| 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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Wireless hardware 5 stars. Support/Software 1 star, July 30, 2001
By unknown
I have a BEFSR41 which has been up and running for > 6 months. (I love it). I replaced it with the BEFW11S4 (The wireless model) After 3 minutes of setup, it worked perfectly for my old non-wireless connections. Including my laptop using a wired Ethernet card.I unplugged my wired Ethernet, and installed the WPC11 in my laptop. Well to make a long story short, it didnt work. I emailed Linksys twice and didnt get an answer ever. Finally I went to their web site and saw an article about problems with the WPC11 and Windows ME. (I should have guess this, I've had lots of ME problems) Anyway after downloading the newest drivers the WPC11 is working perfectly. (Well not at first. For some reason, they dont set their base station defaults and WPC11 default settings to be the same) Set mode to Infrastructure and SSSID to linksys. Their monitoring software could use a little work. It says I dont have a connection or a very poor connection and I can get 2.5Mbits/s downloading from the net. Bottom line, hardware great, WPC11 software could be a problem installing.
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Decent product but a little flaky!, July 29, 2001
By Galaxy Trader (Philadelphia, PA United States)
I received the router and despite a degree in Systems Engineering, I couldn't get it to work instantly. After about 15 mins with tech support and plugging in IP addresses, etc...we got it to work. But now I had a bunch of IP static addresses set up in it...I wanted it to work totally dynamic since I bounce between a hotel, office, and DSL @ home. So when I deleted the IP's & gateway server settings, it didn't work and I couldn't get through to Tech support this time. I finally got it to work by changing all the settings and since then it typically works 50% of the time. The rest of the time, I have to reset the router and reset all the settings.Product still needs a little work.
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LinkSys Wireless Router falls short., July 29, 2001
By Jimmy Jackson (Dallas, TX USA)
The unit is advertised to have indoor coverage of over 400 feet. I am afraid this is not true for an average home or office. The unit is easy to install, however it's power is severly cut for each wall that must is passed, things like washers, stoves, human bodies and so forth normally found in a home will block the transmission. Jim Jackson
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4 Port Router/Wireless AP - get a non-Linksys PC card, July 28, 2001
By J Shervey (Milwaukee, WI)
I purchased the BEFW11S4 and got it running in a few hours. The drivers for the PC Card were the issues. The range indoor was kind of bad with the LinkSys PC Card. My neighbor has the same router but with a DELL PC Card. His range was great. After I took back the LinkSys PC Card and purchased a Lucent Orinoco Silver Wireless PC Card things were much better. Most other techie people also mentioned in forums to get the Lucent card. Internet and VPN access rocks via my cable modem.
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disappointing, July 26, 2001
By unknown
I am well aware of the limitations of wirelss but this was truly disapponiting at 15 feet it was at 30% signalBut what caused me to return it the next day was the extremely poor attitude of the technical support at linksys they didnt even seem to care if it worked or not. I have had this problem previously with thier support, very poor. I would try someone else if I were youi
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Never worked correctly with Windows 2000, July 25, 2001
By P. Sears (Upton, MA USA)
I could never get this to work correctly with Windows 2000. I kept getting "Network Cable Unplugged" messages from Win2k which fumbled around but almost always got a reconnection. I work at home often over VPN and this was driving me nuts. Tech support asked me to upgrade to the version i told him i already had and was in general not too usefull. I did try their suggestions with no joy. After trying several fixes gleened from dejanews (search for yourself under "Network Cable Unplugged"), i gave up and ordered an SMC unit and returmed the Linksys. All of this is with LAN connections. I never got a chance to try the wireless.
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This thing rocks. Easy to setup w/ IPSec Passthru & WEP, July 25, 2001
By unknown
I ordered the product and after reading the negative reviews I had steeled myself for the worst, but setting this up was a dream! This was by far the easiest network product that I have ever setup and I have a relatively complex network that included IPSec Passthru of a wireless node...
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Have two, still wonder what to do, July 25, 2001
By one of the colorless brothers (Alberta, Canada)
I purchased two routers and a PCMCIA networking card. One router worked out of box. The only negaive aspect is the relatively short range inside the building (going from 100% connectivity in the same room to 20% connectivity two walls and less than 50 ft away. Second router did not work, I replaced it with a third one that still does not work. I am updating it every new revision, it works for a short period and then failures start to surface. It seems that the Linksys team, that otherwise has good products, had a production mess with this model. Buy the units while you are mentally strong and love life and get an extra warranty for it.
