Linksys EA6900 Wireless AC Router SMART Wi-Fi Dual Band AC1900 Reviewed

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Features

The EA6900's feature set is essentially unchanged from its "SMART" predecessors. Part 1 of the EA6500 review has all the details. Signing up for a SMART Wi-Fi account remains purely optional. You have access to all router admin features via a the "local access" link shown in the screenshot below.

EA6900 admin login

Here's a summary of the EA6900's base feature set. This includes only the set of built-in "Smart Wi-Fi Tools":

Routing / Firewall

Static and Dynamic IP, PPPoE and PPTP WAN connections (IPv4)
Automatic, 6rd tunnel (IPv6)
MTU Adjust on all connection types
WAN MAC address clone
WAN IP release / renew both IPv4 and IPv6
DHCP Server, lease time setting, default domain and primary/secondary DNS
DHCP Client list
DHCP reservation
NAT enable / disable
Separate SPI firewall enable / disable for IPv4 and IPv6
Single port forwarding with separate source and destination ports
Port range forwarding and triggered port range forwarding.
IPv6 port range forwarding
DMZ Host with source IP restriction
UPnP enable/disable
DDNS support for Dyndns (www.dyndns.org) and TZO (www.tzodns.com)
VPN Passthrough enable/disable for IPSec, PPTP, L2TP
Application Layer Gateway enable/disable for SIP
Internet filters for multicast, NAT redirection, Ident, anonymous requests (pings)
Remote Management with HTTPS option
Cut Through Forwarding enable/disable (enabled by default)
Static routes

Administration

IPv4 ping, Traceroute tools
Router reboot
Configuration backup / restore
Previous firmware restore

QoS

Drag and drop prioritization for devices, services and games. High and normal priority levels.

Access / Parental Control

Per-device Schedulable internet access control
Web domain blocking (not schedulable)

USB features

SMB storage sharing
Network USB Print server
Media server
FTP server
Share access control by user

Take a quick run through the annotated admin screenshots in the gallery below if you'd like a closer look at the EA6900's configuration features.

This screen lets you log in without creating a Smart WiFi Account.
This screen is for creating a Smart WiFi Account and logging into it.
IPv6 internet connection types are pretty limited.IPv4 types supported are static, DHCP, PPPoE, PPTP, L2TP and Bridge
Some basic settings are collected into this screen.
Basic diagnostic tools.
You get Incoming, Outgoing, Security and DHCP logs that can be viewed as shown or in a separte browser window. But with no way to filter or collate the information and no reverse DNS lookups, you would be hard-pressed to get any useful information from the logs.
These are all the wireless settings you get. No transmit power adjust. No bridging or repeating. The MAC Filtering list can be set for ALLOW or DENY, but there is no pick list provided. Enabling MAC Filtering disables WPS.
WPS controls are very simple. You can't specify the band or reset the registrar.
Firewall controls include both IPv4 and IPv6 settings. Note the simple IPv6 port forwarding.
Note the ability to limit the source IP addresses that can access the DMZ host.
DynDNS.org settings shown. TZO.com is also supported.
Single port forwards let you set both external (source) and internal (destination) ports. There is no scheduling.
Port range forwarding does not let you set both external (source) and internal (destination) ports.
Triggered port forwarding can monitor and forward port ranges.
This built-in app shows connected devices. Clicking on a device shows Manufacturer, Model, OS, IP address and MAC address.
Wireless guest access is for 2.4 GHz only.
The built-in parental controls are basic. If you want something more advanced you need to use a third-party like OpenDNS or one of the Smart Wi-Fi Apps.
You drag and drop devices, applications and games to the high priority box to, uh, prioritize their traffic.
The OOKLA speed test is easy to use.
Basic status screen. Select drive: appears when more than one drive is attached..
Set folder access permissions with this screen. I was not able to set permissions for folders on a drive.
FTP controls are very simple. There is no SFTP option.
Select media folders to be scanned and select the scan interval. There is no iTunes server.

Wireless features are somewhat limited compared to competing products. There is no physical wireless on/off switch and no timed wireless enable / disable, but you can shut off each radio in the GUI. There is no transmit power adjust and no support for WDS bridging / repeating or client-based bridge (no WDS required). By using the Internet connection Bridge option, you can easily convert the EA6900 to an access point.

