Linksys WRT AC3200 Dual-Band Open Source Router for Home (Tri-Stream Fast Wireless WiFi Router, MU-MIMO Gigabit Wireless Router)

I bought this router because of its feature set, most important being that I could easily modify the firmware to include a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The router easily manages traffic from several computers in our home, some 24/7 server types, and heavy use desktops (I'm retired, but a computer nerd, and my wife is frequently streaming)... The VPN shows us popping up 1200 miles away, and having an encrypted path from the router to the VPN server makes me feel comfortable... The router just handles everything without a complaint, and the web-interface is easy to navigate

I'm a sucker not only for performance, but also looks. Back when I got my first router, it was a Linksys WRT. The classic black & blue ones. I was absolutely driven to this one first by the looks which were a more modern version of their first models. The specs are also fantastic!! Since I've installed this router, I've had absolutely no problems with WiFi around the house, at all. 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands work very well together. The router was easy as cutting in to pie to setup. The mobile app kind of sucks though.. but I won't grade the router on something like that.

I tried installing DD-WRT firmware on this router and it was very easy and supportive. I highly recommend this router to anyone who wants something that functions very well, looks very nice, and works with open sourced firmware. In the right hands, this router can be a very powerful asset for any home or business. I've owned it for a month now and have not had a single problem. Not a single reboot needed. Cons? I can't think of any! This router truly has everything any residential and even business person would need. I will however gripe about how you can't block a website to every device at once. You instead must block it to each device individually, to my understandings. But open sourced firmware like DD-WRT will have you covered there. One other con I suppose, there's no bandwidth meter that truly works on this router.

Pros:
- Looks amazing. Feels amazing.
- Works very well. Runs without making a sound.
- 5GHz & 2.4GHz bands for home & another set for Guest usage.
- Very fast internet speeds.
- Can work as a homegroup when a USB or eSATA HDD is connected.
- Easy to set up.
- Open Source Friendly (DD-WRT, etc). can have two firmwares installed at the same time (one active at a time) with its two separate partitions.
- 4 powerful antennas which can be removed and replaced if necessary.
- Handles multiple devices & 4K streaming without a problem at all. Great ping in games!
- Future-proof with 1Gbps speeds & bandwidth handling across antennas.
- Guest Networks & WPS (very unsecure) can be disabled.
- Can be used with OpenVPN!

Cons (kinda milking it here just to be fair. The router truly is great):
- No menu for monitoring bandwidth usage or other fun statistics.
- No easy way to block websites for all devices. Only each device individually.
- Mobile app really lacks features & web interface does not allow usage in mobile browsers.
- FTP feature seems not to allow individual FTP accounts to specified folders.
- Almost no updates from Linksys in years.
- Interface is difficult with assigning dedicated DHCP IPs to devices. Very picky with validating the IP, even when the specified IP would work perfectly.

As a 70 year old, I am far from a Techie; so when our 10 year old Linksys router started acting up, I was looking for something state-of-the art, but super easy to set up. After reading lots of reviews, I decided to go with the tried and true and stick with Linksys. When the router arrived, I watched a couple of tutorials, plugged it in, connected with the Linksys setup website and Voila! was up and running well within 10 minutes. Because I used the exact name and password for my new Network as my previous one, all my devices immediately recognized the new router, so no glitches at the device contact points. I immediately notice faster Internet page transfers, and no more lags in video streaming. We are even going to get a smart TV for movie streaming! Thanks Linksys for a fabulous product that's super easy to set up!

I bought this router intending to install LEDE / OpenWRT on it. Once I received the router and started looking closer at exactly which firmware to download, I found that there were numerous complaints about buggy WiFi. I decided to go ahead and risk it, and installed LEDE with LuCI on it (using the lede-insomnia build from corifeus).
I started trying to configure everything, but lost access to the router after changing some WiFi settings away from the default channel and/or bandwidth (unfortunately I can't remember exactly). Fortunately, starting the router in failsafe mode allowed me to regain access (how-do-i-revert-back-to-an-openwrt-router-configuration on stack-overflow). On the second try, I was able to enable WiFi (both a 2.4GHz network and a 5GHz network, as well as a 2.4GHz guest network), but so far I haven't tried changing the channel or bandwidth again. So far it's been working great; I love the detailed configuration options available with LEDE, but I definitely wouldn't recommend using LEDE unless you can appreciate taking some time to get things configured and learning some principles of routing.
Overall, I would buy it again, now that I'm getting used to it.

I have owned this Linksys router for many years. I listened to the news today and it was recommended that everyone reboot their routers to eliminate the possibility of a Russian hacking event. I rebooted and my router died. Fortunately, I had purchased a spare one and the extraordinary tech support gal named Jacque at Linksys Technical Support came to my rescue. Linksys has ALWAYS had the best tech support and Jacque was outstanding! She helped me install my spare new router and she configured it to work with everything, my PCs, laptop, tablets and smartphone.
I cannot say enough great things about this particular router model and Jacque. I just purchased another one as a spare. Jacque told me this is one of Linksys' most reliable and highly rated routers and I truly agree. I recommend it.

