Rating: 
Summary: Pretty easy installation
Review: FriendlyNET FR3004, what a gem! I have literally no experience with routers. I am a handicapped person with limited mobility. My point being, I had my PC and my MAC sharing the same cable modem and updated the firmware within a half an hour. Friendly, that does not begin to describe this little gem. Frankly, I was intimidated upon ordering the router. All my apprehensions disappeared within minutes. As for performance, it is just wonderful, no degradation in connection or speed lose accessing the internet at the same time. I could not be happier with the item and recommend it to all my friends that have more than one computer that use DSL/Cable Modem.
Rating: 
Summary: Sweet & Easy!
Review: FriendlyNET FR3004, what a gem! I have literally no experience with routers. I am a handicapped person with limited mobility. My point being, I had my PC and my MAC sharing the same cable modem and updated the firmware within a half an hour. Friendly, that does not begin to describe this little gem. Frankly, I was intimidated upon ordering the router. All my apprehensions disappeared within minutes. As for performance, it is just wonderful, no degradation in connection or speed lose accessing the internet at the same time. I could not be happier with the item and recommend it to all my friends that have more than one computer that use DSL/Cable Modem.
Rating:
Summary: Fine Product
Review: Having set up similar products before, performance, features, and company reputation were priorities for me more than easy setup. This product has performed very well for me. The built in 4-port switch handles a home office network very nicely, and this router has the other features that I was looking for.The easy setup though was impressive from my point of view. This is the only product I have personally seen that does not require you to enter any numbers to get a PC to talk to it. You do have to select the appropriate network settings and reboot your computer, but that is all. The router provides you with a simple and clear Web-based interface to complete the setup. The documentation is also clear and to the point. Overall I can highly recommend this product. Asante has a very good reputation for technical support. For a product like this that is somewhat technical, good technical support is worth a lot to anyone who values their time at all. My experience with a couple of phone calls confirmed this for me, and this leads me to the only reason I did not feel justified in rating this product with 5 stars: Normal setup of the Asante FR3004 should work fine for the great majority of users, for Web browsing, email, and other online activities. My use as a software developer involves keeping sessions with remote computers open for extended periods, and the Asante FR3004 with firmware as of October 2000 closes connections after 2 hours. I was able to work around this limitation, but the workaround may not be available to every user.
Rating:
Summary: Fine Product
Review: Having set up similar products before, performance, features, and company reputation were priorities for me more than easy setup. This product has performed very well for me. The built in 4-port switch handles a home office network very nicely, and this router has the other features that I was looking for. The easy setup though was impressive from my point of view. This is the only product I have personally seen that does not require you to enter any numbers to get a PC to talk to it. You do have to select the appropriate network settings and reboot your computer, but that is all. The router provides you with a simple and clear Web-based interface to complete the setup. The documentation is also clear and to the point. Overall I can highly recommend this product. Asante has a very good reputation for technical support. For a product like this that is somewhat technical, good technical support is worth a lot to anyone who values their time at all. My experience with a couple of phone calls confirmed this for me, and this leads me to the only reason I did not feel justified in rating this product with 5 stars: Normal setup of the Asante FR3004 should work fine for the great majority of users, for Web browsing, email, and other online activities. My use as a software developer involves keeping sessions with remote computers open for extended periods, and the Asante FR3004 with firmware as of October 2000 closes connections after 2 hours. I was able to work around this limitation, but the workaround may not be available to every user.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product
Review: I am an experienced PC user but I am not a network geek. I connected my 2 PC's to DSL in a matter of minutes. It took me more time to plug it into power and connect the cables than it did to get it running. I was able to share my files, printer, and my DSL (PPPoE) internet almost immediately. I was really impressed with its easy Web interface. The hardest part is probably knowing what protocol you're running, which is one of five choices and isn't really that hard to figure out. Don't forget you'll need at least one additional network cable to connect your network-ready PC. They don't come with the product.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product
Review: I am an experienced PC user but I am not a network geek. I connected my 2 PC's to DSL in a matter of minutes. It took me more time to plug it into power and connect the cables than it did to get it running. I was able to share my files, printer, and my DSL (PPPoE) internet almost immediately. I was really impressed with its easy Web interface. The hardest part is probably knowing what protocol you're running, which is one of five choices and isn't really that hard to figure out. Don't forget you'll need at least one additional network cable to connect your network-ready PC. They don't come with the product.
Rating:
Summary: FR3400LC, Simple printer set up!
Review: I ditto all the other comments about ease of use and ease of setup. I bought the FR3400LC, with the print server and modem port, and I found it very simple to set up my 10-Base-T printer for a Mac and PC. Before getting the router, I had the printer connected to a hub. My Mac found the printer easily, but no such luck for the PC. Now, I have the printer hooked up by a 10-Base-T connection to the Mac, and by parallel cable to the print server port for the PC. Prints fine from both machines! Only one caveat, if you're setting up the router on a cable modem, make sure you obtain the FULL name of the cable company mail server. The simple "mail" that I used previously for my Cox@Home connection did not connect.
Rating:
Summary: FR3400LC, Simple printer set up!
Review: I ditto all the other comments about ease of use and ease of setup. I bought the FR3400LC, with the print server and modem port, and I found it very simple to set up my 10-Base-T printer for a Mac and PC. Before getting the router, I had the printer connected to a hub. My Mac found the printer easily, but no such luck for the PC. Now, I have the printer hooked up by a 10-Base-T connection to the Mac, and by parallel cable to the print server port for the PC. Prints fine from both machines! Only one caveat, if you're setting up the router on a cable modem, make sure you obtain the FULL name of the cable company mail server. The simple "mail" that I used previously for my Cox@Home connection did not connect.
Rating:
Summary: Flawless Here with Road Runner
Review: I use this router with my Road Runner Cable connection and it works flawlessly. I have been using it for over a year with no problems. The setup was very easy with my provider in the list of available providers, so it knew about my DHCP settings already and just configured them for me. In a year my cable has gone out a few times and this router simply needs a reboot to reset the connection, this happened only twice during long outages of my cable service. I had many problems with a Linksys prior to using this one.
Rating:
Summary: Quick and Easy
Review: Ok i timed this one, it was exactly 12 mins and 37 secs from pulling the router out of the box until i had 3 Macs using the same internet connection. If you are using a mac this is the router for you. As i said i have 3 macs using different OS's using it (OSX, 9.1, and 8.6). Asante even releases their Firmware updates in a format that Macs can read, so updating the Router is a snap. The manual is set up in an easy to read step by step manner. I have actually seen better d/l rates on my DP 1GHz G4 since using this router, though im really not sure why. Get this product!!!
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