Linksys E4200v2 N900 with Marvell chipset.

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Linksys E4200v2 N900 with Marvell chipset.

Tom_Rush

208 posts

Master Geek

#94395 9-Dec-2011 23:02

The new Linksys E4200v2 N900 router has been confirmed to be using a MARVELL 88W8063 a/b/g/n chipset instead of a Broadcom chipset used in the orignal Linksys E4200v1 N750.

This may have some impact if one was looking to use an alternative firmware at a later date on this router.

DD-WRT or Tomato firmware only runs on a Broadcom chipset.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79270 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#556182 9-Dec-2011 23:50

Had an E3200 here with Broadcom chipset... High hopes but utterly disappointed. Flaky WiFi, and the whole router slowed down under load - not hard to happen on a DOCSIS3 connection at 100 Mbps.

Tom_Rush

208 posts

Master Geek

#556188 10-Dec-2011 01:30

Had to Google DOCSIS3, as I'd never heard of it.

Have a Linksys E4200v1 and one just assumed ooohh a new N900 router, I'll buy it and then stick Tomato firmware on it, but not with the Linksys E4200v2.

Have DNS, OpenVPN and PPTP servers running on my Linksys E4200v1 with Tomato firmware allowing external 'secure' connects to my home NAS via notebooks and mobile phones. Couldn't live without that access and my own cloud computing solution with minimal file duplication.

The Ethernet on the Linksys E4200v1 and stability with current Tomato firmware is very good.
This includes good stable USB support too and will as both 2.4Ghz/5Ghz.

The WiFi signal strength of the latest Linksys router range is not it's strongest point.

Get ~75Mbps download on 2.4Ghz WiFi at 15m at the other end of the house and a signal strength of -60dB, so I'm not grumbling about the Linksys E4200v1 ...much.

My Android 802.11g phone can detect my home network over 50m down the street(not useable signal)

I think a Linksys router without the flexibility of Tomato or DD-WRT firmware is a yellow card in my book.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79270 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#556214 10-Dec-2011 08:34

DOCSIS3 is a standard for cable modem. Basically my point was that under heavy load (such as 100 Mbps with multiple connections) the E3200 simply wouldn't do it.

If you like DD-WRT then yes you should keep your existing router. I'd like to add DD-WRT to my setup but my existing one is not supported. I'm quite happy with the Cisco SRP 521w performance though - even under load it just keeps going. Very good box (the SRP 527 is the DSL equivalent).

Ragnor

8220 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#556764 12-Dec-2011 04:25

Tom_Rush: The new Linksys E4200v2 N900 router has been confirmed to be using a MARVELL 88W8063 a/b/g/n chipset instead of a Broadcom chipset used in the orignal Linksys E4200v1 N750.

This may have some impact if one was looking to use an alternative firmware at a later date on this router.

DD-WRT or Tomato firmware only runs on a Broadcom chipset.

TomatoUSB supports broadcom only and only a select few makes/models, this is due to the small number of active developers that work on it (Teddybear, Toastman, Vickman etc). The original developer of the original Tomato (non USB) set great foundation but is practically inactive.

DD-WRT supports more stuff has more developers but seems to have "designed by committee" type problems that open source often suffers from. Tomato's UI is way better and generally Tomato is faster, but DD-WRT runs on more devices.

OpenWRT is interesting, they weren't a fan of DD-WRT going pseudo commercial, so they split off and started from scratch. They have a much better code base/framework it's really strong on the basics but it has no web admin ui so you need to look at things that are made on top of OpenWRT like Gargoyle Router. The UI design is pretty average but they have some nice stuff that the others don't have (per ip address bandwidth quotas, automatic QoS based on latency increases etc). Notably they also support Altheros hardware so cheap TP Link models become a viable option.

I would put pfsense in there too, you can run it on a vm or tiny board like PC engine now. It's very mature. As long as you give it enough cpu and memory it can definitely route 100Mbit.

Either of the options is still vastly superior than stock firmware, way more options and the people working on the firmware tend to use them so have an active interest.

The stock firmware for consumer devices is almost universally bad, most manufactures (Asus, Netgear, Tp Link etc) work on tight product cycles. They have x time to develop the product, they release then they support it with some updates for y. Never is enough time spent on x and y because they start making new product z straight away.

Bad luck if they never fully fixed bugs, sorted performance or added nice/essential features, if you look at the Linksys stock firmware for the WRT54 it's atrocious for the above reasons ^

Ragnor

8220 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#556765 12-Dec-2011 04:47

freitasm: Had an E3200 here with Broadcom chipset... High hopes but utterly disappointed. Flaky WiFi, and the whole router slowed down under load - not hard to happen on a DOCSIS3 connection at 100 Mbps.

That's a shame.

Hmm no TomatoUSB support only for the 3000, there's an experimental/beta DD-WRT version and for OpenWRT it's in the "possible but not being worked on category"

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=651922#651922

Picasso566

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#559139 18-Dec-2011 08:14

OT:

When I moved to Japan I didn't realize I could get cheap 100mbps internet connections. (approx $25/month). I brought a couple of Asus WL520gus with me loaded with Tomato.

I really don't care much about the wireless speeds but the WAN speeds are terrible. Worked great on the 12/15mbps connection in the states but the most throughput I can get is around 23/25mbps.

Can you guys suggest a router with either good firmware or ddwrt/tomato compatible that can handle 100mbps?

I've been googling this for about 2 years with little luck because most of the sites in English don't have users with access to higher speed connections.

Thanks in advance.

Paul

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#559144 18-Dec-2011 08:30

In all seriousness there is no possible way you can beat a Mikrotik RB751 as a router/AP combo, either in performance, or price. MIMO 2.4 b/g/n, fantastic routing performance (you will get 100Mbps via the WAN down to ~200 byte packet frames), the entire RouterOS feature set, and a price point of under NZ$100.

The only problem is RouterOS has a steep learning curve. There is no way in the world you'll ever set one up out of the box without help.

Sharesies kids

Free kids accounts - trade shares and funds (NZ, US) with Sharesies (affiliate link).

Picasso566

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#559147 18-Dec-2011 08:49

Still OT:

Thanks. I'm visiting the States for the holidays so I might pick one up. Looks like I can get one for $59 US.

I've set up some fairly complicated routers in my time. The Sonicwall interface comes to mind as completely unintuitive. Also, memories of some Cisco routers make the muscles in my back twitch. I can probably figure it out. Also, looks like ddwrt and tomato are patching for the new mikrotik, so maybe that will be an option soon as well. Thanks for the input. Anyone else?