TG: Programming: Linksys Smart Wi-Fi: WRT 1900 AC

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Why? Why did I do it? I actually bought another Linksys "Smart" Wi-Fi router...

I actually thought that Linksys surely must have fixed that crappy "Smart" router firmware that nearly gave me an aneurysm last time. There's no WAY, with that many people complaining about it, that it would be as godawful as it was the EA6350.

I was wrong.

6 months after installing a Linksys EA6350 -- 6 months of listening to my family whine and complain incessantly about unreliable WiFi connections, 6 months of fighting to keep my printer connected, 6 months of intermittent drops and measurable dips in the WiFi broadcast strength, I gave up and bought another Linksys router. My daughter works at RadioShack, so she got me a good deal on what she described as their "top of the line" router.

I love you, Oliva, you know I do. But your top of the line is the bottom of the barrel.

(2 hours later)

I finally did a hard reset on the device and let it guide me through its setup wizard. Because if you don't use the setup wizard, you can't set the router password. And without that, you're stucking using their miserable "Smart" WiFi UI in which you MUST have an internet connection and you MUST use a valid email address to login. Through their online service. If that service is up...

Having done that, I found that the old EA6350 refused to be on the same network with the new router, so I couldn't look at the old router settings while configuring the new router. (cue Yosemite Sam style cursing)

Along the way, I logged into the Linksys/Belkin site for answers, and they made the sorry mistake of asking me if I'd like to partake in their customer satisfaction survey.

Oooooh, you betcha....

I'd like to be able to say I kept it classy, but I didn't. Lot's of insults and some raw swearing, and I felt a little better.

Look, there was a time when the name Linksys meant quality and ease of use. Now that Belkin has their talons in it, that reputation is out the window. Linksys is dead to me now. The next time I have to purchase a router I'll look up the latest Cisco offerings and see if I can get one of those.