Rating: 
Summary: Networking Heaven!!
Review: I've tried them all. This router is the only router that handles all internet/network functions. Simple to configure, protection at its best. (...) And as an extra PLUS go out and purchase and plugin the wireless Linksys WAP11. (I Did) Now you will have wired desktops and wireless laptops and you will be in heaven....
Rating: 
Summary: Great Router/Firewall
Review: Simple to install - Easy to use - Shares a cable modem effortlessly... I have purchased several of these for friends and family and would recommend it to everyone. My only complaint is that they don't include everything you need to set it up. You must go out and purchase an RJ45 cable in order to connect it.
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Summary: Good router, but failed after 10 months
Review: I found this item easy to install. My son and I wired the house for CAT 5 ethernet and hooked it up. Worked the first time and continuously for 10 months. You must carefully follow directions they give you to hook it up and configure both it and your PC. My son used it at 100 MB/sec with four friends in the house simultaneously doing internet game playing with no problems.One morning the router no longer worked. Could not get a "PC" light on the cable modem feeding the router. Linksys tech help helped me check it out (pretty good service and knowledgeable, but very busy folks). They helped me load new firmware in it in an attempt to fix it. No go, so they sent me a return authorization. WAN port failed, they guess. I would recommend this router to everyone, in spite of the problem I had.
Rating: 
Summary: Access Point
Review: The setup was easy. Configured the PC next to the access point device. Then moved it to the room it was intended to be housed....about 50 feet away from the access point. Now it has very little signal strength. Won't even bring up a web page... My house has standard walls etc. Nothing that should affect the RF to that degree. This product is useless to me...
Rating: 
Summary: Good product, Poor customer care
Review: I have had my router about 1 1/2 years now. When I first got it I spent hours (not exaggerating) on the phone to Linksys Tech - first you listen to classical music over & over again - When you finally get to talk to someone, they try to get rid of you anyway possible - The only way you will get though to them, is if you call around 4AM - Then they tell you, they will have a senior Tech call you, but no one ever does. They finally got tired of hearing from me & told me, take it back to where I bought it - It will not work on your system. Their documentation stinks and their phone support is worthless. I found out, just by trial & error, if I turned off the modem, when programming the router, then turn the modem back on - everything works fine, but Linksys Tech Support was no help whatsoever.
Rating:
Summary: Good Product, Terrible customer service
Review: I have used this router for about a year and love it. The thing is that once it had a problem, getting in touch with their customer service and getting action taken is where the problems start. I have read many reports about how bad their customer service and technical support are and ignored them. I would think twice about buying this product again due to how bad they treat you or if you are lucky treat you at all.
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Summary: Fast, Simple, and Affordable
Review: Linksys has become one of the most popular names in home/small office networking. Linksys has produced a series of broadband routers that are versatile and easy to configure. The router will work out of the box without any setup in the ideal DSL or Cable Internet setup. Plug the broadband modem into the WAN port, the computers into the numbered ports, and the power adapter into the wall. Unfortunately, the ideal situation is rarely the most common one. Thanks to Linksys' knowledge of providing ease of use, setting up the router to work is a breeze. You have the option of reading the included manual, which is printed not electronic, watching the CD-ROM video, or setting up the router without instructions. Any three of these options are available, and none are better than the other. Though, I would recommend reading the instruction manual at one point or another. Setup is achieved by visiting the router's homepage on the network with an Internet Browser. The first step is the most important one. Change the router's password. If this doesn't happen, anyone with knowledge of your broadband IP address can access and reconfigure the router remotely. The most important options second to changing the password are all located on the main page in a logical order. Once the values are entered into the router's memory, any computer connected to it will obtain necessary connection information via DHCP without additional setup. The data for the various blanks can be obtained from your ISP. The router comes with a variety of more advanced features. By default all ports are blocked, so no outside access to the internal network can be achieved. Port Forwarding allows requests to specific ports (i.e. port 80 for a web server) to be forwarded to a computer on the network. Setup of this feature is necessary in order to run servers or host games over the Internet. The router can handle a maximum of 253 computers connected to it. This is a limit set forth by standards, not by the router's capabilities. I set my Linksys router up to connect to a web server, and a pair of hubs, which link all of the computer nodes together. The router performs well when four to six computers are accessing the Internet simultaneously, although it can get lagged and not process requests from new computers requesting DHCP (auto configuration) info from it. Overall, the router is a great buy for anyone looking to share a DSL or Cable connection amongst multiple computers. For those who do not want to install network cabling, a wireless model is available from Linksys also.
