Features:

  • Tri-band WiFi router replacement provides whole-home mesh coverage
  • Ideal for multi-story 3-5 bedroom homes (up to 4,000 sq.ft.)
  • Provides fast, reliable WiFi coverage for 4K streaming, gaming and more
  • Connects to your existing modem from any ISP (replaces router)
  • Simple setup through the easy-to-use Linksys App; 6x internal antennas and high powered amplifiers
  • Tri-band connectivity speeds (867 + 867 + 400 Mbps per node)
... I has an asus rt66u and it was a great router but the range was very limited for the ...

So I want to start this review off by saying that I has an asus rt66u and it was a great router but the range was very limited for the size of my home (2200 square feet). So I decided to research mesh units for over 2 months. I researched the Orbi, Eero, Luma, Google and Velop. I decided on the Orbi. That experience did not go well so I replaced it with another Orbi and had a similar experience. This isnt to say the Orbi was bad, but I had dropped wifi over and over. After my last return I decided to take a flyer on the Velop. The reason I did not purchase the Velop originally is because of the limited number of ethernet ports. I prefer my FireTV and Xbox One hard wired so my original choice was not this. After I received the Velop i was curious about the setup time, so I purposely waited until I had a two hour block of time in case I experienced issues. I remembered my last experiences. I unboxed it, and downloaded the linksys app on my android phone. After following the instructions, it did not find my modem right away. So I just reset my modem and tried again. Boom! Found the modem. Then I placed the other node (I bought the two node system) upstairs. It found that node within minutes. So the total setup time....15 MINUTES! Ok so now i had to test the range. I went in the far corners of my house and it was getting top speeds throughout. I even went into my basement in the far corner and was getting terrific speed. I would like to say that my basement is finished and I have steel studs in the walls. This was always an issue. Not with the Velop! My ISP speeds that I purchase is 25 mps down. I was getting 17 in the far corner of my home surrounded by steel studs. Anywhere upstairs on either floor I was getting 20+. Outside 50 feet in my backyard I was getting 15. I also got 15 by my front mailbox which is 50 feet the other way. Now the consistency test. The Orbi never went more than 3 hours without 1 drop. This product I have had for about a week and NO drops! We had a quick power outage/power surge in our neighborhood where my lights went on and off and so did my modem. My Velop dropped at that point (obviously) but then picked right back up without even touching it! Blazing speeds! I was convinced I was going to take this back but how can I? I think people want consistency and speed out of router more than advanced settings. Well that is precisely what you get with this. The app is limited with no real bells and whistles. I had that before and really dont need that out of a router. Oh by the way....My Xbox one...it is wireless now because this mesh unit is so good you dont need ethernet cables! I know. I was tough to convince but this did it for me. We have 2 fire TVs which are wireless, xbox 360, xbox one which are wireless and we have 3 laptops, 3 tablets and 5 smartphones. The Velop handles them all with NO ISSUES! I dont need a DMZ, dont need port forwarding, blah blah blah. I just needed this beast the whole time. THANKS LINKSYS. I dont mind shelling out the bucks for this one. Peace of mind is valuable!

I am loving the performance.

I hate to jinx my experience but this has been good so far. I had a very nice Linksys Wireless Router and am Amped range extender. Still, I was having reliability issues with this setup and was experiencing frequent declines in wireless speeds. This required me to periodically re-boot the equipment and/or switch the frequencies which I was using to access the Internet. This mesh system doesn't work that way. Essentially the underlying infrastructure is masked from the user (although discover able). I won't waste your time explaining mesh here. You can read the details elsewhere. Still, suffice to say that my preferences are to have all of the "control knobs" exposed and available to me for tuning purposes. This system is installed via your smart phone and most of those controls are not available for your use. If that is what is required to get this performance then so be it. So far I am getting virtually full-speed Internet (I pay for and get about 37 mbps at the modem) anywhere in the house. If reliability declines I will be back to downgrade this review but I am thrilled so far. BTW, if you have a lot of wired devices your wireless mesh system does not provide multiple gigabit router ports. You will have to supply that via your modem/router or via a dedicated router.

It just works.

