Linksys EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 5 GHz router review, is it worth it?

The Linksys EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 (EA3500) router released in 2012. It is powered by Marvell 88F6282 @ 800 MHz chipset, 64 MB of RAM and 64 MB of flash. The N750 router is compatible with IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n standards, and the maximum speed that you can get with EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 is 300 + 450 Mbps. The router has 1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps WAN and 4 x 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN ports.

The EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 is a powerful and feature-packed router that caters to advanced networking requirements. This router features USB connectors that provide additional functionality and expand the capabilities of your network. Linksys offers good customer support, including firmware updates, documentation, and technical assistance.

Table of contents:

• Linksys EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 specifications
• Linksys EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 pictures

Linksys EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 (EA3500) specifications

Body

If you plan to move or travel frequently and need to take your router with you, the dimensions become important for portability. Smaller and more compact routers are generally easier to transport, while larger routers with external antennas or multiple ports may be bulkier and less convenient to carry. The weight of a router can be a consideration in certain situations, but it is generally not as crucial as other factors such as performance, features, and compatibility.

System

The Marvell 88F6282 @ 800 MHz CPU provides processing power to handle various tasks and services within the EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 router. The EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 comes with 64 MB of RAM. The amount of RAM in a router can impact its performance and capacity to handle concurrent operations and traffic. Higher RAM capacity allows for better multitasking, larger routing tables, and improved overall performance.

The 64 MB flash memory in the router serves as the storage medium for the router's firmware. It is a non-volatile memory that retains its data even when power is removed from the device. The Linksys often releases firmware updates to enhance the router's functionality, improve security, fix bugs, and add new features. Firmware updates can provide performance improvements, compatibility with new devices or protocols, and address vulnerabilities.

Alternative router operating systems often provide more customization options and advanced features compared to the default firmware provided by router manufacturers. The EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 is an OpenWRT supported router. OpenWrt offers a wide range of features and capabilities that extend the functionality of networking hardware. It includes a package management system that allows users to install and manage additional software packages to add new features or customize the device's behavior. The Linksys packages the EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 router with 12 V / 2 A PSU. A good PSU is an essential component of a computer or electronic device that converts electrical power from an outlet into the appropriate voltage and current required to power the internal components of the device.

Network

Like many modern routers, the EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 supports many network standards too. The IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses, represented as four sets of numbers separated by periods (e.g. 192.168.0.1). The LAN ports are physical connectors on a EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 router that allow you to connect devices to your local network using Ethernet cables. This router has Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, which provides data transfer speeds of up to 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps) over Ethernet connections.

The WAN port on a router stands for "Wide Area Network" port. It is used to connect the router to the external network, typically provided by an internet service provider (ISP). The EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 router supports Gigabit speed on its WAN port, that can support speeds up to 1000 Mbps. This router ensures that you can fully utilize high-speed internet connections provided by your ISP.

Wireless

The 4 x 4 dBi, internal antennas of EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 influence the quality and stability of the Wi-Fi signal. A properly positioned and well-designed antenna can minimize interference and signal degradation, leading to a more reliable and stable connection. The EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 is compatible with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. Many IoT (Internet of Things) devices, smart home devices, and older Wi-Fi-enabled devices primarily operate on the 2.4 GHz band.

The EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 supports 5 GHz signals. Most modern devices, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and smart TVs, support dual-band Wi-Fi, which means they can connect to both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. By utilizing the 5 GHz band, you can offload some devices from the crowded 2.4 GHz band, reducing congestion and improving overall network performance. The EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 is a Wi-Fi 4 router, with slower data transfer speeds. This can result in slower downloads, video buffering, and reduced performance when multiple devices are connected.

The N750 refers to the maximum combined data transfer rate supported by the router across all Wi-Fi bands. The EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 is capable of a maximum throughput speed of 300 + 450 Mbps. The real-world speed of a EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 router is typically lower than its theoretical maximum speed. The TX power of EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 can be adjusted by the user or set automatically by the router firmware. Higher TX power values indicate stronger signal transmission, which can result in a larger coverage area.

The EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 router offers several security protocols: WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPS. The WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) was the first security protocol for Wi-Fi networks but is now considered weak and easily compromised. It uses a static encryption key and has known vulnerabilities, so it is no longer recommended for securing Wi-Fi networks. The WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) was introduced as an improvement over WEP and provides stronger security. If WPA3 is not available, WPA2-Personal with AES encryption is still considered secure.

The EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 router offers WPS. The WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) provides a simplified and convenient method for connecting devices to a Wi-Fi network. Instead of manually entering the Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and password, users can use the WPS feature to establish a connection with the push of a button or by entering a PIN. The Linksys EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 router is capable of creating a guest network. Guests connected to the guest network usually have limited access to network settings and configurations. They are typically restricted from accessing devices connected to the primary network, such as printers, network-attached storage (NAS), or other shared resources.

Connectivity

USB ports can offer additional functionality depending on the router's capabilities. The USB 2 port has a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 480 megabits per second (Mbps), which is equivalent to 60 megabytes per second (MB/s). By connecting a USB printer to the EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 router, you can make it accessible to all devices on your network. This eliminates the need for individual printer connections and allows multiple devices to use the printer simultaneously. The USB file server functionality of this router allows you to connect external storage devices, such as USB flash drives or hard drives to your network. This enables easy file sharing and access among devices connected to the network.

Administration

The default IP address of this router is 192.168.1.1. Explore the router's configuration interface to access more advanced settings such as port forwarding, DHCP settings, parental controls, firewall settings, and QoS (Quality of Service) settings. If you are unable to log in to the setup panel of your Linksys router, performing a reset can be a helpful troubleshooting step. It is highly recommended to change the default password of your EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 router after the initial setup. If you forget the new password in the future, you may need to perform a factory reset on the router to revert to the default settings.

The specifications above are based on the official data published by the manufacturer, but we also take user reviews into consideration. If you found an error or something lacking in the specifications above for the Linksys EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750, then don’t hesite and signal the problem to us.

Linksys EA3500 Smart Wi-Fi N750 (EA3500) pictures

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