Share wouldacouldashoulda's profile
 
Facebook Twitter
 
 
wouldacouldashoulda
 
 
 
wouldacouldashoulda's stats
 
  • Review count
    2
  • Helpfulness votes
    2
  • First review
    February 19, 2011
  • Last review
    January 22, 2017
  • Featured reviews
    0
  • Average rating
    5
 
  • Review comment count
    2
  • Helpfulness votes
    0
  • First review comment
    January 17, 2017
  • Last review comment
    January 22, 2017
  • Featured review comments
    0
 
Questions
  • Question count
    0
  • Helpfulness votes
    0
  • First question
    None
  • Last question
    None
  • Featured questions
    0
 
Answers
  • Answer count
    0
  • Helpfulness votes
    0
  • First answer
    None
  • Last answer
    None
  • Featured answers
    0
  • Best answers
    0
 
 
wouldacouldashoulda's Reviews
 
Make your home an internet haven with this versatile Linksys Velop wireless Wi-Fi system. Three identical tri-band dual-stream AC2200 routers, each equipped with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor, deliver lightning-fast internet. Equipped with Bluetooth 4.0/LE, this Linksys Velop wireless Wi-Fi system is simple to set up and pairs easily with computers, tablets and smart devices.
 
Customer Rating
5 out of 5
5
simply follow the instructions
on January 22, 2017
Posted by: wouldacouldashoulda
from Maywood, NJ
Hello. Because of the design of our house (cinder block finished basement, main floor with kitchen, bath, living room, den, dining room, and third floor with bedrooms and bath, a wifi system made sense. This is also a typical older house where the cable and phone service was installed in the corner of the basement closest to the street. Sound familiar. The modem was installed in the basement. Since we use V-tech phones we don't use old fashioned house phone wiring anymore. We had an older Netgear Rangemax N router which was very highly rated back when we purchased it and it was installed right next to the modem in the basement because that's where the cable guy said to put it back then. Once again, very typical for that time. The cable guys were not really thinking of wifi performance. The biggest complaints we had were spinning wheels (waiting and pausing) if we were streaming UHD shows via Netflix or Amazon while the PS4 was being played) and zero connectivity on the backyard patio. To get connectivity on the patio we would connect to the neighbors guest networks. We knew we had to get that router out of the basement. But we also knew it was older technology and should be replaced. We also knew it would be best to connect the PS4 directly to the router with a LAN cable. Since we had VERY limited locations in the center of the house on the first or second floors due to limited space and limited power outlets, we started looking into wifi systems. We had no place to place a single mega designer router with 4, 6, or 8 antennas sticking out everywhere. Few of them could be wall-mounted and we did not want to have to drill cable holes everywhere, experiment with locations, or have to buy additional wifi extenders. We did not have cabinet or shelf space to place one of these and having a large spidery-looking thing out in the open was not acceptable no matter how trendy that might be nowadays. Like I said, now there are trendy designer routers with the "mine is bigger, faster, and has more antennas than yours" fad. In November 2016, The Netgear Orbi system was rated #1 by Cnet and PC Mag but it was $400 for two nodes that looked like air fresheners. Then in December the new Google wifi system was rated number 1 by Cnet, but not by PC Mag. It was $300 for three nodes that looked like white hockey pucks. It also completely sold out multiple times. We tried the Orbi because it was available and we got a discounted price from Best Buy which also included 1-year of installation and service. Although the installation instructions were not correct, it was installed in a few minutes and had nice connectivity and range. We now had connection on all floors and the back patio. The patio wasn't great, but good, and much better than what we had. We had one node in he basement and the other on the top floor. The problem we had was we could not get the PS4 feature known as Game Chat to work. This allows you to audibly speak with other players during the game. We also connected the PS4 directly with a CAT 6 LAN cable so the connectivity and speed was great. We had to have that feature. It was mandatory. Plus it worked with our old Netgear so it should work with the new Netgear easily. We tried for two weeks with Netgear and then the Geek Squad tech on-site but could not get it to work. The Geek Squad tech confirmed it worked in his house using his Netgear Nighthawk X4S. Because of the 15-day Best Buy return policy, and because Netgear was only guessing what might work, we had to return it. They were certain connecting it with the LAN cable would fix it. Then they were certain changing the settings to use port forwarding would fix it. Even the Geek Squad tech said that would not matter. Luckily we found the Linksys Velop system which was rated in Jan 2017 #1 by PC Mag as 4.5 stars out of 5, Excellent, AND Editor's Choice. Although Cnet trashed it, we went for it versus a single designer mega router. We read a few bad reviews but it was our best option. Best Buy was great. The Manager Eric and the salesperson were very sympathetic to the PS4 problem especially since it worked before and especially since we were considering an expensive solution. Excellent service. Plus we contacted Linksys in advance and they were 100% confident this feature would work. The system was very well packaged and finished. By simply following the very clear instructions, we were up and running with the first node in a few minutes. Some of the bad reviews had a problem with this. I believe one of their problems is they did not follow the instructions and did not turn off their old router at the correct time as per the instructions. We also had zero problems getting the Epson printer to work wirelessly as per a few complaints. The key thing was to follow the exact instructions. No shortcuts. Before installing the other nodes we first tested the PS4 wirelessly which is also in the basement approx 30 feet away. The PS4 Game Chat feature worked IMMEDIATELY with no special settings requited. Plus using the speed test in the Linksys app, we were seeing 110Mbps speed all throughout the basement. We were only seeing about 40Mbps with the old Netgear Rangemax. Excellent and we will still connect the PS4 with a LAN cable just to get the best performance. We installed the 2nd node on the main floor in the center of the house and the third node on the third floor also centered. Because they are much smaller than the Orbi nodes it was easier to find locations for them plus we believe they are much better looking. We wanted to hide the Orbis. The Velop nodes are more cool and high-tech looking. We wish they had other colors versus white, but otherwise very classy looking. We were finished in minutes once agin simply following the instructions. We now have approx 110Mbps everywhere in the house and approx 50 feet out past the backyard patio. Amazing and gratifying. Works as advertised. Just follow the instructions. Now that we have installed this system once, we could easily install it even faster if we did it again. EXCELLENT. We will live with this for a while and see if it might be better to relocate the basement node more centered in that room, but I don't think it would get that much better. Really good and so far it's a keeper. WAY better specs than the Google system and perfect if your house is typical like ours. When you look at the website and the box, you can easily see this wifi system was designed for our typical house.
I would recommend this to a friend!
0points
0of 0voted this as helpful.
 
