Linksys WRT-1900AC Open Wireless Router - CES 2014
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
684 words · ~3 min read
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Linus Tech Tips coverage of CES 2014 is brought to you by ncx.com your source
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for great technology selection and service along with Corsair memory and
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Western Digital. Links is back baby. They got acquired by Belin about 9
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months ago and it only took them this long to say okay look the team that
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worked on the original WRT 54G and the
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54GL was like okay look we want to go back to that. We want to make that
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thing, but we want to make it like better and modern because there's still
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people using that thing and it's only wireless G for crying out loud. It's not
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like I mean, who even has any wireless G clients left anymore? So, this, my
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friends, is the updated one. This is the granddaddy of home wireless routers. And
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to be clear, guys, when I say granddaddy, I mean expensive granddaddy.
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It's going to come in at around $300, but it has technology to spare. So, it's
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got a 1.2 GHz CPU. It has what there
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some enterprisegrade features on it. So to go along with the detachable
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antennas, yes, we've gone away from that whole Cisco link integrated antennas.
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For whatever reason, they did that. So you have detachable antennas, so you can
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put aftermarket ones on and it also has antenna diversity, which allows them to
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auto sense which ones are best in terms of connectivity and range for a
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particular client and use the three that are going to work best. In their Labs,
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they've seen up to 30% improvements. Now, in terms of raw spec, we've got
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four gigabit Ethernet ports for LAN, and then an additional one for WAN, an ESA
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port, which is a very unique addition, one USB 3 port, one USB 2 port, a
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cooling fan. Remember, there's a 1.2 GHz CPU inside, and in addition to all that,
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the the bloody thing's going to weigh
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5B. 5 lb. So while it's expensive, it is
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also going to have that same team or a lot of the same team that worked on the
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original worked on this and they have made the decision those same people who
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made that decision in the first place to keep things open. So if you don't like
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the firmware that Lynxys is running, okay? So like you can use like you know
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uh the stock firmware, cloud firmware or you can configure it manually, they
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don't care anymore or the level of not caring goes beyond that you can install
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whatever firmware you want whether it's you know open WRT or DD-WRT or tomato or
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whatever those guys are going to be fully able to develop for this router.
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Although to be clear I was expecting this router to be the most impressive
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thing in the booth. you know, it's going to be like5 when they ship it and it's
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like got four antennas on it and stuff, but this ended up being the most impressive thing in the booth. Like, is
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this is this an homage to South Park? Like the episode where they they go and
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they turn the internet back on because it's absolutely fantastic. That's how
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iconic the WRT 54G was is even in that
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South Park episode to turn the entire internet on and off, it appeared to all
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run off of a single one of those routers. And I I hope it's a reference.
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If it's not, then it's still fantastic. Guys, don't miss any of our coverage
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here from CES 2014. Our trip to the show was powered by ncx.com, your source for
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great technology, selection, and service. You can tell they're our sponsor because they're right here on
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the mic flag. We were also sponsored here by Corsair Memory and Western
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Digital. Those guys are great. Without them, we wouldn't have been able to be
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here bringing you any of this fantastic content.