| Linksys BEFW11S4 Wireless-B Cable/DSL Router |
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Model: BEFW11S4
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 1079
Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 4, Windows NT 5, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server, Windows
Operating system: None
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b
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| Features: |
Connects to a broadband modem, a 10/100 Ethernet backbone, or wireless network
Long wireless operating range supports 300 feet indoors and 1,500 feet outdoors
Provides roaming, best access-point selection, load balancing, and network traffic filtering
Configurable through your networked PC's Web browser
Can act as a DHCP server for your existing network |
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| Description: |
| The Linksys BEFW11S4 is your all-in-one networking device This wireless router features support for the 802.11b protocol, which lets you wirelessly access your network and the Internet from up to 800 feet (outside), or 300 feet (inside) away |
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| User Reviews (1079 total): |
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Excellent Product, May 19, 2008
By Huntley Escoe
I don't consider myself a techie in the least bit but this router was a snap to set up and use. I have had it for over a year. I had to replace the power adapter but that is probably because of a surge I replaced it and the router is still going. I would recommend this to anyone great value great price.
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Linksys, May 14, 2008
By Jessica Gillis
The linksys in excellent shape and came very quickly in the mail! Its still working beautifully and we've had it for almost 2 years now! Thanks.
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Ideal for home!, February 29, 2008
By P. Rivera (Honduras)
In the last three years i bought three units and until today are working properly in my house and the house of two friends. Easy installation and configuration. After three years i dont have problems with this router.
Only one recommendation: try always that your router works with the newest version. You can download free at Linksys web site.
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Served Me Well for More Than 5 Years, January 3, 2008
By Schlermie (Silicon Valley, CA)
I bought this router over 5 years ago when it first came out, and it served my needs just fine the whole time. I live in a 3000 square foot single story L-shaped home. The router was positioned at the vertex of the L and was barely able to cover the furthest rooms in the house. I finally decided to replace it this year with a higher performance model (D-Link DIR-655) supporting the new wireless standards (802.11g and 802.11n). The Linksys router worked fine for supporting my wireless needs for web browsing and it even did a pretty good job wirelessly streaming music around the house. It was a little slow with streaming photos though and definitely wasn't fast enough to stream DVD quality video reliably. When we needed to perform large (hundreds of megabytes) file transfers between computers, we usually ended up plugging in an ethernet cable, because the wireless file transfers were too slow. In general, for an 80211b router, this router did a fine job, lasted a long time, and was easy to setup. I can't comment about the Linksys support, because I never needed any support. I'm deducting 1 star however, simply because in this day and age, nobody should be buying a Wireless-B router anymore. I suggest that you invest a few more bucks (if that much) to get at least a Wireless-G router with the same features. If you have devices that support Wireless-N and you can afford a hundred bucks for a router, then I suggest the D-Link DIR-655.
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power to week, November 24, 2007
By Dm Web LTD. (N.E Ga.)
This is a great unit with some extra money spent to upgrade it. This unit needs better range it has rptnc connectors and 1 to 2 dbi power and rang killers on it. Try to order 2 5 dbi or 8 dbi anntena to get a all around better unit. great value for 25.00 to 30 .00 then add the 30.00 to fix it out preformes the 54g as far as range and lets get honest in a office yor still cang get more than 5 meg downloads spread that out over 5 comps and theirs no gain with a 54g system the modem limits you to what ever speed you pay for at he line. Enjoy
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third, October 24, 2007
By James M. Joyce (Florida)
Excellent transmitter, good security, user friendly. Any problems have been with cable provider. regards Jim
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its all about using the right firmware.., August 2, 2007
By Ben S. (Utah, USA)
I first bought this router for 10$ brand new, and quickly found out why! After a few weeks of hell with this thing, i realized that its all about Firmware Version: 1.50.13
If you get the firmware version, you cant go wrong. I DO hafto power-cycle it like every 3 weeks or so(which could be unacceptable to some folks.) This is not a major problem for me, afterall.. it was only 10$.
I have been using this for about 2 years now and i've never attempted to update the firmware since 1.50.13 was installed.
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Everyone else is crazy! This router rocks!, June 10, 2007
By Joseph A. Kaufman (U.S.)
I've used this product for over a year now and it's been the most reliable router I've ever owned. I suspect that most everyone who's having a problem with it has hooked it up themselves, with no prior experience doing so, and has not configured it properly. Take the time to contact Linksys to set it up correctly, and you'll have a worry-free wireless network for years to come (see caveat below).
The only reason I'm giving it four stars is because it is not compatible with my new laptop, which is running Vista Home Premium. If you're running XP, do not hesitate to get this router.
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Simple and Quick, April 25, 2007
By Christopher Bergeron (Middleton, NH United States)
Simple Quick and Easy to use.. Half the time I forget it's there. A nice piece of equipment you will forget you own because you'll never need to look at it or touch it.
I even went with the default config just to make it that much easier.. I just opened the box and added electricity.. DONE.
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Did something go wrong with later versions of this model?, March 3, 2007
By Bruco (Kalamazoo, MI)
I've had a v4 of this router for several years. It's actually been quite solid. I've gone months without having to ever reset it, and I was using both wireless and wired connections.
Most of the more recent reviews are negative. I'm wondering if the last generation of this product was manufactured differently? Over the last few months I HAVE had to reset this router once ever few weeks or so, because it stops handing out DHCP addresses wirelessly sometimes. I haven't been too concerned, as I have a Buffalo WHR-G54S on the way and it's gotten rock-solid reviews. Nonetheless, this Linksys was a great router for me for years.
A word of advice: AVOID FIRMWARE VERSION 1.52.02 (which I believe is the most recent). From everything I have read, this causes the freeze-up issues when streaming video! I recently upgraded to 1.50.14, which is as high as I will go, and we'll see how that works until my new Buffalo shows up.
