So, after years of hearing how bad linksys and their outsourced tech support is, I actually finally had to deal with it. Lets start this by saying I've got a good amount of years in the IT Field it is still the line of work I am in. This is the story of Linksys support yielding ZERO results. (the attached two images are screenshots on my phone of only the calls with linksys)
A few weeks back (Monday, may 9th), I decided to use the chat support on the Linksys site due to an issue I had with my WRT310N router, basically if set to Wide Band (40mhz) it would drop my Wireless N speeds to 1mbps as opposed to the 270mbps that wide band is supposed to allow, so I spoke with Kate B. (29800) [according to the logs they emailed ],
we went through troubleshooting and determined that it was a definite issue with the router, so we went through the
RMA process, skip forward a week to Monday the 16th, I get the replacement router and it does the same thing. So I
go deal with chat again, we double check then determine it has the SAME issue, so I was told to call the RMA
department again to see what could be done (this is where it went downhill).
I got transferred around, asked the same questions, put on hold more than I've ever been in any customer service situation. For instance, in the attached image you'll see a call for 44 mins 44 seconds, 30 of that was on hold, I counted. I was told that I needed to talk to an advanced tech (this was after the first call you see for 52:37), in the call that was 52:37 I was told that since I spent an hour dealing with chat then just about another hour on the phone, that I would have a call that night to get this resolved, and I said that's fine and agreed to have them call me back, I said "call anytime tonight, I will be up until about 1am", 12:30am hits and I don't get the call back, so I call them (see call listed 1
hr 35min 34sec), they told me that it would actually be 24 hours for a callback, at this point I'm frustrated, so I
ask for a manager, then someone tells me they can get me to the advanced tech dept, after 20 minutes on hold I hear
back from the tech finally and they say there is no way they can get me to a tech because they are all busy on other
calls. Frustrated, I get very angry and demand that someone take care of this immediately, I get placed on hold for
another 15 minutes, then get the same rep (didn't get IDs over the phone, was hard to understand the accents) telling
me nothing can be done and to wait for a callback, I asked if they could guarantee me a callback by Noon (that would
be roughly 11 hours after this call ended), and he said yes.
Fast forward 11 hours, I call from work since they told me I wouldn't need to be near my equipment (at this point all
I want is my money back to buy a working router, or a different model sent to me). You will see the call that was
44:44, I kept getting passed around again, and more than half of that call was me being on hold, after waiting the
last bit on hold, I decided i was fed up, have spent almost 4 hours of my time at this point, including the time
doing the technical support chat, hung up and called the corporate office as listed on their website. After briefly
explaining my situation, the person who answered the phone guaranteed me a callback shortly, I ended up receiving a
callback from the number listed as 1267 that lasted 45 minutes, I thought this was my advanced tech, nope, another
general person at linksys who spent 45 minutes, just to tell me what everyone else did. they called again about 30
minutes later and it was an actual advanced tech who basically told me that the whole issue is electromagnetic
interference and that there's no way to fix this issue and that the only way to fix it is to isolate it which I cant
do without expensive equipment (which I found to a bit of a cop out since the Belkin N1 Vision router I had before
never had the issue). So after over 4 hours of a 24 hour period, all I got was a free return shipping label from him
to send back the defective one so I didn't have to pay for that.
I'm really frustrated to the point where I almost dont want linksys products anymore, for all the testing I was
using two Linksys brand wireless N cards (WPC300n and WEC600n) and this is the support I get. 4 hours of runaround,
and no results. If anyone at consumerist has any extra eecb info I would appreciate it.
Irony:
I took a call from a customer who has the same router.. Same issue. 1 mbps. His router was 30 feet away and the only thing between them was a 5 Ghrz phone and a wall. It was consistently 1 mbps!
Luckily we resolved the issue with a simple firmware upgrade and changing the wide channel from 5 (default) to 9.
Hope that helps who ever else has this issue, it did for my customer it seems. (I hope)
]]>And I completely agree with ecwis, Netgear is by far the worst of the bunch.
As for technical support, they all suck; it's not just specific to Linksys, all consumer router support is overseas outsources and follow terrible scripts.