EA6900 wireless settings

Table 2 has a summary of the wireless settings for your reference. Note that there is no TurboQAM enable / disable for the 2.4 GHz radio. It is enabled by default.

Setting	2.4 GHz	5 GHz
Channel	Auto [default] 1 - 11	Auto [default] 36, 40, 44, 48 149, 153, 157, 161, 165
Channel Width	Auto [default] 20 MHz only	Auto 20 MHz only 40 MHz 80 MHz [default]
Network Mode	Mixed [default] Wireless-N only Wireless-G only	Mixed [default] Wireless-N only Wireless-AC only
Security	None WEP (abg modes only) WPA Personal WPA Enterprise WPA2 Personal WPA2 Enterprise WPA2/WPA Mixed Personal WPA2/WPA Mixed Enterprise

Table 2: Wireless settings summary

Storage Performance

Like the NETGEAR and ASUS, the EA6900 has one USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0. I had some tough going testing the EA6900. I started by connecting my standard USB drive (Startech USB 3.0 eSATA to SATA Hard Drive Docking Station [SATDOCKU3SEF] with a WD Velociraptor WD3000HLFS 300 GB drive) and was able to run tests fine with the drive formatted NTFS and connected to both the USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports.

But after I removed the drive and formatted it on a Win 7 system for FAT32, the EA6900 refused to mount the drive ever again. No matter how may router reboots, drive reformats, partition deletes and changes between FAT32 and NTFS I did, the drive would not mount. So I had to fall back to using a 500 GB WD My Passport (WDBKXH5000ABK-01). I ran tests with the drive formatted in FAT32 and NTFS and connected to both USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports.

Windows filecopy tests were run using the standard NAS testbed connected to a router Gigabit LAN port and the standard USB drive formatted in FAT32 and NTFS [NAS test details]. Tests were run connected with the USB drive connected to both the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports.

Table 1 summarizes USB 2.0 performance and includes the EA6900's AC1900 competitors. The NETGEAR clearly wins in this comparison.

	Linksys EA6900	NETGEAR R7000	ASUS RT-AC68U
Processor	Broadcom BCM4708A	Broadcom BCM4709A	Broadcom BCM4708A
FAT32 Write (MBytes/s)	14.5	24.8	11.8
FAT32 Read (MBytes/s)	21.0	27.8	24.0
NTFS Write (MBytes/s)	17.2	27.9	23.7
NTFS Read (MBytes/s)	21.2	27.9	24.2

Table 1: File copy throughput - USB 2.0 (MBytes/sec)

Switching to USB 3.0 results, it's clear that the NETGEAR wins again. But comparing the EA6900's USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 results leads me to believe that the router didn't access the drive at USB 3.0 speeds.

	Linksys EA6900	NETGEAR R7000	ASUS RT-AC68U
Processor	Broadcom BCM4708A	Broadcom BCM4709A	Broadcom BCM4708A
FAT32 Write (MBytes/s)	15.6	33.4	11.7*
FAT32 Read (MBytes/s)	22.1	57.4	21.6*
NTFS Write (MBytes/s)	17.4	36.8	23.6*
NTFS Read (MBytes/s)	22.4	57.7	24.3*

Table 2: File copy throughput - USB 3.0 (MBytes/sec)
* = "Reducing USB 3.0 interference" setting enabled

I'm not sure what the problem is, since the EA6900 certainly has sufficiently shielded the USB 3.0 connector. Could be that the USB driver needs some further work.

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Features

EA6900 admin login

EA6900 wireless settings

Table 2: Wireless settings summary

Storage Performance

Table 1: File copy throughput - USB 2.0 (MBytes/sec)

Table 2: File copy throughput - USB 3.0 (MBytes/sec)
* = "Reducing USB 3.0 interference" setting enabled

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Features

EA6900 admin login

EA6900 wireless settings

Table 2: Wireless settings summary

Storage Performance

Table 1: File copy throughput - USB 2.0 (MBytes/sec)

Table 2: File copy throughput - USB 3.0 (MBytes/sec) * = "Reducing USB 3.0 interference" setting enabled

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Table 2: File copy throughput - USB 3.0 (MBytes/sec)
* = "Reducing USB 3.0 interference" setting enabled