This AudioQuest HDMI90W wide HDMI adapter combines a right-angle design with a short body for a space-saving solution to HDMI connectivity in your system.
 
Customer Rating
5 out of 5
5
Excellent final touch
on February 19, 2011
Posted by: wouldacouldashoulda
from Maywood, NJ
The HDMI ports on our excellent Samsung 22" LED TV were too close to the edge and therefore made our 2 HDMI cables very visible. They are too thick to ever droop down enough to hide which spoils the good looks of this classy TV. By installing these 90 degree adapters, the HDMI cables now drop straight down behind the TV and are hidden. VERY nice final detail. As the other reviewer commented, just make sure you buy the correct version. You will either need the one like I did that has the narrow side of the connector toward the back of the tv or away from it. I believe toward the tv is most common. For $16.99, it's excellent and enhances the look of your installation.
What's great about it: Gives you a clean, professionally finished installation.
What's not so great: Just have to make sure you pick the correct one (50-50)
I would recommend this to a friend!
Quality
5 out of 5
5
Performance
5 out of 5
5
+2points
2of 2voted this as helpful.
 
wouldacouldashoulda's Review Comments
 
Connect every corner of your home to the internet with this Linksys Velop wireless Wi-Fi system. Each formidable tri-band dual-stream AC2200 router has two 5GHz bands and a 2.4GHz band for a blazing fast experience. This modular Linksys Velop wireless Wi-Fi system includes two identical units, which you can distribute evenly to ensure your wireless signal always stays strong.
 
