Oh yeah, also:
The rating doesn't seem great, then again it always seemed screwy to me.
I rarely trust the independent reviews on Newegg simply because most people on there seem to think that buying parts online makes them a computer genius. I've seen far too many reviewers listing cons that are very obviously not issues with the product that they're "reviewing," yet they insist on marking their tech level as "high." Either that or they simply don't provide any detail, and give a shit review like "Pros: nothing, cons: everything" and give it one eggs without any explanation, presumably because they're an anti-fanboy.
Here's a dissection of a review from someone with a "high tech level":
- Cons: 3 major problems with this unit:
Well, he listed more than three, for starters.
- * it randomly directs your HTTP(s) requests to incorrect servers. You will se obscure erros in the browser
Bullshit.
All of Linksys's routers after a certain period of time do nothing but forward DNS requests to the DNS servers that are configured. Furthermore, it's impossible for it to resolve to an incorrect DNS setting only on HTTP requests -- DNS is a totally separate protocol.
More than likely, his dumb ass got himself infected by something that's hijacking his browser.
- * It's speed occasionally drops to very slow (bot wired/wireless), requires unplugging the power cable and plugging back.
This could be caused by external interference, the fifth issue that was listed, or more than likely an application that's being run on his network. Considering his browser was hijacked, his network is probably being bogged down by a lovely piece of malware that's continually sending me spam and creating a bunch of bogus user accounts on my forum.
- * It completely looses connection once a month or so, requires unplugging power cable/unplugging
No arguments there. My WRT54G and BEF41SR both do the same thing.
- * WinXP/Sp2 and with some ISPs, it doesn't work with its default settings, need to reduce MTU size for wired/wireless network
That's an ISP issue, not a router issue. It should not be listed as an issue with the device.
Also, the MTU size that matters is determined by your ISP and your modem, it has absolutely nothing to do with the operating system that you're running. Routers are nothing more than switches (and wireless access points in most models) that are bridged with an external connection. They don't give a shit what you're running on your main system and will take just about everything that you throw at it.
- * Its QoS feature is buggy, and causes extremely slow speeds, needs to be turned off. It is on by default
QoS has a tendency to do that if you're an idiot who doesn't know how to configure it properly. The QoS feature on Linksys routers feature is fine, was fine, and will probably always be fine. I should know, I've used it plenty of times. The main difference is that I actually know what the hell I'm doing.
Maybe the problem is simply that Cisco/Linksys give the user too much power for their own good and makes it too easy for them to change settings that should be reserved for people who have at least managed to get through Networking 101.