Customer Ratings & Reviews

After reading about this Linksys router, I thought I would give it a try even though it seemed a little pricey. After installing it, the router found about 17 devices in my home and automatically assigned them to the correct Wi-Fi. I was having to reboot the old Netgear product about once a week. I have not had to reboot this router yet. It works like a charm. It also has Wi-Fi 6 which I’m sure I will need in the future. I live in a 3 story condo and it works flawlessly. Some of my gadgets are wired but most are wireless. I got my money’s worth.

Review of Linksys Hydra Pro 6E: Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6E Router — At Glance The router offer most of the existing line of mesh wifi router exist from Linksys, but it add 6GHz band connection for low latency performance in a 1.8 GHz Quad Core processor, and Range ups to 2700 sq.; and has enhanced security by adding WPA3 Personal for all bands. (more detailed specific is included in one of screenshots with the review.). —Initial Setting a Parent Node and adding sub nodes Its setting process is not different from existing experience for Linksys Velop Mesh routers. Only difference I notice the recognition and connection in the initial step is faster and simple in a way the App recognize immediately to add as Parent, then add of existing Velop nodes has improved. In past at least from my experience, often to perform these actions needed to try out multiple times as didn’t go through adding new nodes. So in this sense seems to have improved. — Signal Range Having it installed in a spot at second floor and connected to cable modem, and in between the connected devices and the router exist two to three walls in between, and in between distance wise is no more than 50 feet, the network signal bar has 2 bars connected to 2.4GHz., but a second device placed in garage that only separate the floor, it has 3 bars connected to 2.4GHz. Hence it looks that depending on number of wall between decrease the strength of the signal. Unfortunately as I don’t have devices that include connection at 6GHz, couldn’t test it out. — Protocol Wi-Fi 6E Tested with iPhone 12 Pro and a notebook that has WiFi-6 AX support, and both at most connect to 5GHz, and didn’t notice big differences in the use. — Internet Speed Having cable service for internet with up to 100mbps, the speed check showed though different time test a consistent range above that limit, and upload as well up to 6.1 mbps as per plan. — Linksys App There isn’t any difference in the application at least on the surface. Haven’t noticed any new feature that would increase the experience. But in positive side, it works flawlessly having the new router and velop mesh routers together. And as side note, it takes bit long to load the application but this was already from the past. — Side note In the case that one has to unplug or turn off/on the node for any troubleshooting reason, the Parent node being "Hydra Pro 6E: Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6E Router", this need to be restarted in order to recognize the node. It is not sufficient doing refresh from the App in some cases. As last note, wish its power plug can be smaller. It takes quite a space.

This router is phenomenal. It has range, it has speed, it has mesh capability. It has it all. The footprint is on the small side for a router of this capability, which is a plus for me. It was easy to add to the Velop system I already had setup. The router by itself covered my entire house and extended decently into the yard and garage, but I noticed the WiFi switching to the already established Velop system when I was in certain places in the garage, but I have a node that is much closer to it. Overall I'm very satisfied with this router and would recommend it. Likes: 1.) Excellent range and speed 2.) Assignable QOS 3.) Parental controls Dislikes: 1.) Can only be setup through the smartphone app

