how much it weighs, it is 39.46 ounces, which is 3.9 pounds. This Linksys router it has quality buttons and a nice rocker switch for the on/off switch. This Linksys router has perfectly straight fitting labels, which is always a plus, as products with sloppily placed or misfitting labels, have a tendency to have a cheaper feel to the product. There is nothing about this Linksys router that is cheap, the entire product is very well made, it even has nice rubber pads for the feet. I am comparing this Linksys router to a competitor's router, which is similar in appearance, functionality, and price, I will not say the brand name of the competitor. This Linksys router is being released after its competitor, and it appears as if it was purposely designed to be better in a few ways. First, this router has a total of 8 Ethernet ports, the competitor router has only 4, this Linksys router has two USB ports, one is USB 3.0 and one is USB 2.0, the competitor router has only 1 USB 3.0 port. The browser based administration tool for this router is easy to setup and use. This is a Mimo router, which means it is designed to handle multiple in and multiple out signals very well. The fact that this Linksys router is priced similar to a major competitor, with equivalent build quality and a few upgrades, makes this a good choice for a router.

Upgrading from my Linksys dual band router to the tri-band has been awesome! With 15+ devices in our house running on wifi it gets tough sometimes when multiple devices are trying to share the same connection and use streaming services like music or tv. Setup was a cinch and literally the three steps of: plugging it in, connecting your ethernet cord and entering my password from the factory manual. Porting over and using the same profile I have built with Linksys on the website was super cool. It recognized my name and devices which was cool. Adding the wifi extender in the next day or so and I'm interested to see how it fairs in a two story home. My current extender goes out now and then so i'm glad to be giving the Linksys version a try since I loved the dual band router and got the tai-band now! Oh on a side note their packaging was cool, i'm like every other customer out there that loves opening new things and it was easy to open, easy to unpack and didn't come with a instruction manual with hundreds of pages. I like minimal and this router sits flush on my furniture and it isn't an eyesore. Thumbs up purchase here!

The linksys EA9500 is honestly the best router I have ever used. I live in a two story house and getting coverage for my whole house is a bit difficult. I also have ton of different items connected to network just a short list but connected to my internet i have a couple of phones, several tables, streaming boxes, game consoles, smart tv and more. My internet speed is 60mbs down and if we are downstairs using only one or two items we can achieve those speeds but don't even think about reaching that upstairs. After installing and seeing up the router which was incredibly easy I was seein much better speeds even while using multiple devices. Upstairs I was getting close to 20mbs when before I was getting about 3-5. So far I have been incredibly happy as we have been able to start using multiple devices at the same time. Very happy with this router, I highly recommend it.

First time using a wifi extender. It pairs easy to the linksys router I have in my office. I still get a decent signal from my router upstairs because it is the ac5400 by linksys which has a stronger signal than my old netgear n600 but wanted to try it out upstairs as downstairs the signal is excellent. As it is an extender with its own network when my laptop or cell phone connected to it instead of the router the speed slowed down. Maybe its that extra hop in between that causes it to slow down as it has to connect to the router and then your device connects to it. Using it also as a wired range extender caused it to slow down the device connected. Having a ac router with such a strong signal makes having one of these pointless. I would only get one if you need a signal in a dead spot of your house but from my experience the connection speed won't be as good. The extender is kinda big and does take up a good bit of space. It has vents on all sides but does produce to much heat and you can feel that heat coming off it.

