Rating: 
Summary: Great access point, great features, great value
Review: First off let me me say that this access point is great. All the range problems people experience are related to using the Linksys wireless card. I am using this access point for a desktop system that is in an inconvenient location to get an ethernet cable too. So I decided to make that desktop wireless. I am also using it with a Dell Inspiron laptop with a 2nd wireless card as this access point supports up to 32 users. The two wireless cards I am using are the D-Link 650, and the Orinoco Gold Card. They are both great cards. The D-Link is used in the desktop system while I use the Orinoco Gold in my laptop.The range is great providing you orient the antennaes first to get maximum signal strength. I get well over 50% signal with the D-Link card after I have arranged the signals. This is also going thru two walls, and is diagonally opposite from each other. This is more than enough signal strength to effectively operate at the full 11Mbps rate. I have also sucessfully configured 128 bit WEP protection, as well as MAC address authenticate feature so that only my two wireless cards are the only ones that can access the access point. I had a little trouble getting WEP, and MAC authenticate to work at first, but you definatly need to have at least v. 1.4f.8 firmware or later, as well as the latest software. To get WEP working the encryption keys must match exactly on both the wireless access point, and the wireless card otherwise the units will not communicate. To get MAC authenticate to work you have to open up NotePad and make a regular .txt file of your MAC addresses that you want to enable access for in this format without using dashes. For example (00-01-12-FB-7Z-04) needs to be entered in NotePad as: 000112FB7Z04 You need to use a seperate line for each card's MAC address. When you are finished save the .txt file and you can easily go into the configuration tool for the Wireless Access Point, and upload this .txt file of MAC address to allow access. You will not see the list of MAC addresses present after you upload it, but it does work. I am using this access point with a Linksys BEFN2PS4 Cable/DSL, and Voice Router, and it works well with it. I also have the Linksys EFSP42 Print Server. All 3 Linksys boxes are excellent products, and integrate well with each other. They also look nice as they conveniently stack on top of each other. The Voice Router is also a great product as it allows you to make cheap phone calls over the Internet using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) using any regular telephone. These calls can also be made when your computer is totally turned off. It is totally independent from the computer. In conclusion, the wireless acess point is a great product, and I am definatly glad I purchased it. Just make sure you do NOT use the Linksys wireless PC card with it as I have heard nothing but BAD reports of poor range. Use a D-LINK 802.11b card, or the Orinoco Gold which are both excellent cards. It will work with any card that is WI-FI compatible.
Rating:
Summary: Wireless in a Box
Review: I'm surprised that the overall ratings for this device are not higher. I personally own one of these devices and found the ease of setup and configuration very desireable. Additionally, the speed is amazingly fast. It provides a great deal of flexibility over the traditional CAT5 type network. Buy it!!
Rating: 
Summary: Linksys WAP11 Instant Wireless Network Access Point
Review: Unlike my Linksys BEFSR41 Etherfast Cable/DSL Router, the WAP11 was difficult to set up [....] I could never get 128-bit encryption to work (also bought the WPC11 PC Card). My biggest complaint is that the maximum signal range that I got from the Linksys Wireless "solution" was about 30 feet through a single gypsum wallboard wall; nowhere close to the advertised distance of 164 feet at 11 Mbps indoors. I spent far too many hours moving the WAP around the house and switching channels attempting to achieve a more acceptable range. I wound up hard-wiring the rooms that I wanted access to and will probably wait for wireless network technology to mature a bit before attempting to have full mobility. [....]
Rating: 
Summary: No worries, but get a good WAP card
Review: This box works great with range of 900 feet outside and about 300 feet through two floors and outside. I tested it in my office with a high RF environment and it worked OK. I would suggest getting a Lucent Gold card because the range is far more dependent upon the card than the Access point.
Rating:
Summary: Unreliable installation makes this product useless
Review: Threre are two ways to configure this device - one via the USB port and the other via the network port. Both methods failed. The USB drivers under Windows 2000 SP2 caused repeated blue screen of death. Even when Win2K booted up it reported that the driver had failed. The latest drivers from the website didn't help. The ethernet port (SNMP access) reported the WAP wasn't installed. Linksys' website doesn't help. So I am returning the unit today.
Rating:
Summary: Disapointment
Review: After purchasing thier 4-port DSL router, which I really like, I thought I'd give Linksys another try with the WAP11. I wish now I hadn't. The product shipped with only 40(64) bit WEP encryption, which was a surprise to me since most everything has moved to 128bit encryption. No problems, Linksys had a firmware upgrade which offered the 128, so I downloaded it and installed it. Then my problems began. The firmware install utility reported it did not complete properly, and subsequent tries failed completely. When I tried to access the WAP11 with the SNMP tool, it failed. I then tried the USB interface tool, which worked, and the unit appeared to have upgraded properly despite the report from the utility. (I have since discovered many other people had the same problem in upgrading the fw. Did Linksys even test this??) After waiting forever on Linksys' tech support queue, I was greeted with a tech support person, who as I suspected, knows less about networking than I do, and appeared to know even less than me about Linksys products. He sent me begrudgingly down a few blind alleys, which I informed him were not the solution, only to find out I was right. Oh... the reason I called tech support? It was to get the SNMP utility to work, which is the only way to limit the MAC addresses. The solution? Disable the password access to the WAP. Brilliant huh! Anyways since then, the unit is working, however anytime I am transfering large amounts of data, the WAP will lock up, pretty consistently too. Then it must be power-cycled to work again. I think I'll be returning this unit and try another brand.
