DailyTech - Linksys Name Lives On for Now

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Blog: Hardware Linksys Name Lives On for Now
Wolfgang Hansson (Blog) - August 1, 2007 6:26 PM

22 comment(s) - last by Armorize.. on Aug 5 at 6:34 PM

Cisco doesn't plan to kill off the Linksys brand in the near future

Last week Cisco CEO John Chambers said the Linksys products would begin carrying the Cisco name over time, during a discussion with the press. The Linksys brand will live on, at least for a while more.

Cisco is now saying the Linksys brand will continue in the near term, according to Engadget. Cisco also said changes would come, if they could add value to the customers buying decisions.

My guess is that what we are seeing here is a case of someone in the marketing department going, excuse me but Linksys has a reputation built over years (good or bad) and at least consumers recognize the name. Cisco is a big name in geeky circles and enterprise, but I doubt the average consumer at Best Buy has heard of Cisco.

Perhaps some of the upcoming products from Cisco will fare better in the marketplace by wearing the Linksys name, such as the rumored Apple TV competitor Cisco is said to be working on. There is certainly a lot to be said about name recognition when it comes to marketing. I know I will buy a product from a company I have heard of over a similar product from a company I haven’t heard of, even if the unheard of company has a better price or features.

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Thats Just Great...

By RubberJohnny on 8/2/2007 2:46:52 AM , Rating: 2

Its true that linksys has had some QC problems over the years with their cheaper routers. I tend to be a bit of a netgear fanboy if only for their nice "ipod" looking designs but these tend to fail a bit too, needing to be reset occasionally to keep the connection alive.

Has any one else had similar problems?

RE: Thats Just Great...

By xbbdc on 8/2/2007 7:12:56 AM , Rating: 2

yes thats why i dropped netgear and went with linksys, changed the firmware to DD-WRT v23 SP2 (09/15/06) voip and havent ever had to reset the connection. i constantly had to worry about the netgear crapping out, but with the linksys ive never had an issue.

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By Moishe on 8/2/2007 7:50:29 AM , Rating: 3

I have continual problems with my linksys wrt needing reset... Maybe I should just suck it up and try out DD-wrt.

I think it's pretty sad that the 3 main home router brands all have similar problems with connectivity. Can't anyone just make a decent low-cost router that "just works"?

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By darkpaw on 8/2/2007 9:35:24 AM , Rating: 2

They all have similar problems because no matter who makes the router most of the actual chips come from the same sources.

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By Moishe on 8/2/2007 2:43:46 PM , Rating: 2

Well in my case it literally just started to drop out one day... Not just Wifi, but all access to external ips will drop randomly. One time It didn't come back until I reset to factory defaults... This after 3-4 years of using the product just fine. Basically it started after I upgraded to the latest firmware and now even though I've downgraded to a very early firmware, it still happens. I know it sounds weird...

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By Oregonian2 on 8/3/2007 5:36:48 PM , Rating: 2

Not entirely true. For PHY layer parts there are only a few makers but even then there will be several different makers to choose from. The processors can be quite different as well. Many do use the intel 425 processors 'cause they're cost effective and perform reasonably well, but I've seen many a router w/o that processor in it (or any intel processor). Probably to make their less expensive. So there can be similarities, esp if "reference designs" are used, but there can be much variation. Also, I suspect most of the problems are probably software based anyway -- and even if a common licensed code base is used, quality may still vary a lot .

Biggest problem is that consumer routers are optimized not for performance and reliability -- they're optimized to be inexpensive. Or to be more accurate, "cheap". Just be glad that the Linksys consumer routers don't have the "standard Cisco Router" interface for the UI.

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By dilz on 8/4/2007 1:15:37 AM , Rating: 2

For that same reason (same chips) consider using Tomato if DD-WRT isn't your thing. I like them both, but Tomato is just too slick for words.

www.polarcloud.com/tomato

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By omnicronx on 8/3/2007 11:50:41 AM , Rating: 2

linksys wrt54g models sometimes have problems with certain isps and UPNP (universal plug and play) usually having to do with the mapping of ports. I have rogers at school here in canada, and cogeco at home, and when i am at school my router needs to be reset every morning when i leave a program like Torrent, or kceasy on all night. but the same thing doesnt happen with the same router at my other house, but different isp.. its really weird. I just turn off UPNP and map ports for certain programs, and things work again =P

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By Eurasianman on 8/2/2007 9:32:18 AM , Rating: 2

Got a Netgear wireless router one year for my birthday... was replaced within a year! Continous drop outs... even when only 5 feet away.

