At first we would like to thank Linksys for offering a sample of their Atlas Pro 6 Dual-Band AX5400 Mesh WiFi 6 System 2-Pack for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About Linksys:

 

"At Linksys, we strive to build the world's most reliable, innovative, future-ready wireless technologies that securely connect every person and everything, effortlessly.

Our hardware products, software, and services range from home WiFi connectivity with our routers and whole home mesh WiFi, to business access points and switches."

Product Features:

 

Make the Most of WiFi 6 Speed

Access to higher bandwidth limits enable the true power of WiFi 6 technology, delivering the fastest connection with everything you do.

More Devices than Ever Before

WiFi 6 sends and receives multiple streams of data simultaneously, providing up to 4x more WiFi capacity to handle more gaming, and smart home devices.

The Future Looks Bright

Intelligent Mesh allows you to expand your coverage across your home by simply adding nodes giving you the range to keep your connection going strong.

Easy Setup and Control

It's simple to set up, lets you access your network from anywhere, and view or prioritize which connected devices are using the most WiFi - all from the free Linksys app.

Industry-Leading Technology

An advanced Qualcomm™ chipset delivers the ultimate WiFi 6 experience. This next-gen technology evolves home and business WiFi with wire-like stability and beyond-fast performance.

Life Tested

To deliver the reliability you expect, our products pass 25 real world tests in The Linksys Life Lab, are backed by a 3-year warranty, and have 24/7 tech support.

 

Product Specifications:

 

WiFi Bands: Dual-Band

WiFi Speed: AX

WiFi Technology: WiFi 6 (802.11ax)

 

Number of Ports: 4+

 

Coverage: 4,500 – 6,000 sq. ft.

 

Number of Ethernet Ports:

x1 Gigabit WAN

x3 Gigabit LAN

 

Wi-Fi Range: Up to 5400 sq. ft.

 

LEDs: Power/Status/Connection

 

Memory: 256 MB Flash, 512MB RAM

 

Dimensions (LxWxH): 3.39x3.39x11.22

 

Weight: 1.5lbs

 

Operation Modes:

Wireless Bridge

Wireless Router

 

Wi-Fi Speed: AX5400 (600 + 4800)

 

Security Features:

WPA2/WPA3 Mixed Personal

WPA2 Personal

WPA3 Personal

 

Wi-Fi Technology: AX5400 Mesh Dual-Band Gigabit 600 + 4800 Mbps

 

Easy Setup:

Required for setup: (1) Internet connection with Modem. (2) Mobile device with Android 6.0.1 or iOS 11.4 and higher, Bluetooth preferred.

Simple and secured App-based setup

 

Key Features:

1 GHz Dual-Core Processor

Automatic Firmware Updates

Dual-Band (2.4GHz + 5 GHz with 160MHz)

Easily Expandable Mesh WiFi System

Easy App Controls

Intelligent Mesh Technology

OFDMA Technology

Seamless WiFi

Simultaneous Dual-Band

 

Power Supply: Input: 100-240V ~ 50-60Hz; Output: 12V, 2A

 

Antennas: 5 internal

 

Wireless Encryption: 128-bit

 

Other Ports: Power

 

Wi-Fi Bands: 2.4 and 5GHz (Simultaneous Dual-Band)

 

Network Standards:

802.11a

802.11b

802.11g

WiFi 4 (802.11n)

WiFi 5 (802.11ac)

WiFi 6 (802.11ax)

 

Linksys has updated its Velop Intelligent Mesh system with another offering, the Atlas Pro 6, which can be ordered in a single router pack, a system of two or a system of 3, depending on the required area to cover. The system runs on the WiFi 6 (802.11ax) technology, which has reached maturity for quite some time now, comes with simultaneous dual-band 2.4 and 5GHz capabilities, 5 internal antennas, while the 1GHz dual-core processor is assisted by 256MB of flash and 512MB of RAM.