I don't think I've ever experienced such a simple set-up process for a router since my first AirPort Extreme. I always assumed "the other" routers in general would never become as easy to set up and use. I held on to my 5 year old airport for as long as I could, but unfortunately the range wasn't reaching a new and critical part of our house. So I started doing tons and tons of research trying to find the best router replacement. I came across "mesh routers" and discovered how popular they are for people with coverage problems. I then did even more research trying to find the best mesh router that wasn't astronomically expensive. I initially ignored the Velop because of it's high price, but kept it in the back of my head because of the strong performance it offered in comparison to the majority of it's competitors. I started to become dead set on getting the Netgear Orbi, because of it's high performance and the fact that it was on sale during Black Friday. I kept hesitating though because I'm not a fan of Netgear products and became worried that the quality and experience of the product might not live up to my standards. Then I casually looked again at the Velop and was shocked to see the new sale price on Black Friday and immediately pulled the trigger. Set up took no longer than 30 minutes. The companion app did it's job well and everything was up and running like nothing ever changed. (I kept the same wifi name and password as my old router and everything reconnected.) I immediately noticed the speed and range differences throughout the house. I'm now getting between 200-300 mbps throughout all of my house. Even in my backyard. I pay for 300mbps down 20mbps up. I did have to restart the modem and routers once since I've had it because I was getting abnormally slow speeds, but I'm not sure if it was the router or my internet providers fault. We'll see with time how often this occurs. So far though, It's just a set it and forget product. Like how they all should be. I'm a happy camper with better range and faster speeds. I'm definitely happy that I skipped the Orbi and went with the Velop.

What it is...and what it is not

Okay, so there are a mixed bag of reviews on the Linksys Velop. I was a pretty early adopter of the technology. My Apple Time Capsule (which was great in that it just plain worked and NEVER needed maintenance) had just died and I was hard pressed to find a solution that would replace it since Apple had long ago declared the death of the Time Capsule anyway. I had just moved into a larger house too, which meant whatever solution I chose had to have great wireless distance. I settled on the Linksys Velop Tri-Band and bought a three unit set. Setup was SO EASY. Then I hooked up all my wireless devices (I have a few...AKA 30+ devices). This is where the Linksys fails to impress. Speeds are average but far from great and when you have a lot of wireless devices attached, all hogging the 2.4 and 5 GHz wireless, things slow down or stop working altogether. I finally figured out that where I had my Linksys Velop devices (one in my office, one in the living room and one in the Master Bedroom) and they provided excellent wireless coverage, if too many wireless devices are attached, they slow to a crawl. I was rebooting the Linksys Velops constantly and it only temporarily fixed the problems. It was like all wireless routers I had used in the past (except for that Apple Time Capsule!). Then I wised up and purchased switches for each of my Linksys Velop. I know what many of you are probably thinking at this point. Wait a second...he bought a fancy wireless mesh solution and then added on wired switches?!?! Why yes...that is exactly what I did. The office has a larger switch attached since there are more devices in the office. And the living room and master bedroom have a smaller, 8 port switch, which only manages connectivity for my TV, Tivo and any miscellaneous devices. If you take some of the wireless load off your network (even if they are still running through the shared wireless band that the Linksys Velop uses to establish the wireless mesh) the Linksys Velop performs very well. It never needs a reboot anymore and much like my old Apple Time Capsule it just plain works. Maybe asking you to spend money on a fancy wireless mesh solution AND physical switches to offload some of your traffic is asking a lot, and you would be right...it is...but if you do, the Linksys Velop is a pretty decent solution to cover a lot of square footage. Love: Reliability, ease of setup and ZERO maintenance (other the occassional firmware upgrade) Don't Love: You can't attach a lot of high traffic wireless to the Velop without it locking up. Don't even THINK about wirelessly backing up a machine over a home network using the Linksys Velop (a feature that my Apple Time Capsule never even blinked at). If you're going to send a constant string of a large amount of data over the Linksys Velop, it will lock up.

Works in my old house with plaster walls

We originally started with 3 nodes scattered across 3 floors of our house that was built in 1895 - lots of masonry and brick walls. It worked great in most areas with a couple of dead zones but then we started to have some issues with Netflix streaming on our TV - and when I did a signal strength next to the TV vs behind it, it was night and day. The TV was totally blocking the WiFi signal. I read some reviews that said adding additional nodes actually made their network worse but I decided to buy 3 more nodes (6 total - the max they recommend) and put one of the nodes directly behind the wall mounted TV. It works perfectly! No more dead zones and video streaming is very quick. While it's a lot of money to spend on a Wifi network, for us it's worth it.

Delivers what it promises.

Finally, a product that delivers what it promises. I've had it for about 4 months now and have complete coverage to every corner of my house which is 2550 sq. ft. I could never reach all areas with a single router no mater how powerful they claimed they were. An extender had another whole set of issues and inconveniences. The 2 node system I have works seamlessly as you move about and throughput is just as fast at one end of the house to the other. Setup was a snap. I have AT&T 300 mb delivered to the house and am getting 235 upload, 227 download and 7 ms response time which not only depends on the Velop system but my computer's capability. I'm more than happy as streaming Netflix, Amazon prime and others is fast and reliable, no more pixilating of stalls in picture quality. Congrats Linksys, I abandoned your products a while back because of various issues but you hit it out of the park with this product. Lets see where we are a year from now and I will do an update. I did use another brand that was on pre-order but was highly disappointed in performance and sent it back to Amazon. After reading some reviews on the Velop, I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did.

