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Linksys BEFW11S4 Wireless-B Cable/DSL Router

Linksys BEFW11S4 Wireless-B Cable/DSL Router

List Price: $69.99
Your Price: $49.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It's a snap
Review: Installation was a piece of cake. I switched out my non wireless Linksys router for this baby. I get great signal all through my place, albeit it my place is a tad small. I was up and running within 5 minutes. I'm using an Orinoco Gold card (courtesy of work) and have had no problems since. I just switch between two profiles between home and work. Would have gotten five stars if not for the security/encryption flaws.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Product
Review: I would recommend this to all the home users who are looking for cheap and reliable wireless connection. It is easy to install but the firmware is buggy. I had to call tech support to help me reinstall the firmware after my first attempt caused the red light on the unit to flash. Also, the D-link DI713P is pretty good. However, the D-link is a little bit confusing to configure at first.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Linksys 4-Port Cable/DSL Router Works well, but .....
Review: I purchased the Linksys 4-Port Cable/DSL Router with Wireless Access Point, and a Linksys Wireless laptop card. Amazon does indeed have the lowest prices so far as I can tell. I surveyed Best Buy and Circuit City and Amazon's prices were lower.

I had problems with the Linksys Router. After three long tech support sessions on the phone on three different days with Linksys, the technician finally stated that I had a defective product.

Fortunately, Amazon makes returning real easy. With a few clicks of the mouse on the Amazon site I printed a return label. I packed up the faulty router, put it in the same Amazon shipping carton that Amzon came in, and taped the shipping label. I mailed it back to Amazon at no cost to me. A couple of weeks later a refund showed up on my credit card. Easy.

However, rather than waiting for Amazon to ship me a new Linksys router, I went to the store and bought a replacement, same model (at a higher price). This one installed quickly and easily and worked beautifully.

After getting the router to work, I had no trouble at all installing the wireless PC card on my laptop.

Coincidentally, my brother-in-law also had a defective Linksys router. He exchanged it and the replacement worked just fine. It leaves us to wonder if Linksys has a high manufacturing defect rate.

Despite the initial problems, I am very happy. I can access the Internet wirelessly on my laptop in my bedroom, while my kids are doing their homework (and doing Instant Messaging on the sly) on the desktop PC in the study about 20 feet away. The router and wireless card are doing beautifully. The Linksys products work well so long as you don't have a defective unit.

I would order from Amazon again. It does take a while to deliver the product to your home, but with free shipping and easy returning if necessary, it's worth taking the chance.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good alternative to the Apple Base Station
Review: I'm running a titanium g4 OSX 10.2 connected to a cable modem and was looking for a wireless solution that didn't cost a lot. There seemed to be plenty of detailed documentation written by Mac users online to help with the setup (Note:Linksys doesn't officially support the platform). I decided to give it a shot. Set up was really easy. I received a signal as soon as I plugged in the router to the cable modem although it was a rather slow connection. I then used the 4 page documentation to change some settings via html pages on a browser. The only thing I had to change was the MAC cloning setting under the advanced tab menu. In OSX you need to get your hardware address from your machine in the network utility and then enter it into the Linksys mac clone setting. Apply the setting then restart the cable modem and the computer. Check out ibookzone for more info on the mac address clone setting. It has nothing to do with macintosh computers. One other thing to mention, is that the Linksys 4 step setup mentions connecting to the router using an ethernet cable when you set up. I tried that and got the wrong hardware address from my machine. I recommend using wireless to setup. If you don't mind a slightly technical setup and doing a little research then I'd recommend this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simple to set up!
Review: This is a great piece of equipment. I have a WinXP box and I wanted to network a Win98 box, mainly to use the DSL connection. I think it took 5 minutes total for each. The CD does everything for you, you plug it in, and BAM!... you are connected. The USB wireless adapter was even easier to install on the Win98 machine. This is a great combo at an awesome price. I can't believe it took me so long to do this! It is simple, fast, and cheap... what more can you ask for?

