Rating: 
Summary: dont buy this router - at any price !!!
Review: i bought it because it was the cheapest wireless router. but it was a mistake. the setup is easy and quick. but my laptop kept losing the wireless connexion. you need to power cycle it a couple of times a day. once the laptop connects to the router, it worked fine but it lost the connexion overnite.
the tech support is clueless and suggested me to be close to the router when i try to connect and then move away. i returned [it].
and the wireless signal was very weak, dropped down to 30% at some places inside my house.
Rating: 
Summary: Flaky performance at first, stabilized after a week...
Review: ~I've dealt with many brands of routers/switches/wireless gateways/APs before. Names like Linksys, Netgear, Agere/Orinoco, and a couple others. I have never had a problem with SMC Ethernet adapters or even SMC Barricade Routers/Switch (without the wireless part).I recently bought this piece of [junk] and all I've been getting for the past two days is totally unsatisfactory performance. The problems I've encountered so far (even AFTER a 1.20a latest firmware update): CONS: 1) WIRELESS.~~ My top of the line Orinoco/Lucent Gold PC CARD for my laptop stops finding the SSID of the SMC overnight. As previously stated by other users, a "simple" reset of the router will fix that. But come on, every single day??? What kind of [junk] is that? 2) SWITCH. The switch does not seem to use an efficient algorithms to transfer data on a full load from the cable modem to different computers. Also, the maximum data transfer from 10mbps to a 10/100mbps computer was 200KB/s. Usually,~~ it's supposed to be around 400-500. ALSO, I've heard that if you are transfering large volume files from a 100mbps to a 100mbps computer, the switch will CRASH after a little while and you have to manually reset it. 3) SUPPORT. What support??? SMC != Support. PROS: 1) It was .... But ..., you sure get what you paid for. 2) I liked the web-based configuration options. Plenty of control for port forwarding and other admin-based checklists. 3) Did I mention it was ...?~~ I'm giving this product two out of five stars because of its price. Unfortunately, it does not perform anywhere close to what a wireless router/switch is supposed to do. Unless you don't intend to use it for wireless (why would you even buy it in the first place?), you can consider buying something like this -- if you don't mind resetting it a lot.~ ---- UPDATE: After more use (over a week), the router seemed to stablize. It does not appear to randomly reset itself and data performance *seemed* to have increased. The wireless portion of this router stopped randomly disappearing after one night of inactivity. Also, my technical problems were finally answered by a real technical assistant over at SMC and responded to my inquiries (although they didn't really help... but isn't that the truth about all tech companies? :)). I am now upgrading the score of this router to four out of five stars. It performs like a router should. So a word of advice: give hardware time to "adjust" to its surroundings and warm up a little bit before giving the final verdict.
Rating:
Summary: Awful wireless router, nothing but headaches
Review: I have had nothing but problems with this wireless router. The wireless connection setting on the router has to be reset every time I boot-up my laptop in order to obtain a connection. And the IP address from cablevision keeps getting dropped (works fine without the router connected) and must be manually renewed every few days. The tech support people at SMC refuse to believe that it is their router. The wireless card in my laptop works with 3 other wireless access points at my job perfectly. But still, SMC tech supports insists it's not their router. I have tried every thing, even a new SMC router. I finally returned the router and purchased a different company's wireless router. Needless to say, the new non-SMC router works perfectly and I've had it for over two months now.
Rating:
Summary: completely unreliable as a wireless router
Review: This router is one of the cheapest available, and, like all routers, was easy to setup out of the box. However, as other people have mentioned, the wireless connection got dropped fairly frequently (every 30 minutes). I have not had trouble with this at the airport, at work, or with my Netgear 4 port/wireless router. Further examination showed that the wired connections had also quit working altogether. Plugging the cable modem directly into my computer narrowed this down entirely to the router. A firmware upgrade to 1.20a seemed to fix the problems with the wired connections, and seemed to improve the wireless temporarily, but soon shut that out. It needed another power cycle (30 seconds) to turn it back on. Now I am just using the wired connection with a long ethernet cable with the firmware upgrade, but will be returning this very soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Warning- *does not* support dial-up modem
Review: I recently bought this product as a gift for my parents hoping to simplify their dialup as well as networking the house and providing an easy upgrade path for DSL/cable. However, I found that the SMC7004VWBR has neither a serial port nor a phone jack on it. I was fortunate enough to be able to work around it by having a linux box on the wireless net gateway, but I was awfully irritated at Amazon for having demonstrably false information in their description of the product's features, especially when the box made no indication that this was supported. Beyond that, the product was reasonably acceptable, but as with many "EZ" installations, if things don't go smoothly, things can be quite a hassle. Installing through Windows XP ended up being awkward as a result of firewalling being on and the installation wizard providing unhelpful and somewhat misleading error messages. WEP was awkward to setup as well, but that was largely XP's fault. I've had experiences previously setting up an Apple AirPort Base Station, and I must say it was far more comfortable. However, in fairness, I should point out that the AirPort Base Station is grossly overpriced and doesn't have the same firewalling and security features. In general, however, the AirPort rarely left me feeling like I had inadequate error reporting when configuring. SMC's configuration tool (used via a web browser) feels restrictive to use, as I was hoping for something more extensive for something that hyped its security configurability. In addition, with many LEDs on the front panel, and a bootup sequence that seemed to take a while, it would have been nice if the LEDs were used for diagnostic purposes. Apple only has 3 LEDs, but still managed to pull this off reasonably well. In short, if you need a wireless AP that has a modem or canbe connected to one, DO NOT get this product. Beyond that, it's an okay product. It's certainly not great, but it'll work eventually. Be sure to turn off firewalling when configuring it and don't enable network authentication (802.1x) if you aren't sure that you're supposed to. It's possible that configuration interfaces will be bettered in future firmware releases, but don't hold your breath.
