Linksys WRT1900AC Dual Band Smart Wi-Fi Wireless AC Router (2.4 + 5GHz) - (Certified Refurbished)

This is my update one month later updating my review from 2 stars to 5 starsMy original unit was defective so said Linksys. Although I had to pay to send my unit back to Indiana , They sent me a brand new unit. My original one was a Factory Refurb.My wireless network consists of my WRT1900AC in my home and as of today a Linksys EA6200 set to Bridge mode. It was a little tricky setting the EA6200 to bridge as both products are or were setup with the Linksys smart wifi online. The instructions said plug my 6200 from the yello jack in the EA to a LAN jack in the 1900 (but it didnt know both my routers were Linksys. I disconnected my 1900, and connected my EA6200 back up as if I were going to use it as my main router. Then I logged in. Important to do this in order or you will have to reset the 6200 to factory and start over. The first time I went to connectivity and edit IPv4 type of connection and selected Bridged. That was it. I was locked out. I reseted the 6200 by pushing the red button on back. This time I went to wireless, set each the 2.4ghs to miy network name. The same as I will use in the 1900. Did the same with the 5ghz plus added _5ghz. Then go to connectivity and edit and change type of connection to Bridged. Locked out again but this time I re-hooked up my WRT1900AC as my main router. Making sure the WIFI settings would be identical as the 6200. Reason I was told is for example as I go from one zone to the second zone with my iPhone it seamlessly switches to the stronger signal. When I first tried doing this with 2 older routers a year ago I had 2 different SSIDs and I ended up manually switching often. Now its working perfectly. No dropped connections, my LAN is working better as well. All in all I know I have just hit the tip of the iceberg with what this router can do. I am very green with all the things it can do But this router I believe was set up to also use custom Firmware. OPEN WRT. Im chicken to try it for now my wifi is working better and farther then I have ever had.Linksys thanks for replacing my unit no questions asked. Im now a fan again.Below ist review of product Above one month laterI wanted to upgrade from Wireless N to AC. I first bought a TP-Link wireless router. It worked ok but I started reading different reviews about AC wireless routers. I purchased a Linksys 900 wireless AC and had some issues with my wireless. It seemed ok but then mainly with my iPad Air 2 and my iPhone 6 plus it would drop the wireless connection as if it was sleeping . I have a wireless access point in my shop. A second wood building about 400 feet from my home. When I lost the AC wireless my phone or iPad would cycle to pick up the older N band! Finally I read the reviews about the WRT 1900 and was sold. I spent more than double what I spent in the past. I'm having the same trouble only worse ! I was watching a movie from my bathroom on iPad air2 streaming Amazon instant video. All of a sudden I kept losing wireless. I grabbed my iphone and made sure the iPhone was on the 5ghz band same as the iPad. I had already cycled the iPad off and on again hoping that would straighten it out ( I shouldn't have to do any of that according to reviews) it made no difference. I opened the same app with my iPhone and it worked. I could continue watching no problem. So I closed the app but kept the iPhone connected to the 5ghz band . Kept it near the iPad. Opened the Amazon app with the iPad and was able to watch the movie.?after 5 minutes I turned the WIFI off on my iPhone . Closed the amazon app on iPad and reopened it. It played the movie about 10 seconds and then dropped the movie. I tried it again doing the same thing with my iPhone watching the movie with the iPhone then the iPad and the iPad was again stable! What's up with that? It's not the iPad because I took the iPad over to the shop where it automatically connects with my older wireless N and it streamed the movie fine! Another thing that this router does is a couple times a day that same internet mentioned above turns orange for a few seconds then back to its blue color. When that happens what ever I'm doing on the internet freezes. Finally if I bring any computer awake from sleep or even my iPad or iPhone it takes forever to reconnect to the Internet.I have about 10 days left with my Amazon 30 day return policy . I am very disappointed and considering returning it if I don't get answers . Then I'll purchase the nighthawk .I hope this can be worked out. Per the reviews I considered buying a second one since this reviewer said with the addition of a second unit as a wireless bridge he said it was the best fastest wireless network he's ever reviewed. That would be great if only it were stable. I'm going to give it 2 stars for now because when it is working it's great . Unfortunately it's very unreliable right now.

I bought this router back in July '15 to replace my aging single-band N-series I was using. With all the Netflix, Hulu XBox, Pandora, Playstation, phones, tablets, streaming, downloading, yada, yada, yada I have going on it was time to upgrade. After spending countless hours reading router reviews on C-Net and PC Mag I decided to spend the extra $$$ and get this juggernaut of a router (both features and price tag) Being this was my first dual-band router my initial experience was awesome...seemingly endless Wi-Fi range in my house, super fast connection (with both wi-fi bands and ethernet plugs), OpenWRT availability, great NAS & QoS (when needed), easy setup and router management. Hell I even found a deal on here for the certified refurb'd version which saved me a little bit of coin (possible reason to this bad review-keep reading). Well on 24 November (yes two days ago) it died...I mean straight died. First the Wi-Fi just shut off, I though it was a drop in service but the 2.4/5.0 lights were not even on. I attempted to access the Smart Wi-Fi page to no avail. Second, I even tried a hardline with the ethernet cable and nothing. In a last ditch effort I performed a factory reset...which failed to help. While waiting on a response from LinkSys I jumped on the tech forums and started chatting around. They recommended to do the same thing I previously performed. Attempted a trick by using a "bridge" with my old router connecting into my Linksys, I was able to access the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi page from approx 6 minutes, which allowed me to perform a setup and then lost connection again. No Wi-Fi lights, no ethernet connection, nothing but a power light. I wanted to see what else I could at least try being that I spent a large sum of greenbacks on this router AND the 90-day warranty had recently expired (always happens that way) but my efforts were futile. Call me stubborn but I didn't want to give up; however, one of the techies told me to cut my losses and said "It's dead man and just like in Frozen, let it go..."I gave it two stars because the 3-1/2 months it was operational it worked great but so do a handful of other routers out there at half the price...

I absolutely love this router's performance. I previously was using a ASUS RT-AC66U that I was completely underwhelmed by. The range on this router is outstanding, Due to the setup of my house, the router is required to be in the bottom corned of my basement, not good for range on the main floor all the way across the house where my bedroom is. After installing this router I receive 4/5 bars in my room. With the ASUS I was getting 1 or 2.In addition the router has lots of tools in its online configuration, they're just not where you expect. Finding where a setting is usually requires clicking through all the categories because it is never in the category you expect. If Linksys improves the online interface I wouldn't hesitate to give this router 5 stars.Pros: Hardware functionalityCons: Navigating the online interfaceSummary: Really good router if you figure out how to make it work well for you.