WOW! That about sums it up for this router! Prior to installing the Linksys EA9500 we were using the standard Fios router with WiFi (not the quantum gateway). The router was installed in a closet in the basement next to the Fios equipment. We would get good WiFi signal in the basement and on the first floor of the house. Going upstairs brought challenges because the WiFi would intermittently drop out and we would be lucky to get one bar in certain areas of the 2nd floor. Outside on the deck, maybe 1-2 bars. The house isn't huge at right around 2,000 sqft for the living area, so this gives you an idea of where we were starting from. Flash forward to receiving and setting the EA9500 up. Setup was very easy. I plugged in the EA9500 and gave it a minute or so to boot up. Then I accessed the Fios router's settings and disabled WiFi. Connected a LAN cable from the router to the EA9500 and that was about it. I quickly accessed the new network using the password provided and using the Linksys Smart Wifi setup, was able to change the SSID and password to match the ones from the Fios router so we didn't have to change any of our devices. This worked like a charm and after a total setup time of about 10 minutes, everything was reconnected to the internet. If there is one downside to the router, it's the size (this router weighs 4lbs and is around 12" x 12"). In order to accommodate the size, I installed a simple shelf in a corner utility closet in our basement to set this on. Once everything was set, I closed the closet door and ran the speed test on each level of the house. The picture below was from the furthest corner of the house, two floors up. It clocked 30mbps down and 27mbps up. Impressive considering our Fios plan is 25/25. There is not a single place in our home now, including the entire attached garage, that doesn't receive a full WiFi signal. I decided to see how far it goes, and I can say that I had to get about 20ft or so from the house before losing a bar. I went all the way to the other side of our neighbors house before I got to 1 bar and finally lost the signal. We have had zero issues with dropped signals since installing this router and I believe that's due to the 3 channels this router employs. I also connected this to a Linksys RE7000 Max Range Extender (that I had to install in the garage to get this test to work). When I got far enough from the main router, it instantly and seamlessly connected me to the Range Extender for a better signal. So if you have a larger home or business and this router isn't enough to reach the farthest corners, I would highly recommend the addition of the RE7000. Note that the automatic switching feature only works with devices that are MU/MIMO capable but many newer devices are beginning to carry this tech so this router is somewhat future proof. Overall, I would highly recommend this router to anyone who has a large home or odd placement of the router with coverage drop outs and multiple devices. Maybe you hate having your router in the living room and want to get it out of sight. It is not the cheapest router on the market but this is a case of getting what you pay for. The build quality is fantastic and the hardware is well ahead of it's competition (I won't list the specs, they're on the main product page). Bottom line...this is the best, consistent WiFi coverage I've ever had in my home in the 10+ years I've had a WiFi router. Well done Linksys...well done.

Brought this as my Linksys AC7500 was flakey, loosing internet access and requiring rebooting daily. House full of phones, iPads, PC’s, smart TVs and other network devices. This though pricy and by other reviewers overkill, meets my needs. Have not needed to be restarted in close to a month. The Triband works seamlessly, strong signal, but then again it does have 9, yes nine antennas, which supplements the 4 wan gigabyte ports. A breeze to set up Only con, not able to wall mount. Designed to be on a shelf only

So far this router has delivered with reliability and impressive speeds. The LINKSYS EA9500 MAX-STREAM was packaged securely and arrived to me in perfect condition. The packaging was simple yet perfectly effective for ensuring the safe delivery of the router and accessories. Box contained Linksys AC5400, power adapter, ethernet cable, quick start guide and even a cd for those that still have an optical disc drive. Setup was a breeze by utilizing my web browser and accessing the router's quick setup option via 192. I was up and running within minutes. After changing default password I proceeded to add 10+ different devices to the network. We have been running multiple devices at amazing speeds with no lag, drops or interruptions with the wi-fi signal. Streaming 4K doesn't seem like much of a challenge for this router. I have been throwing everything I can at it and it has out performed my expectations on each occasion. Another detail I was impressed with is the router's ability to maintain good-excellent strength at far distances. Our house is approximately 1500 sq ft. I am able to utilize the router's signal in every room with no issues streaming video, listening to music, etc.. The tri-band is capable of impressive speeds up to 5.3 Gbps. That is about twice the AC performance of a dual band. Linksys offers a solid 3 year warranty and 3 years of tech support. I definitely feel that this router can handle all the devices I have now and should be somewhat future proof for a while. If you have several devices running on your network and have been experiencing lag or slow speeds, upgrading to the Linksys EA9500 would most likely solve those issues. It did for me and I would feel comfortable recommending this product.

