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Summary: Wonderful product, but you don't need it with Windows98 SE
Review: First, I want to say that I respect LinkSys, they make wonderful network products, and this is truly a great product. Now, the sobering news is if you have Windows98 SE, you really do not need to spend all the money on this product. Win98SE comes with an Internet Sharing driver. You install this driver on one PC you designate as an 'Internet Router', and also install an additional network card on that machine. A good LinkSys network card retails for around $20. You plug your cable modem / DSL modem 10Bt connector into card 1. You can simply connect a second computer to card 2 by using a standard 10bt cable. If you need more than 2 computers to share the internet connection, then a small 8-port hub can be had for under $50, and you plug card 2 into one of the ports on that hub. Simple as that. All computers see the network. The requirement of some cable modems that need to be connected only to a NIC (they require a MAC address) is satisfied here as well. The designated "Internet Router" PC becomes your firewall and all PC's use the same IP address. Only the "Internet Router" PC needs to have Win98SE. The software generates an install disk that you load only once on the other PC's in your network which can be Win95 or Win98 machines. This enables internet sharing on them.
Rating:
Summary: If you have a cable modem, you absolutely need this
Review: You can hook up to 253 users to your cable modem and the internet would only see 1 ip address. Everything behind firewall is completely invisible to the outside. Cannot be hacked into. See http://www.grc.com (shields up) for more details about being hacked into. 100% Protection from intruders. I hooked mine up in less than 1 minute and had it up and running. I kept thinking, no... this was too easy.... nothing is this simple to hook up.Plug my laptop in to open port and 2 seconds later, laptop has access to internet and my internal network without a single problem. If you have cable, you MUST GET THIS. All cable modem users have port 139 open (net bios hacking easy). All my computers behind firewall on router are invisible to internet. You can set router up not to respond to pings. (IE: ping 24.2.213.234 my router ignores you. You can't hack me if you can't see me or know I'm there...)
Rating: 
Summary: UPDATE to July 7 review - having problem with the Router
Review: This is an update to a review I wrote on July 7. Just wanted readers to be aware... I've experienced a problem with the Router and am working with Linksys Technical Support to fix it (and ultimately get it resolved/patch via a firmware upgrade). The Router periodically freezes, loses the DSL connection, and doesn't return to normal operation for 5-10 minutes. Linksys tech support has been good about working with me on this and they think the Router is somehow losing the Subnet mask. I'm using GTE/Verizon DSL and PPPoE. Nothing complicated beyond that. GTE/Verizon itself is pathetic for DSL support, but the current problem does indeed seem to be the related to the Linksys Router. I still think the Router is a great purchase. Just need to get this problem resolved... Peter
Rating: 
Summary: Great possibilities, pitiful documentation, non-existent svc
Review: I have been using the router for over a month now, and have hadtime to get to know it, it's manual, and service people enough to make a comment or two on the unit. First, let me say that you can't touch it for the price. Whatever shortcomings it has (and there are definitely shortcomings), for [the money]there is nothing that does what it *can* do, or do it as well. If you simply need to split a dsl or cable modem connection between several machines, it's the only game in town at this admission price. If you don't mind losing the firewall protection, even it's issues with identifying (if you talk on Dalnet, it needs to be configured differently. You can email me on this) can be rectified. Be sure to go to Linksys' home page and download V1.33 or higher firmware, it makes it lots easier. The documentation is so far below the standard of the unit it "describes" that I could write a book on it's lack of information. For the basic features, it should be three times as in depth. I think Linksys didn't research this market well enough to know that most purchasers of this unit are amateurs to networking, and not Information Systems techs. A little "why and wherefore" explanation would have went a long, long way. And there is no, and I mean that exactly as written "NO" support for any advanced feature. Not in the manual, not at the oddly named "customer service" line. This is ludicrous, these features are the very thing that makes this unit flexible enough to get any real usage from. It is, possibly, the worst manual I have ever seen to come with a unit that was obviously intended to be a powerful tool for the masses. Email or phone support was pitiful, with one glowing exception. Nicholas Mack with Linksys sales not only got involved in helping me, but stayed involved until we both figured out how to make the router do everything I needed it to do. He sent me advice, firmware updates, and we emailed repeatedly and found solutions to the problems. In return, I reported what each step accomplished on my machine for him to pass along to others. Without Nicholas' intervention, I would have sent the router back long ago. Linksys should give that boy a BIG raise. He is the reason I recommend this unit today. So, here is the lowdown. The unit is capable beyond it's pricerange, nothing does what it can in this cost area. The manual will help you if the very most basic setup is ok, and you have some idea of how to get around on your machine already. Otherwise, get someone who does. Beyond that, the manual works good for leveling short legs on the kitchen table, that's about it. Customer service will answer direct questions about the unit only (once you get them on the phone) and will not help you with any software (including the microsoft network software it is designed to work with). So if it isn't "where do I plug this cord" you will probably be left frustrated and heading back to the refund line. If you are lucky, you may get one of the few Linksys people who not only know how to make it work, but don't mind telling you. In short, this is the most amazingly capable, absolutely non-suported device I have ever used. As a PS- My "setup wizard" disk was not packed with the unit, and a short Cat 5 cable would be a very welcome addition to the package.
