I recently had to upgrade our home network wifi to accommodate the growing number of smart devices needing network access.I did a quick web search and decided to get the Linksys – EA9500 Max-Stream AC5400 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Router. This has solved my wireless bandwidth issues but as this router is not my primary router, I run this device in bridge mode. Linksys has decided that this device should have very limited functionality when operating in bridge mode:

Here’s a snapshot while I had it configured in their Cascading Lan to Lan configuration which leaves the WAN port open. This allows access to all the router functionality but doesn’t allow the router to access the Internet as they only allow the default route to be through the WAN port.

My questions to Linksys in regards to their bridge mode implementation:

• Why must I lose access to my USB storage just because I need to operate this device in bridge mode? The device has an IP address and still has access to the storage.
• Why am I not allowed to run a Speed Test? The device is still attached to a network and has an IP address.
• Why must I lose access to the guest wireless network just because I’m operating in bridge mode?

In regards to the Lan-to-Lan configuration, why am I not allowed to set a default route utilizing the LAN interface when the WAN interface is left disconnected? This would solve the majority of the issues I have with this device.

I understand there are limitations when operating in bridge mode but this implementation is simply disgusting. I do hope Linksys choses to correct this in a future firmware release or assists the good people over at dd-wrt with a port or this will be my last Linksys purchase.