Rating: 
Summary: Great product
Review: I had lots of trepedation about embarking on the wireless journey; these things never seem to go well the first time, and I was pretty sure the thing would have me rolling around on the floor trying to strangle its in 10 minutes. And I sure did not want to call cus support because we all know how that is these days.
Surprise! I read the instructions and hooked up to my cable modem (ATT Broadband) and it worked immediatly, no worries, and I didn't even end up having to configure anything. This feature might be unique to ATT Broadband, but their network apparently recognizes a new node as soon as it appears.
I also bought two wireless cards for two laptops. And here is my word of warning, mirroring the review below: The two boxes containing the cards were virtually identical, but one was Version 1, and the other Version 2. The V2 installed immediatly with no fuss and was working in less then a minute; the V1 was more of a struggle and required a few reboots; it has since been fine, but it seems slower, and I would highly recommend insisting on the V2 card and router.Lastly, my performance has been fantastic, but you might want to hold off and wait to see some reviews for the new 802.11 wireless version, as it can flow 54MB compared to this system's 11MB. But in my case, everything already runs like lightning, so I have no intention of upgrading for quite some time. Highly recommended, especially if you have ATT Broadband (no muss, no fuss).
Rating:
Summary: 5 Minutes Max out of the box and Running!!!!
Review: I was skeptical when I ordered this product and a USB Wireless network card. I was proven wrong, no glitches and 5 minutes out of the box I was on the Internet and another 5 minutes for the USB card and I was on the Internet downstairs. Highly recommend this product series. I am very happy.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow. Eight days, two different machines, and it won't work.
Review: I was pretty excited about setting up a wireless network at home and did a little research beforehand. I first wanted to go with Linksys, but I realized I was just influenced by all the ads for it that appear here on Amazon. I found a pretty good web site, Practically Networked (search for it), and this product didn't get great reviews; products made by other companies fared better. I went with it, though, when I found it for a good price. I'm pretty good with tech stuff, I maintain a web page and maintain/fix several computers as part of my business. However, I found the set up for this router quite confusing. First, the instructions told me to connect with a cable before I started to use the wireless capabilities!! How ridiculous--I bought a wireless router because I don't have Ethernet cards! Their tech support told me a wireless Ethernet card would work, though, so I proceeded to set it up. Good, but I had to make a call to Linksys to find this out. On the plus side, I only had to wait a minute to get through. I bought three products at once--this Linksys router, a Linksys PCI Ethernet card, and a Netgear PCMCIA Ethernet card. It's interesting to compare my experience with the Linksys router with that of the Netgear network card. The instructions for the Netgear were much clearer and intuitive--the instructions were written intelligently. The Netgear card installed very easily, without problem. To make a long story short, after eight nights of trying after work, and about forty tech support calls to Linksys and my ISP, after downloading the firmware update, I couldn't get my router to connect with my modem (by DirecTV). I tried on two different machines, an IBM ThinkPad, and a generic PC, both running Win98, following the instructions to a T, checking and double-checking all the little numbers that we have to enter to get it working. I don't know whether there's a problem with my ISP (DirecTV) or my machines or the router, software, etc., but the bottom line is that it wouldn't work! I did learn a couple of important things--first, as of this week, the latest version says "V2" on the front. The salesguy at the store I bought it from incorrectly told me that it was the latest version when I bought this. I also learned that with DirecTV, you have to call them to reset your modem for the Ethernet port if you are using the USB connection, and vice versa. In other words, both connections are not "live" at the same time, only one is. Another funny thing happened--as I said, I bought two network cards, a Linksys and a Netgear. The Netgear could connect with the router no problem, but the Linksys could not connect with the Linksys router! Finally, the range of this router was unimpressive. With the Netgear card, I could get a 50% signal from one floor away from the router. The Linksys card was worse--with the router ten feet away, I got a 30% signal. With the router four feet away, I got a 70% signal. I don't know whether my problems were bad luck or hardware problems. I'm going to return this router and try another brand and see what happens.
Rating:
Summary: A Pleasant Surprise
Review: I ordered this router with some trepidation after reading many of the reviews. I had originally ordered a Netgear wireless access point, but no one could get one for a month. In short, I plugged it in, walked through the quickstart card, and it was working with my cable modem in about five minutes. Installing a couple of USB access points to my other computers took a little longer, but not because the router didn't work. The range is pretty good, but I did have to put it on a high shelf in the downstairs to get a strong signal upstairs. I'm not using print or file sharing yet, so I can't speak to that, but for wireless broadband sharing, this thing is the bees knees. Much, much easier to set up than was let on by the other reviews. I'm using a P4 with Windows XP, if that helps you make a decision. The connected computers are P3s using Win98SE.
Rating: 
Summary: Linksys: a testiment to mediocrity
Review: Linksys is consistent - when something works, it works great. The rest of the time, you're on your own. ... This system worked well initially, then spontaneously stoppped. After many frustrating attempts at customer support, I was finally able to reboot and get it working again. A simple hardware reboot isn't adequate - it needs to be physically disconnected from the power source for several minutes. We get to do this several times each week. I'm still waiting for an explanation from Linksys. Additionally, I'm convinced that the reset button is there for appearance only - it has yet to do anything for my system!
