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Linksys BEFSR41 Wired Router

Linksys BEFSR41 Wired Router

List Price: $79.99
Your Price: $49.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works great but don't forget to upgrade
Review: I had a lot of connection flakiness when I first got mine. And I also had a lot of trouble with the finite number of ports you can open on the firewall. However, I checked out the Linksys website and noticed a firware upgrade. Since then its been great. Seems to move faster to. The biggest additions were enbling the forwarding of a range of port numbers instead of just individual ones, as well as remote administration access. Beware Mac users, though. Linksys offers no tech support for Macs. Fortunately I had Virtual PC and work in an office where I can borrow a laptop. I couldn't get the firmware upgrade to work interfacing from my Mac through the web management interface. But since the upgrade, like I said, it has been fantastic and worth the investment.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Customer Support at Linksys
Review: I really can't write a review about this router, but I am able to write a case review concerning Linksys's handling of my return of a defective router.

My router was DOOB (dead-out-of-box). No problem! Send it back and get a new one. My mistake going to Linksys instead of returning through Amazon.

Linksys tech phone help was GREAT even though I had to wait many minutes behind other customers. I was told I would receive an email on the following Monday (this was a weekend) with an RMA form to fill out and return by email.

Following these instructions would allow shipment of a new unit. The email did not arrive until I prodded Linksys for it and then a customer rep responded to tell me she would send the RMA form later (a personal reply, not an auto-reply). WHY DIDN'T SHE JUST ATTACH IT TO HER REPLY?

The email with attached form came two days later. I completed the form and returned it by email since I do not own a fax machine and was not about to place the form in snail mail. That was the last I have heard from Linksys in two weeks. Today is three weeks since I called and spoke to the tech. UNSATISFACTORY.

I will be returning this through Amazon where I am ALWAYS GUARANTEED satisfactory service. (and they've proven it continuously)

I won't buy another Linksys product in the near future and I would not recommend them at this time. I am afraid of their support team. Very afraid! I hope this is an isolated event. If not........bye bye!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Gamers Beware
Review: My family is a pack of hard core gamers. As most gamers (and networkers) know, gaming requires a solid connection with as much bandwidth as possible. While the LinkSys DSL/Cable router was completely plug-in and go for web browsing and "normal" web activities like e-mail, etc., it had a lot of problems with maintaining constant connections with game servers when there was more than one person connected at a time. The tech support people were clueless, and it took them more than 3 days to call me back. Their suggestions (opening up the ports) were not feasible (opening up 10 ports per workstation because of the built-in firewall) because of the limitations of the router -- a maximum of 10 holes in the firewall total, and not being able to specify "access" for the entire network instead of individual workstations -- and didn't work even when I did try it on a single workstation.

If you need support, I'd suggest calling tech support after hours. I had better luck getting an engineer at 11pm than I did calling and leaving a message like you have to do during the day. Tech support never did solve the problems, it took 5 weeks and a couple dozen phone calls before I gave up. The NT work stations were doing "something" to maintain connections, moreso than the '98 and '95 machines, but they couldn't figure out what the difference was. I "solved" my own problem by making all of the '98 '95 gaming machines NT workstations and haven't had a dropped connection since. I hooked it up to a cable modem and 5 computers + a server.

Overall, below average tech support, excellent product (I have gaming friends with DSL who have had no connection drop problems), great price, and an almost "too easy" (aka, not enough features like configuring firewall holes for the entire network) web config interface. Also, they push themselves and name gamers specifically on their documentation and ads, but have a rather rinky-dink "solution" to the firewall/multiport needs of gamers. Putting my server outside of any firewall is never an option.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 4-Port Switch perfect for mixing 10/100 networks
Review: I've been using mine for almost a year now with basically a perfect track record. Friends of mine ask why the 4-port switch is worth the extra money. The reason is that you can attach different network components directly to the router without having a performance hit. In my setup, I have my PCs and iMac with 100BT networking into the switch. I've also connected Apple's AirPort base station to one of the ports (which is only 10BT) to provide wireless connection to the internet for my laptop. What makes this so cool is that I can be transferring files from the iMac to the PC over the network, while surfing the Internet downstairs without any performance issues, thanks to the switch. If you put these same computers onto a hub, all would be forced to transfer at 10BT because of the AirPort base station.

