Other than that, the support was good, the setup was easy, and I have two PCs running through mine and can add a couple more, so I'd say this device meets my needs and the company stands by it.

It is working great and I have a very strong signal at all times from the downstairs computer to the ones in the upstairs.

Excellent product and easy to configure.

My D-LINK PCMCIA card in the laptop had no problem recognising the linksys as soon as I changed the SSID to "linksys", it seems to be fully compatible.

I have yet to be able to configure my old access point as a second access point for the upstairs, more info to come.

Overall, the Linksys is great and the browser set-up is superior and also automatically confirms that you are communicating properly between your PC and the access point. It also includes PPPoE which meant I could replace the PPPoE from my ISP with what is built into the Linksys, this gave me much better uptime to my ISP and fewer to no disconnects anymore (I use IDSL from Covad)

Printserver is supposed to have an ID code on bottom barcode - it did not. Tech said to use the setup software and it would pick up the code automatically to id the printserver. It did not. Tech said the unit was bad. He had no idea what the number on the barcode on my unit was about.

Tried to get through to support and accomplished this once after wainting 45 minutes. Other times they answer and ask for your number so a tech will call back. Only once did I get a return call - on a Saturday when I was not around! Categorically, the worst CS experience in my many years of networking. Website is also useless for the difficult questions.

I'm not a newbie and have been in networking for years. Even build my own PC's and Servers.

Suggest that you avoid this product unless you are a friend of a Linksys exec who can get you priority support.

Try another product.
Bob

When I first had it set up, I was able to see the internet on all my machines, but they could not see each other. Turns out having Windows XP Professional on all the computers was part of my problem...File sharing and permissions have to be set up correctly for the computers to share their info. Let's blame that one on pilot error :-) Visiting Microsoft's ExpertZone for networking tips led me down the correct path.

I encountered troubles on my second day of ownership when my Cable Modem provider, Comcast, switched over to their own service from @Home (Which is going bankrupt). I was still able to see my network in the house: One laptop with a wireless PC card from Orinoco, my desktop which was connected to the router directly, and my daughter's desktop downstairs in the kitchen with a Linksys Wireless USB adapter (See my review on that puppy, awesome) So I knew the issue was in one of my new settings with Comcast's distribution of IP addresses.

Going into the setup, I found that even though I had told the router to obtain an IP address automatically, it would not, or could not. It just told me my WAN address was 0.0.0.0 Not a good address for the `net.

Hooking my cable modem directly to my computer instantly allowed me to obtain an IP address and Internet connectivity. I used IPCONFIG in a command prompt to get my new IP address, then went into my Network Connections to get my physical address (MAC address) of my network card.

I then hooked up my router to the computer and the cable modem to the router. I used the Linksys control screen advanced settings to clone my network card's MAC address (In case Comcast needed the actual address of the card they supplied). I then manually entered the IP address and DNS I found earlier with IPCONFIG and Network Connections. Bingo, I was on the `net, through my router.

Knowing my IP address said the lease was set to expire in one week, I didn't want to wait a week and have to do this all over again. So I reset the Router to obtain an IP address automatically, and powered down my entire computer, cable modem included.

Powering back up, the router found a new IP address, and my entire network of three computers was set up and running on the Internet. I am not sure if spoofing my MAC address was really necessary, but I left it as is and the network runs great. Wireless is the way to go if you can spare the extra money when compared to pulling wires. I get about 5 Mb/sec connectivity from my daughters desktop down ion the kitchen one floor down, while the Linksys router is upstairs in my office. I get the same for my laptop when I am down on the couch in the living room. When it warms up here in New Jersey I'll think of heading into the yard with the laptop to check on connectivity range outside the house.

RonGoltsch at Hotmail dot com

1) VPN support
2) 128 bit WEP encryption
3) Performance
4) Range (Portability)
5) Built-in switch
6) Basic firewall support

The first and fifth point had to be met or I would have to buy multiple pieces of equipment to set up the network.

Of course, 128-bit encryption. However, this only reduces the risk of a security issue and not eliminate it.

I have a DSL connection that is running at 1.5 Mbps. If I can't get that from the wireless I'm probably going to go with a home PNA 2.0 solution.

Range and portability are virtually synonymous in this case. If I have to be in the same room as the router with the laptop, the wireless solution is useless.

A basic hardware firewall is nice; however, there are software solutions that would work.

I can say the BEFW11S4 satisfied all of these conditions. My performance is a little over 3.0 Mbps w/128-bit WEP and at a distance of 50 ft indoor (a floor and a couple of walls in between the router and the laptop). There is only one user on the wireless network.

Also, installation was a snap. Literally, 30 minutes to internet connection via wireless. Another 10 minutes to re-install my VPN software and get it going again.

I have to say this in combination with the Netgear MA401 802.11b wireless PC Card is an awesome combination. This card is always indicating a link quality of 70+% and signal strength of 60+%. Also, I placed the laptop in the same room as the router and got 100% on both link and signal. That actually surprised me.

In conclusion, I'd say you can't go wrong with this pair. Both are easy to install/setup (using XP) and great performers.

With regards to the negative reviews, I'll wager that most of them are people who don't understand their computer's network settings. Not that there's anything wrong with that -- each Windows and Apple OS has a very different set of tools to manage the network. Unfortunately, there's no way Linksys can dummyproof their product for every imaginable OS or network setup. Don't hold that against the hardware; it does it's job and does it well.

I upgraded the fireware of the router right away after getting the wired devices to work under the router, and after configuring the wireless parameters (e.g. ESSID), everything worked perfectly. I was able to access the Internet at 11Mbps about 30 metres away (full connection) from the router seperated by a couple of dry walls. And at a marginal connection (still 11Mbps) 45 metres away one floor down. I managed my home network so getting the wireless router up and running wasn't very hard. The entire setup took me around 20 mins and the router has been powered up since then (no power cycle) so I was quite happy with the product. One complain though -- the user guide / online help can be more helpful and is not up-to-date. There are quite a number of configurable parameters (especially the wireless parameters) that aren't documented very well, if at all. For example, the trigger ports aren't documented at all (I couldn't find it anywhere). Advance wireless parameters such as Beacon Interval, RTS threshold, etc aren't documented neither (I could probably look up this info somewhere online though as this is not Linksys exclusive). The filter feature is quite useful although it only has the blocked list, and no allowed list. IP Sec/VPN passthrough and port forwarding worked well for me.

In conclusion, this product worked solid for me and the configuration parameters available are very flexible. I would have given the product a 5-star for a better documentation and a more flexible packet filter.

Use your head and you will LOVE this device. As a side note, I've used Linksys PCMCIA wireless network cards, and even the USB wireless device. All great products, and 11mbps on multiple floors in the house.

To install the thing, you need to have a little more knowledge than the basic put the CD into the drive and hit install. It takes a little more know-how, like configuring your IP address and such. If you can be patient, the reward is fantastic. Even when the signal strength is only at 50%, you don't lose a second of download time.
I do recommend though that the laptop or other desktop you'll be using runs 600 MHz or faster.

It worked with my Cisco WiLAN PCMIA card. The only trouble was getting it working with my VPN. After a quick review of the Linksys home page I noticed that I needed to change the IPsec setting. One click of the mouse and my VPN was working wonderfully.

The range is adequate for my house (2600 sq. ft.) but it occasionally loses the connection with one of our laptops. Having the flexibility of using my laptop anywhere is a huge benefit!

My only warning is that you need to be comfortable with computers and networking. There are always tricks-of-the-trade that are required to get a networking system functional. Worst case, have a close friend that will help you set up the system.