Customer Ratings & Reviews

This was once a great and solid product! Linksys sold out to Belkin recently and since then, the firmware updates have dismantled this once great product to epic garbage. I have 5 nodes - have downgraded my firmware - messed with the settings and placement of each node for HOURS...I get dropouts at least 4 times a day... I finally figured it out though! I unplugged them all, sold them on nextdoor and bought the google nest system... problem solved! Do NOT buy these linksys below nodes - Do NOT do it. Use yarn and tin cans and you will get more stable connectivity with zero dropout!

First of all it took me about 30 minutes to wait for somebody to answer my call on the Linksys customer line then took me about an hour and 25 minutes to set up the Velop towers... it works fine for 2 days; then the signal started cuting on and off... i call my internet provider and there was no problem at all with my modem... so i called the Linksys customer line again and wait for almost 20 minutes... they guide me on resetting the whole system and hooked it back again in less than 30 minutes and vooola!!! Up and running for 2 more days!!!!!!! I made my decision Velop is a nightmare....

After nearly 2 years of trying to get refunds from Best Buy and continuous resets of the system (which take 45 minutes each time), I’m liberated! These are officially in the trash now.

Expectations - I began with high hopes of the Linksys Velop system and was quickly disappointed. There was a lot of buzz generated at CES this year regarding Linksys’ entry into the mesh WiFi world. Promising better coverage in large and/or multi-level homes. I found the improvements to be few, and the disappointments to be many. With it being the latest and greatest I also expected data rates to be as good or better than my current situation. For comparison, I current have an ISP supplied gateway (ATT) and for the upper level of my home an Apple Airport Extreme/Time Capsule (APETC). Design - The design certainly seems to take cues from the industry. Tall, slender and white with ventilation holes running along the top and two of the four sides. All ports, switches and buttons are located in a recessed well on the bottom of the unit. There is a reset button, power switch, power port and two ethernet ports. The latter is used to supply the primary unit with internet connectivity. Unboxing - On opening the box, you find the three Velop access points. Under the setup guide (a card instructing you to download the app) you find the supplied ethernet cable and then the three power adapters. The ethernet cable tends to “pigtail” due to it’s memory so it can be a nuisance if you want things neat and tidy as I do. Setup - Here starts the trouble. The only way to perform setup or changes in the configuration is through the Linksys Smart WiFi app. While this simplifies the setup and design, it severely restricts the ability to make any important configuration changes. It also locks these into whatever support is provided by Linksys. If they discontinue the product in the future, then you will be left with three doorstops valued at $500.00. On my first attempt, I could not get the app to establish communication over Bluetooth. So on my second attempt I choose the option to configure over WiFi. This was wrought with problems that caused the app to freeze at multiple points of configuration. Each time I would have to shutdown the app entirely, relaunch and sometimes it would pickup where I left off. But sometimes it would skip a step. I wound up with two separate SSID’s being broadcast and unreliable connections. So I performed a factory reset, a step only documented deep down on the website. On my third attempt I was able to get the BT connection started. One important note, only on the website documentation does it explain that you must wait until the light glows purple before you can establish a connection. So