If you want to share more than two computers, I would splurge for the 4-Port switch. You could even go the extra mile and wire the house with CAT5 so you, your spouse, and your kids (and even send a wire next-door if you want) can have a nice home network, sharing printers, files, and the internet.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Works Like A Champ!
Review: This thing is absolutely amazing! I currently have two computers hooked up to it, NT Server and a dual boot Windows ME/Linux box. Everything just works! I has a built-in firewall, so you don't have to worry about security too much. You can do port forwarding with ease (for instance, I forwarded port 80 to my server machine so that IIS will always get www request for web pages).

A limitation:

You can only forward 10 or so ports, so if you play online games requiring more open ports than this (i.e., Age of Empires/Age of Kings) you'll have to put the computer you're playing the game in the "DMZ" (basically allows full internet access, which isn't so hot as far as security is concerned).

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Works for some, but not for all...
Review: A group of 4 people (including me) at my office bought this router. I was the only one running xDSL with PPPoE. The router ran fine for 5-30 minutes and would then hang my LAN. I reset the router to get things going again, and it hung again a little later. I took the router to my office and connected it to my company's LAN (PPPoE disabled in this case) and it ran all day without problems. I also tried all versions of available firware (which supported PPPoE) with no improvement. Linksys tech support took over a week to reply, and they (somehow) concluded that the hardware was defective.

This router seems to work for a lot of people, but did not work for me. A much more robust solution for me has been the NetGear RT314 (4-port). I have had it on for weeks without a problem (ran it both with and without PPPoE). Don't take my word for it, though. I would encourage anyone considering purchasing this router to review the Linksys community [forum] and make note of the problems others are having. Then check out the Netgear forum...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cable/DSL ROUTER
Review: This is an excellent piece of hardware that offered a serious performance/reliabilty upgrade from an old P-75 that we were runing as a proxy server for our network. We have 12 people sharing a broadband connection and this thing is fast and stable. About 10 mins after pulling it out of the box and disconnecting the old proxy, we were back on the web. The built in 4 port hub is a real bonus especially if you are just connecting four computers or less, since no additional hardware (hub) is required. If you want to connect more computers, just plug the hub into the uplink port or one of the other ports and away you go.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome for Cable/DSL Sharing
Review: This little router works as advertised! If what you want is the ability to share a cable or DSL broadband connection, then this box is the one for you. Sharing one IP address is a snap to setup; less than 15 minutes and you're up and operating.

I, like many others, recommend strongly to get the latest firmware upgrade as many problems/issues are resolved with the more current release. Other than that, you should be good to go!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good and easy setup for dynamic IP with Verizon DSL
Review: Just want to let everyone that this machine works with both dynamic IP and fixed IP accounts with Verizon DSL in the NY/NJ area.

With dynamic IP, I do encounter the occassional hiccup where I do have to disconnect the connection on the admin page and reconnect to re-establish connection. On a fixed IP account, the throughput was significantly higher and a lot smoother (for streaming audio/video).

Make sure to check back with Linksys for the constant firmware update.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Nice add-on
Review: Plain and simple: 1) I was looking for a way to expand my Cable connection beyond one PC to include my 2nd PC and my laptop, 2) I also wanted the capability of networking all of these PC's together such that the headache of trying to boot my son off the internet so I could work could be eliminated....:)

Problem solved. This product was easy to install, and easy to set-up. A bit of a problem getting the PC's to be identifed by the network, but that was resolved by actually reading the directions....go figure...

The only issue I have is the inabilty to use telephone software (i.e. dialpad, etc.) when the router is installed, once I unhook the router and am directly connected, no problem, with the router attached....unusable.


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