Linksys MX8501 Atlas WiFi 6E Router Home WiFi Mesh System, Tri-Band, 3,000 Sq. ft Coverage, 65+ Devices, Replaces Routers and Extenders, Gaming & Streaming, Speeds up to (AX8400) 8.4Gbps

Relatively Easy Setup Yields Strong Wi-Fi throught the house
The Linksys Velop Tri-band Mesh Network System, P/N AC6600, is a relatively uncomplicated system to set up IF you understand a little about or have previously set up basic home wi-fi networking.I don’t know how easy it is for those who have no prior experience setting up a wi-fi. It may be as easy or it may not, depending on your technical acumen and how well you read up beforehand and prepare for the installation. I cannot comment since I’ve been fooling around with home wi-fi ever since it was mass-marketed in the late 1990s.The packaging is crisp and very well done. You open the Linksys box easily due to a magnetic flap (no tape or seals to cut), and you see three Velop wi-fi routers, and a quick install card on the left, under which are three power supplies, one for each router, and one ethernet cable for the “home” router. Note – any one of the three Velop routers can be chosen and installed as the “home” unit when you begin the installation.NOTE – BEFORE you begin the actual installation, get a notepad and pencil or whatever you want to use to take down some vital information. Turn each of the three Velop routers over and you will find five (5) unique numbers on labels on the bottom. The print (font) is microscopic so if your eyes aren’t great, get a magnifying glass and be under a good bright desk lamp. I strongly suggest that at this time you choose which router is going in each of your three home locations. So for mine, I had “Office” (which is in my basement), “Living Room”, and “2nd Floor”. I stuck a temporary lable on the side of each router. Your names will probably be different. Leave 5 lines under each router designation on your notepad. Under each of your chosen router names, record the following numbers from its bottom labels: Name_____, Password_____, Recovery Key____, Serial No.______, and MAC (address)________.The Name and Password on the labels are from the factory and only temporary and will not be used once you have developed your unique router names (I used the room name), your wi-fi home network name and password during the installation of the first router. But the label names & passwords may be needed in the future so don’t lose your notes. You will find the MAC address versus router name handy to know once your system is running so you can tell which router is which and what devices are connected to it.I had read in advance of how to transition from my existing Apple Time Capsule/Airport Wi-Fi network to the new Linksys network. My previous Wi-Fi using the Apple Time Capsule router included a separate Arris cable modem that I was using to connect to my Comcast broadband cable internet service. The modem was not changed for this new system, it works just fine. Just connect the modem ethernet output to the first Velop router (either one of the two bottom ethernet ports on the Velop). But if you’re not familiar with your existing network, fear not! Just follow the installation app instructions that you will be using – see my next paragraph. – and you should do fine.Linksys requires you to install their Velop app on your smartphone in order to install the system. You DON’T use your pc. The app is available on Apple’s App Store and I assume from elsewhere if you’re not an Apple user as I am. The app is free and installs easily. Once it installs, start following it’s step-by-step instructions. I found it handy to pre-read the instructions from the Linksys website (using my laptop browser) before downloading the smartphone app and beginning the actual installation. It’s just a suggestion. Also, if you’ve turned off your old wi-fi router, using the smartphone app is handy because that can communicate with Linksys via your cellular connection until your first Velop router (and its wi-fi signal) is up and running.The app requires you to establish a username and password which becomes your Admin credentials for modifying or customizing the Linksys settings if you want to use features other than the standard default settings. I won’t go into those details because it’s well-covered in many websites online if you search on “how to setup Linksys velop mesh wi-fi system”.So once I started the linksys app and connected the first Velop router to my modem, it took about 10-15 minutes for that to recognize the internet signal from my modem and indicate it was ready (a light on the top goes to purple when its ready to install, and when all is done it turns solid blue). I followed the sequential instructions on the smartphone app; at one point I had to register for the Linksys Cloud account (needed for some optional features) and you have to have a home network name (SSID) and a password ready to type in. PS – CREATE YOUR NEW NETWORK NAME (SSID) AND NEW NETWORK PASSWORD BEFORE YOU START** SO YOU DON’T GET CONFUSED DURING THE PROCEDURE – HAVE THEM WRITTEN DOWN IN FRONT OF YOU. **I used a free website called Random Strong Passwords to generate a very strong 16 character password for my network since i live in a neighborhood where houses are on 1/8 acre lots and relatively close to each other. Everyone sees everyone else’s SSIDs (I can see about 8 other people’s SSID’s inside my house) so its best to name my wi-fi network using nothing that gives away that it’s my network and a password that no one other than NSA with their supercomputer can crack.After the first router setup was complete, the next two were so easy it was ridiculous. I simply took the second Velop router to the first floor, plugged it, waited until the light on the top turned purple, then followed the prompts on the smartphone app to “Add another node”. It went much faster and easier now that the network had been created by the first router. Just had to name it “Living Room”. That was easy. The third Velop router went on the second floor, again, setup for the added router was fast. Named that one “2nd Floor”. Easy peasy.Coming back down to the basement, I could see that my new Velop mesh network was up and running fine, and we have strong wi-fi (5/5 or 4/5) throughout our house. All that remained was to go around and re-program every device that connects to wi-fi with the new SSID and new password. Two smart TV’s, one home stereo, a security camera, one smart thermostat, two Apple TV boxes, 3 laptops, 2 wi-fi printers, four iPads, and two more iPhones. After entering the 16 digit password so many times, I was grateful this only needs doing once or (hopefully) *very* seldom. Whew!Everything works! MUCH better signal & speed than before when I had only a single router. Today is 3 days after installation and the system has remained rock solid with no dropouts. I’m impressed.