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Beware of the Linksys BEFW11S4., July 24, 2001
By Danny K (Middletown, New Jersey)
This device works perfectly if all you intend it to do is browse the internet. It will not work properly with certain video conferencing and audio communication programs.(such as paltalk) Go to Linksys.com and notice that with the Linksys wireless WAP11 and the BEFSR41 router under product features they say: Compatible with All Standard Internet Applications. See if Linksys says this for their BEFW11S4. They don't. The BEFW11S4 would not work with my print server which uses a IPX/SPX protocol. The distance is typical and I checked it to the Linksys WAP11 and it was the same. People that buy these wireless units and believe they can walk over to their neighbors yard with their laptops will be disappointed in the range. Adjusting the antennas and router position does help greatly. I switched back to my old Linksys router BEFSR41 and plugged in the Linksys wireless WAP11. Everything works, video conferencing, audio communication, print server. The extra plus is I can move the Linksys Wap11 to obtain the best wireless distance. Try that with the BEFW11S4, you will have to relocate all the wires....OK, its been some months now and I'm still flying with the Linksys BEFSR41 and the WAP11. Remember, The BEFW11S4 will not work with certain programs, such as certain print servers, video conferencing, special networking programs etc.
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DOES NOT WORK WITH LINUX, July 22, 2001
By Johnathon R. York (Ann Arbor, MI United States)
I would NOT recommend buying this product if you're using LINUX. My wireless pc card works fine at my office using another wireless hub, but does NOT work at home even when using another Linksys pc card! It seems to work fine in Win98, but DHCP does not ever assign me an IP when using LINUX. I've installed 3-4 firmware upgrades, but the problems persist. I WISH I could return this HORRIBLE product. I've been very happy with Linksys until this product was released. The router seems to assign the wrong MAC address to the wireless iterface, which is probably preventing my LINUX box to see the DHCP ACKs. My DHCP server is getting the DHCP requests, but my wireless computer never gets the response it sends back. The cabled connections seem to work just fine for me, but what's the point if the wireless isn't working? I here the WAP11 works just fine.
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Software good, hardware bad!, July 21, 2001
By Ragnvald Larsen (Trondheim Norway)
We bought this product recently for use in a house where 5 students are sharing an external radiolink. We have had serious problems using it as stated.300 feet indoor? We put the station in the attic and pointed the antennas down. We live in an old wooden house. Still the signal was only at 60% in the living room. That is 2 floors down, and not even 25 feet. In the basement, further 8 feet down, it jumped up to 6% one in a while. The system proved completely useless for all practical purposes. The software systems for controlling the unit are veery good, intuitive and helpfull. ... Btw: We checked wether the external radiolink could interfer with the signals. It didn't.
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For Line of Site Use Only, July 21, 2001
By unknown
Like others, I bought the product with some hesitation after reading the reviews. I had no problem installing the product and found customer support to be pretty good. Nevertheless, I returned the product because it simply does not perform as represented in terms of home use. It will not work in a typical mid-size executive home. The signal is line of site with some ability to bounce into an adjacent room. So, unless you are using it in one big room, you are likely to get disappointing results. I think the company is aware of this as they are working frantically to produce new software that will allow the products to work with multiple access points that do not have to be wired together.
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Works perfectly- didnt know what I was missing!, July 20, 2001
By visorguy (Rowlett, TX USA)
I read all the reviews and figured it was hit or miss on this one. To my delight, I've got great reception all around (including outside the house). I read somewhere that once you go wireless, you don't go back. That is true for me. I can't wait for other 802.11 adapters to hit the market (perhaps one for Playstation 2?) Am using the Linky PC card in a laptop. No problems. Have 2 desktops wired in to the Router. I had been using the ever faithful 4port Etherfast router by Linksys so I was familiar with the Linksys setup. All Win98. It was fast and easy. I made sure to get all the updated drivers for the router and the card from the Linksys website first. Am going to compare Linky card with Orinoco Silver card for best performance and will update this review as necessary. Cheers all around
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The Truth, July 18, 2001
By Michael Hill (Blacksburg, VA United States)
Here is the truth about this awesome product. First off the only way you will ever get the advertised range is if you are using the access point under indeal conditions (perfect weather with nothing in the way i.e. walls, furniture, etc...). Some people don't seem to realize that and give this product a bad review due to their ignorance. Secondly the setup for this is extremely easy. (I am running 1 laptop with a wireless card and 3 desktops with normal ethernet cards off of a lan. All the computers have 2000 or 2000 server installed and everything is being controlled by the router) The documentation is more than enough, in fact i would go as far to say it is ... proof, but based on some of the reviews i have read i guess some people can still screw it up. I think from the time i opened it to the time it was up and running (serving 4 computer) it took me 5-10 minutes. This thing is awesome i recommend it to anyone. To all the people who gave it a bad review due to confusing directions or bad signal strength, you need to learn a few things about simple wireless technology and interferance and a few things about computers. To sum it up, if you can't get this thing working ... you got some serious problems with your hardware. Way to go linksys with another cost effective, cutting edge solution.