you must wait 2-3 minutes after plugging in to be able to begin the setup. While setting up under BT, there was also one time when the app froze and I had to start over. After I was able to complete the setup of the base unit, setting up the other two were quite easy. It’s a bit of a slow process, but the app seems to do some extensive testing to assure that you will have a quality connection in the location that you have selected. When you’re done, you have three wireless AP’s meshed neatly and operating under one SSID. I live in an 1800 sq.ft. townhouse. I placed the primary Velop in the basement where it connects with the ATT gateway. The second was located on the ground floor in our living room. The third unit I placed on the second floor in the office where the the APETC currently resides. Operation - The single status light on the top of the Velop provides indication of startup, setup state, operation and loss of connectivity by way of different patterns and colors. When setup and operating in a well lit room, you barely even notice it. But in a darkened bedroom there are sporadic flashes that can be annoying. I would suggest that you consider this carefully when planning the placement on each node. The most disastrous result of this mesh network was the loss of all other networked resources. All shared printers and drive volumes were completely inaccessible when connected to the Velop from any computer or mobile device in the house. The only way to access those resources is to enable a wired ethernet connection. In my option, this makes the Velop useless. Other issues remain with the app itself. Not only are you unable to change many important settings, but the functions of the app often fail. They include a “speed test” portion. In my attempts the speed test would fail 80% of the time. Sometimes presenting an error immediately and other attempts it would seem to finish the download test and then error on the upload. Performance - One would think that spending a premium on a mesh network would bring data rates better than other devices on the market. Ping times (something that seems to be especially important to gamers) rose dramatically. From an average of 19ms when using the APETC or ATT, to 30ms or more on the Velop. My internet is rated to be 24Mbit/sec down, 5Mbit/sec up though I frequently see higher downloads due to over provisioning. So in theory, the Velop should get me to the max on downloads with the bottleneck being my upstream connection. For the most part, speeds were on par with my previous arrangement. I saw an improvement in the first floor bedroom, but all other areas were about the same. Granted, the previous arrangement required me to manually switch between AP’s to obtain the best reception and throughput for each location. But the previous setup also afforded me greater configurability and access to networked printers and drives. I would like to have compared the transfer speeds on my internal network. This would be a true test of the speed capabilities of the Velop. But this was not at all possible. When connected to the Velop, I could not access any other resources that are shared on the network. No shared printers, drives, ANYTHING! That’s a deal breaker for me! Pros: * Simple setup when you have accurate instructions * Mesh coverage for large areas or multiple levels Cons: * Unreliable app * No web-based configuration available * Average performance * Not suited for gamers * No access to shared network resources * Pricey Verdict: If you need mesh coverage; and don’t want/need to do much configuration; and don’t mind paying a premium; and don’t mind waiting until the app issues are resolved; and don’t need access to shared printers or drives; and are willing to take a gamble on longevity of support then this might be a good choice. Otherwise, check out the competitors and see if their options may be better for your situation.

