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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: 4 stars
Summary: Virtually Plug and Play
Review: Its simply fantastic. I plugged it into my Adelphia @Home cable modem, plugged my PCs into the BEFSR41, and followed the instructions. It's as easy as pie, and now I have a fast running 3 PC 100MB local network fully connected to the Internet. My only criticism is the online user interface of the BEFSR41. It simply to technical for anyone who is inexperienced with network set-up. I'd suggest that Linksys make it GUI and add online help. Otherwise, its wonderful.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This product gave me a very hard time.
Review: I bought this product based on other reviews from people here. I needed all the functionality that this product offers and it sounded great! But installing this thing and making it work was a nightmare. I tried their installation process as it was described in the accompanying documentation. But it did not work. So I called technical support and they took my name and phone number three times during the day with a promise to call me back but I never got a call. I had to wait until 1 AM to get to a tech support person ( I started at 10 AM!). I told her that I could not install the router and that when I tried to get back to hooking my modem directly to my ethernet card that I could not connect. I asked her if she can help me configure and install the router and get it to work. The answer was " we only have 15 minutes per customer and I cannot go over that". Well what if the process took more than 15 minutes, what then. No convincing answer. "But they have 24 hour customer support!" Well thank you for nothing. After writing this review, I am sending this router back. No help, does not work, will go back! There are other products in the market you know!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This product is not WORKING with dialpad
Review: I am so disappointed about this router. Everything is OK except it is not work with dialpad. I had to return this product.

Should not buy this one it is a hassel to return.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: We are very pleased!
Review: We bought this after looking at a similar, more expensive product. We are using it with a PC and an IMAC and it allows both of them to share the same DSL connection, with no noticeable decrease in connection spped. Easy to set up - an excellent buy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works fine with PPPOE, Win2000, WindowsNT, and Linux
Review: I purchased this product after reading the reviews here on Amazon.com.

The 4-port version was easy to setup and configure, and I did not have any problems when configuraing the router to work with PPPOE and my ISP. I am now running a Win2000 platform, a Linux platform, and periodically my laptop from the router. Linksys does not provide any instructions for configuring Linux to work with the router, but if you're familiar with Linux, networking, and TCP/IP you won't have any problems.

As per another reader's comments, I too have a mix of static and dynamic/DHCP IP addresses. All you need to do is set the router to start at a higher IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.100) and then the other IP addresses (e.g. 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.99) can be used as static/fixed IP addresses. This works great if you're like me and want at least one DHCP-managed IP address for a laptop or similar.

All outbound activity (from your computers to the Internet) works without any configuration changes. Individual ports (e.g. FTP, Telnet, etc.) are not exposed/available unless you configure them in the router, and when you do expose a port you map it to the specific/static IP address of one of your computers. This is a much better approach than attempting to use Linux as a firewall, since with the router you know exactly which ports are open/visible to the Internet.

I also like that (by default) a feature called "WAN Blocking" is enabled. If an Internet user PINGs your IP address, they won't get a response.

Consider doing a firmware upgrade from Linksys' website. You'll need to download the upgrade, unzip it, and then connect to the router and apply the upgrade. Note that this wasn't a difficult task.

The documentation for the product is pathetic. If anyone from Linksys reads this, please hire better Tech Writers or spend more time on producing thorough documentation (ie., "Linksys Router for Dummies").

In summary, a solid product at a good price. I now have a firewall and router/hub in a single, compact unit. Spend a few $ more and buy the 4-port version of the router if you ever think you might need more ports in the future.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is the Best Cable/DSL Router out there
Review: Yup, it's true. The Linksys is the best cable/modem router available. We use this for our LAN gaming parties, as well as for the home network setup. Installation is a snap, configuration is super-simple via the built in web interface, it's cheaper than any competing product, and offers you more! It includes a 10/100 4 port FULL DUPLEX (we tested it and it's true) SWITCH, while the competition includes a 10baseT hub. This device replaces the need to buy a $100 10/100 switch for your little home network.

If you have invested in a cable modem or DSL modem already, then this is an ESSENTIAL purchase. I run a medium size corporate network during the day, and our firewall/internet gateway is very difficult to manage. I come home from work, and I don't have to worry about my home network, because the Linksys router is doing all the work for me. Absolutely essential equipment if you have 2 or more computers and a cable/dsl internet connection. Get one!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow. Linksys has a hit!
Review: I don't know where to start. First, this unit replaced WinGate running on an old 486/66 w/16Mb RAM, which was acting as a software router between an InternetConnect ADSL line and a. I was having timeouts every evening. I don't believe it was WinGate's problem, it was that I was running it on old 486/66. (You get what you pay for, which wasn't much. GRIN!) [Nothing against WinGate, I wished I had a better machine to use it on.]