I was amazed how good WiFi performance of this router is! I removed all my range extenders and let this router do the WiFi in my house and I had no spots where WiFi signal would be weak! 300Mbit/s speedtest result (that is maximum my provider can do) anywhere! I even opened up a stream from my security cameras and walked around the property while looking at the stream - it never paused. Very strong wireless performance! Setup was extremely easy, basically you don't even need to set it up - plug it into the cable modem, power it on and connect to pre-defined wifi network! You'll need to access it's management interface to uncover it's full potential, there is a quick run thru it's features: Overall appearance - it's very well built, does not look or feel cheap (it's pretty heavy actually) - nice black plastic, adequate number of vents. Enclosure is not made for the wall mounting, it's designed to sit on the flat surface. This router has 8 Gigabit LAN ports on-board which is really great! And there is an option in the menu to suppress all activity lights on the back so they won't bother you at night (it would be a nice touch if it would be possible to disable lights on schedule). Online help in the management interface is very good, I would recommend looking there if in doubt. Router can be setup to function in multiple modes: as a regular "main" router or an access point (bridge) mode - router will turn into the "dumb" repeater - just adding a WiFi capability to your existing wired network. The primary use case will be as a "main" router of course. If you set it up like that - you have a wide variety of choices for your provider connection - regular DHCP, PPPoE, PPTP, L2TP and fixed IP address, it has an ability to change it's ISP facing MAC address if your provider requires that. Once you get your devices to connect to this router - you'll be able to see the network "map" - a detailed look at your network showing all the connected devices, click on any device will give you an ability to look at the details, make a DHCP reservation, or setup a parental controls. Router also does support VLANs, just in case your provider uses different (tagged) VLANs for Internet and IP TV, ports 3 and 4 of the internal switch could be assigned for the special VLAN in that case. Router is capable of supporting 3 bands - one 2.4GHz and two 5GHz, you can name them the same or give different names if you like, router does a real good job distributing devices across bands and ensuring you have a maximum available bandwidth. Both bands support WPA2-Personal and WPA2-Enterprise (I was actually able to test it with my FreeRADIUS server and it worked flawlessly). This router is also capable of creating a special isolated "guest" network which is not going to be encrypted, your guests will be presented with a web page to enter "guest" password (kinda like at the hotels, airports, also known as a "captive" mode). Parental controls - any device on your network could be limited by the access schedule (so you can make sure your kids don't spend more time online than they allowed to), plus you could setup a list of sites that are not allowed to be accessed from those devices. That web site list has to be setup one by one and I could get it to recognize wildcards like let's say if I enter something like abc*.com - that does work and filters out abcxyz.com. I wish Linksys describes it in help better and give an ability to export/import the blacklists. Overall - not too bad, but could have done better (for example: setup a whitelist instead of the black list, OR setup a whitelist which is always allowed, graylist which is allowed only on certain times and blacklist which won't be allowed at all, just giving Linksys some ideas here :)). Media prioritization - if you have a slow internet access (and starting that download makes your Netflix buffer) - you can give some services a "priority" (little bit more bandwidth) which may be helpful. Router comes with a wide variety of pre-defined services/games or you could define your own range of ports. On-board USB ports, this router features one USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port, so you could plug in a hard drive and share it for your network. Access is controlled by the folder, SMF, FTP and DLNA sharing is available. USB ports can NOT be used for the 3G/4G/LTE dongle as a backup Internet line. Security features - this router has a standard packet - DMZ support, port forwarding, port triggering, UPnP support. I would like to mention that your typical home network is always behind the NAT so it's not accessible from the outside Internet unless you setup port forwarding so you don't have to worry about outside attacks. Looking thru the settings on the security panel made me look into the help, for example I would not have guessed that "Filter anonymous Internet requests" flag really makes this router to ignore incoming ping requests, I wish Linksys named it more self-explanatory (like "Ignore incoming Ping requests"). Troubleshooting and logging - router's management interface gives you an ability to send ping probes, use traceroute, backup and restore it's configuration and also e-mail your configuration to Linksys support just in case you are having problems. Logging is where it falls short a little bit in my opinion. All I was able to get was the list of IP addresses my devices accessed and service name. Like 10.0.1.10 accesses 1.2.3.4 for www. Plus some DHCP packet states. Router was not able to inform me about the failed WiFi access attempts (like invalid WiFi password used or invalid WiFi guest network password used, or parental control triggered). I want to see if my kids are trying to get to something they are not supposed to! There were also nothing on router's internal health, nothing like send logs to syslog, etc. I feel like all possible logs should be accessible to the end user for troubleshooting purposes. IPv6 - this router does support it, however it's a little bit raw, for example there is an ability to setup an IPv6 firewall rule to allow some traffic to your internal IPv6 network from the outside (for example to access your IP camera without setting up port forwarding), however there is no way of making sure that specific device will always be assigned with the specific IPv6 address (like DHCP6 reservation). This technology is still pretty new so I'm hoping it will be improved/implemented in the future firmware updates. Other features - even though this router does not have VPN server on board - there is an app that lets you control your home network while you are away. It could be useful to see what is going on if someone at home complains about the internet access or stop your kid from going online :) My biggest problem with this router - is that in the "Bridge" mode it does not show any logs OR even network map. If I set it up as a simple WiFi bridge - I still would like to see my connected devices! It sounds like "Bridge" mode turns it into the pretty dumb access point. Conclusion: It's a great router for the advanced home user, strong WiFi performance, very fast processor and many features, yet simple setup makes it an ideal application. Remote access app (called Linksys Smart Wi-Fi) will definitely help in case you set this router up for your not so technology advanced friend or family member - you will have an ability to help them remotely. During the whole time I've tested this router - it never hung up on me or otherwise prompted for a reboot which is great. I do not tolerate unreliable network devices in my home. However - lack of on-board VPN server, backup Internet access via USB 3G dongle, poor logging capabilities - makes it not that attractive for the real tech person. Inability to show a network map in the bridge mode is kinda odd as well.

