Linksys AE1000

The Linksys (Cisco) AE1000 adapter is a USB, N adapter that is in the highest purchasing tier for this model series. When I bought it, it was one of the most expensive adapters on the market. This adapter can operate on on a/b/g and n frequencies with a decent range, in my office I get great reception from over a hundred feet away. I matched the adapter with a Linksys E2000 N router. Below I will detail the pros and cons for this duo.

The AE 1000 was easy to install, you can get away with copying the driver files over and ditching the setup software. I will say though, after a few months of having adapter issues (ie wifi not connecting on wake/intermittent connectivity) I found that disabling power suspend on the usb port allowed the adapter to stay away even in sleep. This stopped the driver from corrupting and the service from crashing after wake up. As mentioned before, I paired this high end adapter with its high end equal router - the E2000 N.

I didnt want to get into the review of the E2000 but I must tell you it is an easy pairing, similar to what a person would purchase at a store. This router has internal intenneas that use both 2.4 and 5 ghz bands. The only problem is that the bands are not simultaneous. You must either choose 2.4 or 5 ghz, which can become a problem if you have devices that cant accept 5 and some that can. See my review on the ASUS router for a good alternative.

Back to the adapter. After fixing these problems and seeing its performance, I think its a solid piece of geek horsepower. For the price, I think one can find a similar product that delivers almost the same performance. If you are planning on going long range, even though this router has performed great at 100 plus feet, look at installable PCI adapters.

Geek Shaun, signing off.