I've had a WRT54GL running solid for 3 years now. Thanks to a power outage, my current uptime is 228 days. However, the D-Link 524 I had prior to my Linksys was a cheap piece of junk.
With routers, I've found the market is much like automakers. You have people that worship one brand and revile others. Personally, I've had no trouble with Linksys hardware. Ever. YMMV.
]]>Never bought or will buy a linksys router again.
]]>Linksys, however, is still not "really" Cisco. We make great products but our consumer division seems to be lacking. It's definitely not where we make our money. Nevertheless - I see I'm not the only one that's had nothing but great experiences with Linksys, even before I was a Cisco drone. I have tried Netgear and D-Link and they were both TERRIBLE! Belkin is decent for consumer gear, though...but I never had a problem with the Linksys.
]]>1. I dont care if you're IT/Network Admin etc for 20-50+ years. The fact is that you're having a problem you cannot fix, so you're calling for help, if you have that many years of experience, you should make your own product and stop complaining about companies who makes them.
2. If you take the time to maybe be nice and talk to "anyone" on the other end of the line, maybe they'll actually help you.
3. Any product will either break/fail one day, just depends on what/when. That's why there's customer/tech support. If everything works perfectly, all those "people" would not have a job, there wouldnt be customer/tech support department for you to call.
4. I hate it when people say, "I get someone from India, that I cannot understand them". Ever think that they cant understand you? They're just doing their job. On a different note about people complaining about "outsourcing" that companies hire, did you ever think that theres a reason why they went overseas? people in the US has no idea how good they got it til its gone. They rather pay someone min wage in India, who would work twice as hard vs a college kid who might just pee in your coffee. Maybe as a company they need to save money/downsize budgets so the company could go on another day.
5. I do/did work for customer service/tech support for many years myself, but at the same time I'm also a consumer for alot of products. When something does not work, I deal with it, whether it be 5 min or 5 hours of my time. If its broken and the company is willing to exchange it, GREAT! If I have to get a service call between 8-5pm, GREAT! If I need one right away and cant wait for an RMA, go to the store and buy another one, thats fine too. They're there to help for the most part, I've experienced bad customer/tech support myself, but I've been on that end of the phone, when you get 100's of customers calling everyday to complain, its kinda hard to keep a smile on your face, you can only try to move on to the next call, hoping its not another asshole/bitch that comes thru. Sure they're getting paid for answering calls and helping, but they're not there as a punching bag for your problems. I work for a cable company before and I hate when people see the the service is down and complains, "what am i gonna do now?" I suggested reading a book may help pass some time until we fix the problem, and if you want credit for the day, no problem! $0.39 has been credit back.
This site is been great to see the good/bad of the company.. but how come no one has stepped up to create a site that is anti-consumerist. Maybe we should read/see/write the everyday dumb/stupid/funny/idiotic thing that a customer does when he deals with a company, then you'll understand what it feels like to try and "HELP" people. These company are there to provide services/products for you when you needed, but somehow something goes wrong, you feel like the whole world is coming down on you. but when it works great, who calls/writes to the company, "Hey, great job!".
If you don't like a product, don't buy it, move to another brand, if there's is no other brand, dont complain about it, be thankful that these companies out there spent MILLIONS to create something that could better your lifestyle. Don't say its a monopoly, if no one else provides it, it cant be a monopoly. Ever think why you have a choice between cable/telephone for ISP service but almost never have a choice in electric/gas/water company? thats monopoly, but you dont complain to them, cuz they can just shut you off, you NEED water, NEED gas, NEED electric, tv/internet/phone is a luxury, not necessity. Ever think why you pay water/electric/gas bills first and not tv/internet/phone?
This is more than my $0.02. I know I'm gonna get responses for this, but just want to give both sides of the story.
]]>If it defaults to 1mb, try putting the computer within 5 feet of the router and in line of sight. If that doesn't fix it, then make sure you're using WPA2-AES, it is very well known that wireless-N requires WPA2-AES enabled to operate.
If it works, then stop bugging them, you won't find a fix anywhere, it's just how it works.
]]>But I think in our cases, we either got a router before or shortly after Cisco bought Linksys. It's been down hill since. They've gone from great open source firmware, to horrible proprietary junk at speeds that would make the Microsoft buyout team's heads spin.