Rating: 
Summary: Never got it working
Review: I've worked as a computer tech support consultant for years. So I thought this would be a breeze. My goal was to free up my proxy server for other uses. This seemed to be a good and cheap alternative to a computer. I realized that I would be giving up some of the security capabilities of my proxy server when I did this. I was not using DHCP within the network, but was being served an IP address to the cable modem via DHCP. Also, one of my servers was set up for the default IP address of the router. I was unable to get the router to recognize the network. I tried setting it up as a stand alone router and still this didn't work. I changed the IP number of one of my servers, tried reinstalling it the router using the default configuration. Tried resetting it several times. You name it I tried it. After a week with no Internet access I decided the benfits did not outweight the continued hassle. The benefit of running a proxy server won. I reconfigured my Proxy Server which has performed beautifully since. The proxy has the benefit of being more configurable and provides a better firewall. I think I could have eventually gotten the Linksys router to work, but felt it was not worth the extended effort. If you have simple network and do not need to make configuration changes to either the network or this router, it would probably install ok. If you have a more complicated network, with specific options on how DHCP is being used, and don't want to run the default router settings, you may run into problems.
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Summary: Works great!
Review: I just got one to use with my Adelphia PowerLink service and it works great. The new 1.30.5 firmware even lets you change the WAN-visible MAC address so you don't have to call your provider and get them to switch it (when I had tried a previous one and tried to get Adelphia to switch the MAC address, they got really upset at the thought of putting in such a device and wouldn't do it). I had it running in less than 5 minutes and both my Mac & PC can now use the cable modem even at the same time.
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Summary: Not the best solution for Battle.net
Review: If you understand networking, you will get this product up and running in no time and it will switch your LAN and route to the Internet with no trouble. If you don't know how to set-up a LAN, or what the terms mean, this device will not teach you. It is a useful tool for a savvy user, but not without pitfalls for the beginner. However, if you expect to log on to Battle.net to play Starcraft using this device, think again. It's not necessarily the devices fault, but it can't overcome the limitations of battle.net allowing only one player per IP. No matter what settings you use, what ever port mapping you try, you can only have one person in a game. There are special software NAT programs that will allow multiple people on battle.net, but they are redundant to this device. There is good news, most other games recognize this fact, that there are shared IP's and you can use this product to play other games. Such as: Diablo II Unreal Tournament Tribes Quake III And most other games that have public servers. You can run a public game server with this device, but you must use the DMZ feature and the very limited port mapping features (the biggest weakness of this device) and check with your ISP. Some get very nervous when they see a lot of inbound traffic to your address. Also, my ISP, Mediaone EasternMA, requires MAC addresses to access their system. This is bogus, of course, but it's the way they do it. Once you give them the MAC address, be careful that you don't let it slip that it's this device, or any router. For MediaOne charges extra to have multi-machine access! If you are like me, you believe that your fee includes however you choose to use it. One machine, or a hundred. The bandwidth supplied is the same.
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Summary: This product is great!
Review: I took delivery of this router this afternoon - great servicefrom Amazon. Setup was pretty easy except that I had Enternet PPPoE and Nortel Networks Extranet Access client installed as network adapters and I had some serious juggling to do to get the stuff to work. Once I removed the PPPoE software and set the DNS servers on my network card I was all set. I have set static IP addresses because of some software that I run as services on my NT box. The Nortel software is so that I can run a VPN connection to my office and it works like a dream, through the router. In about two weeks I am taking delivery of an Apple G4 Cube which will also be connected to this router.... Great product. Great value for money.
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Summary: It works for me...
Review: Having read through all of these posts I was a bit worried that I made the wrong decision to purchase this product. I was wrong. I had this thing up and running in less than 5 minutes. No issues, no hassle, no nothing. I'm using GTE DSL service out of Irving and unlike some of the other readers I've experienced zero problems. I've downloaded 8 to 10 MB files with no issues either. So let's hope it lasts. I would recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Not a walk in the park, but well worth the trip.
Review: The initial setting of LAN/WAN/Gateway/DNS/Domain entries wastrial and error. The manual could have laid out which numbers it wanted where a little better, specifically the LAN setting - did it want my static DSL IP, or the ISP IP? When I hit on the right combo, Netscape started browsing on both machines. No degradation of speed noticed while downloading from Usenet. The fact that you can only have one IP "demilitarized" worries me, but I havn't tried both machines on EverQuest yet, so we'll see. Video conferencing may also be an issue here. What impressed me most was not only is this a very nice DSL router, but it's also a slick and quick hub/switch. A 12MB transfer from one machine to another took only 14 seconds. I expect larger transfers of data will go much faster than that. On an installation scale of 1 to 10 for difficulty I would give this a 3 for people who know a bit about networking. For those not familiar with IP addressing or other network issues I would bump that up to about a 7 or 8. Just have all the ISP supplied IP addresses handy, and installation will eventually fly... Great product. Definite thumbs-up! 5 stars all the way.
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