Linksys Ea9300 Max-stream Ac4000 Tri-band Wi-fi Router Review

Designed for big homes that crave lots of bandwidth for video streaming and online gaming, the Linksys Max-Stream EA9300 ($299.99) utilizes three radio bands to combat congestion on your dwelling Wi-Fi network. Information technology supports all of the latest 802.11ac technologies, including band-steering and beamforming, and information technology can handle Alexa voice commands. It'southward easy to install and manage using the Linksys web panel or mobile app, and it's a solid performer. If you're willing to spend $300 on a router, dropping $100 more on our Editors' Choice, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300, gets you lot the fastest operation we've seen and all the features you'll ever need to support your gaming and streaming habits.

Cull Your Ring

The EA9300 shares the aforementioned black textured design as the Linksys EA9500 that we reviewed back in 2016, just at 2.five by ix.0 by 11.6 inches, it'southward not quite as big. It has 6 nonremovable adjustable antennas and the height holds a small console with an illuminated Linksys logo, a WPS (Wi-Fi protected setup) activity LED, and LED indicators that low-cal up when there are internet and LAN cablevision connection bug. Effectually dorsum are four gigabit LAN ports, a WAN port, two USB 3.0 ports, a reset button, a power jack, and a ability switch. A WPS button is located on the correct side of the router.

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The EA9300 is an AC4000 tri-band router capable of maximum information rates of 750Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 1,625Mbps on each of the two 5GHz bands. Information technology's an 802.11ac Moving ridge ii device which supports MU-MIMO (simultaneous) information streaming, direct-to-client point transmissions (beamforming), and Smart Connect (band-steering) engineering in which the router chooses the best radio band to apply based on things like network traffic and available bandwidth. This router likewise supports seamless roaming when paired with a Linksys Max-Stream range extender. It is powered by a one.8GHz quad-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, and 256MB of flash retentivity.

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Yous can manage the router using a web-based console or with the aforementioned Linksys iOS or Android mobile app used to manage the Velop series of mesh Wi-Fi systems. The app has well-nigh of the same functionality as the web console, but y'all go more granular control with the panel. For instance, y'all can set application prioritization and limit downstream bandwidth with the web console, but not with the app. Additionally, the spider web console offers a few avant-garde options that you lot don't get with the app including VLAN, Wireless Scheduling, Airtime Fairness settings, and Speed Test, which lets you measure your router's cyberspace upload and download speeds.

The mobile app opens to a Dashboard screen that displays the name of the network, internet connectivity condition, and the number of continued devices. It also shows the names (SSIDs) of each radio band on the primary and guest networks. Tap any band to grant access to users via email or text messaging. The message contains the SSID and password for that particular band. To brandish a list of connected clients, tap Devices, and then tap whatever device name to apply parental controls or to give the device bandwidth prioritization.

Parental Controls are limited. You tin block websites and create schedules to limit access to the cyberspace, but you don't get the age-appropriate filters that you get with the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 and the Netgear NightHawk X6S AC4000 (R8000P), nor exercise you go the congenital-in malware protection that comes with the Asus Rapture router. Nonetheless, the EA9300 does support Alexa voice commands that allow you to practise things similar enable invitee networking and adjust certain Wi-Fi settings with spoken commands.

To admission router settings, tap the three confined in the upper left corner of the Dashboard screen. Here you tin edit SSIDs and passwords, configure security blazon (WPA/WPA2 Mixed Enterprise, WPA/WPA2 Mixed Personal, WPA2 Enterprise, WPA2 Personal, WEP), configure aqueduct and aqueduct width settings, and enable/disable Band-Steering. Avant-garde settings let you configure Port Forwarding and Port Triggering, set upwardly MAC filters, and configure DHCP and DNS settings. Apply the Administration settings to upgrade firmware, fix a time zone, view the router IP address, and restart the router.

Keeping Upward With the Contest

Installing the EA9300 is fast and easy. I started by downloading the mobile app and creating an account. After plugging in the router, I tapped Launch Setup and selected All Other Routers from the list and followed the in-app instructions to connect to the router using my telephone's Wi-Fi settings with the SSID and password establish on the base of the router. I so tapped Find My Router and was instantly directed to the EA9300 Setup screen. I tapped Continue and was prompted to personalize my network by creating names for each ring (yous tin can elect to utilize one name for all three bands if y'all are using Smart Connect) and inbound a new password. I created an administrative countersign for accessing the router's settings panel, and the installation was consummate.

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The EA9300 turned in solid results on our throughput functioning tests. Its score of 95Mbps on the 2.4GHz shut-proximity (same-room) test was identical to that of the Netgear NightHawk X6S R8000P, simply not quite as fast as the TP-Link Archer C5400X (113Mbps). The Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 led with a score of 128Mbps. On the thirty-human foot test, the EA9300's score of 69Mbps was a bit slower than the competition, only non by much.

On our 5GHz close-proximity test, the EA9300 scored 485Mbps, besting the Netgear NightHawk X6S by 23Mbps, just trailing the Archer C5400X past most 100Mbps. The Rapture GT-AC5300 recorded 601Mbps, the fastest score we've seen to date from any router. At a distance of 30 feet, the EA9300's 305Mbps was most identical to the TP-Link Archer C5400X (306Mbps) and 35Mbps faster than the Netgear NightHawk X6S. The Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 led with a score of 330Mbps.

The EA9300 performed wonderfully on our file-transfer tests in which we use a USB three.0 difficult bulldoze and a i.5GB folder containing a mix of photo, video, music, and document files to measure read and write speeds. Its write score of 78MBps is the fastest nosotros've seen to engagement, squeaking past the Netgear NightHawk X10 R9000 (77MBps). The TP-Link Archer C5400X and the Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 delivered write speeds of 35MBps and 39MBps, respectively. The EA9300'due south read score of 80MBps was too outstanding, but fell a bit brusk of the Netgear NightHawk X10 (89MBps). Yet, it was significantly faster than the TP-Link Archer C5400X (40MBps) and the Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 (42MBps).

Three Bands, But Non the Best

The Linksys Max-Stream EA9300 is a solid option for decorated home networks that crave a third radio band to handle tasks like video streaming, online gaming, and torrent downloads. It's non the fastest router out in that location, and it'southward pricey considering its modest characteristic set up, but it delivers relatively good throughput and file-transfer speeds. However, y'all don't get whatever malware protection and parental controls are limited to site-blocking and access-scheduling. For more robust parental controls, built-in protection confronting viruses and other malicious threats, and the fastest 5GHz throughput operation nosotros've seen, consider the Editors' Choice Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 . It'll cost nearly $100 more than than the EA9300, but it is loaded with I/O ports and gamer-friendly management settings. Or if you're willing to sacrifice some features, the Asus RT-AC86U is also a solid option at $199.

Linksys Max-Stream AC4000 MU-MIMO Tri-Band Router (EA9300)

Cons

The Bottom Line

The Linksys Max-Stream EA9300 is a solid-performing tri-band router for high-bandwidth scenarios similar video streaming and online gaming.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/linksys-max-stream-ac4000-mu-mimo-tri-band-router-ea9300

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