Rating: 
Summary: Eliminates the hassel with ADSL line using WINPoet
Review: Have my LinkSys in service for over 6 months attached to a Verizon ADSL line. The LinkSys has eliminated the hassel of using Verizon's terrible and unstable WINPoet DSL signon utility making my DSL experience always on. Plus I can network up to 4 computers and share my DSL line. Great product.
Rating: 
Summary: No Service After Sale
Review: I have had problems with this router since I opened the package. I called the Linksys "customer service" line before buying to check a few things - I got a quick response and assurances that the router would serve my needs. AFTER buying, customer service was not to be had. When you call in, you press a differnet number than for new buyers, you get put on hold for a long time, then someone comes on to tell you that they will take your number and have a tech person call back. THEY NEVER CALL BACK. I left three such call-back requests over the span of two weeks. Several weeks later I got lucky and got through to tech - but they could not answer my question and were very rude. In addition to very offensive customer disservice, the Linksys router seems to not be handle two computers' simultaneous use of the DSL connection for an extended period (>1/2 hour)- isn't that why you buy it?
Rating:
Summary: Worked flawlessly for over 4 years with cable modem and DSL
Review: I had this for over a year hooked to my cable modem connection and it works flawlessly, though I don't use all of its features. Now I have it hooked to my DSL connection using the PPPoE feature and that works great too. My DSL connection will occasionally drop, but I assume that is a timeout in the PPP settings on the ISP side. I've never had to contact customer support, however so I can't comment on that aspect. (I also have a Linksys PCMCIA combo card that works beautifully, with both Windoze 98 and Linux.) April 2003 update: This product is still going strong, though occasionally the diagnostic light comes on, requiring a power-cycle. I should probably upgrade the firmware, but I haven't been inconvenienced too much by this.
Rating: 
Summary: The good, the bad, and the ugly...
Review: Easy to set up, I had it running within 10 minutes. Worked fine for about 10 minutes, than I would lose my connection. This continued to happen and every time I would use the web interface to correct the problem, it just made matters worse. In Linksys' defense, I am not sure if it was a hardware issue or ISP issue. My guess is that it is the lack of good PPPoE support in the firmware. Coincidentally, I ran into someone who, with the same ISP and hardware, experienced the same problem. Needless to say, I returned it and purchased the Asante router, which works great.
Rating: 
Summary: Linksys BEFSR41
Review: I purchased this router from Amazon (best price anywhere). I have Verizon DSL service. The router didn't work properly out of the box. Tech support has not returned any of my 11 phone calls in 2 weeks. I figured out that I needed a firmware upgrade (which I got off the linksys site). The router has been up for 9 days now. I have an 8-port Netgear hub plugged into it and they get along great. This is a super product once you get past the poor technical support. PROS: easy to configure, nice firewall feature, good pricing, has nice traffic monitoring feature (used with free software on the net). CONS: poor tech support, case is rather clumsy (can't place hub on top or under router).
Rating:
Summary: Easy Peasy
Review: I have had so many problems trying to configure my 2 PCs to share my Cable connection. Prior to buying the BEFSR41, I had them using Internet Connection Sharing. Shaky at best. The installation for this thing is a breeze - everybody dynamically picks up their IP. The online games I've tried work straight away and sharing resources between machines works great too. At last I can stop pulling my hair out! Of course, I haven't had to contact Linksys for customer support - which seems to be the main reason some people are marking this less than 5 stars - but hopefully you won't have to either.
Rating:
Summary: Shocked and Appalled!
Review: What is the world coming to? I opened the box of the Linksys 4-port Cable/DSR Router, plugged in the cables, turned it on, and EVERYTHING WORKED! I'm shocked speechless. What, no endless calls to tech support? No having the manufacturer blame the ISP and the ISP blame Microsoft? No frustration, no yelling, no imprecations to God to smite the evil User Guide Authors? Plug, plug, power on, click [Apply], click [OK]; I'm done! Seriously, I am a consultant who has lived in fear of networking my three home PCs for years. The very thought of IP addresses and subnet masks makes me itch. This entire setup actually took ONE commercial break from start to finish, and this is the ONLY computer product of ANY kind that has ever had that happen in my house This is the best, most satisfying product experience I've ever had. The only down side is, if everyone in the industry did it like Linksys, what would those awful tech support people do for a living? The Post Office is fully staffed and Cruella D'Evil only needs one assistant. I guess they could work for the phone company... Do yourself a great favour: BUY THIS BOX!
Rating:
Summary: Tech Support ???
Review: Works as advertised -- unless you want to use a LAN IP address other than the default. They claim it is possible to change this address. I couldn't. Maybe I did something incorrectly but, I have sent 4 Emails to Tech Support asking for help and not heard back yet. The first request was over 3 weeks ago. I have called Tech Support twice and was on hold so long both times that I gave up. I Emailed Netgear Tech Support to check on their LAN IP address setup and to test their Tech Support. I received a helpful response in 8 hours (over night) I plan to purchase the Netgear RT314 to replace my Linksys BEFSR41. I may have a problem with the Netgear LAN IP address too but, at least I know Netgear Tech Support exists.
Rating:
Summary: so far so good!
Review: very easy to configure. very straight forward. the only thing that scares me is some of the reviews regarding support--but since it was so easy to setup I don't think they could really help me if I needed it...
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Summary: Using on an ISDN home network
Review: This was the best purchase of any component on my home network. Currently I run 4 servers and 2 workstations (fun hobby stuff). Bought the 4 port router in preparation for DSL. Long story short and 6 months of dealing with Covad & Verizon, it was determined that no ISP (including Verizon) would provide me service because Verizon (my LEC) would not install the DSL line to the home because I was 19K feet from the CO & Verizon only supports to 15K feet (although Covad would support to 22K feet), so I settled with 128K dedicated ISDN (got a great deal through Intur.net since I'm running my own services). So, the way I setup my connection is 128K ISDN line to an Ascend Pipeline 75 router, then from the Pipeline to my LinkSys. 3 ports go out to my external servers (running mail, dns, web, video, etc) and the 4th port to a 16 port 100Mb hub that connects all the rooms in my house and my internal server. Although it would appear with the PipeLine & hub that I really don't need the LinkSys; the LinkSys provides my main security from intruders through NAT & port forwarding and was extremely simple to setup (much easier than the Pipeline's firewall software). Plus I can go forth and setup the Pipeline firewall software for even more security. To me, LinkSys should broaden their marketing to not only label it as benefiting DSL/Cable, but also ISDN or any ethernet LAN/WAN connection. The only real down side I have found so far is the limited ability to forward ports to multiple computers. For instance, I have 2 web servers; a main web server and a video web server to see the outside cameras I have around the house. The LinkSys will only allow port 80 to be forwarded to only 1 computer; thus, I had to use a different port for the video server. Second, was DNS; the Internic likes to have a primary and secondary if you are running your own DNS; since I could only forward DNS traffic to one computer, I had to create a work around there as well... But for simplistic setup and security I would highly recommend this device!
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