LinksysMesh Wifi 5 Router, Tri-Band, 2,000 Sq. ft Coverage, Supports Guest WiFi, Parent Control, 20+ Devices, Speeds up to (AC2200) 2.2Gbps - MR8300

When my internet service provider increased the price of renting their wifi router, I wanted to buy my own. That turned out to be quite complicated due to several factors, including the compatibility of the router with the desktop PC provided by my workplace. At first I bought a wifi 6 router, but the VPN on my work computer wouldn't allow a connection, so IT suggested a wifi 5 router. This Linksys wifi 5 router was less expensive with higher megabytes per second, and it works great. The app and setup were straightforward. It was a little difficult to find the 2.4 GHZ network in order to connect my Alexa smart plug, but then I realized that the guest network I created upon setup was 2.4, and that worked out well.

The Linksys Mesh WiFi 5 Router has been a game-changer for my home internet setup. The tri-band technology provides a strong and consistent signal, and the 2,000 sq. ft. coverage easily handles my entire space without any dead zones. Setting it up was super easy, and I love the option to create a Guest WiFi network it is great for keeping my main network secure while letting visitors connect. Streaming, gaming, and working all run smoothly, even with multiple devices connected at once. It’s sleek and doesn’t take up much space, which is a bonus. If you’re looking for a reliable and hassle-free WiFi solution, this router is a fantastic choice!

I recently upgraded to the Linksys WiFi Mesh 6E Tri-Band Router, replacing my 11-year-old router, and the difference has been incredible. With my old setup, I was only getting around 100mbps on wireless devices near the router. Now, with the Linksys, my internet speed has skyrocketed to over 600mbps throughout my home. Even though the router is placed in the middle of the room at a height, it delivers excellent coverage to every room, doubling the speed I previously got with my Asus router.The installation process was simple, thanks to the user-friendly app, which also allows me to monitor all devices connected to the network. The router automatically selects the best channel based on the device, such as assigning 2.4GHz to my printer. It also has solid parental controls, guest network management, and upgraded security features. While it’s great on its own, adding nodes would make it even better for gaming and other heavy-use activities. Overall, it's a fantastic upgrade for both speed and coverage!

Our house is just about 1950 sq. ft. and this router *does not* cover it. The construction is partly lath and plaster and that may explain some of the coverage shortfall (the wire mesh that holds the plaster onto the wall can attenuate the WiFi signal) but probably not all of it. Anyway, I used my old router in "bridge mode" to snag the signal from the new router (using the 5GHz band signal - you "lose" one band to communicate between the two routers) and provide the extra coverage needed for the part of the house that the new router - the one that I'm reviewing - didn't cover. Both routers, just by-the-way, are Linksys, but different models. The setup and installation really does require that you download the phone app, and the app does work, but there are a few steps that are slow and clunky. Your patience is required and you may be tempted to think that the app has quit on you, but it's just a long delay in the setup step. That happened 2 or 3 times. You are *required* to have a Linksys web account and there is a detour to set that up if you do not have one prior to starting the router setup process. Be sure to have pen and paper handy to write down the web account ID and password as well as the router administration login information and a recovery number - all of this is essential info to keep around and, by the way, the web account info should be different from your router info and both should be very hard to guess. You are playing with fire if you make this stuff easy to hack. At least 10 characters long, mix of upper case letters, numbers, lower case letters and special characters - you know, the usual advice on passwords that many people ignore **do not ignore this**. When you are done setting-up the router using the phone app you can then access it on either your Linksys phone app or on your computer. To reach the router on your computer you just tell your browser to go the the web address that your router sees as its address. Usually, that is 192.168.1.1 unless you have setup things differently for a specific reason. The router's splash screen will show (there may be a pause before it shows). Mouse click on the image of the phone and the option to login via the computer's keyboard will be loaded. Once you have logged-in you have a fairly complete general user's interface that allows you to control the setup of the router. There is some technical access available here, but this interface may be frustrating for very technical folk who want to control unusual things (at least unusual compared to what most of us need and want). As I said, I was able to bridge another router to this guy and, in addition, I have a mesh setup from another manufacturer that is plugged-in and working - this is probably overkill now with the new router and the bridged router, but I left these "on" because they did not seem to hurt anything. I may experiment with turning these off and ultimately selling these, but I'm not "there" yet.So, in summary, the Linksys Mesh Wifi 5 Router functionally is "pretty good," setup was also "pretty good" and I'm satisfied with it for the price. There are other ways to use the router (e.g., in Linksys mesh mode) but I have not tested it this way since I had other existing equipment and other ways to accomplish the same functionality.

I purchased two of the Linksys Hydra Pro 6E MR7500 with the hope to use one as a mesh “node”. Setup was easy for the main router with the App and if you already had one you could have used same settings. Since I was setting up a second one as the node, I did the setup from scratch. Not much information online if it would work, but it did. Once the main router is setup, plug the cat 5 into slot 1 of the main router, then into the yellow WAN of the second that will be the node. Power on and in the app select “Setup a new product”, then add node to existing network. Once setup place where you want. I have 1gb up/down, at router is was 1.121gb up and 1.113gb down. My new MacBook Air with 6E was getting 930 up and 840 down on WiFi. I had about a 40% improvement over my old AE9300. Highly recommend!!!

I have an older non-mesh model of this router and it has been a great workhorse for years in my home. I had a second other brand access point at the back of my house for some yard wifi security cameras. I needed to install a wireless security camera quite a ways from the house which just could not reach the other brand access point. I replaced the other brand with this Linksys and have not had a dropped connection or seen any throughput problems with any of the cameras. I would recommend this model as a primary wifi router for a home install.