Overall1 out of 51 out of 5
Solved one problem, created another.
By techtoyz from San Antonio, TX
I purchased this setup after reading numerous reviews on the Luma, Eero and AmpliFi whole-home WiFi systems. What steered me towards the Linksys was a lot of reviewers were talking about the lack of speeds on the Eero, the poor integration of features on the Luma and the lack of LANs on the AmpliFi (I need LANs for my HUE bridge which is in another room from the WAN drop-in).
After receiving the Linksys, the setup was a little bumpy - it took a few tries for it to find the nodes, but upon finding them, it knew which was the main "router" per say and which was the node and I should clarify that I'm in a 900 square foot apartment, so I could've even went with a single Velop, but as previously stated, I needed the LAN for the HUE and another device in another room. After getting everything setup, everything worked as expected and I decided to run a speed test. I just upgraded to gigabit and after running numerous speed tests, I discovered I'm only averaging around 250MB/s out of a possible 940MB/s. So to rephrase, in an apartment where I'm no more than 25 feet away from either node at any given time, I've averaging less than a third of my total potential bandwidth speeds. I disconnected the Velop and re-enabled the WiFi on my modem/router box and re-ran the speed test and I was averaging over 900MB/s. I tried hooking up my old router and once, again I was averaging over 800MB/s. The only logical conclusion that I could draw is that there's an innate issue with these whole-home WiFi systems, where, even though they are improving RANGE, it's at the sacrifice of SPEED. And because most routers can be bridged to create a mesh-like experience (albeit without the steering and some of the other advanced "mesh" features), you could easily accomplish the same thing with say two AirPort Extremes with one set as a "router" and the other "bridged" in. And price-wise, you would spend about the same as this setup, as you can get Extremes refurbished for $129 online.
Overall:
Ease of Setup: ***
App: ****
Range: ***** (although once again, this is a 900 sq ft place vs. the 4000 sq ft they market this towards)
Speed: *
Customer Avatar
wouldacouldashoulda
Maywood, NJ
wifi system versus strong router
January 17, 2017
I will try this system first because I have no place to install a router with 6 or 8 antennas poking out of it. I just returned an Orbi because we lost our PS4 Game Chat feature and nobody could get it to come back. If this is no good, I guess I'll get a Netgear X4S. I have no good place to put it unless I drill cable holes. I am not sure if these wifi systems are just gimmicks. I just don't have a good place to place or mount an X8S or X4S.
-1point
0of 1voted this comment as helpful.
 
Make your home an internet haven with this versatile Linksys Velop wireless Wi-Fi system. Three identical tri-band dual-stream AC2200 routers, each equipped with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor, deliver lightning-fast internet. Equipped with Bluetooth 4.0/LE, this Linksys Velop wireless Wi-Fi system is simple to set up and pairs easily with computers, tablets and smart devices.
 