 

The 2-pack system is shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard enclosure, showing a photo of the product right from the top cover. We will be reminded that this system is able to cover large houses with up to 3 or 4 bedrooms, connection of about 60 devices and the total wireless throughput which can be reached is 5400Gbps (Dual-Band Gigabit 600 + 4800 Mbps):

 

 

 

On the side, we will note the three configurations Atlas Pro 6 can come in, but also the full list of technical specifications:

 

 

 

Nearby, we will learn of the box contents, but how to access the downloadable application for installation purposes:

 

 

 

The bottom area does offer more explanations regarding the main product highlights, in multiple languages, but we will also receive an example regarding product positioning inside the house:

 

 

 

After removing the top packaging layer, we will end up with an all-white box:

 

 

 

By lifting the top cover, we will get to see that the two units are close together, separated by cardboard material, in order not to get scratched during transit; on the left side we will note the accessories box:

 

 

 

On the top of the bundle box, we will note the two power adapters:

 

 

 

We will also receive a small leaflet in multiple languages, along with a disk with documentation:

 

 

 

The documentation will mostly show how to access the configuration application, but also how to reach the online resources:

 

 

 

The power adapters do come with an extra set of plugs, but we will also receive a LAN cable:

 

 

 

The adapters do share the color scheme of the Atlas Pro 6 towers:

 

 

 

These do deliver 12V at 2A at the output, for a maximum of 24W:

 

 

 

The plugs can be exchanged in just a few seconds:

 

 

 

 

 

The power adapter cable does end up with a jack plug:

 

 

 

The mesh towers are considerably lower in height when compared to the MX5300 system we have reviewed back in 2020; these are also less heavy and occupy less space on the table:

 

 

 

A Linksys logo can be easily spotted in the front:

 

 

 

Each of the towers does come with the DC-IN port, but also four ports, one being WAN and the others LAN:

 

 

 

The bottom section of the unit includes a large foot, but also a sticker with the information on the power rating, the WiFi setup SSID, the recovery key asked when accessing the router interface from the computer, the serial number, the MAC address, but we will also note a small QR code. We do have also here the Power on/off switch, the WPS button but also the Reset button:

 

 

The top area comes with the status LED, which does show the current operation for the unit; immediately after power on, the unit will have the LED in blue color, then it will start flashing in a light blue color until the boot procedure has been completed; the color will then turn to red and flash when it is trying to establish a WAN connection and afterwards it will return to a light blue color if the connection has been established successfully. Same LED color code is followed for the second unit (child unit), which will be connected wirelessly to the main one, only the red LED will appear when it is trying to make a connection to the main:

 

 

If the router was not set up before, it will show a solid purple color in order to signal that it is ready for configuration purposes via the application:

 

 

The setup will be completed entirely by using the smartphone or tablet and installing the dedicated Linksys application:

 

 

 

We will further select Velop and Mesh Routers;

 

 

Some Terms and Conditions are in order:

 

 

Permissions, permissions, permissions…in the first stage, the smartphone will communicate with the towers via BLE to send and receive data:

 

 

Some more instructions will follow, to connect the main tower to the source of the Internet, may that be a modem or direct UTP cable, depending on the provider:

 

 

Linksys offers the possibility to configure more than one tower during the setup phase:

 

Let’s move to the next stage:

 

 

The app will start communicating with the router; in this step, we have had some issues with the app not detecting the main tower, so we did a reset on it and also restarted the application from scratch in order to solve the issue:

 

 

We will then be prompted to connect to the towers’ WiFi network manually, by using the specifications on the bottom:

 

 

The ISP settings will be required, if connection to WLAN is not done automatic; in our case, we deal with a provider which employs PPPoE, so entering the credentials is in order:

 

 

The settings will be written to the hardware:

 

 

Afterwards, the router will check the connection coming from the ISP:

 

 

If the connection was successful, we will be prompted to enter a SSID name and password:

 

 

Some words on privacy are in order as well:

 

 

The new device will be linked to the Linksys account as well:

 

 

The configuration steps are shown as small animations:

 

 

The final configuration of the network is shown in the last step; our child node remained in the configuration stage and did not actually connect to the main router so we needed to perform a hard reset on it and proceeded with the next steps:

 

 

After the child node has been configured as well, we can shut it down and move it in the final position in the house:

 

 

Right after reaching the main dashboard, we were informed of a new firmware available for the two nodes:

 

 

The firmware download and install process will take quite some time:

 

 

After flashing has been successfully completed, the entire system will reboot:

 

 

The main dashboard does permit the user to see the list of connected devices to the network, to check the WiFi settings, enable Guest Access or work with Parental Controls:

 

 

More options can be checked out from the menu on the left side:

 

 

Devices

 

 

Wi-Fi Settings

 

 

Advanced Wi-Fi Settings

 

 

Guest Access

 

 

Speed Check

 

 

Parental Control

 

 

Priority

 

 

Notifications

 

 

Network Administration

 

 

Router Details

 

 

Router IP Details

 

 

The Advanced Settings area comes with some sub-sections:

 

 

Internet Settings

 

 

Port Settings:

 

 

