Rating: 
Summary: Nice Try Linksys - my Router is for Sale
Review: Well, it's really sad that this router has 1 fatal flaw, cause other than that is works great. The thing that separates this router from the flock is that it has 8 switched ports for a reasonable price. Unfortunately it has a severe bug:CONNECTION RESETS DURRING HIGH TRAFFIC VOLUME! When you are downloading a file from a fast server, or even worse, hosting a nice game of Quake, the router will just spontaneously freeze up and disconnect from the ISP. Unplugging it and reconnecting eventually will get things back online. Obviously this is a huge bug with this router. It has been happening consistently for the entire time that I have owned the thing, which is over a year. Tech support knows about this problem, but the only help they could offer is to upgrade the firmware. Of course I had already tried every firmware revision they have and still got the same problem. This makes the router completely useless for my needs. I just can't understand why I have put up with it for a year, constantly unplugging the thing and resetting it. I think I was just hoping for a fix in the next firmware upgrade, but alas, they can't seem to fix it. For now I am using my old Mac to do the routing, and just using the router as a hub. I have talked to several other unhappy owners of this router who have experienced the same problem. By their recommendations I'm going to purchase an Asante FR3004 which I have been told works flawlessly, and has been tested to have higher speed when transferring files across the network.
Rating: 
Summary: Wireless or Wires? Why I bought this product...
Review: Background: 29 year old, Good computer knowledge but I wouldnt say I am an expert although in the computer field and have my own computer business. I just tell you this because sometimes you wonder who is writting these comments, professionals or what have you.
Why I went with wires:
I decided to buy this product for a few reasons. For 1 the reviews for this product(BEFSR81) were better then for the wireless product(BEFW11S4). The wireless part, if you read those reviews, seems to me like it needs more work. Two, there are added costs involved, wireless cards..etc. Not to mention the BEFW11S4 itself is more and I didn't want to sink so much into a router to find out that I couldn't use the wireless functionality as planned. Three, I didn't have to go wireless, I was able to go through the wall where the TV cable comes out. Four, the one that finalized my decision was that I went into a local store and talked to a guy who had set up the wireless and he too said that the 11Mps unrealistic. He said it would hardly go down the hall. Maybe one room next to the router is ok but anything else FORGET IT. So why pay so much for technology that still needs work? No thanks.
Installation:
I have to say, I never thought it would be this easy. I think 10mins max I had my computer working off the net. Another 5 to have my roommates in the other room working. Very well documented. It's a READING documentation instead of a LOOKING documentation. That is few pictures. I was very suprised on how well this router was for easy set up. As for now, I don't have any complains and the router has been working for 2 weeks. I haven't called technical support so I can't tell you how good it is but how good does it have to be with a device that is so great and easy to install without support?
Suggestion:
If your thinking of wireless then make sure the computers are still close to each other until technlogy gets improved. If your thinking of hooking up a computer in the kitchen way down the hall or downstairs..forget it.
Last:
Thanks everybody for the great reviews. I'm just giving something back to the great comments I got here BEFORE buying this product.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Product, Abyssmal Support
Review: Product Rating: 5
Support Rating: 1 (just because i couldn't rate it lower) Trying to reach support is a waste of time and when you do, all they will tell you to do is take the linksys box out of your network and hard connect to your cable modem... There are known problems in the user community that their technical support will not fess up to. It is sad because this is a stellar product.
Rating:
Summary: Good for off campus college savings
Review: I hooked the router and it works great. Saves me and my 4 housemates 40 dollars a month on internet bills and shows little sign of drag from the use of 5 computers on one Roadrunner web connection.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth the money.. has some ipsec/vpn issues
Review: I bought one of these for my home network. My house is wired with cat5e and I have att broadband cable. The unit setup quickly and the NAT stuff worked great. It took me literally 10 minutes to have it all working. The trouble is with my companies vpn software (cisco). The 8 port unit has some fragmentation issue that causes some problems so I have to disable ipsec through NAT. (this is fixed in the 4 port version). Additionally, this unit only supports one active ipsec session, so I can only have one machine connected to the office at a time. :(
Rating: 
Summary: Buyer beware...
Review: The box works well, both a switch and broadband router. Setup was simple and worked seamlessly with our network and DSL (Verizon) connection. However... ... we purchased the box primarily to support connecting to a LAN via a VPN and had trouble from the get-go. It appears that the box only supports one concurrent VPN session. There is nothing in the product literature to warn of this, only that it supports VPN and IPSec (amongst other) protocols. Further delving into the product support pages on the web reveals the rather ambiguous statement that it 'supports at least one VPN session'. Linksys technical support have not had the courtesy to respond to any requests for information.
Rating:
Summary: Does what they say it does...
Review: Linksys products, particularly this one, offer good features that are not difficult to implement. Except for poor customer service, it's hard to go wrong.
Rating:
Summary: Tough Install
Review: Unless you have the simplest of hardware configurations, this product is going to be difficult to install. I had to return one defective product, download the correct firmware version for the second one, and reprogram parts of the router to work with my odd hardware configurations. Linksys customer service was clueless and very rude. Total install time was probably greater than 10 hours. On the positive side, the product does appear to give good protection from outside intrusion, and Amazon was fabulous about accepting my defective product and getting me a new one in a timely manner.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product
Review: I received it last night and it was up and running with NAT capability within 30 minutes. Very easy setup and good documentation. It is working with wireless LAN as well as VPN. Extremely simple, yet powerful. Good product.
Rating:
Summary: Good product, support bad
Review: Well I bought my router in December and around May I was having problems with the router and imo it needed to be replaced. I have tried on numerous attempts to contact linksys to get help to see if they could fix it without replacing and if not issue a RMA as their support procedure goes. I have yet to get a response from any of my emails I sent and it is now july. If you want to buy this product, just realize the warranty means nothing and you could easily be out a chunk of cash should it cease to function properly.
| 
