Rating: 
Summary: Avoid this like the plague
Review: Bought this together with PC card so notebook could be used around the apartment whilst PC connected directly to router. Never had so many problems with staying connected to internet (cable) ever and this was just my PC, the connection with the wireless notebook (when there was one) was painfully slow. Thought it was a problem with my cable provider but as soon as I disconnected and reverted to old set-up connection has been fine.AVOID THIS ONE LIKE THE PLAGUE...feel cheated that "1 star" is the lowest grade on this review page, it deserves a "-5 star" for "it couldn't get any worse". There should be a law against selling stuff this bad. What a complete waste of time and money.
Rating: 
Summary: Verizon Best
Review: We have Verizon DSL and their customer support phone line was only valid if we chose a Lynksys router. I was a little annoyed by being forced but this router is great! If you have roommates with different systems -- try this one. An old Mac, an old PC, and a brand-new wireless-ready PC are all equally happy with this router. Basically plug it in and go.
Rating: 
Summary: Great, if you can get it to work...
Review: I purchased one of these routers for my girlfriend, who just got a new Centrino-based notebook computer (a Dell Inspiron 600m), and needed to share an internet connection at home between her family's desktop Mac and the new portable. I picked up this product because Linksys is a fairly well-known name in the networking industry, and I've used some of their commercial-grade products before at work and never had any real problems with them. However, I was less impressed by the BEFW1154. Setup was fairly straightforward, although some of the menu options could have been better placed -- a lot of things have to be accessed through the "advanced" submenu that aren't terribly advanced (like MAC address cloning, which some cable subscribers will need). The Netgear router I ended up replacing this with was more automatic in its settings, and you didn't have to drill through multiple layers of menus. It worked great for about half an hour, at which point it refused to talk to anything on the wireless connection or WAN. I reset it, and then it worked fine for about half an hour before cutting out again. I tinkered with some of the settings, but couldn't get anywhere. I downloaded the upgraded firmware from Linksys' website, but after installing it, the router refused to pick up an IP address from the cable modem (although it no longer locked up). I decided I'd spent enough time on this and took the router back to CompUSA, exchanging it for an equivalent Netgear product (the MR814v2, ASIN: B00006HYKM) that cost less and works properly. The only advantage I can give to the Linksys is that it has excellent wireless range (dual antennas help), and the antennas can be replaced if you need stronger ones. From the research I did trying to figure out what was wrong, it seems that this router does not work well with older cable/DSL modems. So if you have one that's more than a year or two old, you may want to avoid this product. These things should be plug-and-play, not plug-and-tweak-and-return-to-store.
Rating:
Summary: Biggest piece that I have ever seen
Review: What can I say about this router other than it is the worst equipment that I have ever purchased. I bought it new from a national store in my area on Friday. Saturday I noticed intermittent problems such as the Access Point could not be found, then it came back up in 20 seconds. I was using it 2 days later (on Sunday) when all of a sudden it stopped working entirely. The Power LED flashes repeatedly signaling that there is a problem with the router itself. I tried resetting the router, disconnecting power, leaving it off for hours and trying again just to rule out that it was a temporary problem. No luck. I am taking it back to the store today after work and replacing it entirely with a different brand. I own my own business doing network & computer consulting and I am going to make sure that if my clients are looking for wireless, they are going to stay far far away from Linksys. On a side note, their documentation leaves a LOT to be desired. In the users manual, they keep referring to a DIAG LED that does not exist on this router. It would be nice to actually have a users manual for the exact product instead of one that roughly mixes all of their wireless routers together.
Rating:
Summary: A No-brainer. Well almost.
Review: Just received the router and I could not contain myself that I dove right into it. Pay attention to what that CD cover says. Do what it tells you. I networked a table top PC with a DSL connection for a remote laptop for my daughter. I got the Netgear PCMIA as the receiver for the laptop. I disabled the SSID and as a result was not transmitting the signal. Naturally, the laptop showed no networks available. I went back in and was rewarded with a green light indication on the icon tray. It was smooth sailing after that.
Rating:
Summary: Superb router with full configurability.