Linksys has a new product on the market, and it's making a big splash with speed throughput in the Wi-Fi realm. It's the Hydra Pro 6E Tri-band Mesh Wi-Fi router. The package includes the router, proprietary AC adapter, short ethernet cable (CAT5e), and some paperwork. Linksys offers a 2-year manufacturer's warranty. Disclaimer: I tested this router with a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G which has the 6MHz channel capability used for the extra 6E spectrum and also a wired gaming PC. PROS: ----------- * Setup was the same as the Linksys Mesh system and Max-stream routers they have sold in the past - very easy. Just use the Linksys app, and it just works. A quick firmware update to start and you're up and running. * Connects easily to existing Linksys Tri-band Mesh towers though they may have to be reconfigured from the previous Linksys base to this one. * The speed, man. The Speed! In using my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G, I was able to tap into those 6MHz channels and reach some serious speed at home with my AT&T 1Gb/s fiber (1Gps up and down). * 5Gbs ethernet input capacity. When fiber upgrades over 1Gbs, this router will be ready. * This router gives the ability to add a USB external drive that can be shared to anyone connected to that router. Simply type in \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx on Windows File Explorer where the x's are defined on the app and access is easy. You can set up open access or password-protected. Very nice feature for shared storage items. * I like the on/off switch on the back. If the unit needs to be powered off, that's much easier to deal with than unplugging the unit and plugging back in. * WPS availability (button on the side) * Linksys continues to offer "Guess Access" so people that come to your house don't get your main network password to connect. * Parental controls also available as it has in the past. Schedule when your little ones can and can't access the internet on wifi. * If your home or apartment starts getting congested with wifi signals from surrounding sources, the app provides a "Scan Channels" function which will scan the area for a better signal frequency to maximize your speed. CONS: ----------- * The Linksys app still continues to be slow loading on my device (and other devices). Perhaps it has to do a ton of pre-checks before showing data on the screen, but it seems that it should load quicker than it does. OTHER OBSERVATIONS: ----------------------- * The range is impressive; however, I still prefer to use the Linksys VELOP tri-band nodes for better coverage around my house which can limit the 6E speed. Keep in mind that the only way 6E speed is typically needed is for file transfer and video uploading. Most other applications don't need anything near this kind of speed. * Offers the normal 4 ethernet ports with up to 1000Mbs speed per port. * You can manage multiple Linksys routers on the same app. You just need to go into the 3-line menu and go down to the bottom and select the Network Name. That will take you to a page where you can switch networks. * The External Storage settings are located in the 1st section of that same main menu. * Antennas can rotate as needed at the bottom swivel points. * The official USER GUIDE can be downloaded from the Linksys.com website. The paper version is not included in the box. CONCLUSION: ===================== I have AT&T Fiber and get 1Gb/s service download and upload. With Linksys's Max-stream Wi-Fi 5 router, I would get around 400-500 DL/UL. With 6E enabled on my Samsung S21 Ultra 5G (one of the very few phones that offer the 6MHz frequency band), I'm getting the full spectrum!! It provides insane speed, not that there's an app that needs that much speed at once, but it's there. 6E is for real... and this router produces. I have 3 Tri-band Linksys Mesh towers, and this router connects easily though the towers won't offer the 6E speed. Highly recommend, easy setup. More advanced features on the router are available, but usually not needed. Great job Linksys.

I was using the Linksys wrt1900ac router which was 8 years old. I was experiencing some buffering issues on my tv’s which are all wireless So I upgraded to this new model and immediately notice for my 60” living room Samsung tv the speed changed from about 120mbps to just over 200 mbps Have not seen buffering issues since getting new one Also setup of router was super easy and took about 10 minutes I’ve heard you should replace router every few years for newer specs, technology One other thing, my small tv in bedroom still gets only 50-60 mbps but it could be the brand of tv I’m very pleased with mine

I bought this router to get the latest WiFi 6E in my house for gaming and streaming. It hasn't disappointed yet. I can go out to my car or my garage which is 100 feet from my house and still have connection with this thing. It's awesome. It's extremely easy to set up with the app on your phone and you can control everything from the app no matter where you are. Like if your kids aren't doing their chores and you are at work you can turn it off...lol. And I am a long time Linksys customer and always buy their products because they seem to be up to date on the latest tech for wifi technology.