Relatively Easy Setup Yields Strong Wi-Fi throught the house

The Linksys Velop Tri-band Mesh Network System, P/N AC6600, is a relatively uncomplicated system to set up IF you understand a little about or have previously set up basic home wi-fi networking. I don't know how easy it is for those who have no prior experience setting up a wi-fi. It may be as easy or it may not, depending on your technical acumen and how well you read up beforehand and prepare for the installation. I cannot comment since I've been fooling around with home wi-fi ever since it was mass-marketed in the late 1990s. The packaging is crisp and very well done. You open the Linksys box easily due to a magnetic flap (no tape or seals to cut), and you see three Velop wi-fi routers, and a quick install card on the left, under which are three power supplies, one for each router, and one ethernet cable for the "home" router. Note - any one of the three Velop routers can be chosen and installed as the "home" unit when you begin the installation. NOTE - BEFORE you begin the actual installation, get a notepad and pencil or whatever you want to use to take down some vital information. Turn each of the three Velop routers over and you will find five (5) unique numbers on labels on the bottom. The print (font) is microscopic so if your eyes aren't great, get a magnifying glass and be under a good bright desk lamp. I strongly suggest that at this time you choose which router is going in each of your three home locations. So for mine, I had "Office" (which is in my basement), "Living Room", and "2nd Floor". I stuck a temporary lable on the side of each router. Your names will probably be different. Leave 5 lines under each router designation on your notepad. Under each of your chosen router names, record the following numbers from its bottom labels: Name_____, Password_____, Recovery Key____, Serial No.______, and MAC (address)________. The Name and Password on the labels are from the factory and only temporary and will not be used once you have developed your unique router names (I used the room name), your wi-fi home network name and password during the installation of the first router. But the label names & passwords may be needed in the future so don't lose your notes. You will find the MAC address versus router name handy to know once your system is running so you can tell which router is which and what devices are connected to it. I had read in advance of how to transition from my existing Apple Time Capsule/Airport Wi-Fi network to the new Linksys network. My previous Wi-Fi using the Apple Time Capsule router included a separate Arris cable modem that I was using to connect to my Comcast broadband cable internet service. The modem was not changed for this new system, it works just fine. Just connect the modem ethernet output to the first Velop router (either one of the two bottom ethernet ports on the Velop). But if you're not familiar with your existing network, fear not! Just follow the installation app instructions that you will be using - see my next paragraph. - and you should do fine. Linksys requires you to install their Velop app on your smartphone in order to install the system. You DON'T use your pc. The app is available on Apple's App Store and I assume from elsewhere if you're not an Apple user as I am. The app is free and installs easily. Once it installs, start following it's step-by-step instructions. I found it handy to pre-read the instructions from the Linksys website (using my laptop browser) before downloading the smartphone app and beginning the actual installation. It's just a suggestion. Also, if you've turned off your old wi-fi router, using the smartphone app is handy because that can communicate with Linksys via your cellular connection until your first Velop router (and its wi-fi signal) is up and running. The app requires you to establish a username and password which becomes your Admin credentials for modifying or customizing the Linksys settings if you want to use features other than the standard default settings. I won't go into those details because it's well-covered in many websites online if you search on "how to setup Linksys velop mesh wi-fi system". So once I started the linksys app and connected the first Velop router to my modem, it took about 10-15 minutes for that to recognize the internet signal from my modem and indicate it was ready (a light on the top goes to purple when its ready to install, and when all is done it turns solid blue). I followed the sequential instructions on the smartphone app; at one point I had to register for the Linksys Cloud account (needed for some optional features) and you have to have a home network name (SSID) and a password ready to type in. PS - CREATE YOUR NEW NETWORK NAME (SSID) AND NEW NETWORK PASSWORD BEFORE YOU START** SO YOU DON'T GET CONFUSED DURING THE PROCEDURE - HAVE THEM WRITTEN DOWN IN FRONT OF YOU. **I used a free website called Random Strong Passwords to generate a very strong 16 character password for my network since i live in a neighborhood where houses are on 1/8 acre lots and relatively close to each other. Everyone sees everyone else's SSIDs (I can see about 8 other people's SSID's inside my house) so its best to name my wi-fi network using nothing that gives away that it's my network and a password that no one other than NSA with their supercomputer can crack. After the first router setup was complete, the next two were so easy it was ridiculous. I simply took the second Velop router to the first floor, plugged it, waited until the light on the top turned purple, then followed the prompts on the smartphone app to "Add another node". It went much faster and easier now that the network had been created by the first router. Just had to name it "Living Room". That was easy. The third Velop router went on the second floor, again, setup for the added router was fast. Named that one "2nd Floor". Easy peasy. Coming back down to the basement, I could see that my new Velop mesh network was up and running fine, and we have strong wi-fi (5/5 or 4/5) throughout our house. All that remained was to go around and re-program every device that connects to wi-fi with the new SSID and new password. Two smart TV's, one home stereo, a security camera, one smart thermostat, two Apple TV boxes, 3 laptops, 2 wi-fi printers, four iPads, and two more iPhones. After entering the 16 digit password so many times, I was grateful this only needs doing once or (hopefully) *very* seldom. Whew! Everything works! MUCH better signal & speed than before when I had only a single router. Today is 3 days after installation and the system has remained rock solid with no dropouts. I'm impressed.

