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SMC2655W 802.11b 11Mbps Wireless Access Point

SMC2655W 802.11b 11Mbps Wireless Access Point

List Price: $129.99
Your Price: $101.09
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Much better than the current Linksys WAP11
Review: I had a Linksys WAP11 die on me after 14 months. I had always been happy with it ... so I immediately ordered a replacement. It turned out to be the new v2.2.

The Linksys v2.2 wouldn't work reliably when WEP was enabled (neither 64 nor 128 bit). Also, I seemed to have much more trouble with signal strength. So I tried a second one assuming the first was defective, but the with the same results.

So I gave up on the Linksys WAP11 v2.2 and tried the SMC2655W (even though it's supposedly based on the same electronics) and guess what? It not only worked flawlessly with WEP enabled, but it gave a stronger signal, and is about half the size of the WAP11.

You won't believe how small it is. But I'm really pleased with its performance. I'll bet you will be too. I'm a happy consumer with this unit!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Easy Setup Great Wireless
Review: I have had a lot of trouble with this product, and I am in the process of returning mine. Here are my biggest complaints: (1) access point requires Windows-based manager for configuration. A simple web or telnet based client would be more portable and more reliable. (2) The Window-based manager is buggy and often crashes. (3) I need to POWER-CYCLE my access point every 24 hours -- otherwise it maxes out at 6 KB/sec data transmission.

....

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Terrible Product
Review: I have had a lot of trouble with this product, and I am in the process of returning mine. Here are my biggest complaints: (1) access point requires Windows-based manager for configuration. A simple web or telnet based client would be more portable and more reliable. (2) The Window-based manager is buggy and often crashes. (3) I need to POWER-CYCLE my access point every 24 hours -- otherwise it maxes out at 6 KB/sec data transmission.

....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SM2544W Wireless Access Point-Buy it over Linksys
Review: I have purchased Linksys products in the past and other than the fact that it took 3 tries before I finally received a working DSL/Cable Router, I have always been pleased with the performance but the technical support was a complete joke.

I decided after reading the reviews on Amazon.Com and other sites that I would spend the extra $10 and go SMC because of it's ease of installation and tech support.

I purchased the Linksys PCMCIA card as part of my wireless solution and it took less than 5 minutes from opening the box to surfing on the web to get it and the wireless acces point up and running. The speed performance is beyond expectations. I have the basic cable modem attached to a Linksys DSL/Cable router and plugged the SMC Wireless hub into one of my available Linksys ports and that was it.

I made the choice to go the SMC route after vowing never again to deal with the inept "Hope Desk" offered by Linksys. If you had any thoughts about buying Linksys, think again. SMC is THE way to go.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Serious pain to configure, works fine once it's running
Review: I'm a professional system administrator and ordered this AP when it's price dropped too low to pass up.

The good:
AP has a very small footprint, mounting holes in back
Excellent range & strength; covers my duplex with excellent strength & quality
Simple to configure MAC address filter & WEP keys once you can connect to it

The bad:
I'm not entirely sure how a non-technical user would ever set this AP up. The documentation indicates that it's "plug & play", and indeed it is as long as you don't want to change _anything_. The firmware shipped with the AP would not work. The latest on the web site would not work. Finally, the 1.7.1 version (earlier version on the website) worked. In order to make it work I had to watch my DHCP server logs (the manual indicates that it ships with a static 192.168.0.254 address; in fact mine shipped with it's DHCP client on. Scanning for the AP has yet to work for me, but if I connect to it's DHCP assigned address with the default password I was finally able to get in.

Once in, configuration was a breeze, and as I said the AP has been working just fine since then.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great USB wireless device
Review: Purchased this SMC wireless USB device in September 2001. It works great from day 1. I got better connection speed than with a PCMCIA wireless card. This is a must for those computers you do not lug around every hour. The monitor utility has an upgrade but I did not do it. Everything works so good I do not want to change anything. This was a good idea and a great buy.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not great.
Review: This product really doesn't perform as well as I had expected.
Limited range and functionality. We're disappointed.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not great.
Review: This product really doesn't perform as well as I had expected.
Limited range and functionality. We're disappointed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome!
Review: This thing literally worked right out of the box with an SMC PCMCIA NIC. I typed in the AP's address and started configuring. I turned one feature on at a time until I had 128 bit WEP and access control working. The only thing that gave me any trouble is that the web interface requires "0x" before the hex for the WEP string and the NIC won't accept it. Not a big deal for me, but I can see why the guy in the store warned me that people return SMC stuff a lot because they can't figure out how to set it up.

BTW, I also have an SMC router that has worked flawlessly since I bought it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome!
Review: This thing literally worked right out of the box with an SMC PCMCIA NIC. I typed in the AP's address and started configuring. I turned one feature on at a time until I had 128 bit WEP and access control working. The only thing that gave me any trouble is that the web interface requires "0x" before the hex for the WEP string and the NIC won't accept it. Not a big deal for me, but I can see why the guy in the store warned me that people return SMC stuff a lot because they can't figure out how to set it up.

BTW, I also have an SMC router that has worked flawlessly since I bought it.


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