If your home network has grown from one or two users to multiple clients including smartphones, gaming consoles, and laptops, it's time to upgrade to a dual-band router. If you do a lot of video streaming and online gaming, you'll need a good midrange router such as the Linksys EA7500 Max-Stream AC1900 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router ($119.99 at Amazon) , but at $199.99 it's not exactly cheap. The Linksys EA6100 AC1200 Dual-Band Smart Wi-Fi Router ($89.99), on the other hand, offers multi-band wireless networking with good 2.4GHz throughput for under $90, but with its low price comes sacrifice; its 5GHz throughput and feature set are lackluster and can't match our top pick for budget routers, the D-Link AC1200 Wi-Fi Router (DIR-842) ($59.99 at Amazon) .

Design and Features

At 1.5 by 6.8 by 7.8 inches (HWD) the EA6100 isn't quite as wide as the D-Link Dir-842 (1.2 by 8.9 by 6 inches) but it has a bit more depth. The black enclosure has two non-removable adjustable antennas and houses four wired LAN ports, a USB 2.0 port, a WAN (Internet) port, a small activity indicator LED, and a power switch. The LAN ports are Fast Ethernet (10/100) rather than the faster Gigabit (10/100/1000) LAN ports. Under the hood are a MediaTek chipset with a 580MHz CPU and AC1200 circuitry capable of speeds of up to 300Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 867Mbps on the 5GHz band. A reset button can be found on the bottom of the router.

The router uses the same user-friendly Smart Wi-Fi Web interface as the Linksys WRT 1200AC router ($146.49 at Amazon) . The console uses widgets to let you enable guest networking and parental controls, view wireless and LAN network status, enable QoS settings, and check external storage status. Wireless settings include SSID naming, network mode, security mode (WEP, and WPA2 Enterprise and Personal), and MAC Address filtering. Security settings allow you to enable IPv4 and IPv6 firewalls, configure DMZ settings, and set up port forwarding, while the Media Prioritization screen lets you decide which applications, games, and client devices will receive network priority for optimal performance. Other settings include screens for troubleshooting network problems, configuring external storage options, and testing the router's upload and download speeds.

Installation and Performance

A snap to install, I attached the EA6100 to my PC using the included LAN cable, connected it to my Internet source, and typed linksyssmartwifi.com in my browser's address bar. This launches the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Setup utility, which walks you through basic Internet connectivity and wireless security settings.

Performance on our throughput tests was mixed. The EA6100's score of 77.4Mbps on the 2.4GHz close proximity (same room) test was the highest of all budget routers, narrowly edging out the Netgear AC1200 Smart Wi-Fi Router (R6220) ($39.99 at Amazon) (74.1Mbps) and the D-Link DIR-842 (75Mbps), and beating the Amped Wireless High Power Wireless-N 600mW Gigabit Router (R10000G) ($19.90 at Amazon) (59.2Mbps) and the Tenda F3 N300 Wireless Router ($18.36 at Amazon) (48.5Mbps). The EA6100 scored 40.2Mbps on the 30-foot test, coming in just behind the NetGear R6220 (48.3Mbps), the D-Link DIR-842 (41.5Mbps), and the Tenda F3 (40.6Mbps), but beating the Amped Wireless R10000G (38.6Mbps).

Performance on our 5GHz close proximity throughput test was inexplicably slow. The router scored 95.1Mbps compared with the Netgear R6220's score of 331Mbps and the D-Link DIR-842's score of 332Mbps. Its throughput of 86.6Mbps on the 30 foot test was more in line with what you'd expect from a budget router, but still trailed the Netgear R6220 (104Mbps) and the D-Link DIR-842 (111Mbps).

To test file transfer speeds, we move a 15GB folder containing a mix of music, video, photo, and document files between a USB drive and a desktop PC, both of which are directly connected to the router. The EA6100 scored 28.3MBps (read) and 27.4MBps (write), topping the Netgear R6220 (the only other budget router we've tested that has a USB port), which delivered speeds of 25.6MBps (read) and 17.6MBps (write).

Conclusion

With the Linksys EA6100 AC1200 Dual-Band Smart Wi-Fi Router you get dual-band Wi-Fi networking for under $90, but when it comes to performance, you get what you pay for. Although its 2.4GHz throughput is faster than similarly priced routers, its close-range 5GHz throughput was woefully slow in our testing. Moreover, its four wired LAN ports are Fast Ethernet (10/100) rather than the much faster Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000). Our Editors' Choice for budget routers, the D-Link AC1200 Wi-Fi Router (DIR-842), offers much better 5GHz performance and is equipped with four Gigabit Ethernet ports, plus it costs $30 less.

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Further Reading

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• Save 35 Percent on TP-Link AC1750 Smart Wi-Fi Router