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This never operated correctly from Day One...and the manufacturer doesnt want to fix it., February 12, 2007
By Writesoon (NJ)
Why are dozens of people selling this router on Ebay for as little as $2? It has serious flaws. Dont use this router, even if someone gives it to you for free. I bought it for my office a few years ago and attempted to use it as a wireless B router. It didnt work, so I went out and bought a wireless G router and that was fine. I then brought it home and put it back in the box and forgot about it. Recently I tried to use it at home as a wired router, thinking that since it was not being used as a wireless router, it would work fine. It still had problems, even with the newest firmware update. I soon discovered it wasnt the wireless feature that was the problem. It was the entire unit. It frequently loses the Internet connection regardless of wired or wireless, especially when streaming video. Once you try streaming video (which this router wont let you do), you lose your connection and are forced to reset it, over and over and over. Very frustrating.
There are posts all over the Intenet about this unit, but Linksys has not done anything about the problem.
I have an easy fix for the problem. Toss the produce in the garbage. See how easy that was.
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Do not buy this router, February 10, 2007
By PURE- (MOM'S BASEMENT)
This router is TERRIBLE, I've had this piece of crap for over a year and it is incredibly glitch and buggy. The latest firmware update causes even more glitches and the worst part is that the reset button on it is broken. Linksys seems to have discontinued their support for this horrible device and I'm sure you can figure out why. Do not buy this.
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Are you kidding? No streaming video!, February 4, 2007
By James Newton (Escondido, CA USA)
As other reviewers have pointed out, this unit, with firmware 1.52.02, will lock up every time you go to e.g. msn and try to watch a video. The unit appears to be functioning, the lights blink just as before, but no data makes it to the PC and pointing a browser at the router or pinging it results in nothing but time outs. The only fix is to power cycle the unit (reset button is ineffective) and then the video will load and play.
As others have pointed out, this has been known (not to me until after I purchased the unit) in the community for quite some time and Linksys has not updated the firmware since 2005.
What does that say about other products they sell? If they won't even admit that there is a problem, what other bugs exist that you don't know are being caused by your linksys router and that they will not admit or fix?
They don't even have the option of loading the older firmware in order to re-enable the video.
Best of luck, an ex-linksys fan.
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BEFW11S4 Drops DHCP connections, February 3, 2007
By Iceage (Hayden, ID United States)
As others noted below this router drops local connections constantly (2 to 3 times daily) I did not have this problem until I updated the firmware to the latest release: 1.52.02
If you have this router do not update the firmware...
If you do not have this router don't buy it...
I called linksys techsupport and they pretend to not know of the problem that a simple google search reveals.
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Crashes when trying to view streaming video, January 11, 2007
By S. Srivastava
This review applies to version 4 of the BEFW11S4 router. I do not know if older versions have the same issues or not. The latest firmware does not support streaming videos!!! Turns out, this is a very well known issue with this router in the on-line community. If you try to watch videos from web sites like cnn.com, roadandtrack, etc. the router will crash and have to be re-booted. The older firmware revisions did not have this problem. However, only the latest firmware revision correctly supports UPnP (a very usefull feature for file-sharing software). Linksys has not come out with a any new firmware version since middle of 2005 which really goes to show their commitment to customer support.
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Works great., January 6, 2007
By Amazon fan (New Smyrna Beach, FL United States)
Have had this router for over a year and am very satisfied with it. (My adult son also has one and likes his too.) It wasn't the nightmare to set- up that some people report. Used "Network Magic" program in the set-up procedure and was connected within a few minutes. Installed the Linksys WMP-11 PCI card in my wife's computer. She can now use the wireless connection to read her e-mail and play games while I am also on line. We have separate screen names on AOL. GREAT!!
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Usually reliable, reasonable speed., December 12, 2006
By Owen Sanders (Portland, OR United States)
I've had this router for several years now and it's served admirably. Occasionally I have to reset it, but it's infrequent enough to be OK. The speed is quite good for a B router, but these days with G and even early versions of N standard available, you should only buy this router if you're REALLY on a tight budget.
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Hunk o' Junk, December 3, 2006
By Alexander B. Plain (Mustang, Oklahoma United States)
I have had the Linksys BEF11S4 v.4 (the one compatible with Xbox Live) for over 2 years now. I can't believe it as I am writing this, but I have put up with having to physically power cycle (forcibly reset) the router at least once every two hours! The only reason I have not rushed out and bought a replacement router is because I have spent forever trying to make the best decision and don't want to be in the same shoes in another year or two. I don't know what to do at this point. I have read reviews, guides and visited forums. This is common problem with almost all routers at one time or another but seems to be overly common with this brand/model. I am truly bummed about this product as I have liked other Linksys products in the past but I can't lie this things stinks and was not worth a penny!
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How to Spell Junk -> BEFW11S4, December 1, 2006
By Junk Allergic (Miami, Florida United States)
I have had the same problems with this router as described by other reviewers here and elsewhere, namely, cease functioning in its role as wifi access point and router as much as twice to three times daily, requiring a reset of the device.
Its undeniable, this is the worst purchase I can remember making, I have flashed firmware (so many times now its a joke), done resets, combed the internet for help and can only conclude that this is a seriously under engineered time waster, sorry, after 10 months, I have had my fill. Verdict -> JUNK, p.s. it should be a zero star but was not allowed here
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Outstanding B wireless, November 30, 2006
By T. Whatley
I used one of these for years, at my companies recommendation, until moving up to "G" with my new labtop. I loved it and had no problems. I passed it on to my dad when I got the new one and still us it when I visit.
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