]]>I have a Linksys router and lately have been experiencing Internet outages when it says I am connected to my laptop. The browser (both IE and Firefox, which is my primary one) will just say "waiting for yahoo.com" or whatever and all I get is a white page. It appears usually at night, around 8 or 9:30 at night (when I'm working! Gaah!) and sometimes will come right back. It hardly ever does it if I'm on during the day.
I'm afraid to call them now.
]]>The problem is their software is awful... and they aren't making any progress improving it.
Their hardware is pretty generic commodity stuff. Often too powerful for the application but used since it's cheaper than getting to custom with the design.
Remember, Linksys is owned by cisco. Making software good enough to take full advantage of the hardware would cannibalize Cisco's sales to small businesses who could setup cheap Linksys access points rather than Cisco AP's that cost much more.
Use a custom firmware and you'll realize, they aren't that bad.
That said, Netgear is much more solid in the home/small business arena. Hardware is pretty much same specs, but the firmware is far more stable. I've run a Netgear months (if not a year+) without a restart. Netopia/Motorola is great too (though they haven't updated their product line in ages).
IMHO if your restarting your router more than 1x every quarter... your doing it wrong. Bottom line.
]]>Once in my dorm though, I decided to buy a Belkin wireless router and it was up and running in less than 10 minutes and doesn't reset whenever something gets unplugged from it.
]]>Power cycle all your network equipment, router, dsl modem, or cable modem, any switches or hubs or firewalls you may have, then restart your computers. If your not back online you may need to reset your router's settings, but usually after a power outage all settings are still stored in my linksys router's flash ROM and I don't have to change anything...
]]>Rereading this, I am such a network geek!
]]>If you're the geeky type, get a model that includes a Linux-based operating system and download one of the community-written firmware. This will let you upgrade the router to do some crazy things that normally can only be done on *much* more expensive devices.
]]>802.11N is not a ratified standard yet (STILL) and all N products are either "Pre-N" or "Draft-N" and most vendors versions of N products are incompatible with each other, so if you are using a Linksys N router with a Netgear N wireless card, chances are it won't work the way you want it to. There are even huge incompatibilities between N products within a single vendors own product lineup.
Secondly, N still uses the 2.4ghz spectrum of which there are 11 5mhz channels for the 802.11 standard. Using a 40mhz band means you are using up 8 of the 11 standard channels, so it is way more susceptible to interference from anything ranging from a cordless phone to an 802.11 router to a microwave oven. It also means that you're being a huge douche bag if you have any nearby neighbors using the 2.4ghz spectrum since your N router is causing interference for them as well.
]]>Bill B
]]>@frari489: I have used nothing but Linksys since the 802.11b days. All my(and family's...all 6 of them) WRT54's are running except for 1. I thought I lost it after a thunderstorm. When it quit working I tried to install DD-WRT on it, and it's still working today.
Sounds like it may be a problem with the N routers.
]]>This says more about your neighbors than it does about Linksys...
]]>How much tech support do these companies need to provide? These routers are complex pieces of equipment, there are whole college classes within the IT field dedicated to the setup of wireless networks.
I don't expect companies like these to provide much more information than the setup cd or the user manual provides.
If you have trouble setting up a home network or your not sure how the technology works or what to expect you should call a computer consultant for help on what to buy. Most will help you find the right product and set it up much faster and more secure than the average user can.
]]>Mine seem to die after 4-5 years.
Well, the WRT54G's died.
The WRT54GL's are rock solid with DD-WRT.
/I have three GL's right now. I had two G's that died (one after 5 years, one after 4).
]]>the main problem is the OP is complaining about wireless N, which is not an official standard yet. So the dependability of the product depends on which company you buy the products from and the firmware of the products. its kind of what you get when you are an early adopter and the companies don't tell you that you are one -- marketers.
]]>Same here, I have one of the WRT-54GL routers based on the Linux firmware and have it flashed with a custom tomato firmware, VERY good router! Best I have ever owned! I have even put off upgrading to Wireless 802.11n until I find one that can be flashed with a third party firmware and is as reliable as this linksys one. The only time my internet goes down in my house is when Comcast is at fault.
