During installation, if you have already installed DSL on your first computer, you must establish connection to the 7004AWBR box (hereafter the box) with a second computer or remove PPPoe from the first computer.

The manual assumes that you have not installed DSL software (i.e. PPPoe) on the computer that you use to gain access to the box's loggin menu. Note that typing ... on your web brower should connect your computer to the box, unless you have PPPoe installed on your computer.

In my case, I first had to install Verizon's DSL on my first computer so that I can register and get a user ID and password, which are to be provided to the box. Therefore,using the first computer with Verizon DSL installed, I kept running into the choice of logging onto Verizon or working off-line when I typed ... to connect to the box. Finally, my brother helped out by connecting his laptop (i.e. the second computer) to the box and was able to gain access to the box's login menu.

Before figuring out what the problem was with the help of my brother, I had to wait for 1hr 15 min. for tech support who could only tell me to reset the box several times and that the product was probably defective and offered to send me a new unit. The tech never asked if DSL (PPPoe) was installed or not.

I hope this helps.

I recommend it, but not if you have no knowledge on what you are doing.

After 50 minutes on hold I reached someone and was assisted. When I asked why do they keep customers on hold for almost an hour I was told that they had 15 support techs on at night and that was plenty. I guess its plenty if you want to spend an hour on your day waiting for the privilege of talking with one.

The problem was easily resolved. If thy had added two lines in the manual from the box it would have saved me an hour. So I get the Barricade talking with the computer but not with my DSL provider. Back on hold with you for another 45 minutes when a rude man comes on and says he was not technical support but would take a message to have someone call me back. He said the hold times were too long and he was asked to clear these calls. When I asked when someone would call me back (its already 10:30 p.m.) he asked me if I wanted to the weekend or at night. I asked are they scheduling appointments and he said it was a range of six hours. I was shocked, you mean I get to buy product and when I have problems they will treat me like an appliance delivery?? They will call me between 6-12 at night or sometime during the weekend when its convenient for them?? When I questioned him on this he started to schedule me without my agreement, when I asked him to stop he said he would have to hang up on me. As I said can I speak to your supervisor I heard click!

Well I am returning the product to buy a competitors.

By the way I a CIO for a large company and get asked for referrals from my colleagues on this kind of equipment all the time, you will not be on the list!

the good:
- easy setup with Windows XP
- excellent range (strong signal two rooms/60 feet away)

the bad:
- stops working with no warning; have to reboot often (still hit or miss after rebooting)
- runs very hot (may be the cause of the problems)
- tech support is generally responsive but not very helpful

THE BOTTOM LINE: Don't buy this router, especially if you depend on your internet connection for work. Other reviews (put up after I bought mine) mention the exact same problem. The router worked very well when working, but gets 1 star because I don't think it's too much to ask that a product work all the time.

Overall I am happy, but I do have similar problems to those discussed by other reviewers:
1. First and foremost, the documentation (is poor)! This wasnt a problem for me as I am fairly savvy with hardware installation and system admin tasks--but I would think twice about buying any SMC products again. Havent tried their phone support, but have no doubt that it is on par with printed doc.
2. Had a little trouble getting setup--could never figure out why--just reset a few times and it started working great.
3. Occasionally (about once per week), the wireless (not LAN) connection drops, and like other reviewers, I have to eject my card (also SMC), and reinsert. Perhaps this is fairly common for all wireless routers/cards.
4. The WLAN light, which I think the documentation says is supposed to indicate wireless activity, stopped all blinking within a few hours of setup, and seems to be dead. No big whoop.

On the plus side:
1. I get good transmission speeds (at or near 1.5Mbps limit of cable modem) from everywhere in the house (including upstairs and basement), even though there are walls/floors, large appliances, cordless phones (900MHz, not 2.1GHz), etc. in between). Cant say anything about transmission at higher speeds (up to 11Mbps limit) as Im not yet doing any peer-to-peer on the house LAN.2. Despite poor documentation, setup and config is rather easy (though I may have just been lucky) with default settings. Now using it with two other systems in the house, to share cable modem and printer.
3. Ive only had to reboot the router twice in two months of use, and those were due to problems with the cable modem service.

In summary: Decent product, with significant room for improvement. Not entirely confident that it wont be problematic in the future--but I suspect that is the case with wireless in general, not necessarily this product.

Only three complaints:
1. Have been unable to get the printer server to work when connected wirelessly. Seems to work fine when hardwired to the build-in hub, but wireless just sends garbage to the printer. Had to go hardwire the printer to my laptop before I bought the Barricade, so I am no worse off than I was before. I view this as an inconvenince as the print server was a "nice to have" instead of a decision factor in buying it. Have not pushed this issue with SMC yet, so I am unable to know how responsive they are.