Rating:
Summary: WAP11, WDT11, WPC11 SYSTEM
Review: FUNCTIONALITY I installed the WAP11 and a Linksys Wireless Adapter/Card on our home computers. I received tech support help that was ok for the intial installation. With all the equipment in the same room, the products worked fine. I then moved the computer with the wireless card to a room 15M away. This product is essentially useless for any applications involving computers in different rooms. The product literature suggests indoor applications have a range of 100M. In my home, with wood construction, this product does not function at a distance of 15M. In fact, I connected the WAP11 to a 10M cable and roamed other rooms with the unit to a distance less than 10M from the computer with a wireless card. The best signal quality I received was 6%, which alternated to 0% with any slight change of position. (With the WAP11 in the same room, the signal quality was 85%). I tried a number of different channels with the same results. TECH SUPPORT I called tech support about this problem at 5:00pm, and was told I would receive an expedited return call. I called again at 7:30pm, and was told if I did not receive a call within 45 minutes to call again. I attempted calling the toll-free number several times that , but it was always busy. I never received any call from tech support.
Rating:
Summary: Who need wires
Review: When the cable guy finished installation of my cable Internet, and left me with a six foot network cable, I was more than happy that I was surfing a blinding speeds. The one catch however was that the only cable outlet in my house was in a small nook, behind the TV, in my living room on the first floor of my house. I knew I had to go wireless. I've never set up a network before, so needless to say I was nervous even ordering the parts. When they finally came, I hooked it up, installed the software on my laptop, and had it configured in running in less than five minutes. With the wireless PCMCIA card in my laptop, I was cruising around the house watching high resolution video streaming over the Internet. In my garage, on the second floor of the house, outside mowing the lawn - well, okay, maybe not mowing the lawn, but at least in a lawn chair. I don't know too much about the technology being used so I can hardly rate the devices functioning itself, but if you're a novice like me looking for a quick way to go wireless, this device makes it a snap. I was so pleased with how fast I was able to configure it, and get surfing wireless, that I'm now contemplating using some of the advanced features such as setting up my own internal wireless network for the other PC's in the house.
Rating:
Summary: Product works, but firmware upgrade doesn't.
Review: I installed my WAP 11 a few days ago. It is stacked on a Linksys 4 port cable modem router that I purchased almost six months ago. It took me nearly three hours to get it to communicate with a 3Com Air Connect wireless card, but once I did get it working, I found the range to be nearly 150 feet indoors (through three walls and downstairs on the opposite side of the house. I would also mention that I have not seen any latency degradation (even 150 feet away from the access point) as the result of installing the product. My only limitation is the speed of the cable line. I do have an issue, though. I cannot get 128-bit enryption to work on the box because the firmware upgrade DOES NOT work. Linksys tech support required me to send them the box twice (each time claiming to upgrade my firmware to the latest version, but actually resetting the firmware to the earliest version). I have also found the additude of the tech support group to be poor at best. The first time I had one on the line he accused me of installing the firmware upgrade package incorrectly, only to learn that he had not been following the instructions himself. The tech support people are completely incompetent. The product works, but not with new firmware. Be careful with this one if you are looking for a positive user experience.
Rating:
Summary: Who needs wires
Review: With five computers in the house, networking becomes a requirement, not a luxury. This is especially true when you have a wife and kids that are jealous of your high speed cable/dsl connection while they struggle with dial up speeds and carrier drops. I had resigned myself to the fact that I was probably going to be forced to run CAT 5, but figured I would see if this wireless stuff worked before doing so. I already owned the Linksys Cable/DSL Router with 8 port switch and was really pleased with it, so I maintained brand loyalty and purchased the WAP11, two Linksys wireless USB adapters, and one Linksys PCMCIA card for my laptop. Setup was easy, especially if you follow the directions. I connected the WAP11 to the uplink port in my router and then went to install one of the USB adapters on my wifes system in the basement at the other end of our 6,000 square foot house. Installation of the USB adapter was again easy, and when I opened Internet Explorer, I couldn't believe how fast her connection was, nor could she. I installed the other USB adapter upstairs in my daughters room, and again amazing performance. Laptop was just as easy with similalr results, I love being able to check my e-mail while sitting outside. I don't know why others had problems, could be bad units, or something to do with construction of their house, or nearby equipment, but I can't believe the more expensive units out there would perform any better that the Linksys in my house. Only possible drawback is some of the higher priced WAPs offer 128 bit encryption, instead of the WAP11's 64 bit, but for our needs, it didn't matter. Forget CAT5, or ..., Linksys has a solution that is easy to install, fast, and reliable, who needs wires?
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