I setup this wireless router to act as a backup internet link for an eCommerce firm when their primary DSL link became unreliable. Here are my experiences with the router

Range: Though not as good as promised in the ADs, the range is OK for most small offices that operate on the same floor and are not divided by concrete/metal partitions. Not many will realise that the antennae on this unit can be removed and extended using coaxial cable. Trying different positions for the antennae will definitely help. But dont expect to go a hundred yards into the public park and get a signal. Also, by using aftermarket external antennae with your wireless NICS (not all of them support them), you can get more range from the unit. For offices and homes with multiple floors, its not a bad idea to get a second access point (...) to handle different locations. You will have to run atleast one cable though!

Firmware: The unit that I got hung almost every day, till I flashed it with the latest firmware from Linksys. After that, it ran without any incident.

Support: The less said about Linksys support, the better. I suppose the (...) pricebreak you get compared to bigger shops like Lucent, Cisco, 3Com et al will compensate for their shoddy support. In most cases, things go pretty fine with Linksys products, but in a few cases, the experience can be pretty frustating, especially for amateur/soho users. Suport also is a matter of luck. SOmetimes, you might have the rare chance of connecting with a support guy who actually knows what he is talking about. It happened to me once, just once!

Here is a trick that you may need to do, if you run into problems. If you have set up your wireless router, and find it only works with computers attached by networking cable, but not wireless, and the little red light on the wireless card is on, go into (on the computer with the wireless network card) Control Panel, Network, highlight the Wireless Access Card, go to Properties, Advanced, and check the network type, and try changing it from peer to peer (used with no central router) to ad-hoc (used with a central router - what you just bought). Then, turn off everything you can, from the cable modem, to the linksys router, the computer, etc, wait a minute, then power them back on. Test, and if you still have problems, power down again and power back up in different orders.

If this fails, you may need to hire a network consultant; they will likely charge you around 150-250 dollars for setting up 1 to 2 copmputers. Before you hire them, you may wish to ask them how many wireless routers have they installed, what brand, success rate, etc., and consider getting an estimate.

Good luck!

Don't hesitate!

Support is less than spotty. Long waits, poor english, poor attitude, non existent ability. They did not have a clue. My cable company solved the initial problem in getting the computer next to the unit to work. Problem is with recognizing the MAC number of the router. Five phone calls and not one of the support people suggested this as problem.

You get an operator who says someone will call you back. Do not hold your breathe or have anywhere else to go.

Finally told by level two support person that range is not what advertised and I could add an access point and maybe it will work, but it will definitely not work at the distance I need (60 feet through one wall)

Sad, but true. I'm taking that guy's advice. I suggest you do, too.

You do have to know how your ISP works. I'm assuming I could not disable DHCP because Road Runner uses it. Since I couldn't give my machines static IP addresses, I sometimes have to change the port forwarding configurations depending on which IP address the router assigns each machine (we turn off the machines at night). You also need to reconfigure some of your internet software to work behind a firewall if they haven't been set that way all ready. And in some cases, I had to disable my personal firewalls (we use Sygate, AtGuard or Zone Alarm) for internet software to work (particularly FTP clients).

The wireless range (we have 3 hard wired computers and a couple of wireless laptops) is not spectacular (50' radius) but adequate for our purposes. Would have appreciated some input from the manufacturer about effective placement of the unit for optimal wireless performance.

If you're willing to do a little tweaking now and then and don't need extensive wireless range, this is a great all-purpose device.

I'm running six nodes off the unit (with as many as four in use at one time), and we are all happy as clams. My only reservation about this unit is that, as with walkie-talkies and cordless phones, the ranges promised are never achieved. The touted 300 foot indoor range is an ad man's fantasy. Perhaps YOU can get true 300 foot range in doors (maybe in Bill Gate's powder room), but in my 40'x 50' two story house, reception is shaky at the perimeter when the router is centrally located on the first floor and I'm not positioned just so. Our walls aren't made of lead or reinforced with steel, just the usual gypsum board and wood. If you can stay within fifty feet or so, you'll get a pretty robust, stable connection and be quite content with this product. It is compatible with other manufacturers' 802.11B products, so mix and match if you get a better deal on wireless NICs.

To my amazement, once the initial connection was made the other two laptops connected almost by themselves. All three laptops now have full access to 1 cable modem throughout my apartment. Bulletproof performance is an understatement. My cordless phone and cell phone work intermittently but I have never lost the cable signal from the Linksys router no matter where I go in the three bedroom condominium.

I am so amazed at the simplicity of setup and the great performance that I am telling everyone I know.

Great Product!!

The router is easily managed via the web browser on your computer and setup was relatively easy for this beginner. The primary problems were caused by my firewall software (Symantec) and were resolved easily. I am now able to access the net from all computers (at between 5 and 11 Mbs) and transfer files, etc. The computers are about 30 and 50 feet from the wireless router and speed is always very good.

While a wired setup is always best, I did not want to run wires everywhere and I wanted the flexibility to move things around. Security is good as the Linksys has 128bit WEP capability.

A good product at a decent price.

in my office of like 50' away from the linksys pcmcia card? good reception. outside the walls? [not good]. granted i have about a foot of stucco walls. another test. i covered the antenna part of the card in the laptop. still about 20' away from the base unit. the signal drop by almost to 50-60%.

so i stuck the unit by a window on the second floor. then i walked outside. 1500'??? not even close...

so when you get this, open it and use it immediately. i waited to receive the pcmcia unit from another place and my 30 days return policy ran out.

if you keep it, upgrade the firmware of the unit immediately. on mine, the WEP did not work at all with its own card for the laptop until i made the change... kinda sad...

again, novell users, unless you upgrade to pure IP... stay away from this...

The big help came when I discovered my broadband provider (Roadrunner) used MAC Addresses. Roadrunner as a policy will not register additional MAC Addresses. Fortunately, this Router comes with MAC Address cloning. I entered the Cable Modem MAC Address onto the cloning configuration page, reset the router (a little button in the back and is a necessary step [I found this out the hard way]), powered everything down and back up and I was in business.

Its hardware offers pretty much every feature you could imagine would be packaged into a device like this save one, which is QoS (quality of serivce) i.e. the ability to limit specific users to specific speeds.. but as this is not found in any comparable competitors products its not a big loss...

The problem comes in with their firmware. To put it simply you could consider this device to be in beta testing at the firmware level... at BEST

While the problems won't be seen with simple mail, web and messaging software.. it gets alot stickier with persistent connections... i.e. chatrooms, conferencing, and games. If the wireless module is enabled, it will 'hang' roughly 2-3 seconds after each minute. It only does this when wireless is active. Its a firmware issue dealing with the searching for new clients that they haven't ironed out (and who knows if they ever will, its already been through 12 firmware revisions)

similarly, the current firmware lacks the ability to set the MTU (packet size) which again while it won't interfere with your email will cause a game to crash out eventually as the packet size is nonstandard (i.e. not 1500) and eventually persistant connections will die with packet fragmentation. Again their customer support acknowledges this is a problem with their firmware but cannot say when it will be fixed.

In the end, on their customer support's own reccomendation, i had to take the device back and am using their normal 4 port router (no problems) with their seperate wireless access point (no problems)... its a shame they can't get their act together and successfully combine two of their own products into one box