I recently put the Linksys E4200 wireless router from Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) through its paces in a home setting.
Retailing for $189.99 in Canada, the E4200 is the high-end offering in Cisco’s Linksys line of home routers. It’s a Wireless N dual band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) router that offers transfer rates up to 300Mbps and 450 Mbps, as well as WPA/WPA2 Personal and SPI firewall protection.
Pros
* Easy out of the box instructions.
* I liked that there’s not that many items in the box so easy to get started.
* The router is very small, light, and compact so fits almost anywhere.
* I liked the “show me how” feature to go into more step by step detail when hooking-up the router.
* Loved how easy and fast easy set-up works with connecting other computers to the Internet using a USB stick.
* It was fast and easy to get up and running onto the internet.
* Internet speed was a lot faster then the Bell router we were using.
* The main menu is very simple, letting the user choose from just four options, while offering an advanced settings menu for people who are more tech-saavy.
* Cisco has thought of everything by letting people register the product using any social network account to save people the hassle and time of creating an account that they would probably never use.
Cons
* I don’t like the idea of guest access on the router. I’m sure it would be convenient for my guest to log onto my WiFi without asking me for the password. While they can’t access any personal information, I do want to know who’s using my Internet access and how much data is being used. I also don’t like the idea that this was set to on automatically.
* Updates are long and the fact they have to run an update after installing the product, where they already did an update, is a little silly.
Conclusion
This is a great product. It was very easy to setup, connect other computers to it, and manage using Cisco’s very simply menu. The product looks great, no more will you have to hide your large and loud router behind the couch. The internet speed is fast. I don’t even know how it does it but this router made my internet speed faster then what Bell is offering me. All in all I’m very happy with the product, no complaints from me.