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PeteC2
Got Mouse?
MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT

PeteC2 to Tim

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to Tim

Re: [Wireless] Linksys EA4500 router?

said by Tim :

Anyone know of any DHCP issues.

None with my EA4500.

BTW, everything that I've seen to date leads me to suspect that there are essentially no differences between the E4200 v2, and the EA4500.

Should they drop the price of the E4200 v2 below that of the EA4500, that would become a smart buy.

I am not altogether sure whether or not this "cloud routing" is going to mean all that much to me, but I do see that Linksys claims that the E4200 v2 will have the same access.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

Well like I think I posted recently somewhere, Cisco's store is pricing the EA4500 for 199.99 (same price as the E4200v2) yet I've spotted it in the wild (Walmart and Bestbuy for example) for 179.99.

Delair2
@bhn.net

Delair2

Anon

Amazon.com is currently offering the EA4500 for $179.97 and the V2 still at $199.97 ( interesting).

Hoping to hear soon from CNET ( who has stated that they will test the EA4500) to see if there are any range/performance variables in the EA4500 with its new Marvell CPU over the e4200 V2. Should be interesting.

Oregonian
Premium Member
join:2000-12-21
West Linn, OR

Oregonian

Premium Member

Yes, I would also like to see some tests comparing the two versions of this router. Hopefully the CNET tests will reveal which is better or if they are equal. Until I see some results, my wallet stays in my pocket.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf to Delair2

Member

to Delair2
I thirdly want to hear the differences (if any) between the two. Kinda sucks that smallnetbuilder won't do a comparison review. In my own testing when I connected it to a 125Mbps download and upload network it really kept up wirelessly and wired.
romega
join:2005-11-13
Rome, GA

romega to PeteC2

Member

to PeteC2
I picked up a e4200 v2 today a Sam's Club for 159.77, thought it was a great deal, gonna hook it up this wk-end. Upgrading from a e2500, hope to see better coverage, any tips or tricks I should know.Thanks

Oregonian
Premium Member
join:2000-12-21
West Linn, OR

1 edit

Oregonian to PeteC2

Premium Member

to PeteC2
The E4200 V1 is currently available on Amazon for $137.99 with a $10 Mail-in-Rebate and free Super Saver Shipping making the total price $127.99 after rebate.

Edit -> Fixed. Had previously stated that this was V2.

Delair2
@bhn.net

Delair2 to romega

Anon

to romega
@romega. Make sure to update to the latest firmware on your new V2 which came out April 12, version 2.0.37. This includes the new WPS fix.

I've owned the V2 for about 4 months now and am still very happy with the range/performance and am looking forward to the Cisco Connect Cloud update in June.

PeteC2
Got Mouse?
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join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT

PeteC2 to romega

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to romega
said by romega:

I picked up a e4200 v2 today a Sam's Club for 159.77, thought it was a great deal, gonna hook it up this wk-end. Upgrading from a e2500, hope to see better coverage, any tips or tricks I should know.Thanks

IMHO, whether or not it will provide better coverage is a case by case thing. I have excellent coverage with the EA4500 here...but I never had a big issue with coverage here anyway. The EA4500 does have a better antenna array than the E2500, so theoretically you should see some improvement.

If you use easy connect to set the router up, I would recommend going into the router's web page after and making a few adjustments. It initially sets up for the greatest width of device compatibility, which is ok, but based on what you are connecting, this may not be ideal in terms of performance.

For example, the default security used by easy connect is WPA2/WPA mixed...I would recommend going with WPA2 personal, unless you are connecting any devices that will not be supported by that.

Same goes for the 5ghz and 2.4ghz bands: What devices are you running? If they are 11n only, then I would choose that over the default "mixed" settings.

Also, you may notice that the default set up retains the same SSID for both the 5ghz and 2.4ghz bands...that works ok for me, but a lot of folks want to have separate SSIDs to have more control over which band their devices are running on (under the default, the devices "auto-select" whether they are on the 5ghz or 2.4ghz band based on adapter capability).

Delair2
@bhn.net

Delair2 to Mike Wolf

Anon

to Mike Wolf
@Mike Wolf: Have you had a chance to compare v2 and EA4500 operationally yet? Notice any differences =/- between range and performance ?

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

I really haven't seen any difference, and I think the fact that they both are using identical firmware 2.0.36 build and both respond to »e4200.home.cisco.com makes me think it is simply a re-badged E4200v2. But that doesn't mean they both aren't really good routers

KoRnGtL15
Premium Member
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR

KoRnGtL15 to PeteC2

Premium Member

to PeteC2
Worst thing they can allow. SSID's being the same. It always causes issues rather its with performance or connection issues. Best to have 2 different SSID's.

Johkal
Cool Cat
MVM
join:2002-11-13
Pennsyltucky

Johkal

MVM

That needs clarification. Perhaps Pete can enlighten us whether or not options are available to set a name for each band beyond default.
Parth
join:2010-08-16
Poughkeepsie, NY

Parth to PeteC2

Member

to PeteC2
I have the option to have two different SSID's for my E4200 V1 so I see no reason why they would remove that "feature" from newer revisions.

