Rating: 
Summary: The Specs not realistic / Be Careful
Review: This is just an expensive toy. It does not come close to its range inside the typical northeast home. Unless your computer is in the same room as the router, good luck getting a signal. Very misleading in its advertising in my opinion. Should warn customers of the potential downfalls of this new technology! Yes, tech support does answer and is helpful but they can't fix your range problems. Suggest using Cat5 until they can correct range problems. P.S. I assume this negative review will be buried so if anyone reads it, I hope it is helpful :)
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Product, Lousy Instructions, Great Tech Support
Review: This is a nice multi-feature device that works great ONCE you get it configured. Unfortunately, the user guide is written for Network Engineers. I can do lots of PC stuff (wipe a hard drive, reload Windows, add or replace internal hardware) but I know nothing of networks. The user guide is missing some key info, and wrong on others. However, there is toll-free support and I got expert help after an 11-minute wait. Not bad! But the documentation is inexcusable. Not only is it incomplete, but it is only for Win 98 & ME. If you have NT or 2000, they offer no instruction at all!
Rating: 
Summary: Setting up for @HOME
Review: I was a bit wary buying this product, since I am a bit of a networking newbie. If you are setting up for @Home dynamic IP service with a cable modem, save yourself some headaches and follow the directions below:
(Windows 2000)
1. Before hooking this thing up, go the the start menu, type in "command". Enter ipconfig /all at the prompt and get the local domain name (it will look something like xxx.xx.home.com). This will be the "Domain" name.
2. Get your computer name, this will become the "Host" name.
3. Hook everything up and access the router in the browser.
4. Enter the above 2 values into the Host and Domain boxes on the setup page (leave everything else alone).
5. Go to the Status page, make sure the WAN IP address has an IP address other than 0.0.0.0. If not, then click DHCP renew and check again.
6. Shutdown the computer, then power down the cable modem (don't skip this step!).
7. Start up the computer, this should get you going. (Don't forget, you may have to disable any firewall software you have, check with the manufacturer).Everything seems to work fine, wireless access is working good. (Router is upstairs, other PC is downstairs).
Rating:
Summary: Works well but still a bit complex to set up
Review: I got it working well, but it is still a bit too technical to set up. Took me a couple hours at least - more than it should.
Rating:
Summary: Beware of customer support...NOT! 2 Hrs and still no answer
Review: I have had no luck getting the Wireless function accessable from my wireless PC's. I have tried twice to get support from their help center, where I am ineptly told that "my average wait time will be 18 minutes". In both cases my hold time exceeded 2 hours, whereupon I gave up and returned the product for credit from the retailer. From my view, the user interface has some really stupid design flaws. For example, you must supply a password to access the profile (the manual says "use the default of 'admin'", but then after you modify the profile, you cannot save using the same password....after three attempts you receive a "User not Valid" red screen. You must read the web-site documentation to discover that "to save profiles,you must delete the asterisks in the security screen."....How's that for intuitive design??!! Where did they get theses guys? Save yourself many headaches and buy from someone else.
Rating: 
Summary: It works as expected / [poor] customer Service
Review: I bought the BEFW11S4 and WPC11 PC Card... and am writing this review on an XP laptop over the wireless network with a 28k streaming radio broadcast running. No set-up problems. Here are some technical results so far:
- I just did a bandwith test over the net and it came back @ 1.1MB, twice as fast as I have ever received before????
- I am on my laptop, 20 feet away from the router with a clear line fo site and the config util says that I have a Tx of 250, a Rx of 3500, 66% link quality, and 60% signal strength.
- I just took the laptop into my bedroom, 40 feet away, and the link quality dropped to 6% and signal quality to 33% causing the streaming radio broadcast to drop... I have heard that you can significantly improve the signal by replacing the antennae on the router... Additionally, if I start getting any of the "hanging" problems that I've heard so much about, I'll repost. In conclusion, it suits my needs adequately here in my small beach house but I can't see this setup working in a larger house or between floors in an office building.
Rating:
Summary: Great Wireless Products
Review: It is a great product and very easy to use for home or small business. I'm using cable modem at home with two desktop computers and a laptop. The laptop has PCMCIA wireless card (from Lucent) and desktops have Linksys wireless USB (WUSB11). It took me less than two hours to set up and benchmark results of the whole network. It is a totally wireless solution for me, no more ethernet cables between walls or rooms, the laptop works anywhere in the house including the patio area. The information below is the test results: Direct connection:
1. From the cable modem is around 2.0Mbs (megabit per seconds) Wireless:
2. From the same floor: 1.8Mbs
3. From the different floor: 1.5Mbs
4. Backyard: 128Kbs
Besides having the accessing to cable modem from anywhere in the house, I also can share information between computers.