Strong signal that is usable on entire property
My goal was to get a usable signal at all areas of my property. I have spectrum 1 gig cable service and the provided router was not cutting it. I purchased the MX8502 Atlas max 6E tri band rated at 6000 sq ft 2 routers package. These routers accomplished my goal. My house is 3000 sq feet single story on a lot that is 200 feet long 66 feet wide. My office is located in the front of the house which is 15 feet from the front of the lot. My garage is separate from the house at the very back of the lot.I did have difficulty with set up. I was unable to get a internet signal out of the modem (Hitron brand) and to the Linksys router. The set up instructions have you connect your cables then unplug power to the cable modem to reset the connection. They have you connect the internet cat5 cable from modem to Linksys before doing this restart. The trick with spectrum is you don’t connect the cat 5 cable during restart of the modem. Since I had already tried many times to set this up I had to start clean. I reset the Linksys to factory spec with the reset button then left the cat 5 cable disconnected during set up until the modem had restarted. and that was it. Both Linksys and spectrum support had me convinced that I could not use this router and modem combination. I usually don’t give up easy so I kept calling back till I got the right person which was a tech at spectrum.I have left my channel selection on auto and have not had any disconnection troubles.I have no 6E devices so these results are from my 2.4 and 5ghz devices. In the room that the routers are located in I get nice download speeds 650-800 mbps. At the furthest distances I still get very usable internet. I get aprox 200 mbps in my garage and office which are at the furthest ends. So far 1 month I have not had any issues to complain about. I have all the typical stuff connected plus I use internet for all my music and TV streaming. I have not had to restart the router. I like that there is a guest network option. The control panel is easy to set everything you want.

ممتاز

Installé sur une cloison en ba13 ce support pour mes vieilles bornes linksys est un objet que je trouve bien pensé et qui permet de fixer solidement sa borne en hauteur et ds mon cas sans aucun câble visible. J’ai donc installé mon support directement sur la cloison qui sépare l’entrée de mon logement du local ds lequel se trouve notre box. Ainsi, en perçant un petit trou ds la cloison j’ai pu passer le câble d’alimentation et un câble ethernet et les relier à ma borne mesh sans que rien ne dépasse ! Installer à bonne hauteur ma borne diffuse (j’espère) son signal wifi de meilleur façon que si elle était directement posée au sol ou ds une pièce fermée. Je trouve donc ce produit bien pensé et il permet une installation propre si on prend garde de l’installer au bon endroit ds son domicile