Delair2
@bhn.net

Delair2 to Mike Wolf

Anon

to Mike Wolf
@Mike Wolf. Thanks. You are probably right. However, was hoping the new EA4500 CPU might introduce some enhancement. But like you said and I agree the V2 is already a very good router.

Now I would just like to know why Cisco rolled-back the latest firmware v 2.037 back to v 2.036 today. :-(

KoRnGtL15
Premium Member
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR

KoRnGtL15 to Johkal

Premium Member

to Johkal
Any high end Linksys dual band router will let you have 2 different names.

lordpuffer
Legalize It Joe!
Premium Member
join:2004-09-19
Old Town, ME
Nokia XS-110G-A
Linksys Velop MX5300

lordpuffer to Delair2

Premium Member

to Delair2
said by Delair2 :

Now I would just like to know why Cisco rolled-back the latest firmware v 2.037 back to v 2.036 today. :-(

I don't know if this had to do with an attempt to upgrade firmware on the E4200v2, but the other night, I got up about 2am and saw the front light flashing real fast, and then real slow. I was still connected though, both wired and wireless.

I rebooted, and it didn't help. So I called Cisco support, and the guy I spoke to told me that they were having constant calls on the same issue. He told me to do a reset, which I did, and then re-configured the Router. It hasn't happened since. However, why would they be getting all of those calls about the same thing at the same time?

Delair2
@bhn.net

Delair2

Anon

@lordpuffer...I've seen the V2's logo flashing in the wee hours of the morning as well. However, after checking it out the next day I assumed the router was doing a firmware update since I couldn't find anything wrong with the V2 and I noticed a new firmware version. ( I believe I have read this elsewhere as well) Since, I have placed a piece of black electrician's tape over the logo. I'm not really a fan of waking up to blinking lights in the middle of the night!
Delair2

Delair2

Anon

"There's only one front panel light, a steadily-lit white backlit Cisco logo that blinks while booting or during a firmware update or Wi-Fi Protected Access session."

(third paragraph)

»www.smallnetbuilder.com/ ··· reviewed

lordpuffer
Legalize It Joe!
Premium Member
join:2004-09-19
Old Town, ME

lordpuffer

Premium Member

I initially thought that it may be a firmware update, but the strange thing is that the blinking went on for about 1/2 hour. Maybe mine was trying to update, but was having a problem doing so.

PeteC2
Got Mouse?
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join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT

PeteC2 to Johkal

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to Johkal
said by Johkal:

That needs clarification. Perhaps Pete can enlighten us whether or not options are available to set a name for each band beyond default.

Yep, you can name each band as you wish. I was pointing out only that the default set up named both bands the same, much as the airport extreme does.

For me it is a non-issue so I let it be, but if you are picky about which band you are assigning a device to, then I'd certainly use unique names for each band.

Easy Connect defaults to the maximum amount of compatibility and ease of set-up. As usual, max compatibility does not equate to maximum performance.

Johkal
Cool Cat
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join:2002-11-13
Pennsyltucky

Johkal

MVM

Thanks!
samurai123
join:2007-07-15
Sioux Falls, SD

samurai123 to PeteC2

Member

to PeteC2
So it turned out that EA4500 is exactly similar to E4200v2.

I bet Cisco made some good money during holidays when they released E4200v2.

The EA series routes needs some loving lol.. not mature enough firmware and CCC added some interesting fun on top of it lol.

Hope they have learned some lesson and pay attention to put a quality firmware.

PeteC2
Got Mouse?
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join:2002-01-20
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PeteC2

MVM

said by samurai123:

The EA series routes needs some loving lol.. not mature enough firmware and CCC added some interesting fun on top of it lol.

Any facts behind that, or is this merely a personal opinion?

I have the EA4500 and have no problems whatsoever with it, the firmware prior to the cloud version worked fine, and I so far have no issues with the cloud-based version either.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf to samurai123

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to samurai123
»Cisco Backpedals a Little on Cloud Firmware
samurai123
join:2007-07-15
Sioux Falls, SD

samurai123 to PeteC2

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to PeteC2
I had problem with internet connection ( will drop often ) on both bands on E4200v2. So I dumped it and not going to use until they fix the problems.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

you know its possible it was an issue with the wireless card driver in your computer?
samurai123
join:2007-07-15
Sioux Falls, SD

samurai123

Member

I wish that was the issue but when I replaced the router with my old Dlink one, no issues at all.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

1 recommendation

Mike Wolf

Member

yeah I know that. Still doesn't mean its the router. It's been shown that certain driver versions of wireless cards could have issues with certain driver versions of routers which can usually be fixed by either downgrading or upgrading the driver of the wireless card or updating the router firmware. With the millions of wireless card and router combos out there its more common then not for a slight compatibility issue.

mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON

1 recommendation

mozerd to samurai123

MVM

to samurai123
said by samurai123:

I wish that was the issue but when I replaced the router with my old Dlink one, no issues at all.

your wireless adapter is complimentary to your Dlink ... That is the reason why.

There is a huge difference between complimentary technology and compatable technology ... It's always much better when technology is COMPLIMENTARY.