Rating:
Summary: Sweet product!
Review: This was a good pick! I had the wireless router up and running within 10 minutes - almost zero configuration required. The WEP encryption was easy as well though i wish they had mentioned explicitly that the wireless connection may drop once you enable it unless you configure the PC Card as well. Tech support was good but you have to wait a LONG time before you reach a representative. I love their web-based router configuration - very nicely done. I did notice that their DHCP Clients Table was flaky though - their tech support wasn't able to answer that question to my satisfaction.
Rating: 
Summary: Great product for the home user
Review: I bought this to get cable internet access in my den which was 1 1/2 stories away. This works great. I noticed that a lot of people have had the same problem I did. At first, my wireless network would not hold a good signal, but then I realized that it was not the router, but the linksys card itself. The older version of the card was not very good, however the newere 3 and 2.5 versions are much better. But however, i do not recommend the linksys, go with either the d-link or compaq ones. The only thing that made me not give this a 5, was the fact after you use it and leave your computer to idle and return like an hour later, the internet gets slow. This is something to do with the router and they said it would be fixed in the next firmware upgrade. But all i have to do is restart and 30 seconds later it's up and running. I do recommend this for sharing internet connection, but I do NOT recommend it for networking. get the wireless gateway, it is much easier to setup and much more stable.
Rating: 
Summary: Works good eventually: but not for the novice under XP!!
Review: ...These products were generally well reviewed in the technology media when introduced (for use with pre-Windows XP OSs). And if you call Linksys before purchasing (as I did) and ask if they play well with Windows XP, the sales and tech staff will tell you "of course". The correct answer is of course....as long as you are comfortable tweaking your computers network connection settings and don't expect the Linksys documentation to address the OS now being delivered with new Wintel PCs. The wired router installation was a piece of cake (I use a wired port for the PC that's co-located with my router and cable modem). This partially because the Linksys install routine and browser based setup instructions worked well, but partially because my cable provider is NOT fussy about NIC MAC addresses and the router recognized the providers mail domains (which in my cased included one that's abbreviated, and some that differ from the address domain name due to a recent acquisition; these are both areas that Linksys is helpful enough to prepare you to overcome, and your mileage may vary depending on your cable provider). The USB wireless adapter under Windows XP was considerably more challenging. My install was hampered by a local hardware issue (a device conflict between a USB 2.0 port on a separate PCI card and the motherboard USB ports. I had blue screens upon restart when using the PCI port; these continued until I tried one of the motherboard's USB ports, and then the install proceeded as normal. This is where my main gripe with Linksys develops: the will tell you before purchase that their products work with Windows XP -- and they do....but you'd better be prepared to tweak and geek without their help. When I called about my blue screens, I spent 51 frustrating minutes with a tech support guy and his boss. THe boss became part of the picture when the L1 guy suggested that perhaps I didn't know enough about computers to be trying this (and it was obvious that my experience around computers predated his launch from Mom) install. During the 49th minute, we uncovered an error indicator suggesting this was a hardware issue, which led me to try the alternate USB port. But Linksys was adamant that they were not there to help me fix my broken OS. Finally, the wireless portion of the network has yet to succeed in establishing a WEP encrypted connection. A separate call to Linkys yieled another tech support guy ill-prepared to help troubleshoot the problem. Their bottom line: Sometime the WEP activation will work under XP, and sometimes it won't. If it won't, stand by for their XP update to these devices "maybe coming in June". That said, my computers on two separate floors are enjoyning high signal strength and shared internet connection. I'm not overly concerned about the balky WEP setup since I live in a low vehicle traffic area (shouldn't be many war riders around), and I have file sharing turned off. But Linksys really needs to get their user guides and tech support scripts updated to accomodate the growing population of Windows XP users....
Rating:
Summary: For a SOHO setup, it does the trick
Review: For the longest time, I used an old Pentium 133 running Redhat 7.2 as my gateway/router for my home network. Unfortunately, the computer began acting up recently and, not really wanting to pour too much money into it, I went looking for an alternative. I picked up the BEFW11S4 and, within an hour, was up and running on both my wired desktops and my laptop with wireless card. So far, so good. Setting up the network was exremely easy using the router's built-in web interface. It also allows for 128-bit WEP encryption to protect your wireless communications from snoopers. All in all, I feel about as secure with this as I did with my IPTables setup in Linux, if not a bit more. Recently, however, my laptop has been dropped off the wireless network for no apparent reason. I'm not 100% certain that it's the router doing it -- I haven't taken the time to trace down the problem since it has happened only three times and at very irregular intervals -- but that small bit of suspicion led me to knock off a star. All in all, though, if you're looking for a way to roam about your small office or your home without dragging a cable behind you, this is an excellent way to get started in the world of 802.11b. It's fast, easy, secure and, best of all, affordable.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to set-up and use
Review: I purchased this product along with the instant wireless PC card. The router set-up took no more than 20 minites, I had my desktop PC running Windows 95 OS set-up and running in no time. The wireless PC card in my laptop took a little longer, it runs Windows XP. Let XP do the install don't read the instruction. Put the card in and turn on the machine and let XP figure out the rest.
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