I've waited about 3 weeks to make sure I gave this system every chance to work and it just hasn't. I bought the 2-pack for my 2 story, 2500 sq ft home. The setup was very easy and the app was very user friendly. When the system is online everything works great. The speeds are good enough to max out my Xfinity internet speeds of 150 download on many of my devices. I was able to watch Netflix and Firestick without the buffering. Everything was great... but then... The 2nd Node drops off at least 2-3 times a week. I reset the nodes. I even took them offline and restarted like they were new devices to get them back up to speed. I've had to call in to customer service several times, including again last night, as all my devices went offline and were either extremely slow or not working at all. This has happened several times within a 3 week period. After an hour on the phone and some trouble shooting the problem was resolved.. only to go down again about an hour later. As for the app its very inconsistent, which Linksy tech support acknowledged. It will show devices offline that are online and vis versa. It has an option to prioritize 3 devices so they get maximum speed. The problem is when try to disable that function it may not work. The app will automatically prioritize those devices again, on its own, which causes other devices to slow down. It takes multiple times trying to get the app to cooperate which is extremely frustrating. The customer service team is very patient in trying to help overcome the issues, but there is really only so much they can do. My 30 day return window is about up so I have no choice but to return the product. I really wanted it work but it just didn't.

Day of Review 5/15/2020 I bought this last year 2/16/2019. It was replacing my (at the time) Asus RT AC-3200. It was a very good router, i just wanted more range and i hate Range extenders. They are the worst for speeds. So I decided to pull the trigger on this one, since it had some good reviews, i said “Why not?”. I have some experience with IT and networking configuration, managing databases and setting up servers and currently (coding and programming) so i have a background for this. The setup was quick (if you have the right Modem) , BUT for some reason it did not worked with my modem. (ISP is Spectrum) It did not want to sync, and kept trying and trying and it was even asking me to call my ISP to ask for the IP adress and the IPV config, I really needed to get the internet back to work so i still used it in conjunction with my Asus. Turned off Wi-Fi antennas and channels of my Asus and used it as a bridge. So basically Modem - Asus - Linksys (in that order). Thats how it was for the moment until i had more time to use it. It worked fine.. with the normal drops every now and then (like once every month) at least.. or sometimes not even. I must say i was impressend since speed was very good everywhere in my house and i have a smart home so i do have lots of devices, plus 2 gaming consoles, and a gaming PC. (Around 5 tvs, all of them had the streaming services) and of course like 5 computers and phones from the fam and kids.. i would say around 35+ devices. My old Asus handled all that very good, no hiccups and it was fast. It was just the range that was not so good. Thats the only reason I decided to change it. Well.. since i’m always traveling i did not have time to test my network like i like to test it. But everytime i was back home, i heard no complaints from the family, so i guessed everything was ok. I had all 3 Nodes installed, but for some reason 1 kept dropping constantly so i just removed it from the network. Recently I decided to remove my old Asus and just set up the network correctly (since this Pandemic has everyone at home) now i can actually test my internet like i should and OMG I got a Surprise while doing so.... THIS ROUTER IS NOT WORTH THE MONEY. My brother and I can’t game at the same time because the internet will drop. I only have 15 devices on my network now. I tried restarting it, reseting it, and nothing i do seems to work(yes its up to date, yes i have done the testing and the interference Channel check just in case) . I put back my old asus and NO ISSUES with that one. Then put the linksys back, and the internet signal just drops AGAIN.. and it is constant..So its a router issue or it could be mine? Don’t think so though... its so frustrating when you just have everyone trying to access the internet. Two devices are streaming, one is gaming and another one is just browsing the internet... it takes around 15 to 30 mins to drop. This is such a disappointment. I really thought Linksys was a good product. From now on i will just stick to ASUS as a consumer brand, their networking products are great (Not the Lyra though) or if you want to get something robust.. get a Ubiquity or a commercial grade product. That will be my next.. Lessons learned.

Very disappointed with the Velop. Set up is easy, but the parental controls don’t actually work. You can set them - but they have no effect on your children’s device. Of course the teens don’t tell you this and I missed the return window. For such an expensive option, something as simple as parental controls should work. I also don’t like how devices don’t switch to the closest node. I would look elsewhere.

The app has been a buggy nightmare since day one and all my bandwidth sucking devices are being put on the SAME RADIO, so a single local file transfer brings my entire network to its knees. I even have an ethernet backhaul set up, so all three radios are free. My old AC1750 router performed better, was easier to set up, and it costs far less. Here's my sequence of events after I unboxed my 2-pack Velop: 1. Installed app 2. Started setup on app. Noticed that each step took longer than it would have if I were just using a web interface. 3. Setup froze. 4. Power cycled velops, things seemed to be working. My wireless and wired clients had internet access and the mobile app logged in OK. I took a break, watched some TV. 5. Checked out app, gave the error "Your internet is working, but our cloud service isn't." I'm not sure how long linksys' cloud service was down, but it was at least an hour. 6. Much later, finally got into device list in the app, notice that my kindle is listed as "connected by ethernet", when it clearly isn't even capable of wired internet. 7. Tried the app's "manage your network anywhere" feature, didn't work. only worked on my own network 8. Tried in-app speed test, it spits the same error, three times in a row, never worked once. Also notice that there is no node->node or client->node tests like other mesh network products have. 9. Checked devices list again, notice that it now lists FIVE ethernet devices when I only have one. Could be related to the bad wireless load balancing? Who knows. If you're considering Whole Home Wi-Fi, just get Google Wi-Fi instead. It has MUCH better software, both in the router and through the mobile app, and it's much cheaper to boot. Or if you're after speed, go for Netgear's Orbi. Velop's supposed speed advantages with its three radios are meaningless when the firmware is so dumb that it clumps up devices on one.