Rating:
Summary: Linksys Rocks
Review: I bought a Linksys WAP Router for my home network. I had a problem and called their technical support and bingo, it was fixed. However, I REALLY was impressed with their technical support during this recent ATT @ HOME fiasco when I couldn't get connected. AT&T said, "not my problem!" I called Linksys, and at no charge, (true, after a 30 minute wait, but everyone was calling them it seems!) fixed my problem and I was up and running. I would buy Linksys for their excellent tech support alone, to say nothing about their products that work!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product, But Needs Better Docs for Wireless
Review: I purchased this product as well as the Linksys Wireless Compact Flash Network Card. The Wireless Router installed very easily and had superb instructions on how to setup all portions of the wired network. It walked you through the setup process step by step and even had a web based tutorial for you. I was up and running on the wired portion of the product within 15 minutes and I was surfing the internet from my desktop while my wife was surfing the internet from her laptop. All through the same connection!!! This was an experience that allowed us both to complete our severely past due college homework over the weekend without having to "take turns" using the internet. A truly marvelous product! HOWEVER. . . the WIRELESS portion of this product has NO documentation nor could I find ANY information about it on the Linksys website. I tried calling the supposed 24 hour 7 day a week technical support only to discover that they were closed. I was quite frustrated to say the least. I sent them an email late on Sunday night; early Monday morning they got back to me with a set of instructions that fixed the problem. I simply wish they would have been available on Saturday or Sunday so I would have been able to fix my problems and frustrations earlier. Overall, I take off one star for the lack of documentation about the wireless portion of the product and the lack of a place for the consumer to fix their problems. Other than that, the product saved my bacon for the weekend and I am psyched about using it in the future...
Rating:
Summary: My 4th Linksys purchase this year
Review: I manage the corporate telecommuting program for a major corporation, but I'm not a network engineer or administrator. I have been horsing around with home networking and remote access for a few years. One of the challenges for people who work from home has always been the prospect of trying to share a DSL or Broadband connection between home pcs and a business laptop- in my experience this usually involved swapping cables, changing network settings and other things complex for the average user. I was first introduced to the thought of using a router and DHCP server at home by one of our corporate Computing Security gurus. He told me how amazingly simple it was, but at the time it sounded technical. But when I was able to obtain broadband this year, I needed to both a firewall to protect my data, and a way to easily share my home connection with my company Win2k laptop. The installer suggested Linksys as a product that many people used. So I headed down to the big yellow electronics superstore. As I stood gazing at a whole wall of home networking products I frankly expected the project to be time consuming and difficult. Since I hadn't done any research, I ended up going with the Linksys router with 4 port switch (non-wireless) almost solely based on the installer's comments. (Two days later I realized I could have saved [money] if I would have purchased it online, but that's another story!). When I got it home, I was truly amazed how simple installation was; I found the instructions very simple, and I found I could simply plug my company (win98 at the time) laptop in, and with NO changes connect to the office via VPN (PPTP). I also later discovered that our corporate IT department had chosen the same Linksys product as the recommended hardware firewall. Since that time I have helped many people get set up much the same way. I first purchased Linksys wireless router (BEFW11S4) and wireless PCMCIA networking card (WPC11) a couple months for a friend's home network. Due to the layout of her house, it simply was not feasible to string Cat5 wire all over the place. This time, however, I researched various products on the Internet. I was a little skeptical about Linksys after reading quite a few negative comments online, but my personal experience had been good, so I went ahead and purchased the setup anyway. To be honest, installation of the system took me the better part of a day. Hardware installation was again quite simple; within the first 30 minutes I had easily installed the router to her home pc via cat 5 and loaded the drivers/card in her laptop. I spent the next 4 hours, however, trying to figure out why I the wireless card was connecting to network but I still wasn't getting an Internet connection. This is where some of the comments I had read came back to mind; poor documentation. I had also spent about an hour sorting through the support section of the Linksys website, but no helpo. To make a long story short, it turned out to be something simple but obscure: the "default" network type (Adhoc) setting should have been "Infrastructure" mode. The documentation had not made it really clear which setting to use, but after I made the switch, everything worked great. Another review I had read indicated poor signal reception/range. I found that in this installation I could use the laptop pretty much anywhere in her 3000 sq ft, 3 story house; some locations were worse than others, but to date, she has had great success. I also easily connected her to the office via PPTP. I purchased the exact same setup several weeks ago for myself. Armed with knowledge of the proper settings, I had it working in minutes. However, in my 900 sq ft condo, the wireless does not work as well...different construction, interference, I don't know? Overall, however, I like Linksys products and haven't had any problems with quality or customer service. I would highly recommend their products, especially for the telecommuter or family with multiple PCs. Hope this helps.
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