2. Unable to get very old Win95 laptop (133 MHz Pentium) to work with the SMC wireless card. Am limited to using that computer hardwired - which is not a major issue for me given that I use that PC in only one location - and I was able to locate the router there so a hardwired connection is fine. Appears to be a driver issue getting the drivers installed correctly. Have not pushed this issue with SMC yet, so I am unable to know how responsive they are.

3. About once every 2 hours, the wireless card loses connection with the router. Unable to determine why, but could possibly be because of a neighbor with a 2.4 GHz phone getting a call or other interference. When this happens, I have to eject the wireless card from the PCMCIA slot and re-insert to reestablish connection. Not a big deal in theory, but given that I use remote desktop software for work, disconnecting the card means disconnecting the remote desktop session at a sometime inopportune time. Currently just living with it.

The router installed in under 5 minutes (I stuck mostly with defaults). It took me longer to move the printer cable from the PC (XP) to the router then it took to install and configure. A complete novice might get caught up in some of the terminology found in the instruction for router setup (doc & screen).

Feeling lucky I installed the wireless card into my Laptop (Win 2k) and after going through the 30 second driver install I was surfing the web.

Now some reviews I've read indicated that these devices did not support VPN but I can tell you I was connected to my office within a minute. Of course you need to know your settings.

Right now I'm about 40 feet from my router completely untethered, with my feet up and composing this review. Speed has not been measured but browser painted pretty quickly.

For anyone considering, there is no gaurantee you'll have the same luck. Environment and your knowledge of PCs will factor into your experience. The only suggestion I'd make is stick with the same vendor for both ends. If you run into connectivity problem, you'll avoid finger pointing with Technical Support.

Well I'm off to try the Print Server using wirelss connection.

Nevertheless, the unit works well when you even have a poor quality link. The speed is quick. However, if the link becomes too poor then you can lose it all together and you have to use the configuration utility to rescan to get the thing to link again.

Anyway i accomplished my objective that both my wife and i can surf the internet on our laptops and the kids can use the internet on the desktop in the study. We are not restricted to plugging into a phone line outlet, but we are restricted by the range. Not perfect, but a good compromise. The new standard 802.11a coming out will probably solve the range issue, but it will be much more expensive at first.

My final word is that I would recommend the unit, but placement of the router is an important variable in the range you will get indoors.

I LOVE THIS PRODUCT - I bought the SMC router, the SMC wireless USB and the SMC wireless laptop card so now I have three computers all connected to the same cable modem all on Windows ME. You read about poor reception - well let me tell you - I have 3500 sq feet house on 3 levels with the router on the ground floor on one side of the house and I can roam around the house from the basement to the 2nd floor and outside with good to decent signal. For a trial I was streaming a video from a web site at 300kbps to the laptop and I moved everywhere, even outside (at 19 degree...freezing) and I never lost signal or switched to lower bandwith.

You read about people having difficulties and having to reset the router many times - never happened to me. Since the day I received and installed this router and the two wireless cards, I never had to reset anything. My advise: If the router work just fine when you first install you don't need to upgrade to the latest firmware release just to be on the latest (this is called bloody edge technology not leading edge technology)

I thought that was difficult to install the set. very simple - If you are using OptimumOnline cable modem just power off your computer, power off the cable modem for about 2 minutes, connect the network cables and power on everything -You are now up and running. For the wireless cards - Install the card or the USB cable, power on your computer and install the software (do not change configuration) - after 2 minutes (time to start your computer and install the small SMC software you have a home wireless network.

I currentely use my Pentium 4 Dell 8100 as a server and the other two PC as clients transfering amongst the three PC several mb of data.

Highly recomend the SMC router and the SMC USB card.

My home network is composed of Win98, W2K Sever, XP-Prof, Linux, and Solaris for intel and all network without a problem using the router.

One thing you might want to consider is that it's not a 4 port Ethernet connection but a 3 port Ethernet connection and 1 printer port. Not that you buy these things because you want a lot of Ethernet ports but SMC does give you the impression that it is 4 Ethernet ports.

I bought it for ~160 and the PC card for ~80. Great deal on a product that works as advertised w/ no hicups.

Plus the tech support takes hours to answer the phone, plus they are not much help. All they say is to set up your computer as DMZ. This is supposed to wide open all the ports, NOT...

1) Problems transferring large files over wireless. The router hangs and needs to be "rebooted" or powered off, and back on to reset and work again.

2) Had problems recognizing IP using Dynamic IP, had to use Static setting, after upgrading firmware & reseting to factory, this finally worked.

Pros:
1) Has built-in DNS which I've seen others don't quite do within the local network.

2) Easy we-interface to configuration.

3) Built-in print server.

4) Great range and reception from my entire home.

Overall, I really wanted this product to work, but eventually returned it b/c of the file transfer problem. I got a D-Link instead and have had no major probs with that.