Rating:
Summary: This is an great easy to use router...
Review: I purchased this Linksys router a few months ago, after getting DSL service. I have three computers connected to it with no problems. This router has the easiest setup, all I did was plug it and it was ready to go. No complaints from me. If you need a router, and have very little technical skills then this is the one for you. Definitely recommended.
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Summary: Quick lesson on internet technology and why you need this.
Review: Just wanted to chip in my two cents on this great little product. Most ISPs only provide you with one IP address for internet access. This poses a problem when you have multiple machines at home that need to be on the internet. However, this is not a miracle product. This is a product which provides web, ftp, and other services to each of your machines through a nifty mechanism called NAT (Network Address Translation) meaning that as you make a connection to a server on the internet, the Linksys remembers where the request originated from so that it can send it back to the appropriate machine on your local network. This in internet LAN is something to the effect of high-magic. But it isnt a cure all and it isnt perfect. I recommend that if you have one primary machine that needs all of its services exposed on the Internet, then you should use the DMZ option. Good Luck and enjoy this product its a great one.
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Summary: Cheap, solid security for DSL or Cable-modem users
Review: The Internet can be a scary place, especially to those of us with DSL. I have Qwest MegaBit Deluxe service and have both a full-time connection and a static IP address. This means that hackers can connect to my machine at any time and could potentially wreak havoc. I tested a web-based security program and found that it knew the name of my machine, my shared drives, and my printer. Could my Quicken data file be next? I tried valiantly to turn an old Pentium 200 box into a Linux-based firewall. (...) Finally, I did some rough estimates of the time I'd spent on this project and decided that even applying a very low hourly rate, I would make out much better by buying this box. Goals. I had two major goals for this purchase:
1) Securing my PCs
2) Sharing DSL connection among different PCs Setup. The BEFSR41 comes with a slim manual and a slick one-page quick install guide. I still haven't cracked the manual. I already had network wiring throughout the house, so installation consisted of plugging the power brick into the wall and into the back of the unit and hooking up the network connections. The power stuff went quickly. The network stuff took a little bit longer. There are 6 RJ45 network connectors on the back of the machine. One is for the WAN connection -- the line that comes from the DSL box or cable modem. Three are standard switch connections, and two are shared -- one is an uplink port (for connecting to another network hub or switch) and the other is a standard connector. It took me a little about 20 minutes of futzing with the connctions and wondering why I couldn't see the Internet before I remembered that a direct connection to my DSL box required a crossover cable, not a standard cable. Once I figured that out, everything worked perfectly. Note: unless you have a network switch (you probably have a slower, cheaper, more-popular network hub), you should plug the machines that you want to connect most quickly directly into the unit. Operation. How do you administer this new network? Through your web browser. In addition to its other features, this little gem has a built-in web server. Once you've got the network cables connected correctly, you simply open up a browser and type 192.168.1.1 into the address box and hit enter. Once you've entered the password, you get a straightforward administration screen. You'll need to go through some of the same steps you did when you set up your DSL in the first place. If you have a dynamically-assigned IP address, you can simply take all of the defaults, reboot your computers and everything will work as if by magic. If you have a static IP address, you'll have to enter that and tell the BEFSR41 your Default Gateway and DNS server addresses. You may need to change network settings on your individual PCs. By adding about 10 minutes of network tweaking and computer rebooting to the first 20 minutes of cable untangling, I find that I spent half-an-hour from opening the box to a running network. It does come with a setup wizard disk, but I haven't even looked at it. Customization. The BEFSR41 provides a great deal of customizability. In its default state, your network is entirely hidden from the world. Your web servers won't be accessable through the firewall, nor would a mail server, or anything else. To get information through, you can go to the advanced options tabs and choose Forwarding. This allows you to route the ports you specify to specific IP addresses on your network. Tell it to route port 80 to a machine inside the firewall, and your webserver will be back in business. Conclusion. I love this box for the same reason I love my DSL service -- because it just works. Once it's set up and working, I don't have to think about it any more.
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