LinkSys was recommended to me by my companies network guys, and now I see why. Also, I have had no interference at all with my 2.4 ghz cordless phones. i was told that could be a potential problem.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perfect
Review: Works flawlessly out of the box just as it should. I was up and networked with three computers in less than 1/2 hour. Two computers on XP one on ME. Great product.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Difficult to configure, especially for Macintosh, poor range
Review: I have the latest version, version 2. I've had to wait through two revisions of the firmware, about 6 months, to get even decent performance.

The settings pages are still difficult to understand, even after revisions, and I have 20 years of consumer computer experience. If you have a Macintosh, spend a little extra, and get the Apple Airport base, the software is a million times better than the cobbled together Linksys stuff.

LINKSYS SUPPORT is [bad], and Linksys Mac support is non-existent. I tried it via the Windoze PC end, and it wasn't much better. I suspect the people that give this a good rating are used to dealing with clunky software. Expect multiple hard resets, and don't expect to get the WEP 128 encryption to work easily unless you already know how to set it up.

Also the range: I barely get 60 feet indoors, even with the cool-looking dual antennas, on the same floor of a NYC apartment. I have checked, and there are no competing 802.11b gadgets in the vicinity.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good for web access - not a subtitute for a wired network.
Review: POSITIVES:
The portability offered for internet access is terrific. I can be wherever I want to be in my home and still access the web at the full speed of my 2,500 Kbs cable connection. The setup was easy for basic networking plus it has many inbound and outbound access control features for those who may want to permit inbound access to a web or mail server or for access to the new Remote desktop feature in Windows XP.

NEGATIVES:
The WPC111 PC Card was dead on arrival - requiring a trip back to the retailer. The positioning of the router is critical because the range is only a 20 - 50% of the 100 feet advertised. I had to run a lot of cable to place the unit in a position where it would provide coverage for most of my house. (under the sofa in the living room) I found the workable range is between 20 and 50 feet depending on the walls or floors between you PC and the router. This range seems pretty typical of most user reviews.

The wireless setup is not a substitute for a wired network because the data through-put is very slow compared to a 100Meg network . . . slower than 11 mbits specs would suggest. It takes 24 minutes to transfer 600 mbytes of data from a file server compared to 1 min 40 seconds using a wired PC.

CONCLUSION:
As an extension to a wired network I am happy with value after adjusting my expectations downward regarding the range and bandwidth being only one-half of advertised. This is not a good alternative to wiring your home or 2,3,4,5 PC's, mostly because of the range problems you are likely to encounter.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Easy Setup, Bad Product
Review: About a year ago my company purchased the Liksys BEFW11S4 router for me to use when I worked remotely. It seemed like a good fit since I program applications for wireless handheld devices. Setup of the device was easy and I got it up and running in no time. This is where the good news ends. After a few months, the wireless feature of my router stopped working. It would no longer allow wireless connections(wired still worked). I figured, "hey, hardware can be bad every now and again, no big deal". I contacted Linksys and they had me return the router for a new one (at MY expense...) I got the new router and again hooked it up without a problem. The wireless features on it were working and I was happy again. A few weeks ago, though, the wireless features of my new router quit just like they did in the first one. That can't just be a fluke. Linksys apparently has problems with the wireless aspect of all of their routers. I contacted the company about the problem again. They said they would perform an exchange once more... unfortunately, they never lived up to their words. I just went out and purchased a D-Link DI-614+. So far so good on it. Sorry linksys...I will never purchase another product from you again...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great product
Review: I replaced my old reliable BEFSR41 router with this unit. It literally was a clean swap. I just entered my PacBell DSL PPPOE settings and I was back online with all 6 computers, both Mac and PC, in less than 5 minutes. Wireless settings were also a snap. I have been using Apple's airport software base station (SBS) as my access point (AP) before. Since OS X does not support this, I had to get another AP solution. Linksys did the job. Transition was very smooth. And the range from the Linksys is superior to Apple's SBS. I sold the old router and airport card on eBay and it more than paid for the cost of this unit. No brainer. I don't know why people have problems with this unit. I don't think it's the unit.


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