]]>I've got a WMP300N PCI card with 3-prong antenna. My rabbits chewed through two of the cables on the antenna and now it doesn't work (surprise!). I want a new antenna and have tried to buy one through Linksys customer service, but they're no help. The antenna isn't offered alone, so I'm SOL.
I don't want to spend $60+ on the PCI card with antenna package ... I'd much rather spend $15-20 for JUST the antenna. Radio Shack, Tiger Direct and NewEgg left me empty handed.
]]>I would go Netgear, their Dual Band N router is great, and can usually be found on sale at Best Buy for under $110.
Dual N for those of you who don't know, (and this is according to a Net Gear and a DLink rep, so take it for what it's worth) makes it so if you have a G wireless device connected to your router it won't slow down all your other devices that use N.
Most peeps probably won't care right now, but when you get your new notebook with an N adapter and your kid connects with their NDS "B" connection, apparently with a dual band it slows down all connections to B speeds.
Random BS for the day.
]]>I spent a good hour on the phone with some lady in India, with an incredibly thick accent, trying to configure the router to open those firewall ports. After an hour on the phone with me she transfers me to a level two tech. Took me and the perfect English-speaking tech two minutes to get the router working and she even stayed on the phone with me while I logged into the game on my PS2 to ensure everything worked fine.
I understand outsourced tech support is cheaper, but when you can't understand the person and they can barely understand you, there are problems. Needless to say, I ditched Vonage when my contract ran out because Comcast offered me a sweetheart deal on phone service.
I also replaced that godawful Linksys router with a Netgetar Wireless Router. I was going to get an Apple Time Machine, but didn't for two reasons: Price and incompatibility with the Wii and PlayStation 3.
]]>I buy Airlink101. Not the best known but all these wireless things are open standard. So far I have had pretty good luck and never had to call Airlink support (don't even know if they have one). Airlink is so cheap compared to Linksys if it fails, I just throw that away and buy a new one.
]]>I generally sell the Netgear WGR614. I've sold at least a hundred of that model, and I only know of two that failed within the first year. I carry two of them in the car, ready to go... sometimes I even bring them into the shop and pre-configure the wireless security and SSID, but the customers prefer to see me unwrap the factory plastic.
]]>No complaints about Linksys here.
]]>I won't say I've never had a Linksys fail, but I've used them for years and I've found them to be as good as or better than other brands. The one that did fail on me was over 3 years old and I couldn't rule out an electrical surge causing the damage because the UPS it was on fried as well.
]]>The reason it happened to me was that I was trying to buy a lower quality device and save a few bucks. The current crop of 802.11n consumer devices seems to just be utter crap, if reviews at Newegg and similar vendors are any indication, so it would seem that they are best avoided entirely. Meanwhile, my WRT54GL with Tomato firmware still cruises along perfectly - it's slower, but it works all the time.
]]>I definitely know it is unacceptable for Linksys to have any sort of problems yet not release many firmware updates to any of their products.
Yet to even have to resort to custom firmware such as DD-WRT to get the best out of the product you paid for.
]]>@Jason Holmes: That's what I was thinking. My only crap out issues have been with other brands, Linksys is by far the best I've ever had.
]]>@frari489: I've had mine for a couple years now with no issues. it replaced one which crapped out after six months, and that one had replaced one that crapped out after 3-4 months. I think one was a US Robotics and the other was a Netgear (worst POS router ever, I hate hate hate netgear)
]]>@Mooshie: He probably means March 9, as that was a Monday this year.
]]>Bought a wireless gaming router from linksys 3 years ago, works great, no problems whatsoever. Used it a bunch too.
]]>I worked for cable, we got more calls about people having issues with Linksys routers that I used to start telling people to buy something else. My Netgear I have had for 5 years now with no issues. Cisco bought out Linksys and ever since then the routers have been terrible.
]]>The plus side is that the wired ports work fine still. The wireless was for guests anyways, now I just run a 50ft of cat5 to their laptop.
]]>Hey, you made it longer than I did.
