EA4500 – Smart Wi-Fi interface and Windows Network Map issues

Question

I purchased this Router about 2 weeks ago as a phased upgrade of our Home Network, primarily to enhance media streaming. It has the latest firmware preinstalled from the factory. Prior to the purchase and installation of the EA4500 Router I replaced my old Motorola SurfBoard SB6120 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem with a Motorola SurfBoard SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem. My old Linksys E2000 Router worked perfectly with the SB6141, with the exception that the E2000 wasn’t IPv6 enabled, but does have 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet (RJ-45) and Internet ports.
The EA4500 has been installed for about 10 days and seems to have improved local network speeds and I don’t seem to be having any Internet connectivity issues. However, there are some disturbing issues with the EA4500 and the AE3000 I purchased. There are 11 devices connected through the Router; a Dell Desktop (wireless with the AE3000), a Dell Desktop (Ethernet), a Dell Laptop (wireless), 2 Canon Printers (1 Ethernet and 1 Wireless), 2 Western Digital 1TB MyBookLive Network Drives (both Ethernet), a WD TV Live Streaming Media Player (wireless), an Apple TV media player (wireless), an iPad (wireless), and an Android Smartphone (wireless).
Issue 1 – The Linksys Smart Wi-Fi interface appears to be unreliable at times!!! I’ve read about this problem here on the Community involving the EA6500, so I don’t know if this is a Linksys Server issue, as suggested in a few responses, or a bug in the Router firmware, or defective hardware. However, when the interface locks up, it can’t be accessed from a wireless or wired connection. Usually, powering down the Router and then powering it back up and restart will allow it to function again. However, at times before the interface completely locks up it shows either just a white screen or the security screen will show no firewall features enabled. This is a little scary, so I’ll do a complete reset and setup; this is becoming a pain in the rear!!!!! Is there any hope for this being fixed, in this Router, not the next generation??????????
Issue 2 - All of my network devices show up in the Router’s Device List. Except for the Apple devices they also show up, when they are online, in Windows 7 Explorer under Network and when you click on Network they are correctly displayed as Computers, Media Devices, Network Infrastructure, or Storage. However, when you click on “Open Network and Sharing Center” and then click on “See Full Map”; it fails with the response “Windows cannot create the network map. Responses from other devices on the network are delayed or there is an incompatible router on the network”; no device map is shown. When I follow the link for more information, the only thing that stands out is “A device on the network, such as a hub or switch, is not working properly or is not compatible with the Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) protocol, which Windows uses to create the map. To fix this problem, disable the device, turn it off, or remove it from your network”. All of my network devices showed up on the Network Map with the old E2000. This issue is the same on all of my computers, either wired or wireless. Any known solutions for this, or is it as Windows suggests; an incompatible Router????
Thanks in advance for any insight or solutions. With the issues I’m having with the EA4500 and the AE3000; they are both probably going back to Amazon.

Answer 1

thebluemamba_24; Thank you for your suggestion; I finally found time yesterday to perform an extensive evaluation before I return the Router. However, rather than trying to add devices manually, my rationale was if the EA4500 can’t process them correctly, automatically, it needs to be returned anyway, so I added devices normally letting the device an Router handle the process.
In thinking through this issue, all devices on our network are detected and identified by Windows Explorer on Windows 7 computers; except of course the Apple and Android devices (Apple TV, iPad, and Smartphone). So, I wondered if one of those three devices being added to the Router’s device list was somehow causing issues or interfering with Windows 7’s ability to generate a Network Map. Therefore, my approach was to turn off or disable all devices on our network, reset the Router to factory defaults, reestablish the Router to my custom Home Network configuration using a Windows 7 PC that has LAN and Wireless access to the Router, then add one device at a time and check with each addition to see if Windows 7 could still generate a Network Map.
With the Router reset and reestablishment complete; I began the process of adding one device at a time and checking to see if a Network Map was being generated. What I discovered was when a recent addition to the network, a Western Digital WD TV Live Streaming Media Player, was connected (wirelessly), Windows 7 could no longer generate the Network Map and the failure was consistent. The only way to get the Network Map to work again was to remove power from the WD TV Live, although it remained in the EA4500’s Device List; simply turning it off didn’t help. Since I’d originally witnessed the Windows 7 Network Map working with the Linksys E2000 Router that the EA4500 replaced, I decided to test the WD TV Live with that Router. It worked initially, but it failed consistently after the first success. Interestingly, the failure indication was a little different, but nevertheless generation of the Network Map failed.
I’ve tried changing a few settings on the EA4500 as well as the WD TV Live, but nothing helped. There was a recent firmware update to the WD TV Live, so I might try rolling back the firmware to see if it makes a difference.
The Network Map issue might very well be an issue with the WD TV Live, not the Router, but after reading many threads on this Community I have reservations that the problems I’m experiencing with the Smart interface lockup will be fixed. I suspect new emerging replacement products will be the focus and these older products will be abandoned and no more firmware fixes will be forthcoming and I don’t want to spend more money for a new product just to fix old problems and get something that works properly. The Network Map issue is troublesome, but the lockup of the Router’s “Linksys Smart Wi-Fi” interface is a serious matter to me. It appears that once it locks up, the only way to correct it is a power off restart; not practical if you’re traveling and trying to access settings remotely; the selling point for this feature.
Given the problems I’m experiencing with the EA4500 and AE3000, I guess I’ll return them. Too bad, because otherwise the EA4500 seems like it’s a good Router. I’ve been brand loyal since the Linksys WRT54G came out, but after reading this Community and with my personal experience with the EA4500 and AE3000, now I’ll probably give the NETGEAR N900 equivalents a try.