This router saved my sanity. It's a bit of a story, but read on to see why. I'm an IT professional with over 30 years of systems and network administration behind my grey beard. I started on technologies like thick ethernet, coax, and twinax. Yeah, been at it a long time. So, I'm fussy. Over the years, my spouse has put up with an insane humber of network changes, from using dial-up PPoE routers in the mid-late 90s to some weird custom setups. We've owned gear from Apple to Zywall (seriously!), and some have worked better than others. The current search began over three years ago. We moved back home to New Mexico from Arizona, and the Netgear Nighthawk we had, and worked so well with Cox, had all sorts of issues with Comcast. (Yeah, I know they're using a different name. Don't care.) In frustration, I pulled a pair of Apple Airport extremes out of the closet, put them behind a custom IPFire firewall, and used those. The last gen of Apple's AirPort Extreme (the tower one) works pretty well, but I did try a Gryphon unit (ugh), and decided to keep using them. Until we bought a new house, that is... Since we had overlap with the rental house and the one we bought, we picked up a Netgear Orbi 3-node WiFi 5 (802.11ac) setup for the new house, as I had no way to run ethernet cables into, say, the bedroom, and wanted some jacks there for the TV and such. It worked, but not well, and we had enough issues that we took off the satellites and just used the one station. Luckily, there was enough signal to stream everywhere. With an eye towards simplifying and reusing the machine running the firewall, I started looking at decent units that could do duty as "one unit" without me having to maintain a firewall and WAP, with he resulting mess of cabling and power bricks. First up was an ASUS WiFi 6 unit. The specs looked good, but there was one issue: I couldn't get the manual! I'm visually-impaired, and even if there's a print manual (there wasn't), I download the PDF so I can read it. Not available in English. I contacted Asus, and they eventually got back to me with the explanation that they hadn't written it yet. They suggested using the manual from a similar model. Back it went. Next up was something quite new: a Okyo Garde from Palo Alto Networks. This looked promising, as we use a Palo Alto next-gen firewall at work, and I knew that were offering much of the same overall protection in their subscription service. Not cheap, but very solid. The unit also had WiFi 6 built in, and seemed like the perfect solution. Not so. There was no way to change any of the network settings for your internal network. I've used a particular RFC-1918 subnet for over two decades, and several of our machines have static IP addresses. Imagine my dismay when I discovered that I could not change anything, not even the DHCP range. I contacted their tech support, and was told that you couldn't change the settings at this point, but "we're always improving." To which I respond, "We also release things before they're ready." I do not appreciate spending money to be someone's beta tester. You want to pay me, fine. But not the other way around. By this time, I was getting dejected. We'd just about given up, when my spouse spotted this Linksys unit. I've used their gear before, even pre-Cisco purchase, and it's always been solid. It also offered two things of interest: WiFi 6E, and WPA3 security. When it arrived, I downloaded their app and crossed my fingers. What a relief. The app allowed me to set up the basics very quickly, and once it was running I was able to log in via the web page and tweak things even more to my liking. The performance is far better than I expected, too. With this unit in the office, the furthest point away is the master bedroom. With the Orbi, the max I could see on any device was about 200Mbps, less than Half of our rated download speed. When I tested with iPerf3 on the local network, the transfer rates were similarly low. With the Linksys, I am hitting the same Internet speeds in the bedroom as I see wired: about 420-430Mbps. Locally, iPerf3 showed a huge improvement, with average transfer rates of around 800Mbps. The signal is strong throughout the house, and the unit itself is unobtrusive, with no light show to annoy us. Yes, it's good. Is it everything I want? No. But, see above comment about being fussy. It's by far the best consumer-grade home router I've found, and it does exactly what it promises with no drama. I would (and do) happily recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good, solid WiFi router with decent features, excellent performance, support for the latest standards, and did I mention no drama?

We haven’t had the problems others have had. Everything speed tested faster than with our old router which was a high end Linksys from 4 years ago. I’m curious as to if people are upgrading the router without a sufficient modem.? No range issues and our house is 2800 sq. feet. It’s mesh capable anyways, but it works fine even outside in the hot tub. It is by no means a miracle product, but it performs as advertised. I don’t think six e will help a 5 year old computer either. This is month 3 and so far so good. I find reviews after a day ro be fairly useless anyways. Its not the best, but it was $370. There are more expensive and better routers, but this guy works fine. Not a gamer, so I could not tell you if it is good for PC gaming.

Don't sleep on this router. I bought this to handle the ever growing WIFI enabled devices in my house. With the meshing system, adding more space for WIFI devices is as easy as can be. Since I've only used Linksys products, setup was a breeze! Routers are mini computers, so you get what you pay for. Don't let the price scare you and if you are scared, buy the protection plan. I'd recommend this to everyone because it's worth the money in my opinion.

