Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievable when it works
Review: Let me first begin by telling you I started knowing next to nothing when it comes to networking. Installing the router and creating a network in my home was quite easy. I bought this product to be able to share a cable modem connection with several computers in my home. It does this very very well and it is quite easy to link the varios hard drives between computers. However, I have one MAJOR fear with recommending this product. If you follow the directions while installing the router and phonelink cards in your computer and it does not work, do not hesitate to call Linksys for help. Out of the 3 network cards I bought one was defective (the HPNA port did not work) and I am now on my 3rd router. I was told by Linksys customer service that routers get "fried" quite often. The quality control for the products does not seem to be up to par. The good news is if you get a well made router the shared computers have just as fast internet service as you had when one computer was linked directly to the cable modem.
Rating: 
Summary: Of course its slower, its phoneline! But...
Review: Let me first say that DSL's use phone line, yet it can achieve speeds of 640kbps. But it will never reach the speed of the ethernet. The reason being phone lines are "thinner" and can just accomodate that much bandwidth. So, do not be surprised if your connection will be slower than your cable connection. Well, if you have DSL, then the speed drop is negligible.Before I bought this item, I tried the Intel anypoint wireless. What I just want to achieve is just to have an internet connection for my laptop anywhere in my house. The connection is peer-to-peer from my gateway pc to my laptop. It worked but my pc must always be running. And for some reason my cable connection was always dropped during the night (I was suspecting somebody is using my cable IP address. Cox@Home suuport won't believe that). Also, the intel software kept on changing my internet setup to dial up which is really annoying. And for the price, it was just not worth it. My friend suggested that I better to use a router. Well, a wireless router is beyond my budget for the intended purpose, and I don't want to use an ordinary router because I am lazy to install cables. So, I returned my anypoint devices and exchange for the HPRO200 and a USB phoneline network adapter for my laptop. The HPRO2000 has slots for your phoneline network and your ethernet network. I plugged my cable modem to the uplink port, my pc to the other ethernet port, and the phonelink port to the phone jack. Power on, installed! It's that simple. I open my pc (the one in ethernet) to configure the router. I supplied all the info (all are given to me by cox@home when my cable was installed), I tested the internet connection, and voila! It is not as easy when I went to my laptop to get connection to the internet. I gave my laptop a static IP. I cannot make it work for dynamic IP (maybe because it has windows ME). It got a link with the router and the other PC, but it wont connect to the Internet. After trying in vain of other solutions, I called the linksys support (8 PM! that's evening), waited for 5 minutes for somebody to help me, and then the guy named Eric helped me, after 5 minutes, I got the internet connection. Their support is the real reason I give this product 5 star. What is weird is that I neve experience my cable connection disconnection now at night. My guess is that the router blocked any hacking attempt to use my cable IP. The best thing is that I never reboot my router. It is always up and running for 3 weeks now. So I can't believe the other reviews that this is not stable. Before I forget, install the latest firmware.
Rating: 
Summary: I couldn't get it to work
Review: Let me start by saying that I'm a raving Linksys fan. I've got a phone line network that uses their products, and a Linksys router as well. Until yesterday I was using their HPES03 to bridge my phone line and ethernet networks, and totally loved it. I decided I needed a firewall, NAT, etc., so the HPRO200 looked like just the device for me. However... The product really disappointed me. I simply couldn't get it to work, at all. A few things: 1. There's no documentation for setting up Windows 2000 to work with it. You're simply referred to Microsoft networking documentation (*which* networking documentation is up to you to figure out). 2. The tech. support line was busy every time I called. On Saturday *and* Sunday. 3. E-mail support was ok, but the suggestions were ones I had come up with on my own. In the end, I shipped it back to Amazon and bought a 2Wire Home Portal 100 on sale at Office Depot. I had it up and running in about an hour, with no problems at all. Sorry Linksys, you struck out on this one. And like I said, I'm a real fan of your products.
Rating: 
Summary: More on Linksys support
Review: My first sample of this router died (see earlier review), and after some difficulty Linksys replaced it with a new one (retail box). This worked fine for several months, then appeared to die as well. By this time Linksys had replaced their RMA system with one completely online, and adopted a cross-ship policy also, so no more hassles getting an RMA. The replacement was a white-box unit (probably a rebuild), but it turned out that it was the power supply which was defective and not the router, so back the replacement went and now all is well. So I still recommend the unit, and HomePNA too, especially for older homes.
Rating:
Summary: More on Linksys support
Review: My first sample of this router died (see earlier review), and after some difficulty Linksys replaced it with a new one (retail box). This worked fine for several months, then appeared to die as well. By this time Linksys had replaced their RMA system with one completely online, and adopted a cross-ship policy also, so no more hassles getting an RMA. The replacement was a white-box unit (probably a rebuild), but it turned out that it was the power supply which was defective and not the router, so back the replacement went and now all is well. So I still recommend the unit, and HomePNA too, especially for older homes.
Rating:
Summary: HORRIBLE! Worst Tech and customer support I have ever seen!
