Cisco dumping consumer networking division.

[Tom]

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/01/cisco-to-sell-linksys-to-belkin-will-exit-home-networking-market/

So yeah. I guess Cisco felt it was better to focus on their core competencies rather than on cheap, low margin bulk crap.

[Mr. Analog]

I can only hope that Linksys gets its groove back somehow, lots of fond memories of the ol' WRT54G

[Tom]

I can only hope that Linksys gets its groove back somehow, lots of fond memories of the ol' WRT54G

You know what's crazy? You can still buy the WRT54GL at ncix.

[Mr. Analog]

I can only hope that Linksys gets its groove back somehow, lots of fond memories of the ol' WRT54G

You know what's crazy? You can still buy the WRT54GL at ncix.

Haha, that's awesome!

[Melbosa]

I don't know if I would by a Linksys Belkin router....

[Tom]

I don't know if I would by a Linksys Belkin router....

They are keeping the brand and entire company around it seems. At least right away they wont be slurping it up and transmogifying into one horrible scary entity. I wasn't a huge fan of the cisco linksys devices.

I think maybe the cisco corporate machine slammed down hard on anything new or novel, or things that might compete with ciscos slightly higher end equipment, limiting what the linksys people could do. I'm not so sure belkin would turn out the same way.

[Mr. Analog]

Having competing divisions in a company has always been a challenge, look at auto idustry and the large number of divisions they used to have per compnay, the further time went on the closer some divisions came until there was nothing left but a few small changes and a name plate.

I actually wonder how much of the original Linksys still exists in there.

[Melbosa]

I actually wonder how much of the original Linksys still exists in there.

Not much in my experience; in terms of reliability.  Since Cisco bought them out and made new product lines (and retired the old ones), I've replaced more Linksys routers than any other brand I've used in history due to failures.

[Tom]

The last two "linksys" routers I've owned, were total piles. heaps even. First one was a SOHO style, higher end, more expensive multi SSID router, which was apparently a lemon, so much so the entire model was discontinued after a few months. It was replaced by a newer one not long after. Wish I had known that at the time. I got a free WRT150N that isn't super horrible, but wasnt great either. weak signal, could be somewhat flaky. It was better with alternative firmware, but was still a little iffy.

[Mr. Analog]

Yepp, I switched to D-Link a while ago with no problems.