Since people have showered this company with compliments about their incredulous products, I decided to give them a holler. Dialing with enthusiasm, I anticipated that an endearing women or man would answer my questions with hallowed response. ( Note to self, scratch that thought) The result, hours upon hours of being on hold as if I were "Waiting for Godot". (Note :This is for the wireless products) I even cooked dinner watched a movie and sang Soprano while on hold for help. Finally, I emailed them and they told me I could return the products as long as I had the receipt. Well , I threw those away in December. I emailed them back stating that if I can talk to your support, maybe we can work through this . Well, I am still "Waiting for Godot" ...

To my surprise, this product was not only easy to install, but it also exceeded my expectations as far as speed. I highly recommend going wireless, especially if you own a laptop. It's very convenient, I'm mobile around the house while surfing the web and checking e-mail.

Two thumbs up!!!

I thought the signal would be much better than it is. The average throughput is generally 1 to 2 megabits/sec versus the 11 megabit/sec theoretical. I do find that the signal is lost on occassion.

Before I purchased any Linksys equipment, I called their customer service and explained how my ISP/cable modem worked. They suggested the BEFW11SW router and the WUSB11 wireless USB Network adapters for the remote PC's.

My problem after connecting the hardware was accessing the internet from the remote PC with the WUSB11 adapter. The PC hardwired to the router worked fine, but if the remote PC wants to access the internet, the hardwired PC must establish the internet session (dial the Telco return connection) before the remote PC is able to access the internet. This defeats the purpose of having the PC's networked as far as the internet is concerned, in that the remote PC can not access the internet independently. After several hours on hold with Motorola, Comcast, and Linksys, there seems to be no way around this problem. I also sent an E:Mail to Linksys support and they responded saying the router does not support Telco return modems. I suggested they inform their customer service folks who suggested the equipment in the first place!

I replaced my old Dlink 701 (no IPSEC support, otherwise a great device) with this Linksys unit. I loved it right away! I was able to get my Windows 2000 work laptop up and runing with no hassles. It only took me 2 hours to get my other laptop running on wireless (Toshiba Tecra 8100 with Redhat 7.2).

I can see where others have trouble because there are several configuration parameters that must be set. If you are not familiar with how a wirless LAN works, do some research on the Internet, it will pay off during install.

I am going to experiment with external antennas to see how far around my neighborhood I can go and stay connected. My neighbors have already seen me walking around outside with my LINUX laptop (testing max range), when I show them that I am on the Internet they are amazed. I have again proved that I am the biggest geek on my street.

--Spencer Suderman, CCIE #5761

A few suggestions:

1) This is not only a wireless router but also a four port hub. All desktops that can be easily wired to the hub should use a cable instead of a wireless connection (less expensive and faster). If you need more than four wired connections you can easily "uplink" this unit to an inexpensive 8 - 24 port linksys hub.

2) Consider purchasing the USB wireless network adapter for desktop computers. The USB unit can be repositioned for best reception.

3) Download the latest software/firmware from linksys.com before you begin installation. The CD that comes with the product will almost certainly be outdated.

4) If you do not currently have a home network, remember that this device not only provides internet sharing but also full network access. (Your wireless laptop in your bedroom can print on the printer in your home office and access files on your child's PC). You probably will want to understand a little about windows security before turning on file and print sharing on individual PCs.

5) "Out of the box" this product has wireless encryption turned off. This default allows anyone within range of the unit to access your internet connection and possibly your home network. While this setup is the easiest way to initially set up the unit, most people will want to turn on 64 bit encryption (You provide a key to each remote connection). 128 bit encryption is now also available but slows down connection speed.

This device has many of features and great functionality for the price. Relatively inexperienced computers users will probably get it working without too much pain, while more technical users will find enough tweaks to keep them happy.

Before I got setup with cable, my cable ISP needed to know the MAC address of my modem. Little did I know at that time, but when they activate your cable account, the MAC address of the cable modem detects the MAC address of the next unit downstream (i.e. my network card). We were up and running in no time!

A week later a decided to install and configure the wireless portion (router and USB adapter). Following the guidelines in the manual and in these reviews I:

1. Downloaded the latest drivers and firmware for the respective units.

2. Loaded the software.

3. Hooked up the hardware.

4. Updated the drivers and firmware

5. Connected to 192.168.1.1 and verified Setup and DHCP settings but could not connect to the Internet...Frustration set in.

6. I called Linksys. Average waiting time stated was 20 minutes. I waited 1 hour before getting a tech support rep. I explained the conversion from network card over to the USB adapter and router. We checked a few settings and found that I was connecting to the router but not the cable modem. This is what I already knew BEFORE I called them. Linksys Tech Support had definitly left a bad taste in my mouth.

7. I called my ISP and explained the conversion I was doing. They cleared the cache on their end that originally was using the MAC address of my network card and then reconfigured their system to find the MAC address of my cable modem again which in turn found the MAC address of the ROUTER.

8. Lastly, I reset the router back to it's default settings (button in the back of the router), rebooted my machine, and was wirelessly LIVE! What a relief.

Hope new Users of these products find this information helpful.

I called customer service and was told the wait would be 32 minutes. After 150 minutes I was still on hold! This is completely unacceptable and the issue is still unresolved making this a 300 paper weight.

This is unacceptable I feel.