Rating: 
Summary: Big on Features, Low on Reliability
Review: The SMC7004VWBR has an impressive list of features that make it seem like a best buy. I chose the product over competing products due to it's advanced firewall features and it's extremely low price AR. Previously, I was running a software-based linux firewall using IPTABLES. However, the product is prone to locking up. In the first week I owned the product, it locked up on me an average of 1-2 times per day. Even downloading the newest firmware at the time (1.20) did not resolve the issue. I tried contacting SMC tech support, but the tech seemed clueless. After checking online message boards, I discovered that this was a common issue with SMC routers. I also discovered that a beta version of the firmware (1.05beta) tended to be the most stable. After finding it on a message board (SMC does not make available archived firmware) and reverting the firwmare level to 1.05beta, the firewall has been stable as long as I don't turn on the advanced firewall features. This was the major reason for picking this product in the first place. As part of my job, I've setup hardware firewall & firewall/WAP products from Sonicwall, Netscreen, D-Link, Netgear, and Netopia. I haven't experienced lockup issues with any of the other vendors.
Rating:
Summary: Works very well for the most part
Review: Just because of the price, I decided to replace my Linksys 4 port router/switch with this. Mostly, the SMC works very well. The problems reported by the earlier comment *might* have been due to an earlier firmware. Everything works for me, although one of the wired ports seems to, drop the connection occaisionally -- I'm waiting to see if this recreatable. Tech support is OK -- the wait isn't too long and it's toll-free. However, you get connected to a call center in India (how else do you think they can afford free tech support for inexpensive products). Most of the support are very nice and helpful, but they do have a tendancy (like all 1st line support) to go for the easy answer, like "put on the new firmware" or "take off the new firmware." Also, signal strength with WEP enabled is very low -- you'll need a card with high signal strength to do this (like the Cisco 350). Also, the router did freeze up and have to be power-cycled once in the last couple of weeks.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this junk
Review: As others have noted, this thing tends to lose track of what it is doing and have to be rebooted- sometimes several times a day. Tech support thinks the product "has a few problems" but isn't interested in dealing with them... Don't give up your full-time money for a part-time product.
Rating: 
Summary: Does what I want!
Review: I ordered this product because of the price and that it seemed to work with Macintosh also. I have 2 PC's a Mac Desktop and a Mac laptop. The hookup via the ethernet ports was painless, although easier to configure with the Mac than the PC due to the PC coming up with errors when it couldn't find a DNS.
I ordered A Lucent Orinoco Gold PC card for the mac. I finally got it working but needed a call to SMC tech support. Wasn't overly impressed with the tech suppport as he said I needed to contact other people to get the WEP encryption working with the Mac.
Eventually I found out how to do it. 1) Name the ESSID something other than default (He had me name it "ANY). Then I installed Mac OS 9.2.2 (I had to update from 9.1) and install Apple's latest Airport software (2.0.4 on Dec 16th, 2002). That was it to get the connection. To make WEP work, I put in a passphrase on the SMC router, and then copied down the key from 1.
Then under the Mac I opened up the Airport app, clicked on Airport Base Station settings (on the bottom) and then filled out the card encryption info and put a $ in front of the 10 digit key I generated from the SMC. That was it.
Works so far in my house wirelessly up with a full 5 dots on the control strip up to 30 feet away (small house).
I give it 5 of 5 so far.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent product to start your home network
Review: This product has worked very well for me. Since the router has 3 ethernet ports you can use the router even before you get the wireless LAN setup. Or you can combine wireless and wired connections. This makes this a great way to start your build-it-as-you-go home network. I use it conjunction with an SMC wireless card for my laptop. I heard that equipment from the same manufacturer has less compatibility problems. I've never tested the range but it seems to work well within the 40 ft range that I normally work with. I've never had a problem with dropped connections after I updated the firmware for the PCMCIA card on my laptop. The configuration is a breeze and has good defaults. You can leave it alone or get as fancy as you like in setting up your home network. I was never able to get the print server working since I misplaced the original CD that has the required drivers. Product support is excellent. Be prepared for long wait times though! This product also comes with Linux drivers. Overall an excellent product.
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