Finally WiFi coverage that works for my home

For years in my older home I have had two separate WiFi routers with different IDs, including paying for a static IP to manage the two debarkation points/routers. The home itself is not big, but my office is detached from the main house making the signal reach quite limited. Couple this with the lath and plaster walls throughout and a centralized debarkation point as the norm for my internet service getting solid coverage across the property was ineffective. A friend at work with a much larger home recommended a mesh WiFi system. He purchased the Netgear Orbi and loves it. I was going to get that one, but the Amazon reviews and product specs on the Linksys Velop just seemed a touch better so I decided to try Velop. I purchased the 2 node package at $329 (bummer that it already is reduced, but good for the rest of you) figuring if I really needed 3 or more nodes I could just purchase additional units later. I put one node in the center of my house where my main router was before, and the 2nd node toward the back of the house that would be about 30 feet from my detached office and about 30 feet from the main node. I have messed with extenders before so I was skeptical. The setup was very simple and at least in they last 24 hours my experience has exceeded my expectations. Would definitely recommend this product.

Solved our slow network issues!

Bought the 2-node system for a house that's just around 4,000 sq ft and am very happy with the results. We had tried range extenders before and just wasted money on those, so finally decided to see if any of the mesh systems will help. I found the set up pretty straight forward and easy. We had a FIOS modem/router combo so i had our old parallel wifi running while installing the Velop which made me more comfortable that we won't be stuck without connection if set up went wrong. It took about 30 minutes or so to set up both nodes, we have one in the upstairs office right next to the modem and the other one downstairs in the kitchen, probably roughly 22-23 feet direct line (through walls) from the modem connected one. Each node is supposed to cover about 2,000 sq ft which is a circle with a 25 ft radius (50ft diameter) around it. We get great and consistent speeds throughout the house, with the exception of our bedroom where we do get connection but it's a bit slower - however, our modem is to the one side of the house, not in the center, so we really need another node to have the full proper coverage there if we wanted it (bedroom is furthest away from the two nodes). This is probably obvious (though not really explained in the set up process), but if you do have a combo modem/router like we did, you should turn off the router part so you are not running two wifi networks which might interfere with each other. I found that pretty easy to do from FIOS's router/modem website. I did call Linksys support to confirm that I am supposed to do that, and found them easy to get through to and helpful. I am also not a techie by any means, though comfortable with technology. Overall, very happy with purchase. UPDATE 12/14: I bought an extra node (so now we have the 3-node system) to complete the coverage of the house. Setting that node up was very easy using their app, I did try initially a location that was a bit too far and the system made me move it to a spot that it links up easily with the 2nd node. The new one has been operating for just over a week and we have full coverage everywhere in our house now. COuldn't be happier with Linksys!

Amazing in every respect!

Okay. I'll be frank. This is not the product I wanted. I wanted Google WiFi because it had good reviews and was cheaper but it is currently impossible to get. I figured I would need 2 nodes but since Google does not sell a two pack I would buy the 3 pack for $300 which is only $40 more than 2 single packs. When I couldn't get that I decided to spend another $50 bucks and get the Velop based on great reviews and the fact a Velop covers 2000 sf a node while Google covers 1500 sf. The fact that Velop has a dedicated backhaul channel was not important to me since both my nodes would be wired but if you are not planing to do that, this is a big plus for LinkSys. Also, if you have child nodes far from the parent, Velop will relay through a child node if necessary. Not all Mesh products do that. The nodes seem well made, installation was clean and easy although I got interrupted with company during install and missed a step in what was really an idiot proof application that takes you through setup. So I called support, after 5 on a weekend no less, and they were there. Three year free support 24/7 in English! Folks, these babies are powerful. I have an Asus AC68 dual band router that is fairly powerful however I needed an extender even though my house is only 1900 sf. When the extender died I decided to go Mesh as I was tired of switching WiFi channels every time a moved to a different part of the house. I almost could have gotten away with 1 Velop node, which kind of defeats the purpose of Mesh, as this device beats the pants off the Asus when it comes to signal strength. But I am glad I have two as I have a lot of AV equipment on the other side of the house and I get full WiFi throughput in every corner. I'm glad Google WiFi was not available because I can't believe it would be better than the LinkSys system. So now my WiFi is ready for all the new devices I'm sure I will get over the next few years. Right now I am looking at a WiFi dog.

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