Belkin & Linksys Now One Company

Networking, connecting to the internet, wi-fi and home entertainment
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hlewton
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Belkin & Linksys Now One Company

Post by hlewton »

Following recommendations here I purchased a Belkin N900 DB wireless router and after a bit of a struggle getting it setup I have been very satisfied with it. So much so that I thought I'd once again give hooking up a range extender using Belkin products this time a try. A while back I had a lot of trouble trying to get Linksys products to preform as they should and were advertised to do. I very recently contacted Belkin in a chat session to get their recommendation as to which range extender they would suggest to use with my Belkin N900 DB and they did suggest a Belkin product the F9K1106 Range Extender. Then I got a couple surveys to fill out wanting to know how satisfied I was with the service I have just received. The survey referred to Linksys which I thought was strange. Today again I got another survey from Linksys and since I cut all ties to Linksys over a year ago, I thought, I called Belkin only to learn Linksys and Belkin are all one company now. Considering the experiences I have had with Linksys over the years this was disappointing to say the least. I'm glad I didn't rush to order that range extender because my confidence in it working dropped significantly when I learned it will be coming from Linksys. The person on the phone assured me that Belkin and Linksys were separate departments but that is not reassuring enough for me. Not sure if anyone here knew about this merger or even if is something new, I didn't ask, just thought I'd pass this information along. I really have no idea if Belkin was part of Linksys when I bought my Belkin N900 DB in January 2013 but it sure does work much better than any of the many Linksys wireless routers I owned.
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hlewton

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HansV
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Re: Belkin & Linksys Now One Company

Post by HansV »

According to this press release:
Playa Vista, Calif. - March 15, 2013 – Belkin today announced the completion of its acquisition of Linksys. Linksys’ technologies, including its routers and the popular and innovative Smart Wi-Fi portfolio and services, will be managed and maintained as a separate brand and product portfolio.
So the takeover took place more than a year ago.
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Hans

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hlewton
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Re: Belkin & Linksys Now One Company

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Good to know that it seems that Belkin did the taking. Appears it was about 2 months after I purchased my Belkin router. I read that release and I just hope Belkin doesn't let Linksys influence its designs. Still it seems strange the surveys I got were listed as being from Linksys.

Thanks for the link. Just curious, did you know about this before this thread? I know I had not heard a word about it and I still get a lot of Linksys ads sent to my email account.
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hlewton

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HansV
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Re: Belkin & Linksys Now One Company

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No, I didn't know about the takeover. I did a Google search after you wrote "Not sure if anyone here knew about this merger or even if is something new".
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BobH
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Re: Belkin & Linksys Now One Company

Post by BobH »

I have a Linksys router that is branded by Cisco. This unit is at least 5 years old. I got it when wifi broke large.

I thought that Cisco had acquired Linksys. It is possible that they spun them off and Linksys/Belkin merged thereafter. I cannot be certain. Perhaps Cisco owns both and allows both brands to continue.

FWIW: I had problems with Belkin products and have not had any (yet - knock wood) with Linksys products.
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HansV
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Re: Belkin & Linksys Now One Company

Post by HansV »

Cisco sold Linksys to Belkin.

As the experiences of the both of you show, each brand has its ups and downs - some customers have problems with one of them, some with the other.
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BobH
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Re: Belkin & Linksys Now One Company

Post by BobH »

HansV wrote:Cisco sold Linksys to Belkin.

As the experiences of the both of you show, each brand has its ups and downs - some customers have problems with one of them, some with the other.
I suspected that Cisco spun Linksys off. I could never understand by a high end router manufacturer wanted to be in the consumer market.

As for problems with either brand, I suspect that might be due to specific models. I know that both made easy to use and hard to use devices.
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hlewton
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Re: Belkin & Linksys Now One Company

Post by hlewton »

HansV wrote:Cisco sold Linksys to Belkin.

As the experiences of the both of you show, each brand has its ups and downs - some customers have problems with one of them, some with the other.
Not knowing a lot about these things I relied on advise from different sources. I was working with second level support at Linksys and they even replaced the router, which was supposedly one of their better ones. I believe its failure for me had a lot to do with the layout of my home. I also think the Belkin worked better for me because it seemed to have a slightly stronger signal. I will say this, Linksys did work hard with me but eventually ran out of ideas. They did offer to refund my purchase price but for whatever reason I choose to keep the router.
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BobH
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Re: Belkin & Linksys Now One Company

Post by BobH »

As I said, I think problems are sometimes specific to a manufacturer's model. And, you point out that they sometimes are specific to the environment in which the equipment is being installed. It is probable that a different model of Linksys would cause me problems, too.

Persistence pays!
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