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Truth in Advertising???, July 15, 2001
By Robert Burke (Los Angeles, CA USA)
I have had nothing but problems with this device. I bought it for the wireless feature. One room away (less than twenty feet) and I can not get a good connection. Three techs from the company have told me that the conection quality in the manual is under optimal conditions. Things like wires in the walls, microwave ovens, lightbulbs, roam phones etc. can degrade the product. One tech suggested that "line of sight" is best. Another stated "we have been getting many complaints about the range". Two of these techs suggested that there are products that will enhance the distance, but will void the warrenty.
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Great Product, leaves option for expansion, July 14, 2001
By hbanana313 (Manchester, Vermont USA)
This thing is everything I've been looking for all in one package, it's great. It took me about 5 minutes to set it up and get everything running (my first time dealing with WiFi) The instructions are simple to follow. My only problem is that my house has really thick walls, and the signal doesnt transmit too well through them. Also I have a couple of 2.4 Ghz Phones... which really interfere with the signal. So after some searching I found out that the small antennas on the back of this device can be unscrewed and swapped out for more powerful antennas. Upgradeability at its finest. I don't think that any of the other brands offer this, so I just wanted to give credit where credit is due, on Linksys's part for leaving this option out there. Techsplanet.com offers a great solution to this, they have a whole antenna package tailored especially for this wireless access point. Mine's working great now, I can walk anywhere in my house, and have strong signal, no dead zones. I'm a happy camper.
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Simon, July 7, 2001
By Simon Wynn (San Carlos, CA United States)
Great unit. Took 10 minutes from opening the box to having two PCs connected to the internet, one with a wireless card and both using VPN. Brain dead simple to set up.
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Good "all in one" but make sure this is your need., July 3, 2001
By Geoff
This product works great. Setup was straight forward. My favorite feature is "MAC Address Cloning" which saved us a long wait and hassle getting our Cable Internet company to enter a new Mac Address. The computer with the ethernet card that has the original copy of the cloned address works on the LAN the box is routing. We did not need to bother or internet provider at all. That's worth a lot of dough! The combination of NAT Router and Hub may not be for everyone. If you don't think the ideal place for the Hub is the Ideal place for the Wireless access point, then I would consider purchasing these two as separate devices. We had no problems in a townhouse Condo, we have wireless throughout.
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Great Product- must have for techies, July 3, 2001
By Thomas Kennedy (Burke, VA)
My wife and I both work in the computer/networking area so we were really excited about installing a wireless network in our house. We just recently had a cable modem installed and decided it would be nice if more than one computer could have high-speed internet access. Overall the products are excellent. The only glitch during the install was when we left the configuration set to "Ad Hoc". We had one of the PC's connected via Cat 5 cable to the BEFW11S4 router and things didn't seem to be working. After getting in touch with Linksys support - this took about 3 hours before they called us back- we set the the parameter to "infrastructure". Apparently this setting is used in a mixed (wired and wireless network) environment.We have one laptop using a wireless PC card and another one using the wireless USB card. The USB card seemed to have a better range and was getting stronger signal strength at remote locations around our house. I suspect this is because the USB is tethered to the computer by a cable and therefore can be orientated toward the BEFW11S4 WAP more easily. The speed of sending files between computers is impressive. Multiple users accessing the internet via the cable modem also seems to work well (when the cable modem is working) - our cable company has been having "network problems" in our area. Overall we're real happy with the products. The documentation was generally OK but, Linksys needs to put out an overview document describing how all the parts could typically work together. Their technical support system seems to be "under seige" based on the response time we received and the harried sound of the technicians replies to my questions. The best part is that we don't have to run cables all over our house when we move the computers!
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Use caution when purchasing this item, June 29, 2001
By unknown
In the past Linksys has made some good switch products. This is not one of them. I am now working with my third BEFW11S4. On the surface it seems like a good product and it is when it works. However, the switch has a problem that causes it to stop forwarding packets periodically. This happens on the RF and wired ports. It will recover on it's own but frequent pauses can be frustrating. I have spoken with Linksys support. They had me try several code releases but the problem remains. I'd like to recommend this product. The price/feature mix is good but I cannot recommend it until Linksys corrects this issue. If you have this product enable outgoing logging. You will quickly see strange and incorrect characters in the log. Since the log is formatted as a routing table might be it makes me wonder if the log data comes straight from the routing table.
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