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Feature Product

• Fast wireless router provides WiFi coverage for your home (works with existing modem)
• Open source firmware offers advanced customization
• Tri-Stream 160 technology doubles bandwidth from 80 MHz to 160 MHz
• Enjoy 4K HD streaming, gaming and more in high quality without buffering
• Dual-band WiFi speeds up to 2.6 Gbps (2.4 GHz / 600 Mbps) + (5 GHz / 2600 Mbps).Operating Temperature: 32 to 104 F (0 to 40 C)
• MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output) provides WiFi to multiple devices at once, at the same high speed

Description

The WRT3200ACM MU-MIMO Gigabit Wi-Fi Router is powered by Tri-Stream 160 technology, which doubles the bandwidth on all spatial streams for the fastest dual-band router on the market to power all your high bandwidth activities.* Featuring MU-MIMO technology, it’s like a dedicated router to multiple devices for Wi-Fi at the same time, same speed. Open-source ready with OpenWrt and DD-WRT® for complete flexibility and customization of networking functions, or to optimize your router for specific use cases. Upgraded Smart Wi-Fi app allows you to manage and monitor your home Wi-Fi from a mobile device, anytime, anywhere. It is the one and only WRT™.

Performance Perfected®

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Excellent router. It's rock solid just as a WRT router should be. I haven't reset it after initial configuration in the almost 4 months I've had it.
I'm using the Linksys firmware and it works great. The phone app makes slight configuration changes very easy.

We recently got Express VPN to deal with an issue we've been having, and it's been great. So great, we decided we needed it on our router, so we could share it with the entire house. This is the router Express VPN recommended.

Seriously, you have no idea you're living in the dark ages until someone switches on the light.

First off, we didn't used to get much of a signal in half the house. We now get a strong signal throughout the house. And it's fast, way faster than our old router. Putting Express VPN on it was easy too. My husband tried to do that with our old router, and it was just an exercise in futility. With this router, he was done and our Wi-Fi was zooming in half an hour.

Yes, it costs more, but so does your time and having to deal with a slow weak signal.

I'm glad Express VPN recommended this. So far, so good!

You can flash this router with DD-WRT and configure NordVPN to secure your entire network with OpenVPN. Versitile, reliable and simple alteration of the router's internal code to provide a very economical alternative to expensive 'flash routers' that are taking the market by storm at hundreds of dollars eash. It really isn't hard to upgrade this router to modern network standards using open source programming. This must be one reason that Linksys keeps making this particular router more than a decade after it was originally introduced. For under $100 you can stack three of these for a bullet-proof tiered home or office wireless system with access for users of all levels of security. Thank you Linksys for continuing the WRT-54GL!

I bought this router to supplement the router provided by my ISP (AT&T U-verse) which provided mediocre wireless coverage (including several dead spots) on my 2-story home. This is the 3rd Linksys router I've owned, and my intention was to flash it with DD-WRT immediately as I've done in the past. I couldn't get to that right away, so I stuck with the stock Linksys firmware and I've been so happy with it that I've just been using it for the last 5 months without issue. The wireless performance is a significant upgrade and I have no more dead spots.

I'm also impressed with using Linksys Android app to manage the router. I didn't expect to get much use from it, but one day (from an airplane) I was able to set a port forwarding rule to allow me to connect to my desktop at home. There's no way I would've been able to do that with the open-source firmware or the U-verse router without setting up everything first from inside my house.

I feel like I'm just scratching the surface with what this router can do - there are a lot of features I personally haven't touched, but plan to in the future. I'm also still planning to look into DD-WRT whenever I have some free time (whatever that is), but in the meanwhile I'm more than happy.

I would definitely buy this router again and recommend to anyone looking for a "next level" device.

I have two Linksys WiFi routers now, an older one and this one. I was specifically looking for a WRT compatible router so I can remove my firewall computer (someday, when I get around to it). I replaced a much older and slower Belkin with an AC1200+ and set this one up as my main WiFi. I do have it in bridge mode so I can't speak to how well it handles DHCP, but having the same brand across all my access points has allowed me to change all four SSIDs (2 APs x 2 bands) to the same one and it works seamlessly. My older Belkin was just ready to retire.
The only thing that ever bothers me about setting up APs is reconfiguring the network address (I don't use the default) and I usually have to plug directly into these using a network cable to make the initial changes and configuration before placing it on the network. If I ever get tired of manually configuring these devices I will try out the software that allows for a guest network, but I never even try configuring that part and just switch it over to bridge mode.
I do like that this will mount to the wall out of the way if you need it and that it has a physical power switch.