Linksys Atlas 6 review

Linksys’s new Atlas 6 (MX2000) is a Wi-Fi 6 mesh system that’s comparatively near entry-level, however provides fairly a number of options – and higher efficiency – than absolutely the most cost-effective Wi-Fi 6 mesh kits. It’s rival to the likes of the Amazon-owned Eero 6, promising quick Wi-Fi and whole-home protection for a worth many can afford.

What’s extra, every ‘node’ (every router) within the three-pack machine has 4 Ethernet LAN ports, which implies you may hook up PCs, TV set-top packing containers and every other units that don’t have Wi-Fi however do have to be related to the web. Most mesh Wi-Fi techniques at this worth have one Ethernet port, or two should you’re fortunate.

The Atlas 6 is a dual-band mesh Wi-Fi system, which signifies that it has 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi.

In costlier tri-band mesh Wi-Fi techniques (in Linksys’s vary, these are the Velop kits) there’s an additional 5GHz channel reserved particularly for the mesh Wi-Fi items to speak with each other, leaving the opposite for beaming Netflix to your cellphone, or no matter it’s you’re doing.

With a dual-band system, all the additional information {that a} mesh Wi-Fi system has to ship round merely with a view to perform should use that sole 5GHz motorway lane, lowering the bandwidth out there for consumer information. This isn’t uncommon on cheaper mesh Wi-Fi kits, and it doesn’t imply you shouldn’t purchase one.

And on the plus aspect, the Atlas 6 helps wired backhaul, so if your own home already has community ports in some rooms, or in case you have Ethernet cables lengthy sufficient, you may mitigate the shortage of devoted wi-fi backhaul by sending that information over Ethernet cables.

If you happen to assume this form of arrange renders mesh Wi-Fi considerably pointless, don’t be too fast to put in writing it off. In bigger houses, or these with thick concrete flooring or partitions, the place Wi-Fi struggles to achieve even the subsequent room, wired backhaul is usually a life-saver. And the Atlas 6 is arguably a extra tempting possibility should you do plan to do that because it has these further Ethernet ports, saving you from the additional expense and problem of hooking up Ethernet hubs, which you’ll must with, say the Eero 6 if it is advisable join a number of wired units to a specific node.

Nonetheless the nodes are related, the Atlas 6 is an AX3000 system, which implies it’s able to a theoretical prime Wi-Fi pace of 574Mbps on the two.4GHz band and 2402Mbps on the 5GHz band utilizing 2×2 spatial streams. The speeds you’ll truly get depend upon a wide range of components together with the Wi-Fi capabilities of your telephones, tablets, and laptops, in addition to how far-off these units are positioned from the nodes, plus bodily obstacles in your house – such because the partitions and flooring already talked about.

The three-pack Linksys despatched over for this evaluate guarantees protection as much as 6,000 sq. toes (557 sq. metres), and prices round $350/£250. 

If you happen to don’t want that a lot protection, then a two-pack is round $280/£190, and single items are $150/£110, which promise 4,000 sq. toes (371 sq. metres), 2,000 sq. toes (185 sq. metres) respectively. 

So, these are the important thing specs, however what’s the Atlas 6 like to make use of in the true world? Let’s dive in.

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Design & construct

• 243 x 102 x 207mm white towers
• Three Ethernet LAN ports, one WAN 
• Inner antennas 

The Linksys Atlas items have the identical primary design as Linksys’s Velop kits. Standing slightly below 25cm tall, the Atlas 6 items don’t take up loads of area on a shelf or desk. They weigh 1.2kg every and have heavy bases with rubberised toes, in order that they’re not simply knocked over, though having mentioned that, I can verify that also they are not solely cat-proof.

The highest of every unit options round vents for warmth to flee, and a standing LED that tells you if the node has web connectivity and respectable sign power (blue), if the web connection is down (pink), or if there’s a weak connection (yellow and orange). 

On the again is a column of Ethernet ports, all clearly labelled, so you realize which port to make use of to attach the principle node to your modem (web), and which of them to make use of to attach your good TVs, consoles, soundbars, good thermostats, or no matter else can profit from a wired connection (Ethernet).

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Setup 

• Fast and straightforward to put in 
• Linksys app offers step-by-step directions 

The Linksys Atlas 6 may be very straightforward to arrange, thanks largely to the Linksys Sensible WiFi app (iOS, Android) that guides you thru each step of the method. 

First you plug within the first node’s energy provide and switch it on. It doesn’t matter which one you choose, should you’ve bought a 2 or 3-pack bundle, as every unit is identical. 