Solid performance, easy setup, great coverage, fast speeds

This router's speed, range (it covers my entire 2-story house and surrounding yard) and dependability are excellent. It was easy to set up. The only small problem is that Linksys recommends naming all 3 channels (2.4, 5 and 6 GHz) the same name. This becomes a problem for devices such as security cameras that are looking for only a 2.4 GHz signal. Without a unique name, they cannot find the 2.4 GHz signal and cannot connect to the router.

Better than Netgear. Not many updates to the device though. Very few since purchase. Looks good gets warm-hot. So leave vented as best as possible. Would purchase again. However they are pricey.

Purchased to replace Linksys WRT3200ACM router which was believed not match my internet provider download speed of 500 Mbps. However, at first I had the same problem with the Linksys MR7500. I discovered I needed higher quality Ethernet cables to obtain the download speeds required. So now both routers provide speeds match what is provided by my internet provider. At the moment, I do not have devices capable of using the WiFi 6E band provided by the MR7500 router, but it the start up and internet connection is fast and work every well for me. Linksys support was more interested in setting up router using a wired device rather than my preference for using an Ethernet cable connected device for setup. (Yes, I am more old school.)

Setup is simple and quick. The router is ready to go out of the box. Just remove the padding from the antennas and turn them into full vertical position. Download the Linksys mobile application and it easily walks you through the steps to setup and configure the router. Load balancing among all three bands is configured by default and your devices will automatically connect to either the 2.4, 5 or 6 mhz band. WPA3 is the default security on the 6 mhz band and can be selected on the 2.4 and 5 as well if your devices support it. My download speeds are over 700 gbs and this is an increase of 200 gbs over my previous AX router. Device management is great and you can change icons and rename each device as you connect to help track and manage. The basic parental control allows you to control access through setting off times and you can specifically block individual websites if needed. The housing is built to keep the router cool and the entire top is vented. The drawback to this I see is that it will be easy for dust to get in and difficult to remove without using a spray duster. Overall I am very impressed with the quality and performance of this router and highly recommend to future proof your network needs for years to come.

This router works very well and its range is good. My cellphone supports wfi 6 and 6E which is why I bought it. I do get good performance even between floors. It is also my parent node. At the moment I have two WIFI 5 nodes connected but it has issues. You have to turn off the 6ghz band and remove WPA3 from the 5ghz band. If you don't wifi performance will suffer big time.

I decided to replace my router with a new model that would provide faster speeds and allow for more devices to be connected without slowing down. The Linksys Hydra fit the bill perfectly. It appears to be very fast and it has absolutely no issues with the 15 devices I have connected. I have no worries about adding more. I noted the negative reviews about installation and set up problems. My experience was flawless. The phone app worked perfectly for setup. I had the router unboxed, network connected, firmware updated and 15 devices connected in slightly more than 30 minutes. This may have been the easiest wireless router installation I have ever done. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Purchased and installed 4 days ago. All of my AX clients are connecting at 860/860 + and coverage is excellent in my two story home (plus basement). I have it located on the main floor and have over 20 devices connected to it with no issues. I love the single network name and seamless transition between 2.4/5/6 networks. My only complaint is the use of an app and the Linksys cloud based management. I feel this is a huge security risk and would prefer to manage the device locally without going through their cloud based management.

Dont overlook this brand. I returned my linksys Wifi 6E router which on paper should have better range and features, but it didnt. Grabbed this puppy here for cheaper and it runs faster and smoother and easy app interface to control devices and set up. Recommend going with this brand, but with any wifi router or modem get best buys warranty youll want a new one every 2-3 years.

Very easy to set up, great coverage,fast speed and 6ghz

This is a really nice unit. The LinkSys software gets you set up real easy, doing almost everything for you after you plug into your ISP. It is a large unit, and I have it set on its side, even though it is not designed for that orientation. Oh, you have to have a smart phone and install the app to get this thing working. It works great, giving me clear reception all around the house and even outside.