My experience initially started out really well. The primary, secondary and tertiary nodes all connected seamlessly and provided coverage of close to a square acre. I was pulling about 250mbps down on my 350mbps connection from Spectrum. Then, I decided to enable guest wifi access. Added the SSID name and password, then it restarted my nodes.. Well.. Only the primary and secondary came back, the third kept showing 'Offline'. I rebooted said device, hard reset and kept trying to add it back to my network. Nothing. The third device would stay lit 'purple' long enough to be detected, but then would disconnect while adding itself to the network - therefore erroring out. I decided to perform a factory reset on all three nodes and swap them out. I took the original third node (the one that wasn't connecting) and made it primary, connected it to my router and had the same problem. I swapped it again with another node and that node connected just fine - again the problematic node would not stay connected long enough to finish the setup process. I tried manual configuration, I connected an ethernet cable to said device and tried manual configuration - nothing worked. I called support and after 2 hours of going through everything I stated above one more time, I was told to take it back to the store. This normally wouldn't be a big deal - but this three pack of nodes was close to $500. Not worth it, never buying another Linksys product after this.

I had really high hopes for these. Earlier this year I purchased a Linksys AC2200 Mesh router (with the thought I might expand it out with the supported Velop Nodes). The router itself has served us reasonably well. We have an acceptable wifi connection thro9ughout most of the house with occasional blips, but no access in our garage. I thought expanding the system with 3 Velop Nodes would give us great wifi throughout the house and finally get a decent connection in the garage. I was thoroughly disappointed. All 3 nodes required at least 2-3 attempts to complete the auto configuration. The nodes had trouble connecting from areas where our PC and my phone show a great connection. Eventually get all 3 nodes connected, but one of them continuously dropped offline. Throughout the roughly 24 hours we had these setup, the internet across the entire network was slow and intermittent. Devices with no issue prior to setting these up suddenly started dropping connection regularly and Netflix would buffer constantly. The signal showed good strength but the bandwidth was horrendous. I reset the entire system numerous times, ran the Channel Finder tool, and sent refresh signals to my modem but the connection continued to be terrible. The nodes somehow choked up the network and caused a wired connection from the linksys router to the tv to perform poorly (Modem>>Main Router>>TV). I (possibly) had one node on an Ethernet backhaul to the router (Modem>>Router>>Node), however there is also no easy way to prove that the ethernet backhaul is what is being used as opposed to mesh wifi. Sitting in that room, the wifi still crawled even though there was good signal. Eventually I unplugged all 3 nodes and everything went back to normal. The only good thing that came out of this was that I finally bit the bullet and hardwired my home office which I had been putting off all year. It took me less time to crawl though the attic and fish some cables than I spent messing with these things and the connection is obviously better. One Star for forcing my hand on the hardwire, however these things are being returned as soon as possible. What a letdown!

I was talked into purchasing this wifi mesh network by the Best Buy representative to ensure my whole house was covered. The setup was a piece of cake and it seemed to work well for the first 24 hours. However, trouble appeared as soon as I unplugged it to reconfigure the room where the main hub was placed. The hubs would not reconnect to the Internet nor the LinkSys app. I had to call Linksys directly, and they walked me through the steps needed to uninstall my original setup and basically act as if my system was a brand new one that was being set up in the house. So in less than 24 hours, I had to install it twice. Not only that, the 2nd hub stopped connecting altogether and I was never able to get it back online. I dealt with this for two weeks and happily took it back to Best Buy to exchange it. I went with Google Wifi and have not looked back. No issues with this, even after I unplugged it. Imagine that!

Well they worked great at first. Setup was a bit difficult but not too bad since we have experience in that. We were getting great signal and coverage at first. After a firmware update everything went downhill! Signal kept dropping and very weak signal even 2 feet from the node. Nodes would keep disconnecting from the main node. We tried moving them to different areas with no better results. We have 500 gbps and wired we were getting that or better. Wireless speed just 2 feet from the main node would get 20-50gbps!!! The further away we would get the worse it was. Called linksys for help and they insisted it was our isp even though we did a wired speed test and got 500. Customer service was a joke. Hard to get a hold to and refused to say it was their product. It was always something else. Either our modem or isp. Wasn’t waiting for them to fix the firmware. We put up with it for a few weeks. We got the warranty so we returned them. We ended up going with eero pro mesh because that’s what our store had in stock. Needless to say they are working great with the nodes in the exact spots the others were in. No issues yet and the signal and WiFi speeds are great!