Review: I wanted wireless, and I wanted a wired home LAN, and I wanted to share my cable modem Internet connection with the above, and I needed a great deal of flexibility. I picked Linksys after checking out the browser-based interface, which for my money is the easiest net configuration interface I've ever used. And I'm delighted I did! I'm a long time Apple user, but Apple's Airport is so idiot-proof that it doesn't really offer the level of customizability that I needed. Linksys fit the bill perfectly. Here are the features I particularly loved: MAC cloning. My cable company knows which computer I've got hooked up to the internet, because they keep track of the MAC address of that machine's interface. If I change machines, I have to re-authorize - and if I change it to something that's not an Apple or PC, then it won't serve internet at all. That ruled the Airport out. With MAC cloning, Linksys fools my cable company into thinking that my Apple is still connected directly to the cable modem - I never have to re-authorize. NAT/Port forwarding: I run a couple services on my box. It can be hard to configure this for access behind a router, but with Linksys it's the work of about a minute. I didn't even need to read the manual - it was just done. Wireless security: you can easily turn OFF SSID broadcasting, turn ON 128-bit WEP encryption, and easily change your admin password. And you'd better do all those things if you don't want someone stealing your bandwidth. Remote configuration: If you leave this on, you're leaving yourself open to security problems, but you can turn it on just long enough to let a friend help you configure the router. Makes it easy. DHCP/Static IP: By playing with the settings you can make DHCP and static IP assignments peacefully coexist on both your wired and wireless LAN. MAC access list: when enabled, only specific wireless devices with a particular MAC address can connect to your wireless network. An added layer of safety, much appreciated in high density, bandwidth-starved Manhattan. And after all this configuration was done, the machine acted as a firewall and started logging intrusion attempts - and man, I never knew there were so many hackers out there! Tip: If you're having trouble, manually reset the router with the physical 'reset' button. I had to do this once before the router would operate properly, but since then, no problems! I'd buy a Linksys again and I recommend you do so as well!
Rating: 
Summary: A good value
Review: This device works as advertised, and has a good web interface with which to work. All in all, I'm very happy with this product. I would have liked a bit more range, but for the money, this device has worked well for me. I found some 5.5db gain antenna's from radio shack for 30 dollars, which increases the range of this device, so that may be an option for some folks.
Rating:
Summary: *Almost* flawless
Review: I recently purchased one of these from CompUSA (they also had a mail-in rebate on them), and for the most part, it works perfectly. Setup was very simple (although some of the more advanced options, like MAC address cloning, are a little awkward unless you page through the manual a few times), and -- amazingly -- I got both my girlfriend's brand new Dell notebook and her mother's ancient Power Mac connected through it to the net within 20 minutes and without a hitch (I have done this before, to be fair, but it's my first experience with an 802.11b router). The wireless range seems good (you shouldn't expect much more than about 30-50' of range indoors, what with the walls, power wires, microwave ovens, etc. all over the place), and web surfing from a different floor was pretty smooth. Placing the router centrally helps, as does putting it in the open -- sticking it in the corner under a desk, with a mess of noisy wires around it, will give you very poor signal quality. Also, if you need more range, the dual antennas can be removed and replaced with better ones -- something you don't often see in entry-level wireless hardware. However, I can't give this a 5-star rating, because (as several other people have noted), it seems to randomly disconnect and stop responding after running for a while (the wireless notebook can "see" the router, but can't establish a connection to it). If you hit the "reset" button, or unplug it and then plug it back in, it works fine for a while, and then stops again. I haven't had time to contact Linksys support, and it may just be a problem with their (also very old) cable modem, but it's certainly very annoying!
Rating:
Summary: Bad router
Review: I bought this router in the hope of using the internet on my laptop antwhere in my two storied house. I use a linksys wireless card in the laptop. It turns out that as soon as the laptop leaves the room where the router is located and the door is closed, the receiving signal goes down to nothing. Tech support from Linksys by email said that this product only works in "line-of sight", while that is not mentioned on the package. For me a waste on money.
Rating:
Summary: Poor reception and speed.
Review: I recently purchased this router with the Linksys WPC11 notebook adapter. Setup was simple for both the router and the network adapter. However, the signal was poor. It would spike, and then drop to zero. Often times I couldn't connect with the router at all and when I did, download speeds on my broadband connection were worse than a dial up connection. I tried switching through the different channels to no avail. I have cordless phones, but they were not in the room or in operation when I was trying to setup my connection. Needless to say, if they interfered when not in use, I wouldn't want to keep this product anyway. I didn't bother to call tech support. Instead, I packed it up and sent it back. ...
| 