Bought the Linksys wireless router with speed booster... been happy ever since. I've only had to reset it like twice in 3 years! Other than that, I never lose it's signal!

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By TwistyKat on 8/2/2007 10:53:08 AM , Rating: 2

I haven't seen any consumer-level routers that have impressed me and have had trouble with both Netgear and Linksys in the past.

Most recently I was angry to find that I Linksys has a special router to handle DHCP requests from Linux clients. WTF!

I've often thought of forking over the dough for a commercial router, but I just can't justify spending hordes of it for more stability and a little more functionality.

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By borismkv on 8/2/2007 12:08:26 PM , Rating: 2

"Most recently I was angry to find that I Linksys has a special router to handle DHCP requests from Linux clients. WTF!"

Which router is this?

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By TwistyKat on 8/2/2007 2:16:26 PM , Rating: 2

I forget the model # but it was a common one you'd find at Bestbuy. After I installed it my laptop couldn't get an IP address under Linux, but Windows was fine.

After some research I found I had to return it for a "linux compatible" model, then all was well.

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By Moishe on 8/2/2007 3:32:38 PM , Rating: 2

uh.... I'm not saying you're lying... but DHCP is a standard that is not tied to any one OS.

I'd love to know what that model is.

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By TwistyKat on 8/2/2007 3:42:41 PM , Rating: 2

It was the WRT54G.

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By sprockkets on 8/3/2007 11:34:00 AM , Rating: 2

WRT54g v 1-4 used linux, and it uses dhcpd for issuing ips and httpd for the web gui.

Now they use VxWorks. The thing is it isn't the fact that they are using them that makes their newer versions crappy, they cut the flash and ram in half. Less ram = more lockups. In fact, even if you use the micro ver of dd-wrt, it will be prone to locking up on the non wrt54gl version of the router.

I had an uptime of 55 days on my wrt54gl with dd-wrt on it before i had to power cycle it; it was lagging in starcraft. Otherwise, it has a feature to auto reboot like every week if you want or every day, perfect for never having to worry about issues or rebooting.

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By Operandi on 8/2/2007 3:27:15 PM , Rating: 2

I have a early Linksys WRT54G that is 4+ years old; I think it's only been manually restarted 3-4 times.

The one issue I do have with it is getting it to establish a connection with my new DSL modem after a power loss.

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By Moishe on 8/2/2007 3:34:14 PM , Rating: 2

Mine is V2.0 and never had problems until recently... the Linksys forums are full of complaints... but then again, there are many complaints about the other brands too.

Considering the WRT54G routers have no moving parts I would expect them to last virtually forever.

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By viperpa on 8/3/2007 11:01:31 AM , Rating: 2

I currently Linksys and have used Netgear in the past. Problem wise, I would say Linksys is slightly better than Netgear. As someone else said, why can't they just make a router that works.

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RE: Thats Just Great...

By Oregonian2 on 8/3/2007 5:38:24 PM , Rating: 2

Could but it wouldn't sell retail for $50 (and cost $20 to manufacture).

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Linksys on the way out

By Screwballl on 8/5/2007 3:24:04 AM , Rating: 2

The brand name is well known, and in the real world they seem to have around a 35% failure rate within the first year (Microsoft must have the same assembly team for the 360). Others have lower numbers but I do not have any official numbers on hand. The consumer based products with the least number of failures or problems is SMC.

This is also why for the past 10 years I have bought SMC routers for myself. I have bought 5 different brands (and all behind a 3000 joule surge protector):
the 2 Linksys routers died within 3 weeks,
the Netgear kept freezing even after several attempts to flash the firmware,
and 2 Belkins, one of which died after 3 months and the second is still running 2 years later here but only as a wireless gateway since the NAT and DHCP died after 6 months. My SMC is handling the DHCP. The last one I had lasted 6 years without a single hiccup, then a major power surge took it out. This latest one has been going for about a year now without a single problem.

and to those that may call me a fanboi, when other brands just do not work for you or others, and as a PC/network tech you see this happen across a wide range of situations, you know which brands are crap and which ones work like they are supposed to.

call me a hater.

By Armorize on 8/5/2007 6:34:03 PM , Rating: 2

I think that they would fair better with the cisco name on their products instead of linksys. I'm not a fan of the cheapy plastic routers that seem to break after a month of use. Their may be some that are sturdier then what ive seen but I think that all routers would fair alot better if they were all metal again. Might cost a little more but definately more reliable for the longterm. Then again whens the last time a company wanted consumers to have their products longer then to just buy more?