Linsys Velop Tri Band Towers will NOT functions with Windows Hotmail. There is NOT a warning on the presentation box, nor is there a warning on the inside instructions. It is found out only after set up, when an actual notice is found in the software, warning it will shut down, if there is NOT a reply to the email sent. Only after over 12 hours of trying to set up, and contact customer support, was it found, the email is NOT sent to Hotmail. The first three lady support persons absolutely did NOT know what they were doing. Only after a third lady in second tier support, did know what she is doing and was excellent. The first person even said the units are defective. I stated over and over it was not a hardware defect, and, it is a software defect. Still the first person that did not know what she was doing, placed a completely incorrect entry into the records that the towers were defective, which caused, even more huge non stop problems, having to tell each next person that the problem is NOT in the towers but in the software. If and when you can find a support person that know what they are doing, with absolutely none can be found in first tier support, then the Linksys Velop towers can be considered excellent. The towers even have three year old software, that will NOT update, until a 2nd tier support person corrects the software fault, so they will update, automatically as they are supposed to. The support person in 2nd tier was a woman in the Philippines. As noted above she was excellent, even though the first three support persons did NOT in any way whatsoever knew nor had the knowledge to support the Linksys Tri Band Towers. The solution is to find a support person second tier, preferably a Filipina woman in 2nd tier support, and they the Velop Mesh system can be considered excellent, to date. This is after using them for 2 weeks. Long term is not yet determined, but looks as if everything will be ok. A final important critical not, if the email is not replied to (which is never sent to Hotmail), the entire mesh system will completely shut down. I additionally install a Linksys Tri Bank Router, which has been excellent to date. The entire system, to function correctly is to have the Linksys Tri Band Router and Linksys Towers. So extremely unfortunate support, first level does not know what they are doing, and, as it stands, the system is sold with software defects which are extreme. Live through the horrors of faulted software, with it all being corrected, and the final result will be an excellent Wifi System that has a very extended range. To help getting thru the software defects, is to use, another email address, and then have the email forwarded to Hotmail if possible. That way you can keep your Hotmail address and still have the system functioning. Before trying this you should check to be certain email are forwarded successfully. A final note, once the system is completely set up, without any software problems, it will no longer require replies to email being sent.

Hello All, I hardly ever write a negative review but when it is warranted, I feel that I should at least give some feedback on my experience with this Velop from linksys. Just to lay down some tech spec background, I currently have Verizon Fios as my ISP and while setting this device up and following the very minimal instructional piece of paper, I was having issues connecting and staying connected. After hours of trouble shooting with the tech support, we finally went into the velop router setting to disable IPv6. This seems to work for a bit about a few days... then the internet would keep dropping. I placed these exactly in the same spot of a Gen1 Samsung home mesh system which is several years older and would think that the coverage would be better. Unfortunately, child nodes kept dropping and even the Parent node. After multiple reset and tries and even switching to bridge mode, it only functioned for a few days. I then thought, perhaps it was the range and went out and bought 3 more and place them closer to the Parent node. However, that did not last long as well as it kept dropping again and again and as a remote worker now, it was exhausting having to reset my nodes all the time just to get it to work for a day or two before crashing and sometimes hours in between. I honestly gave it my best try by spending soo much time with tech support, even going out and buying more to have the child nodes a little closer to the parent nodes and it still kept dropping. I had to return this product and after tech support and buying more nodes and giving it a solid try, I gave up on the Velop and went with another product instead. I really would have liked to have it working but unfortunately, it was not meeting my needs or expectations. For those that may be using a wifi/router from your internet provider, one of the trouble shooting method was use it in bridge mode. Again, it worked for a few but then kept dropping again and again. Really wish it worked as returning products and spending so much time and buying even more of it was exhausting and time consuming. Hope this experience helps bring some insight to those looking for a home mesh system.

