My friend also wanted to go wireless with 2 notebook PC's, so we also purchased two SMC wireless cards. One of the notebook PC's was a relatively new Dell Inspiron, while the other was an old IBM A20 with just 128M RAM, 10G HD and a ~500 MHz CPU. Both the Dell and amazingly, the IBM had Windows XP running.

Installation of the router was fast and easy. Per the quick start manual, I installed the software from the CD, then checked the "wired" capability to the Dell. I was able to log into the router and check the settings. I did not change anything from the default (including security) before installing the wireless cards. Those too went quick. I was surprised there were no real problems with either PC. One reboot later and both notebook were wireless. I enabled some of the security features (WPA, discard pings from WAN, MAC Address filtering) and left the rest untouched.

The last task to do was to install and configure the print server. I had to pull up the full manual for this as I remember the process was involved for my old SMC router. This is not in the quick start guide. Following the instructions word for word, I set up the print server. Several "wizards" and related windows come up during the process, but manual is pretty easy to follow. My friend had a HP deskjet 940c, which was on of the many HP printers on the list. In fact, the list of "configurable" printers seemed very comprehensive. We printed a few documents without problems. The printer seems to print the last page first now, but otherwise worked fine. I set up both computers to print to the SMC print server and tested several documents. No problems.

Some reviews have mentioned reliability and the need for reboots as a problem. Well I cannot say one way or another as I just installed it, however my older SMC 7004 WBR has lasted almost 4 years with no reliability problems.

I gave it 5 stars because after only about 1 hour of setup I had both computers wireless and using the SMC print server without any problems at all. My friend was very impressed. I showed him some "cool" multimedia links (www.ifilm.com) and we watched a few movie trailers wirelessly from the kitchen. He was impressed and very thankful.

I'll update the review if I get a "support" call from him.

I've tried upgrading firmware, to no avail -- even including some of the beta firmware versions floating around.

Otherwise, seems to be an OK router. But don't count on this baby as a print server.

It was configured with NAT/firewall, etc. off, and used as a simple wireless bridge by ignoring the "WAN" interface and connecting a LAN port to the existing net. All WEP keys were set identical to to AP it is supposed to replace.

1) The WEP/WPA setting is worthless. It's supposed to allow both types of clients to connect. It doesn't. Had to set it to WEP only to get a client to connect properly.

2) Some buffoon at SMC decided that all networks have 24 bit masks, so this is unconfigurable.

3) No way to set a default route except out the WAN port.

4) Can't connect a Macintosh using any of the WEP keys. I get link, but the SMC won't forward packets. No DHCP, no connection even with a static address. It worked fine with the old AP.

5) NTP can only be configured to talk to a server from a preset list. No way to set it to talk to an existing server.

6) Dynamic DNS is also crippled. Unless you use TZO or DynDNS, you're out of luck. No way to get it to update BIND.

7) It's impossible to update code if you use the Opera browser. It just resets immediately. SMC script kiddies think IE is HTML.

8) It's scary to consider what potential problems lurk with NAT/Firewall and print server functionality, or even basic RF problems as others have mentioned.

How do these people stay in business, selling scat like this?

I have Deskjet 932C. Everytime I tried to print, the router resets itself and never prints. I called the customer supports and they gave me their latest (or beta?) driver, but too bad that it still didn't work. (Oh, they have very good customer supports. Very minimal waiting time. that's another plus)

Overall: if you don't need the printer port or if you have faith in SMC to come up with a working driver, this is a great buy!

Since I wanted to use the printer port, and it gave me soo much trouble, I gave it a 2 star.

The router and WAP were fine; in fact the range of the WAP was fantastic.

I returned this for a DLINK DI624 wireless router. Very happy now. I also bought a wireless adaptor for the HP printer I have, thus no need for a print server.

Unfortunately, after 3 weeks of working with SMC Tech support, re-installing HP print drivers, changing 2804 firmware 3 times and reconfiguring the Win2000 LPR port dozens of times, I'm throwing in the towel. The Print Server feature is not robust - it simply does not work correctly. It will handle the first job in the print queue after system startup, but when you send a second job, the router crashes and re-boots. After that, the only way it will print again is after a complete system reboot.

I strongly suggest waiting a few months until SMC addresses this problem with the 2804WBRP-G and corrects the firmware. Meanwhile, the non print server 2804WBR is an excellent alternative.