Just got myself a Linksys E4200!

Just got myself a Linksys E4200 for Christmas! So excited since I've read some great reviews on this gem. It looks like it supports both Tomato and DD-WRT now. However, I am debating on whether to keep original firmware or go with aftermarket firmwares. I'm a big fan of Tomato and DD-WRT and just need it for basic internet WITHOUT having to reboot. To all owners of this router, why did you chose to go with original firmware, Tomato, DD-WRT, etc.?

 

Skip DD-WRT- it's way too heavy and has serious performance issues.
No point in buying a high performance router and running it on a slow firmware.

 

I agree. I had an Asus RT-N16 w/ DD-WRT and it had to almost reboot every week--two weeks on a good boot. Then I installed TomatoUSB on it and it's been pretty rock solid. I thought it might just depend on the router, so it's kind of a "try and see" thing.

 

I do not have the E4200, i do have the E3000 and i'm running on stock firmware. My approach is to try the stock firmware and if it is stable and does what i need it to do, then i stick with it. My E3000 has been working great on the stock firmware and given the transfer speeds i have with it, i'm rather hesitant to mess with the firmware

 

Yea, I have the E3000 as well. And tbh I don't use 75% of the features dd-wrt has. The main thing for me is to increase the power for signal strength.

For the rebooting thing; I see a big improvement over the wrt54g which I had...I hardly ever have to reboot the E3000.

So I guess it depends on what your needs are whether to go with third-party fw or not. I've never tried Tomato though.

 

I've owned an E4200 for a while now, replaced my Dlink DIR-825 with it. Run stock firmware and works fine. But I'm not power user. I bought this router for its range in the 2.4Ghz band. I've tweaked all my settings and have since only had to reboot to do updates. I've never had an issue with it crashing or dropping signal. I am thinking about getting a few of those RE-1000 range extenders.

 

The stock firmware has been rock solid so far. No complaints. I really want TomatoUSB on the E4200 to utilize the USB printer though, but then I have to sacrifice 5GHz not being supported. I just wish they have support for it in the future. So in the end, if I want the USB printer feature and 5GHz, I would have to go with DD-WRT. Perhaps I should try it.

 

Not really. Check out Cisco connect software.

Spoiler

Cisco Consumer Products

Product: E4200

Classification: Firmware Release History

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMPORTANT:
- The safest way to perform the firmware upgrade is to use a wired computer.
- DO NOT power cycle the Router during the firmware upgrade process.

===========================================================================
Last Release Date: Sept 28, 2011
Last Firmware version: 1.0.03 (build 14)

- Added supports of Native IPv6 over PPPoE Internet connection when only keep
alive option is selected.
- Added supports of Native IPv6 on guest network if there are more than two
available IPv6 subnets
- Added supports of Native IPv6 on Parental Control
- Added supports of 3TB Hard drive with NTFS and HFS+ format
- Improved firmware upgrade stability
- Improved IPv6 WAN performance
- Fixed media server unstable issue
- Fixed Cisco LED flashing issue
- Fixed some minor bugs
- DLNA certified
- UPnP certified
- This build is certified with the IPv6 Ready Logo Phase-2 (Gold).

===========================================================================
Release Date: June 14, 2011
Firmware version: 1.0.02 (build 13)

- Added support of USB printer connected to the router's USB port, so that
a user may send a print job to the printer via the local area network.
** This feature requires Cisco connect software v1.4 or later **
- Added support of Native IPv6 and 6rd tunnel Internet connections
- Added supports of bridge mode
- Prevented devices on the guest network to access any private IP
address (RFC 1918)
- Updated wireless driver to improve interoperability
- Fixed some storage relative issues
- Fixed some browser-based configuration utility bugs
- Fixed some minor bugs

 

Thanks! I didn't realize that it is supported in the stock firmware. Browsing through the router's interface does not look like it is supported, so I assumed it wasn't.

 

And it should be- I have no idea why Linksys people keep adding features that are available only via software (that I don't want to use).

They used to do that with guest SSID and now printer sharing.
Routers should not require any additional software- HTML browser and TCP/IP- that's enough standards.

 

Totally agree! I just updated the firmware on the router to 1.0.003 (build 14). I've been going through the Cisco Connect program for almost an hour already--such a headache! The router recognized my printer and then I tried printing, but it's not printing. Then I removed the printer from my "Devices and Printers" to start over. The Cisco Connect program cannot detect the printer anymore. Instead I get this:

Code:

Error code: 80004005
Model name: Linksys E4200
Model number: E4200
Serial number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Firmware version: 1.0.03 build 14
Operating system: Windows 7
Software version: 1.4.11266.0
Connection type (WAN): DHCP
IP address (LAN): 192.168.1.1
IP address (WAN): xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Computer IP address: 192.168.1.105

UPDATE:

It looks like I can only set it up via ethernet cable connected to the router. Wireless setup won't detect the printer. Also, I can only print via ethernet cable, not wireless. :[ What gives?

 

I had very bad performance with my E4200 and it seemed the latest 1.0.0.5 firmware was the cause. Slow web browsing, slow to a crawl I mean it was awful

Back on the stock firmware 1.0.0.1 and everything is back to super speedy again