Rating: 
Summary: Worked great until it failed
Review: My experience is exactly the same as another reviewer, Mark. My router was flawlessly serving 5 home-networked computers for six months. It was easy to set up and never once showed any signs that it was on it's way out. The router was attached to a Linksys Cable Modem and a Linksys 5-port hub was connected to one of the router ports in my home office. I had the exact same experience as Mark did when contacting Linksys help.
I would give the router 5 stars for it's performance, but being it crashed after six months, not so good tech support and their terrible RMA process, I knocked it down to 2 stars.
I wonder about my Linksys cable modem and hub....
Rating: 
Summary: Linksys BEFSR81 is Great Until it Fails
Review: I have one of these which worked very well for six months. At that point however, it failed. Be aware that if this happens to you, you will be at the mercy of Linksys's antiquated RMA process. After spending 1/2 an hour on the phone, doing several hard resets, the very nice woman informed me that my modem had "gone bad" and that the process of getting an RMA number sent to me via email would take 2-3 days. She then informed me that I should fill out the emailed RMA form and return it with the defective device. She said I should expect to receive a new device 7-10 business days later.I cringe at telling my spouse and kids that cable modem access will be out for the remainder of the month. All told, they appear to have a well designed product that was fairly easy to get running. But I find their response to a clear product failure six month's after purchase to be woefully inadequate. My recommendation would be to find another product.
Rating: 
Summary: Superb Router. Allows easy expansion
Review: This router is the backbone of my fairly complicated network, consisting of two Macs, two Win2K, three WinXP, and a wireless access point, also by Linksys, all leading out to a Linksys Cable modem. Let me tell you, it was an unholy pain in the a$$ to set up the 1st computer. It kept crashing, tech support couldn't do anything, etc. I finally configured the router, somehow even though the PC was crashing literally every 4-7 minutes. The other PC's were a breeze to configure, and it turns out the first PC I was configuring was using WindowsMe, which in case you don't know, is easily the worst Windows OS out there. I changed to Win2K, the stablest Windows OS available, and it was fine. The router has been on 24/7 for over 4 months, and has had no problems, delivers over 1Mbps internet access to every PC, hasn't overheated, and is the backbone of an excellent Linksys network. Go with Linksys, their performance is excellent, and I have a long history with them, which has been completely pleasant so far. I recommend this router without reservation. Windows Me, however....
Rating:
Summary: ppoe does NOT work
Review: Can connect directly using pacbell's ppoe s/w. Cannot connect using the Linksys router. Wasted way too much time trying to get this thing to work. Worked fine with previous cable modem connection. Switched to ADSL (ppoe) and it started dropping to very low bandwidth. So then I upgraded the f/w. Now it won't reconnect on its own. Need to first connect and disconnect using pacbell's s/w then switch the cables and try again with the Linksys router. Big pain switching to NetGear rp114.
Rating:
Summary: Best Buy!
Review: Except for a defective model arriving in the beginning (a completely cracked case), this router has been amazing. A router is a smart hub because it evenly distributes broadband. With a 900k DSL connection, you will have 900k connection on each computer, no matter how many computers, because all Routers only send packets to where they are needed most, not distributing the packets meant for other computers to every computer. This Router provides Dynamic and Static IP fowarding and DHCP server, meaning you dont need to buy a separate IP address for each computer. This works with almost any kind of broadband internet connection. One suggestion is to make sure to disable the firewall on some ports to allow network games to be played, as well as creating your own webserver.
I would definetly recommend Linksys and their routers.
Rating:
Summary: Great product - decent customer support
Review: Background: Experienced computer professional with over 20 years managing enterprise systems. I bought this router/firewall to replace a failing UGate firewall. The BEFSR81 worked out of the box and I've got a mix of Linux and Windows systems connected to it. SNMP also works like a charm - I use mrtg to get the stats. I have had no issues at all with Shiva VPN tunneling to my office. I started to have issues with the BEFSR81 locking up every day or two, and after exchanging a few e-mails with tech support, they agreed to cross-ship a replacement. I plugged the new unit in, and it's been flawless ever since. I couldn't ask for more. A bunch of people in our office also have Linksys units and are all satisfied. I recommend Linksys to anyone who asks.
Rating:
Summary: wish I'd looked here before buying mine...
Review: I bought mine at a local Micro Center. I wish I'd looked here first. The Linksys was easy to set up and would probably work fine for 99 percent of people. I also like the fact that this is not an 802.11b base station. I prefer to have the security option of unplugging the wireless base station and therefore it needs to be a separate physical box. What about those 1 percent of users who won't like this product? If you like to keep TCP connections open for a long time, e.g., if you're a developer using ssh or telnet, this Linksys is problematic. My old SMC router, after upgrading the firmware, was rock solid and I could keep an Emacs up and running on a remote server for days or weeks. With the Linksys connections will mysteriously die. I haven't changed my cable modem or my cable service.
Rating:
Summary: Inconsistent connections
Review: I replaced my Linksys 4 port switch that I had used to share my internet connection with Windows 2000 built-in Internet Connection Sharing support with this Linksys 8 port Cable modem router. My prior solution was flawless as long as the server used to share the internet didn't crash. I wanted to be certain my internet connection stayed up for all stations whether or not the server was avaiable.
I purchased this product to address that situation... Now I find this router fails to keep a live connection on the order of 10 to 15 times a day. I have upgraded the flash rom to the newest version available from the manufacturer to no avail. I'm certain my cable modem is fine due to the fact that I had a previously stable connection. I'm going to return the device and ask for a replacement. I have to believe there is something wrong with this particular router. Hope you have better luck than I have had.
Rating:
Summary: Looks Pretty, but has a MAJOR problem
Review: Linksys' router is something we've always dreamed of: A simple box that does everything for us, even allowing us a pretty user interface to change the settings to our liking. However, routers are meant to share an internet connection, not what I'll call a 'busy signal'. Linksys' router resets connections without warning, displays incredible lag, and has very minimal tech support for this issue. I have been in correspondence with one of there engineers for about 6 months discussing on possible solutions to the problem, but to no avail. This router is NOT for you. Trust me. Unless you like lag, and shelling out money for meaningless boxes, I would recommend something else: anything.
Rating:
Summary: Linksys - the easiest to setup
Review: Having read all the reviews of the rapidly expanding products for home networking I chose the Linksys BEFSR81 Router/8 Port Switch. I have 5 computers networked together all sharing connectivity through a cable modem. The hardest part of the setup was being patient enough to connect everything. The equipment operated flawlessly with vitually no user setup required. You need to make sure that you have TCP/IP running and setup to automatically accuire an IP address from the Linksys. Then reboot and your off. I checked for new firmware updates and the unit I purchased had the latest. The claim to speedup your internet is very true if your coming from using ICS and a hub to share through. Individual download/upload speeds remain the same but when you have four people downloading at the same time you never see a slowdown. As an example, I was downloading the trial version of PhotoShop while my wife was donwloading the latest updates from Microsoft. My file size was 45.1 mb and it only took 3 min 15 sec to complete. My recommendation is if you need to share an internet connection, whatever the type, Linksys has what you need for simplicity and operabilty.
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