Linksys E1200 Wireless-N Router Review

Cisco raised the bar by releasing the Valet Plus wireless router. Now, with the Linksys E1200, it has raised it even higher by doing three important things: taking care of most of the quirks in Cisco Connect; nearly doubling the throughput; and setting the price for the MSRP at , which is considerably less than Valet's SRP.

Similar to its predecessor, the E1000, this router is not suitable for you if you need high bandwidth. It is a reliable option for simple consumption needs.

E1200 Appearance and Specs

The E1200 is sleek industrial in appearance, having black, high-gloss finishing. Unlike its predecessor, the WAN/LAN ports have simple looking, corresponding LEDs that emit green light for indicating connectivity.

The wireless router performs better than E1000 as well as the Valet because of some advanced technology it possesses: E1200's integrated on-chip amplifier brings about considerable improveMent in the signal range and the powerful 2x3 internal antenna of the device.

The router has 4 Fast Ethernet ports, therefore, no USB or Gigabit Ethernet. The operating bandwidth is limited to 2.4 GHz.

Setup and Features

The setup process is wireless and easy with Cisco Connect, and it has automatic configuration of the SSID, passphrase, as well as security.

A new feature you will find in Cisco connect is Internet speed testing for measuring average uploading and downloading speeds. Good features in the previous version are available in this one as well; the software will walk you through establishing a connection between a Computer or device and the routers as well as configuration of guest access.

The Parental access feature is effective. This feature enables you blocking of internet access to anyone on a home network or blocking access at specific times.

With Cisco Connect, you can also block up to 8 URLs. The blocking feature is effective; but it's not so effective in terms of control. A desirable feature would be the ability of blocking by keywords.

An issue with using the Parental Controls is that the software may conflict with other parent control software present in your system. Therefore, if you already have a parental lock software installed, you should probably avoid using Cisco's Parental Controls.

Returning to Cisco Connect after entering the advanced settings of the router was a problem in the E4200. Thankfully, this problem has been solved in the Linksys E1200: you can move between Cisco Connect and the advanced settings which you can find in the manageMent console. These settings include configuration of Dynamic DNS, port forwarding, etc.

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