Anyhow, I wanted a replacement and found this Linksys Switch/Router. It truely was Plug and Play! I plugged it in, replacing my old Linksys hub, and the 486/66. We haven't had a timeout since then! It's been very reliable.

We have had this switch for several months, and early on, my brother couldn't on the MSN Zone. We upgraded to the latest firmware, 1.22(it was very simple to install!), and then he could play on the MSN Zone, specifically Asheron's Call. Note: he has to be in the DMZ zone on the router (an advanced option), and we have protected his computer by using the suggestions on Steve Gibson's website, ... . If you haven't been there and you are thinking about buying this product, you MUST, repeat MUST, go to that site to protect yourself (and the Internet for that matter). Once there, read everything about ShieldsUP!

Finally, this is very simple product to install, especially, if you let it be your DHCP server, the default. Don't try use static IP's on your computers unless you know what you are doing. There's no phone support, but your neighborhood teenager would love to help you set this little gem of a box! Note: this product works perfectly fine with static IP's from your provider, either the cable system or the DSL provider. I'm trying to distinguish between static IP address for the DSL/Cable line versus the static IP addresses on the computers in your network. If the previous sentence doesn't make sense, please find your neighborhood nerd/teenager for help.

I've never used Win98's ICS so I can't compare that to this product. Sure it's free, but that computer has to be up before the other computers can access the Internet.

Also, I am using firmware 1.22. Have had no problems with it. I've downloaded large files (1-25MB) with no problems. My brother and I have had no problem sharing our ADSL line to four computers simultaneously. Good luck and Happy Surfing!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Corruption even after the firmware upgrade
Review: I read reviews (but not on usenet) about how great this router was - but when I started using it with my linux and windows 98SE boxes attached to an @home cable modem, I noticed that EVERY ftp download and every other image had checksum errors. Very odd - in my 20 years of BBS/Cerfnet/Internet experience, I had NEVER seen CRC corruption issues.

The user experience was that ftp was COMPLETELY broken, and that every fifth image on a webpage would look like noise.

Linksys has a firmware upgrade - and even after applying the thing, I still have connection refused issues and corrupt downloads that mysteriously go away when I take the router out of the picture. Terrible.

I returned mine and got a NetGear router. Make sure you do some usenet research - or be prepared to take it back - this seems to be a common problem with this router - it even refers to the corruption problems in the "Frequently Asked Questions" that came with the thing. It tells you to use a different ftp client - hah! - as if that would fix their hardware issue! Oh well. Viva la competition.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great out of the box small network config.
Review: I installed this product 2 months ago connected to a Bellatlantic DSL modem. Out of the box it needed a firmware upgrade to connect to Bellatlantic but once that was done the config was a piece of cake. I filled out my DSL login info, took most of the other defaults and connected the box to a newly installed home LAN. Only problem is every couple of days the connection status must be dropped then reconnected but this is only a problem if no one uses the LAN for a long time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Linksys 4-1 DSL Router is GREAT! and EASY!
Review: I purchased the DSL router because I have a cheap 4 port Linksys hub (works well) that I purchased 4 years ago at a local Best Buy so I am familiar with the name. Linksys has made a name for itself in providing quality at a great price. I started searching for a DSL router about a year ago when I got onto DSL but really did not need it at the time, now I have multiple systems that need to access the Internet and I do not want to spend too much money.

Here is the import information about this product. I bought it, plugged in the power, plugged the WAN connection to the DSL router, plugged my two systems into the 4-1 DSL router (not using my old hub at this time), restarted the DSL modem, made sure my systems were using "Obtain an IP address automatically (they were), and restarted the 2 computers.

I never thought it would be this easy. I have been in computer infrastructure systems for 17 years and things rarely work this easy when you are connecting to systems outside your network.

FYI, I have been on Southwestern Bell for Telco and Internet access since April 1999 with very few problems and I use a dynamic IP not a static IP. The Linksys DSL router works with my dynamic IP for two computers connected directly to the BEFSR41 DSL router.


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