This has been a great router. Linksys customer service is outstanding. I have multiple IP camera outside. This router has no problem connecting to this at 50 ft away. I have the router in the front living room inside a pine dry sink. My wife has it covered with a decorative pine cover.

The Linksys EA9500 is a large and powerful router - it would be a great router for a business or for a house with frustrating dead zones. I don't know if the 8 adjustable antennas are overkill or not - I wasn't able to see any differences in availability or speed based on different antenna positions. But as far as range is concerned, I had to walk two houses away to lose all of the signals from this router (though it dropped to the 2.4 GHz band as opposed to its standard 5.0 GHz band there). In the house next door, I had full signal and was able to show 75+ Mb/s download rates which is indistinguishable from what I got sitting in the same room with the router. This is a beast!

Great coverage. Fast speeds. No issues. Easy to set up. A bit on the pricey side but worth it.

Just finished setting up this amazing device. I'm techie guy and for long tme I've been struggling with jumping and testing different routers but none of my old routers convinced me 100%. At my home I have more than 44 devices connected to internet and my household members streaming and playing online games very often. I Have connected my devices and noticed a significant difference in speed and stability and I tested it on my way buy watching a movie 1 hours long and pulled up the ethernet cable and guess what! The video continued playing because it buffered immediately to the end. Super amazing that made me taking advantage of my Comcast blast.

I had a NetGear nighthawk for only a year and 1 month. After a year and 1 month the power light was flashing amber and white. After dealing with NetGear and going through multiple resets and a new power adapter, I finally gave up. I found this new router and not only was the set up easy but if my mom has an issue again I am able to fix this on the road from my computer! The price of this thing is pretty salty but depending what all your doing its worth it. You do have 2 5ghz bands plus the standard 2.4 but I can tell you this...if you have fiber optic and you are using that cheap router they sent you....send it back and get this. With there router it was lucky to get 100mbps down and 75up when when in reality I should be getting the 200 down and 200 up. Well my average now is 203up and down so im very happy with this.