The is node turns into the ‘major’ and is the one you’ll put within the room the place your modem (or current Wi-Fi router) is already arrange. The Atlas 6 doesn’t exchange your present router (or modem) however merely connects to it to get an web connection.

An Ethernet cable is included within the field. 

As soon as completed, you put in and launch the Linksys app, hook up with the first node through Wi-Fi, and also you’ll be prompted to change in your modem (if it isn’t already). When an web connection has been established, you’ll then be requested to create a brand new community identify (SSID) and Wi-Fi password. 

You should utilize the identical one as your present router if you need, and this may imply telephones and different units will robotically hook up with the brand new Wi-Fi community with out you having to alter the Wi-Fi particulars on all of them.

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Then you definately’ll be prepared to start out inserting extra nodes round your own home. Hit ‘Add Node’, plug the machine into the mains, and switch it on. As soon as it’s powered on and your cellphone detects the node’s Wi-Fi sign, the app will immediate you to pair the 2 units, after which take a couple of minutes doing so.

If the app thinks {that a} node might be positioned someplace else in your house, it’ll let you know, and provide you with a congratulatory message when you’ve discovered a extra optimum place. 

Options and utilizing the Linksys app

• Channel Finder seems to be for the least congested wi-fi channels 
• Dashboard provides you an in depth overview of your community 
• Traditional options like Visitor WiFi, port forwarding, and parental controls

Like many fashionable routers, the Altas 6 {hardware} helps band steering, which sees units nudged in the direction of the 5GHz frequency the place doable. There’s additionally a Channel Finder device, which scans each the two.4GHz and 5GHz bands, and robotically selects the least-congested channels inside these radio bands. 

For instance, once I ran the Channel Finder device, one of many nodes switched from Channel 13 to Channel 11 on the two.4GHz band.

It is a helpful characteristic, particularly should you’re surrounded by different houses – maybe in an condo or terraced home – and there’s a number of Wi-Fi interference out of your neighbours. You’ll wish to usually run this to be sure to’re getting the perfect wi-fi connections doable. 

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You’re not given a lot details about channel availability and native WiFi interference — for that you just’d want one thing like Apple’s AirPort Utility or the WiFi Velocity Check app for Android — and nor does the Linksys app allow you to manually change channels. That is barely irritating, particularly should you occur to know {that a} particular channel or block of channels is much less congested than the one(s) you’re at the moment utilizing. Nonetheless, most individuals don’t set this manually, and even wish to know: they need a device like this to work it out for them.

There’s additionally the choice to toggle DFS (Dynamic Frequency Choice), which helps you to entry parts of the 5GHz band that are additionally used for issues like radar and climate stations, though in testing, having this turned on or off didn’t appear to make a lot distinction – my telephones and different units had been all the time caught on Channel 40 and Channel 44 within the 5GHz band. However you might profit in your explicit location.

The Linksys app additionally provides you overview of the units at the moment related, which radio band they’re utilizing, and which node they’re at the moment related to. From right here, you may prioritise site visitors and/or apply parental controls to particular units, though these instruments are each fairly primary — you may solely prioritise as much as three units on the community, and the parental controls are restricted to setting homework hours, and a easy content material filter. Whereas a helpful free device, requires you to manually add particular URLs. Chances are you’ll desire to make use of parental management software program in your children’ units as a substitute. 

The Community Administration web page permits you to test on the sign power of the precise nodes, and whereas the standing LEDs are visible indicator that tells you one thing’s awry with out the app. However with the app you may see simply how unhealthy the alerts is by way of RSSI values — learn our methods to test Wi-Fi sign power information for extra on this. 

There’s the choice to have a separate Visitor Wi-Fi community with a special identify and password, and this takes lower than a minute to arrange and activate or off. 

Typically talking, should you ever do must restart the Atlas 6 system for no matter motive, it doesn’t take lengthy to for the entire system to restart and get again on its toes. Single port forwarding, port vary forwarding and port vary triggering may also be arrange from the cellular app. 

The Linksys app is de facto excellent, rather a lot higher than many others, largely as a result of the truth that it places the nice majority of stuff you’d wish to test and configure at your fingertips. Something that saves you from having to enter 192.168.0.1 right into a desktop internet browser and open up the common management panel is a plus, though you’ll must resort to that if you wish to tinker with DNS settings. 

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Efficiency 

• Round 1,000Mbps at shut ranges on newer units 
• Anticipate to get round 500-700Mbps on the identical vary on older tech
• At larger distances, speeds are comparable with cheaper techniques

The Linksys Atlas 6 is a WiFi 6 AX3000 machine, and so is theoretically able to delivering prime speeds of 574Mbps on the two.4GHz band and 2402Mbps. 