Overall5 out of 55 out of 5
simply follow the instructions
By wouldacouldashoulda from Maywood, NJ
Hello. Because of the design of our house (cinder block finished basement, main floor with kitchen, bath, living room, den, dining room, and third floor with bedrooms and bath, a wifi system made sense. This is also a typical older house where the cable and phone service was installed in the corner of the basement closest to the street. Sound familiar. The modem was installed in the basement. Since we use V-tech phones we don't use old fashioned house phone wiring anymore. We had an older Netgear Rangemax N router which was very highly rated back when we purchased it and it was installed right next to the modem in the basement because that's where the cable guy said to put it back then. Once again, very typical for that time. The cable guys were not really thinking of wifi performance. The biggest complaints we had were spinning wheels (waiting and pausing) if we were streaming UHD shows via Netflix or Amazon while the PS4 was being played) and zero connectivity on the backyard patio. To get connectivity on the patio we would connect to the neighbors guest networks. We knew we had to get that router out of the basement. But we also knew it was older technology and should be replaced. We also knew it would be best to connect the PS4 directly to the router with a LAN cable. Since we had VERY limited locations in the center of the house on the first or second floors due to limited space and limited power outlets, we started looking into wifi systems. We had no place to place a single mega designer router with 4, 6, or 8 antennas sticking out everywhere. Few of them could be wall-mounted and we did not want to have to drill cable holes everywhere, experiment with locations, or have to buy additional wifi extenders. We did not have cabinet or shelf space to place one of these and having a large spidery-looking thing out in the open was not acceptable no matter how trendy that might be nowadays. Like I said, now there are trendy designer routers with the "mine is bigger, faster, and has more antennas than yours" fad. In November 2016, The Netgear Orbi system was rated #1 by Cnet and PC Mag but it was $400 for two nodes that looked like air fresheners. Then in December the new Google wifi system was rated number 1 by Cnet, but not by PC Mag. It was $300 for three nodes that looked like white hockey pucks. It also completely sold out multiple times. We tried the Orbi because it was available and we got a discounted price from Best Buy which also included 1-year of installation and service. Although the installation instructions were not correct, it was installed in a few minutes and had nice connectivity and range. We now had connection on all floors and the back patio. The patio wasn't great, but good, and much better than what we had. We had one node in he basement and the other on the top floor. The problem we had was we could not get the PS4 feature known as Game Chat to work. This allows you to audibly speak with other players during the game. We also connected the PS4 directly with a CAT 6 LAN cable so the connectivity and speed was great. We had to have that feature. It was mandatory. Plus it worked with our old Netgear so it should work with the new Netgear easily. We tried for two weeks with Netgear and then the Geek Squad tech on-site but could not get it to work. The Geek Squad tech confirmed it worked in his house using his Netgear Nighthawk X4S. Because of the 15-day Best Buy return policy, and because Netgear was only guessing what might work, we had to return it. They were certain connecting it with the LAN cable would fix it. Then they were certain changing the settings to use port forwarding would fix it. Even the Geek Squad tech said that would not matter. Luckily we found the Linksys Velop system which was rated in Jan 2017 #1 by PC Mag as 4.5 stars out of 5, Excellent, AND Editor's Choice. Although Cnet trashed it, we went for it versus a single designer mega router. We read a few bad reviews but it was our best option. Best Buy was great. The Manager Eric and the salesperson were very sympathetic to the PS4 problem especially since it worked before and especially since we were considering an expensive solution. Excellent service. Plus we contacted Linksys in advance and they were 100% confident this feature would work. The system was very well packaged and finished. By simply following the very clear instructions, we were up and running with the first node in a few minutes. Some of the bad reviews had a problem with this. I believe one of their problems is they did not follow the instructions and did not turn off their old router at the correct time as per the instructions. We also had zero problems getting the Epson printer to work wirelessly as per a few complaints. The key thing was to follow the exact instructions. No shortcuts. Before installing the other nodes we first tested the PS4 wirelessly which is also in the basement approx 30 feet away. The PS4 Game Chat feature worked IMMEDIATELY with no special settings requited. Plus using the speed test in the Linksys app, we were seeing 110Mbps speed all throughout the basement. We were only seeing about 40Mbps with the old Netgear Rangemax. Excellent and we will still connect the PS4 with a LAN cable just to get the best performance. We installed the 2nd node on the main floor in the center of the house and the third node on the third floor also centered. Because they are much smaller than the Orbi nodes it was easier to find locations for them plus we believe they are much better looking. We wanted to hide the Orbis. The Velop nodes are more cool and high-tech looking. We wish they had other colors versus white, but otherwise very classy looking. We were finished in minutes once agin simply following the instructions. We now have approx 110Mbps everywhere in the house and approx 50 feet out past the backyard patio. Amazing and gratifying. Works as advertised. Just follow the instructions. Now that we have installed this system once, we could easily install it even faster if we did it again. EXCELLENT. We will live with this for a while and see if it might be better to relocate the basement node more centered in that room, but I don't think it would get that much better. Really good and so far it's a keeper. WAY better specs than the Google system and perfect if your house is typical like ours. When you look at the website and the box, you can easily see this wifi system was designed for our typical house.
Customer Avatar
wouldacouldashoulda
Maywood, NJ
simply follow the instructions cont'd...
January 22, 2017
I also forgot.... 3 year warranty and 24/7 tech support.
0points
0of 0voted this comment as helpful.
 
wouldacouldashoulda's Questions
 
wouldacouldashoulda has not submitted any questions.
 
wouldacouldashoulda's Answers
 
wouldacouldashoulda has not submitted any answers.