Review on Enhanced Performance! Linksys E2500 (N600) Advanced Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Router by Sergey Chodavarapu

I did a lot of research before buying a new router and the Linksys E2500 was mentioned all the time. Now that I've had the router for a month, I have to say I'm more disappointed than impressed. My main needs were speed and signal strength. While speed is normal, there are no complaints. Here are the cons: - Poor or intermittent signal strength. I live in a Rambler, 1500 square feet per floor. My router is downstairs in the office. From my upstairs bedroom, the signal is sometimes good, sometimes weak, and I experience a lot of lag when loading. Even when I'm working in my office, literally next to the router, my signal strength only shows two bars. - Difficult to set up. I'm not a computer guru, but I'm fast and smart. Setting up the router turned out to be unexpectedly difficult. Eventually I had Internet access, although my computer couldn't "find" the hardware. I left it like that until it accidentally lost connection and I had to deal with it. After much searching and reading various internet blogs, I finally got it rebooted and restarted like I just took it out of the box and completed the setup. - Awkward parental controls and options. My previous router was an old used Motorola. I was expecting big improvements from this highly rated new router and was disappointed again. My last router had many options for structuring or restricting wireless access to other devices in the house (laptops, iTouchs, etc.), but the E2500 has very limited options. Instead of listing every day, there are only "Weekday" and "Weekday evenings" options. The start time must be selected in the morning and the switch off time in the afternoon. I can't do a 3 hour window in the afternoon or restrict access to Sundays only. Overall I think this is a mediocre router at best and almost not worth the price. For the functionality it offers, I'd rather spend half the money on a basic router.