I didn’t count on to see these speeds throughout testing, however was please to search out that – for a dual-band system – efficiency was nonetheless fairly quick.

To get the perfect efficiency, it helps in case you have a Wi-Fi 6 cellphone and laptop computer as effectively which at the least match the Atlas 6. In different phrases, they’ll must have the identical 2×2 antenna configuration, and fortunately, most do. You may see the advantage of this within the ultimate desk the place my Pixel 6 had a connection pace of over 340Mbps even within the backyard.

Beneath are averages (rounded up) of pace checks I took utilizing the WiFi Velocity Check Professional app on a variety of units at areas one metre away from the principle node, then 5 metres away with one non-load bearing wall between the first node and the shoppers, then one flooring and 12 metres away, after which exterior within the backyard, roughly 15 metres away. Velocity checks had been additionally taken with the Virgin Media Tremendous Hub 3, for comparability.

That ought to provide you with an concept of what speeds you may count on, however what about sign power? You may see from the NetSpot warmth map beneath how effectively the Altas 6 distributed protection all through my dwelling. Sign power was fairly uniform all through, and I used to be even capable of choose up serviceable speeds out within the backyard – supreme for once I wish to stream The Gates of Delirium to a Bluetooth speaker, to the detriment of my neighbours.

If the numbers are meaningless to you, which they most likely are, then pink means a robust sign, inexperienced is sweet and darkish blue is weak. Gentle blue – as seen on the prime (the backyard) – is okay once you don’t want quick speeds.

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I wasn’t capable of decide fairly why I couldn’t get speeds near the 1000Mbps+ when stood near the kitchen and workplace nodes, regardless of having the ability to get such speeds when in shut proximity to the major node.

I turned DFS on, to spice up capability within the 5GHz band, and it made no noticeable distinction to the speeds, suggesting that it both wasn’t utilizing the additional frequencies, or that they supplied no further pace. Likewise, I toggled node steering – the place the first node suggests to the opposite nodes which shopper units ought to hook up with which node – and observed no actual distinction in speeds or sign power. 

I’ve encountered related points with dwelling networking gear earlier than, recording gradual speeds on a shopper machine at some point, solely to report a lot sooner ones the subsequent. That is, sadly, Wi-Fi in the true world, with interference coming and going. Additionally, the band steering and node steering algorithms may get higher at ‘determining’ the place my shopper units are in my dwelling. 

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Worth & availability

The Linksys Atlas 6 is that can be purchased now within the US and UK. 

In america you should buy Atlas 6 packs immediately from Linksys, with a single node priced at US$149.99, a two-pack setting you again US$279.99, and a three-pack costing US$349.99. 

Amazon was promoting Linksys Atlas 6 items in single pack, two-pack, and three-pack bundles for US$150.19, US$299.00, and US$349.99 respectively, on the time of evaluate.

It’s additionally that can be purchased from Tech America, with the one pack and two-pack bundles going for barely much less – US$145.00 and US$279.99 – whereas the 3-pack is on for $399.99. 

Within the UK, you’ll discover the Atlas 6 on Linksys’s web site, however you may’t at the moment purchase any of them direct. 

We discovered single Linksys Atlas 6 nodes for £99.99 from Ebuyer and two-packs for £179.99 – the perfect non-offer costs at the moment going – and the three-pack bundle for £249.99.

Amazon UK had single Linksys Atlas 6 units for £108.99, the two-pack for £190.99 and the three-pack deal for £249.99. Field additionally sells the Linksys Atlas 6 three-pack for £249.99. 

CCL On-line sells single, two-pack, and three-pack for £101.72, £183.10, and £254.31, respectively. 

Costs and launch date data for Australia was not out there on the time of writing. 

Verdict

The Linksys Atlas 6 provides a powerful array of options, most of that are straightforward to make use of because of the nice Linksys app. Costs are affordable too.

It isn’t the most affordable Wi-Fi 6 mesh system, however you wouldn’t count on it to be contemplating the options and efficiency it provides. The perfect speeds can be found solely in case you have up-to-date units, however don’t neglect that you just gained’t usually get any profit from speeds which are sooner than your broadband connection.

It’s helpful if you wish to future-proof your Wi-Fi, however it can save you cash in case your broadband is gradual (say, 70Mbps) and also you gained’t be upgrading to a sooner bundle any time quickly.

Finally, the Atlas 6 is nice worth for cash, and an excellent all-round mesh Wi-Fi system.