All Linksys E series routers work on the N technology. You can get wireless speed up to 300 Mbps. You can connect wireless computers, wireless printers and other Wi-Fi devices up to 300 Mbps. Linksys E1000 is nothing but Linksys WRT160N router with a new Cisco connect software.
All the E series routers have Gigabit Ethernet ports which can give you speed up to 1000 Mbps wired connection speed. E1000 router works on 2.4 GHz wireless signal. E2100L router also works on 2.4 GHz wireless signal. This router has a USB port on it. You can connect the USB hard drive to the router and share the hard drive with all the computers connected in the network. E2000 and E3000 routers work on 2.4 GHz as well as 5 GHz powerful wireless signal. You can connect your gaming devices, blue ray players, DVR system to this router for smoother and faster video streaming.
Linksys E1000 router setup:
All the E series routers come with the great Cisco connect software for the easy installation. Before installing the router, make sure that your Internet is working properly through the modem. Connect your computer directly to the modem and try to go on line. If you are able to access the Internet from the modem, then your Internet is working properly. Now insert the CD in to the same computer. Do not run the CD on any other computer. Use the same computer that you used to connect to the modem. Follow the steps of the CD. It may not ask you to connect the computer to the router. But it is recommended that you should connect your computer to the router for the initial set up of the router. You will need to connect the computer to one of the Ethernet port on the router and the modem to the Internet port on the router. That means there will be 2 connections to the router. Now go to the next step on the set up CD. It will take up to 5 minutes to set up the router.
Definitely you can setup the router without CD also. You just need to open the setup page of the router and change the settings manually.
The Cisco connect software is a very intelligent tool. It will check your Internet connection settings and it will try to set up your router automatically according to those settings. It will also create wireless network automatically with the unique network name and password. On the final step you will see that the router is set up successfully. It will open the window where you can check the settings of the router. It will create an option on your computer in the all program list. If you want to change the settings of the wireless network, you can open the Cisco connect software and change the settings.
The Cisco connect software will run only on Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 or better, Windows 7, Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.9, Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11, Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8, Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.1.
This software will also give you option of parental control where you can limit the access to the Internet according to time as well as websites. This software is capable of creating a guest network access. You can limit the number of guest computers. The guest wireless network will be totally a different wireless network. This guest network works on different IP address range so that the guest people can not share your main wireless network. The guest will not be able to access the router settings or the computers in the main network. But you can set up the Guest network only if you run the Cisco connect software.
Once you have the main computer up and running through the router. You can use a small flash drive to create a set up key. On your other wireless computer, connect this USB set up key and run the program. It will connect your computer to the wireless network automatically. It will search for the wireless network and it will connect on its own. You don’t need to do anything. You can run the USB set up key only if the wireless connection is managed by the windows connection manager. If you change the wireless settings of the router using the set up page of the router, the Cisco connect software will stop working.
If you are not able to set up the router using the Cisco connect software, you can set up the router manually. But you will not be able to use the advantages of Cisco connect software like USB set up key or Guest network access. You can open the set up page of the router and change the Internet connection settings manually according to the Internet service provider.
The hardware warranty for Linksys E series router is 1 year but the free technical support is only for 90 days.