Cisco Linksys E3000 Setup Software
- Pros
Router set up takes just minutes. Very fast throughput. Optimized for Wi-Fi performance
- Cons
NAS capabilities are average. No print-server capabilities. Storage management setup awkward to navigate.
- Bottom Line
If you're looking for a high-end consumer or small-business router, Cisco's E3000 is a great choice. But if you are looking for a top-of-the line NAS, the E3000's is average at best. The E3000 tries to be both things, and its NAS abilities drag it down to just shy of greatness.
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There's good news and bad news regarding Cisco's Linksys E3000 High Performance Wireless N Router. First, the good: the throughput performance of this router is amazing. It delivered off-the-chart performance in testing. The E3000 also offers some NAS capabilities by including a USB port and UPnP Media Server functionality. That's what brings us to the bad news: it's only a so-so when it comes to NAS functionality.
- $119.00
- $169.99
Design and Features
We've already reviewed and liked Cisco Linksys' E2000 Advanced Wireless-N Router ($119, 3 stars), which was aimed at gaming and multimedia enthusiasts. The E3000, extends the earlier router's abilities with 6 internal 2x3 antennas—double the amount in the E2000. It doesn't differ much in design from the E2000 except it's got a dark, metallic blue edging around the top of the housing. The E3000 has a USB port and an additional LED to indicate when a USB device is connected—it supports only USB storage devices.
The E3000 uses the same easy connect setup found in the E2000 and the Editors Choice winning Cisco Valet Plus ($149, 4.5 stars), so I won't delve too much into it. Setup using Cisco Connect software took just minutes, as with other Cisco/Linksys routers using this same software.
The only difference in the interface in the E3000 is in Advanced Settings. There is an additional setup category; Storage to manage attached USB drives. Storage has four sub-areas: Disk, Media Server, FTP Server, and Administration.
Managing storage devices is done by clicking Disk, which brings up a display showing information on the connected USB drive. I connected several different hard drives and flash drives, some in FAT and others in NTFS format, and the E3000 recognized all of them. The UI displayed partition and file system information, total capacity and free space. By default, when you connect an external drive to the router, a public folder for sharing is created—allowing users connected to the router to have a central folder share. You can create additional shares, edit share properties, and give users and groups permissions to those shares. Shares can also be accessed via Windows Explorer. Administration and Disk are where users can go to format drives, set permissions, and create other users and groups.
'Media Server' is the area of the console where users can enable UPnP Media Server functionality; users also come here to set up the router's media server database. Unfortunately, the Media Server screens are clumsy and unintuitive; setting up a media folder takes too many steps and screens, and often the screen simply times out after applying changes. 'FTP' setup is a bit more straightforward, but still not as smooth a setup as in most consumer NAS boxes.
NAS Abilities and Performance
The E3000 provides the ability to stream photos, music and video to UPnP-enabled devices. It's decent enough to handle shared additional storage on a network and to perform some light-duty streaming. But for high-definition video files you'll want a capability of a dedicated NAS box or media server such as the HP MediaSmart Server EX487 ($750, 4.5 stars).
I wanted to test the E3000's NAS abilities, so I experimented with streaming video from a connected Western Digital USB drive connected to the E3000 to my laptop. Video showed a slight lag, but not enough to make the video unwatchable. For the typical smaller, home network where maybe one or two devices at most would receive a video stream from the router at the same time, the E3000 will do fine. As you add users and devices to stream to, or if you are streaming more highly-formatted hi-def video, then the chance for latency is greater, and that's where a more traditional NAS would be a better fit.
Another way to test the device's NAS capabilities is with large file-copy job. The speed at which the job runs gives some indication of how quickly or slowly an intensive backup job or streaming operation would be. I copied a large video file from a client on my network to the Western Digital attached to the E3000. A 1.5 GB file took half an hour to upload to the connected storage via the wireless connection. The same file, with the laptop wired to a LAN port on the E3000 took 4 minutes (about 6.25 Mb per second).Given those results, if you anticipate doing any large-copy jobs (such as backing up all the data on a laptop or desktop) you are going to want to take advantage of the router's Gigabit Ethernet ports (provided that laptop or desktop also has Gigabit connectivity!).
Compare that performance to another hybrid router/NAS—the Apple Time Capsule. Testing showed that file transfers averaged about 8 Mbps—not that far off from what the E3000 scored. Even on dedicated NAS devices like - testing an upload of large files wirelessly was painfully slow. Like the Iomega iConnect Wireless Data Station ($100, 3.5 stars), the E3000 handled smaller file copy jobs very well. Seagate's Free Agent GoFlex Home Network Storage System ($160, 3.5 stars) is a dedicated consumer NAS. It fared better than E3000 and the Time Capsule, managing 16 Mbps in a file transfer. In fact, most dedicated NASes in the consumer space provide better performance. Overall, a dedicated NAS or media server is the choice for more heavy-duty multimedia needs.
Performance may even get more of a boost if the E3000 had support for eSATA. That would place it more on par with D-Link's Xtreme N Storage Router—which has a slot for a 2.5 inch SATA drive and showed very good performance.
Cisco Linksys E3000 Set Up
Wi-Fi Performance
The E3000's throughput test results were much more impressive—among the fastest seen in the lab in the last year, and second only to our fastest tested router of all time—D-Link's DIR-825 Xtreme N Dual Band Gigabit Router. Throughput was tested using Ixia's IxChariot utility. At 2.4 GHz in mixed mode, the E3000 managed a laudable throughput of 117 Mbps, and in 5 GHz mixed mode, 118 Mbps. This is superb throughput.
Cisco's E2000 router is a decent performer but only reached a maximum throughput of 82 Mbps. Belkin's Wireless Play Max router, another dual-band managed a maximum of 70 Mbps. I am sure the E3000's 6 antennas help its performance, but it is obvious that it's a router optimized for maximum Wi-Fi throughput.
What's even better: I didn't find any real drop in throughput levels whether I was testing 5 or 30 feet from the router. Also, changing the router to an all 'N' mode didn't make any significant changes to the bandwidth. Throughout my testing, maximum bandwidth never dropped below 80 Mbps.
A Split Decision
It almost seems a shame not to give the E3000 two scores, one for the NAS functionality and one as a Wi-Fi router. As a NAS, I would have to give the device 3 stars. It's an average home NAS at best, fine for light multimedia, backup and storage needs. It's too bad that the USB can't support printers—I think print server capabilities would be a handy addition.
As a wireless router, on pure performance terms, the E3000 deserve five stars for the incredible throughput it delivered. This is a finely-honed router! While even the best router can't speed up whatever bandwidth pipe your get from an ISP, having the E3000 on my test network seemed to make browsing and file sharing peppier. This power horse of a router also comes with Cisco software that allows setup in minutes.
The problem is, it's priced as a hybrid, listing for $50 more than the Editors' Choice Cisco Valet Plus. So I've averaged the two scores, giving the E3000 a final score of four stars. The Cisco Valet Plus offers a better router per dollar deal, and, if you need a NAS, you're better off buying a dedicated one. That said, if you're in the market specifically for a fast router and you don't mind spending the extra cash, you should definitely consider the Cisco Linksys E3000 High Performance Wireless-N Router—it's a speed demon.
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• Linksys Max-Stream AC4000 MU-MIMO Tri-Band Router (EA9300)
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Cisco Linksys E3000 High Performance Wireless-N Router
Bottom Line: If you're looking for a high-end consumer or small-business router, Cisco's E3000 is a great choice. But if you are looking for a top-of-the line NAS, the E3000's is average at best. The E3000 tries to be both things, and its NAS abilities drag it down to just shy of greatness.