Wi-Fi MAC Filters

 

 

Local Network Settings

 

 

Of course, the configuration is available from a web browser as well, by accessing the main router address; we will be first asked for the recovery key, to define a password to log in:

 

 

The dashboard is like the previous Velop models we have tested in the past; on the left side we will note some menus, while the widgets are present on the right:

 

 

Inside the Device List menu, we can check details on the connected stations to the network, with details such as MAC and current IP address:

 

 

Guest Network details will appear in the next tab, if activated:

 

 

The Guest Access tab will enable the Guest network, and from here we can define a network name and password as well:

 

 

Parental Control options do follow:

 

 

Prioritization is something which should be enabled if the connection has a very low bandwith:

 

 

Speed Check will make you an idea of the maximum speeds offered by the provider; however, from our experience with the Atlas Pro 6, during SpeedTest.net test, the speed raises gradually and does not go to max in just a few seconds; the test from the Linksys GUI does not simply allocate enough time for a proper measurement, since our ISP speed is 500/500:

 

 

The Connectivity menu does allow the user to change the admin password, but also check for firmware updates and set the time zone:

 

 

Provider-specific options are available in the next tab:

 

 

The Local Network area will allow working with the IPs, but also set reservations:

 

 

Advanced Routing area will allow us to enable NAT, RIP, but also add static routes:

 

 

The Administration area allows for other miscellaneous options as well:

 

 

The Status area does show details on the connected stations to the network:

 

 

We can perform Diagnostics as well:

 

 

Logs can be enabled via the next tab:

 

 

The Wi-Fi settings area does permit modifying the name of the network and password, but also the security mode; the Wi-Fi mode remains in Mixed mode:

 

 

MAC filters can be enabled as well:

 

 

WiFi protected setup is next:

 

 

Some Linksys-specific functions can be enabled or disabled in the next tab:

 

 

The router comes with included Security options:

 

 

A DMZ IP address can be selected as well:

 

 

Some other options such as DDNS, Port forwarding or Port Triggering are available as well:

 

 

After completely setting up the Atlas Pro 6 Mesh WiFi, we left the main tower in the initial position (living room) and moved the child node in the second bedroom, 7 meters and two walls away; the signal was recorded to be excellent between the two units, ready for testing purposes. To each tower, we have had connected a desktop system, each packing an Intel I225-V Ethernet controller; the AM5-based desktop with a Ryzen 5 7600X did have an iPerf 2 server turned on, to test throughput between the two towers but also on wireless.

 

The iPerf 2 testing procedure did imply setting the command so 10 parallel streams were transferring data at once and between the two towers (wireless connection between it) we did note 862Mbps download and 853Mbps upload, so quite good results!

 

Wireless speed testing was next, so we did use our trusty Galaxy S23 smartphone, which does support up to 6E networks as well! iPerf apps are available for Android as well and support custom commands, so we did enable 10 parallel streams as before, to record 866Mbps download and 841Mbps upload while staying 1 meter away from the main router, so close to wired speeds!

We then moved between the two towers, in the main bedroom to check the bandwidth (one wall separation between the smartphone and each tower, about 3.5m distance from each tower to the smartphone) and we have recorded 856Mbps download and 833Mbps upload.

The last test did imply a run from the bathroom, so 5 walls away and a total distance of 7 meters from the routers; we were impressed of the speed here as well, the download dropping only to about 693Mbps and the upload did show about 674Mbps.

 

 

The entry-level to mainstream Atlas Pro 6 and its 2-pack system is easy to set up via smartphone/tablet application and requires very little knowledge from the customer since everything is guided thanks to the included animations. We get 3 LAN ports with each tower to connect devices in wired mode, while the wireless performance remains good even when the signal needs to pass through multiple walls. Booting will take some time in case of a power failure or user restart, but as soon this is ready, all connections will be back online.

 

The Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) technology is quite mature now and products based on this have reached affordable price levels, allowing the mainstream crowd to experience it. If you do have up to 1Gbit ISP subscriptions, this setup will be quite enough even in large 3-room apartments or houses with a similar size.

 

To keep pricing low, there is no USB port for connecting storage devices available, the SoC has a lower speed and is only dual-core versus the quad-core we noted with the Velop tested in 2020, half RAM and half storage space is provided, but the performance remains at good levels.

 

The 2-pack is available online for about 212 Euros.

 

Linksys Atlas Pro 6 Dual-Band AX5400 Mesh WiFi 6 System 2-Pack is Recommended for:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Linksys for making this review possible!