I purchased an 802.11n Linksys router, because I thought I was having problems with my current "WiFi-n" Netgear router. (Turns out the crappy Broadcom card on my crappy Dell laptop is just... crappy.) I plugged in the Linksys, and accessed the router's config page. What a mess. It looked like some high school student's "Intro to teh Internetz 100" webpage project. The interface was horrible, and options were buried within layers. My Netgear's interface is much more streamlined and easy to navigate.
Needless to say I kept my Netgear and returned the Linksuck. Pitty. Cisco churns out quality hardware; too bad their consumer division leaves a little to be desired.
]]>@johnsakalauskas: Yeah, I have the WRT54-GL with DDWRT and it works great for all of my needs. The stock firmware doesn't let you access a lot of the areas that allow you to improve the router's functionality substancially in some cases.
Though I do hear that a lot of the new Linksys routers are a bit flakey since they scaled back the amount of RAM, and other features.
]]>The D-Link DIR-625 looks decent for the price. ($56.27) [www.amazon.com]
]]>Somehow I accumulated 3 WRT54G routers of differing hardware revs. I needed a wireless bridge to connect my Netflix-enabled Blu-ray player to my Internet connection. I installed DD-WRT on one of them and within about 15 minutes I had it working.
I have FiOS so unfortunately I have to use their wireless router or I would have a WRT54G with DD-WRT on that end too. (Yes, I know you can tweak things so that you can use your own router with FiOS but it isn't worth the trouble to me to get it working.)
I've also used Netgear and D-Link routers using their own firmware instead of DD-WRT. I never had a problem with the Netgear, though the older ones required a silly Windows-only app to configure it (now you can skip that and configure it with a browser). The D-Link was a POS. If you had to reboot it (which was about once a week), it would take about a dozen power cycles before it would come back up.
]]>To the OP: this issue does seem like interference. Perhaps you could try the router in a different location and see if it works? Having multiple routers display the same symptoms is very unlikely.
]]>Linksys = bad router.
Linksys + custom firmware(DD-WRT, etc...) = great router.
]]>That said, I also tend to do some research before buying things. The N series (3xx and 6xx) of Linksys routers have uniformly bad reviews no matter where you look. They have heat (and therefore reliability) issues.
In this case, the OP had a double whammy. Exposure to bad outsourced support but due to buying universally bad hardware. Since the hardware is so bad, replacements will also be bad.
I must also note one more thing: I **ONLY** buy Linksys. I am not a linksys basher. But I do my research and know to stay with the "G" line until they figure out their bugs.
]]>Personally, I go to great lengths to avoid cable modem/router/wap combos such as WRT54G. My current home network node consists of Linksys CM100 cable modem, Cisco 871 Router and Cisco 1242 wireless access point - wouldn't you believe it, it's solid like rock of Alcatraz (though admittedly it's far from cheapest solution).
]]>I've had my Linksys for 5 years with no problems.
This is the first time I've heard anything negative about their routers. The general consensus among IT-types is Linksys is the best. Can't speak to their customer support, but as far as reliable hardware...they're #1.
Why knock the most reliable brand of a product? It's like someone saying, "Christoff knew the dangers, but he went ahead anyway. He bought a Toyota". This makes no sense.
]]>I will admit that Linksys routers are a little buggy some times. Ours needs to be reset every once in awhile but its still better than that 2Wire we had.
]]>On a serious note, my linksys router has been working great for years. I use a 3rd party firmware though.
]]>@steveliv: My WRH54G has been running DDWRT since last summer. I recommend it over the stock firmware.
]]>A product is more than the hardware and software, just like value is more than just price. A company sets itself apart by the way it treats its customers.
Linksys, you disappoint the Consumerists. Shame on you, but congrats on being a potential Dark Horse entry into the 2010 Worst Company in America tournament!
]]>I haven't ever had to deal with their tech support, but this isn't surprising.
]]>@frari489: weirdly, I've had my current LinkSys for 3 years, and my previous one for 5, and never had a problem with either. Maybe I'm just lucky?
]]>my Netgear WNR834B refurb costed $25, loaded it up with DD-WRT.... a lot of stuff to play with (QoS, WiFi management... even played with my friends by redirecting facebook.com to myspace's IP :P)
]]>Any recommendations for a good wireless N router?
]]>The apple on I have now has worked great so far.
]]>