Linksys improves their best router and announces the WRT1900ACS

Linksys has just announced that it has refreshed and improved upon its already excellent WRT1900AC.

The new open source-friendly router is now equipped with a faster processor and double the RAM, this is rewarded by the addition of an “S” prefix to its name.

With the WRT1900ACS, Linksys says that it has

…improved upon its best AC1900 wireless router to deliver even better performance with more processing power, more memory, fully open source ready and at an even better price”.

The new WRT ships with Linksys Smart Wi-Fi setup and management tools, and Linksys has also collaborated with Marvell and OpenWrt.org to ensure full open source support in the latest version of OpenWrt’s Chaos Calmer release (15.05) at launch.  The new hardware and multiple software and firmware options make for an unprecedented router with advanced customisation and the promise of blazing fast speeds – Linksys claims 1.3Gbps on the 5 GHz band and up to 600Mpbs on the 2.4 GHz band.

The newly improved WRT1900ACS Dual-Band Gigabit Router is equipped with powerful hardware including a dual-core 1.6 GHz processor, 128MB flash memory, 512MB DDR3 RAM memory, eSATA and USB ports.

The WRT19000ACS retains the previous iteration’s style and would look just as nice sat atop my WRT 8-port switch.

There may be more feature-rich routers out there but, I for one appreciate the focus on getting the basics right. Also, the company’s commitment to open source is commendable.

Pricing and Availability

The new Linksys WRT1900ACS Dual-Band Gigabit Wireless-AC 1900 Router will be available at the Linksys.com store from October 15, 2015. The MSRP is £179.99.

Linksys WRT1900ACS specs at a glance

• 1.6GHz Dual-Core ARM-based Processor

• 128MB Flash

• 512MB DDR3 RAM

• Full Open Source Ready

• OpenWrt Chaos Calmer Support

• Open VPN Server

• PPTP VPN Support

• IPSec Pass-thru

• 4x Gigabit LAN Ports

• 1x Gigabit WAN Port

• 1x USB 3.0 Port

• 1x eSATA/USB 2.0 Port

• 2.4GHz and 5GHz Simultaneous Dual-Band

• 64/128-bit WEP

• WPA/WPA2-Personal and Enterprise