This cost close to $500 but it did not even perform to the same standard as a sub $50 alternative. I was convinced at the local Bestbuy store by a Magnolia specialist that it was the porch of wifi networking routers. After close to 45 minutes of education and demonstration of its functionalities and the "great" value, I caved in and purchase the velour 3 system. I have AT&T 1GB service so the plan was to set my ism-provided router/modem combo to modem only, and use this as the main router in my 2-story house. I also have two apple AirPort Extreme (1st and 2nd gen) located in two separate locations in the house to increase wifi spread. main modem and velour were located in the game room on first floor where it was devoid of any wall interferences. Pre-velop, I was getting 500Mbps-650Mbps wired internet to the AT&T modem combo. 5Ghz Wif range from 250-320Mbps around the house helped by the two Apple airport extremes. Post-Velop, ethernet bandwidth dropped to 320-380Mbps. Wifi was about 200-250Mbps on the main node and a disgraceful 50-80Mbps on the two secondary and tertiary nodes. Speed several hours on the phone with Linkys tech support and they gave excuse that it was the AT&T modem that was not supplying enough to power the velop optimally. I was advised to contact AT&T to change the modem since I was paying for 1Ghz service which truly I was no where getting. Well, I did just that and new modem installed, without Velop, ethernet bandwidth increased to 960Mbps/890Mbps download/upload and wifi was peaking at 680Mbps/720Mbps. Installed Velop nodes again, and the highest speed was 390Mps/420Mbps on main node and 120Mbps-180Mps on secondary nodes. I have since returned the Velop and replaced it with the Linkys AC5300 4k router which initially had the same speed issue on first install but after getting Linksys support, I am now getting a decent 940Mbps/380Mbps down/up on ethernet and about 380Mbps/170Mbps down/up on Wifi at close range. Still very wifi poor speeds when not in close proximity to the AC5300 compared to stable and commendable 350+ speed from the modem/router directly. I am debating whether I truly need the Ac5300 now since my isp modem/router combo is doing a great job. Only reason why I want to keep the AC5300 is because of the other features such as parental control and device prioritization features. Even those are buggy at times as it does not work as advertised, which the Linksys support also acknowledged as known issues.

Forty-five minutes to set up, another forty-five minute phone call to Linksys when the second node stopped working. I had to unplug my modem to reset it and the nodes wouldn't reconnect. I purchased another Netgear system, and I have no problems.

I purchsed the Velop mesh Tri-band to replace my Orbi mesh. The range was terrible and speed was unusable. I was getting good range with the Orbi but I thought having a 3 mesh pack would be better. The range with the Velop couldn't cover my 3500 sq ft home with a 3 pack. The speed went from 600mbps with orbi to 50mbps with Velop. Keep in mind, I'm a network engineer.... Returned and bought a wifi-6 router made by Ubiquiti.

I had to reset them several times, they never stay connected to the modem

I bought these last year and could not get it to play nice with my modem. I finally hooked it up to my old router and put it in bridge mode. That was fine, but I never really used it. I recently upgraded my home internet and decided to fix the Velop, after an hour of messing with it I finally got it to work. Since then I am constantly getting disconnected. I have 2 nodes downstairs and one upstairs. The nodes downstairs are in eye sight of each other. I can see one of the nodes from my desk and am constantly getting dropped. The upstairs is even worse. I had the node upstairs and moved the node to the stair well to see if that helps and still see no benefits. I called support and the only real help they said was to wonder around my house until the lights are blue. Which they are all the time and still disconnect.

I wanted to wait and test this thing out to see if all the bad reviews are true. Turns out, they were right. I purchased this item on April 2018 for our condo, and an additional single node in Nov 2019. It started off pretty good for the first couple months. Then, it begin to have connectivity issues between nodes to nodes. It has gotten so bad that it will automatically disconnects every other 30-60mintues. It really is disappointing when this is a such popular item that cannot live up to its standards. I have tried to moving it away from TV, blockages and such, but it appears after a few months, it just decided to give up. Not to mention, it does not actually give you true speed. I have 500up/down but the node only gives me 100at most times. I had my internet provider came in and did many testing and it would never reach 500. All in all, this is not a review I wanted to write as I did and still do use many linksys products and love them. But this one is just way WAY WAY too terrible. To make matters worse, as I tried to reach out to the support team via phone. I would be on hold for more than 30 minutes at a time and they would just recommend restarting or moving it. Never again, will I EVER make a purchase on linksys internet related items. A true disappointment.