LinksysE2500 (N600) Advanced Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Router

A difficult setup but the payoff is awesome.My previous router had a long career and I had to replace it at the request of my provider.This one took over an hour and a half to setup but once the connection was live, everything worked. Shame it's been discontinued but time and technology march on.

***UPDATE February 7, 2013: Still working and no issues have come up to date.***UPDATE June 27, 2011: Nothing has changed thus far...the router is still working perfectly fine.***Let me begin by pointing out that I just purchased this yesterday, so I can't comment on the long-term reliability of this router. That being said, I had to post a review given that I'm very satisfied with the process thus far. I'll update this as time progresses.This router was a replacement for my old WRT54G that served me well for about four years, but was acting up (dropping signal, slow connections, low range, etc). So I decided to purchase this model (E2500 as a replacement).The whole time before this new router arrived I was dreading the prospect of setting it up given my experience with my old WRT54G router. As soon as it arrived, I followed the instructions in the packaging and then put the CD into my macbook to launch the installer. The installer itself simply involved pressing a few buttons and then it did the rest! My network was up and running in about five minutes- with the installer doing all the work for me.What I did notice was that the installer created a guest account that wasn't protected like the main one. This concerned me, so I logged-in to the advanced settings using the router's IP address at 192.168.1.1 using my browser (you should preferably use the computer you used to setup the network because it's already connected to the network). I think the default is to leave the login name blank and to use your default network password as your login password. Once I was inside, I disabled the guest account, but it turned out that there was a password in place- it's just that it's browser-based apparently (your guests will be able to login to the network itself, but will only be able to access the internet by typing in the password in the browser). So if you want to leave the guest access available, simply write down the default password that shows up on-screen or setup a new one. I also changed the default password used to login to my router in here as well (under the "administration tab"). So, to clarify, the 192.168.1.1 address brings up a menu where you can modify your router's default settings to your liking. I think this was a criticism of the "easy" setup- that it doesn't let you customize your router. I actually see this process in reverse- the "easy" setup configures your router to work properly given your circumstances. Once it's setup, you can modify whatever parts of the setup that you want to. In my case, I only modified the router password, guest access, and my network key.Once it was setup to my specifications, I proceeded to update all of my computers with the new network key. I also connected all my other devices to the back of the router (there are four slots).In regards to performance- my macbook that wasn't getting a signal with my old router works perfectly now. That being said, it's a new macbook, so it's able to utilize the "n" band. My sister has a 2006 white macbook next door that only utilizes G though- she's having no problems either.Overall, I'm happy i made this purchase and highly recommend it to others. I don't own any other n-routers, so I can't comment on how much "better" this is relative to others. I can only say that I'm happy I made the right choice with this one. I'll make sure to update this review should issues with reliability surface.EDIT: You actually don't have to login to the router's IP address to access the features I mentioned above. You can simply use the "Cisco Connect" software that came with it. The only issue I can think of is that if you use this software, you can only run it through the computer you setup the router with. The IP method above will work from any computer connected to the network (after logging in with password). The con of the IP method is that it's not as "user friendly" as the "Cisco Connect" method. Ultimately, you should weigh the pros and cons yourself and decide which is best for managing your router. I'll be choosing the "Cisco Connect" method in the meantime just because it's easier to use, but I'll go back to the IP method should anything happen to my computer (where the Cisco software is installed).

Works great after 3 hours of setup.Ran the connection utility. At the end, it said my setup did not complete. However, I found I could connect to the internet (so something must have worked) where I found instruction to disable my virus-software-provided firewall. I did that and ran the setup again with the same result.In an effort to see what went wrong, I tried to connect directly to the router with the default adress (192.168.1.1) but the address was not to be found (I was now connected with a cable). I went back to web support and found instructions on how to find the correct IP address. Sure enough, it now had a different IP address. So now I connected to this new address but the default login (none) and password (admin) did not allow me access. Apparently these had been changed too. I ran the connection software again with the same result. I did a hard reset (the kind with a toothpick).Now, starting over from scratch, I ran the connection software for at least the third time and got the same result. The only input I did was to assign the SSID name and password; these are provided for you but you are prompted to supply your own, if you wish. In a last ditch effort, I reset the damn thing one more time and, this time, I used the default SSID and password and voila, it worked. I was still completely disgusted but at least I didn't have to sent it back.Now I tried to direct connect to the E2500 but the default login and password would not let me in. I don't remember if it was just a hunch or if something clued me in but I tried again using the SSID as the login name and wireless password for the the admin password and I got in. I browsed around and changed the SSID and wireless password to my own. After a reboot I connected wirelessly with no problem. I direct connected again and the login and password had been changed to the new SSID and wireless password. This is a MAJOR FLAW. THE CONNECTION NAME AND PASSWORD SHOULD NOT BE THE SAME AS THE ADMIN LOGIN AND PASSWORD. I did find an option to prevent administrative functions from being performed on the wireless so that helps some but be forewarned - ANYONE WHO CAN CONNECT WIRELESSLY HAS THE NAME AND PASSWORD TO LOGIN AS ADMINISTRATOR. This may not be so bad in the home but for a business, even a small one this should NOT be ACCEPTABLE.Will I keep it? After that much setup time invested, yes! I works good and I have had no signal degradation problems like some others have posted; I've gotten 86-99% signal strength from 45 feet away through two walls. I use it in my home and I disabled the wireless admin feature so I am okay with the security problem but CISCO SHOULD PROVIDE AN UPDATE TO SEPARATE THE WIRELESS AND ADMIN LOGINs. I gave it 4 stars for the signal strength, guest connection and sturdy hardware; I should have ignored the setup software and went straight to the manual configuration via a direct-connection.