Review: OK I purchased this router to add to my 2 phoneline network cards. It seemed simple enough. Both computers run Win98 SE. They were sharing fine. It did not work. SO I called tech support. A clueless level 1 rep said that a level 2 rep would call me back. 2 days later I called back. A guy said there was no callback in the system. He then spent an hour configuring the system and got the router to work with my local PC, but my remote didnt and my network no longer shared files! He put in for a callback. Never came. THe next rep I called told me the lsat one had me set it up all wrong. We redid the entire thing but still no connectivity. Our phonline went down during the call (ironic). I called back and demanded a level 2 callback. They said it would come in 1 hour. Nope...never came. I just got off the phone with a manager who said that lelve 1 reps CAN"T EVEN REQUEST A CALLBACK! So he said they must have just wanted to get me off the phone. He didn't seem surprised at all, as thought it was normal business. These are headed back TODAY.
Rating:
Summary: PDG Device
Review: Prior to purchasing this I was running an HPNA network comprised of 3 PCs. 2 with win2k and diamond HPNA cards, one with win 98 and a Netgear HPNA card. Life was good. Except' The PC connected to the cable modem had to be on to serve as a router using ICS so the other 2 PC's had access to the internet. Mildly annoying. Then the office let us connect via the internet using cisco VPN software. ICS and VPN don't talk to each other. Had to disable ICS (many clicks) to get VPN going. Kids would complain they couldn't access the internet. More annoying. Installed the Lynksys HPRO200 and everything booted up fine. No Muss NO Fuss. Everything talked to each other and the internet (if yours don't, it's a configuration problem with your PC's not the router). Installed the firmware update (easy peasy). Dismal bandwidth. Used to get a sparkling 1.5 MBS on the PC hooked directly to the cable modem and 0.9 MBS on the others through the HPNA. With Lynksys the rates were about 30% of those. No good. Even my 6 year old complained 'Dad, you know nothing about computers; this is really slow'. Cheeky twerp. When I was his age we had 1400baud modems. And we were glad to have them. Luckily Amazon has a great returns process. Got the 2nd Lynksys HPRO200. Hooked it up. Downloaded the firmware. Bandwidth is good, not great (that's why they only get 4 stars). I'm able to get 1.2MBS on the PC hooked up to its Ethernet port, and 0.9MBS on the other PCs through the phone lines. It's still better than snaking cables and a lot less than wireless. P.S. Be sure to use a surge protector on your phone lines when using them to network. Your phone line is the easiest path for power surges to fry your PC (or at least the card it's connected to).
Rating:
Summary: Product works great, but I had difficulties setting it up.
Review: Product is an all-in-one product-router/firewall (to share a broadband internet connection) and phoneline bridge (to enable networking/internet access over unused frequencies of a household phoneline, using the HPNA 2.0 standard). Also allows ethernet-connected and phoneline-connected PCs to be networked together, all in one product for under $150. And it works great, but I needed three calls to technical support to get my product working properly-not because of bad direction (the Linksys technical support people were uniformly excellent and well-trained), but because the product doesn't come with installation software. It relies on a web-based configuration utility that I could not begin to handle on my own without being walked through it by the technical support people. (And although I'm not a techie, I consider myself above-average computer-literate). First thing I tried to do was connect my router between my cable modem to my ethernet computer, per the booklet and instruction CD. I couldn't get the internet anymore until my first technical support call. Then I connected two upstairs computers to my phoneline using Netgear connectors (and the Netgear items came with software which automatically installed them correctly, so the two upstairs computers were able to connect to each other via the phoneline network created by the router. I was very satisfied with my decision to use the Netgear USB and PCI phoneline connectors). But only one of these two upstairs computers could get on the internet, and neither one could see the ethernet-connected computer. A second call to technical support revealed that the router had automatically assigned the two phoneline computers the same internal internet address, which technical support expertly fixed. They told me that although they could assist me setting up the internet, they weren't permitted to instruct me how to set up my internal network, but they gave me enough hints (set file and printer-sharing in Windows 98, use Netbeaui protocol) that I was able to figure that out. But then I lost the third computer again and had to call technical support again to fix it. (They had me do things like erase all my internet cookies, manually set my DNS configuration and gateways, things I would never be able to figure out from the documentation. And when the configuration is wrong, the setup utility tends to be unavailable). Well, I'm happy with the results, but I would have preferred the setup to be more automatic. And I would think they could supply the extra ethernet cable needed for the setup.
Rating:
Summary: Linksys Phoneline router
Review: Product works as advertised. I have found that Linksys support is generally good, although they do have spotty coverage from time to time. The waits are actually much shorter now than 12 months ago. For my installation, I have had many problems installing a home Phoneline, but believe that the problem is mostly driven by bad wiring in my home. My advice is to stay single vendor (i.e all Linksys). Although the vendors say that all units are compatible, I have not found this to be the case. Also, stay at a single speed (1.0MBPS or 10.0, but not mixed), as I also found that vendor claims of interoperability were not true. Again, this may all be due to interference and/or bad wiring unique to my home, but who knows. When the network works, it works beautifully.
Rating: 
Summary: Only a prototype
Review: The idea behind the HPRO200 is a good one. Functionally it is a bridge between ethernet and home phoneline subnetworks combined with a router. The firewall features of the router give good protection against attempts to infect the attached computers with viruses, etc. If you are not already familiar with router and firewall functions, be prepared to spend some time experimenting with the various parameters in the process of learning how to configure the router for your needs. But the HPRO200 with firmware version 1.37.4 is not as reliable as one could and should expect. In my home network, the HPRO200 drops the network connection between the ethernet and the phoneline subnetworks much too often, sometimes after only half a day of operation. Having to reset the unit so often is annoying. My recommendation is to wait with your purchase until a later firmware version that corrects at least this problem is available.
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