Linksys - Velop AX5300 (MX5300)

Hardwired backhaul seems to always be the answer that is pushed on here but sometimes it's just not an option and/or not worth the hassle. I have been using a Linksys wifi6 mesh in my 3400 sq foot house for several years and never had a problem. Get a solid connection everywhere in the house with good throughput. The construction of my house would make it difficult to run wires but it's just not worth the hassle even if I could.

Yeah, these can all be part of a Velop mesh even though it's unofficial for the LN1301 it'll just work with any of their other Velop capable routers if you do the CA trick. You can run a surprisingly ridiculous mishmash of Linksys routers in a mesh.

In 220 sqm, you shouldn't need more than 3 nodes, unless you want more coverage outside, but with too many as you've already experience, they will sometime fight for the best signal, even more so when they are just wifi based. If you can get more Cat6 installed, the location of the router (primary node) becomes irrelevant since they will all share the same exact signal with the same bandwidth so you should be able to test it now and confirm better coverage. If you have baseboards, they make 1/4 round that has channels in them where you can hide the Cat 6, and if that's not an option there are some manufacturers who make flat cables. As for me personally, both system have been challenging but that is more related to my own person situation than the hardware. The Linksys Velop system started out great, but as my need for IoT devices grew, the system struggled a bit. I came to find out well after the fact, the nodes which I thought I set up as wired, someone defaulted back to wireless which impact my bandwidth for devices connected to it. I ended up giving them to my inlaws since the coverage at their home sucked and they have been working perfectly since. I moved over to the Night Hawk system on the recommendation of a friend who has their gaming router and overall it has been really good. It took a lot of additional setup and tweaking to get it up and running at full capacity. The biggest challenge I had (again my own issue, not product issue), was I forgot how many of my IoT devices only run off 2.4 gHz. The Night Hawk system (unlike the Velop) has a default SSID that combines the 2.4 and 5 gHz bands. The Velop had these automatically separate with different SSID's. Due to this, some of my IoT devices had trouble connecting and I regularly lost their signal. (see Ring Cameras, smart switches/outlets, etc) so this meant I had to reconfigure my network with customized networks. But on the Nighthawk system this works differently than I was used to. The main 2.4/5 ghz network will always remain, so I had to create a custom standalone 2.4ghz network and then reconnect all my IoT devices to that. This was a tedious effort, but again, this was my fault, not the hardware/software. Since I have finally got all of that figured out, its run flawlessly. I have a 1GB fiber line. If the device is hardwired, I will get 850 Mbps (up and down) on average (www.speedtest.net). On a wireless device it will vary from 100Mbps to 500Mbps which is dependent on how much bandwidth is being used at any give time. The coverage is better than the Velop overall. I have a few friends who have the Orbi systems and swear by them. Since I run a lot of wired, I wanted some more raw high performance in certain locations. (Night Hawk lets you prioritize devices better IMO) I both game and run a home theater server so I stream not only from the net, but also across the network from that service to 4 different locations in the house. Even if they are all running at the same time, the wired connection means they don't bog down and don't impact the wireless bandwidth that is remaining. The Orbi overperforms with wifi only based stuff and provides a stable network across a larger area. From what I understand the setup is also easier on the Orbi. If and when my night hawk system dies, I will seriously consider and Orbi system but thats not going to be for quite a long time.

I had a TP-Link BE85 setup before this and returned it because of constant disconnects which is a known issue with them. I felt like their speeds were higher than Eero but the disconnects and the complexity of three separate SSID’s versus a single one made Eero a better choice. Prior to that, I owned an AMPLIFI Alien setup that I really liked. One of my units started having issues and needed replaced after several years. AMPLIFI has decided not to continue supporting the Alien product anymore so that was stuck on WiFi 6. Before the AMPLIFI setup I owned a Linksys Velop system and it was absolute trash. I don’t think there is a such thing as a perfect mesh system because if there was I would have bought it. That being said, I am sharing the same frustrations as you with the recent firmware updates.

I'm in the same boat -- I have a Linksys Velop system. It's been garbage since I bought it. Just FYI, I'm considering Eero (I actually owned an Eero system previously) and also Ubiquiti UniFi. The UniFi seems really solid but requires PoE (which I don't have now), so I'm considering whether it's worth adding that into the mess and worth any potential upside.

We recently moved into a new home and now have gigabit internet. I have tried two different systems so far: the Linksys Velop system with two points. I would only get the speed I pay for in the room the router is in, but as soon as I go into the next room, it drops to around 200 mbps. Upstairs, it drops even further, even with the second point, unless you are hardwired into the second point. I am currently using the Nest Wifi router with four points, but I now only get a maximum speed of 500 Mbps downstairs and 150 Mbps upstairs, even with two points upstairs. Unfortunately, the Nest points don't have Ethernet, so I can't check that speed.The house is 1,328 sq ft. I just need a system that gets my speeds better for both downstairs and upstairs, as it is needed in both areas.

We've moved on from that, it's now about the mx5300 (a set of two is sold under mx10600). Less ram, better CPU, 4x4 mimo, 160MHz channel widths on 5G radios. Basically better suited for higher throughput SQM and wireless backhaul.

I guess it goes down to use case. More ram and flash is good if you're doing more than standard wifi, and routing. Which was the original intend of the LN1301 (it has some vpn setup for work from home). But the MX5300 has faster wifi. The MX5300 is more useful for most people.

LN1301 is MX4300, making the MX5300 faster ? in the LN1301 one of the 5GHz radio's 2x2, while both are 4x4 on the 5300.

Installed Deco x68s at my place, x55s at in laws, x55 pros at friends, and Linksys Velops at other friends, all hardwired, rock solid and roaming works flawlessly. All of them having 20-30+ clients.