Cisco-Linksys BEFW11S4 Wireless-B Cable/DSL Router

I purchased the Linksys BEFW11S4 Wireless 4-Port Router and the WPC11 Laptop Card in June 2002. Both are working well after an easy setup.Based on my admittedly small sample, plus other reviews here and elsewhere, I think wireless technology (802.11b) is mature and most prior problems people have complained of here are resolved now. This applies to these Linksys products and I suspect to those by other vendors too.I recommend doing as little as possible during setup and let the devices attempt to figure out basic issues.The Router worked out of the box with no setup, nor need to load drivers or such. Configuration of the router via a web-based interface is easy for basic operations. I was able to change the wireless network identifier and enable encryption with no trouble.The Card was a bit more of a hassle on a NT 4.0 Laptop, which according to the Linksys doc is because 4.0 is not plug-and-play. After installing the Linksys config software, the Card works, though it does ask after each boot up to upgrade the Card's firmware, then crashes NT when I tell Yes. Giving it a No prevents that problem.Wireless speed and connectivity are excellent to very good, in fact I've not seen speed drop below the 11mb max anywhere in the house.Regarding complaints about doc, yes the Linksys doc doesn't cover how Networking works and the Help info is often skimpy, but, neither does a car owner's manual explain how to overhaul an internal combustion engine. Both tell you what the switches do; if you want more you must consult other sources.So, I suggest ignoring any negative review here older than 6 months - the issue is likely fixed in current models. Wireless works well and if you're considering it, go for it.

Linksys BEFW11S4 - I received this unit from my wife for Christmas in 2001. I had it connected to my cable modem on the 26th. The documentation was a little sparse, but I was able to get the thing going pretty quick.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

I bought this Wireless router after doing quite a bit of research and getting good reviews from co-workers (even network guys) on it. I have owned it for almost 2.5 years now.I will break this down step by step:Installation: Couldn't be easier. Had the whole thing setup with my Cable Modem and my desktop in less than 30 mins and was surfing the net. in an additional 30 mins or so had my wireless laptop going and didn't have a single problem. Switching from an Orinoco or a Cisco wireless card on the laptop was easy and no problems there either.Initial Usage: It had problems. It would keep stopping and requiring a reset or a full power down/power up. I updated the firmware (keep on top of firmware updates) and this problem went away. Updating the firmware is very very easy.Performance: I will review only the wireless part this. For internet browsing and basic stuff, it performs great. No complaints here. It was a little slow on some of the more heavier network utilizing applications but its wireless you can't expect the speed of a Lan line.Range: I didn't have problems with ranges in my townhouse. It worked everywhere without any degradation. When I moved to a two story colonial, I started to see some range problems. It would work fine on the floor where the router was. On the ground floor however it would move from excellent/good to fair frequently. Sometimes just turning the laptop a certain way would do miracles. I never had a complete dropoff though. Never did try the basement :-)Features: I couldn't have asked for a more easy to configure and more featured router for my usage. Supported all the protocols (IPSEC/PPOE) for me to VPN to work. Had nice control over ports and traffic. The control of DHCP and static IP addresses was nice too. Didn't use much of the other features.Now with all that said here comes the BAD part:about a month ago, the wireless part stopped working. I was surprised at first. I checked the router. Lan activity Lights were on but not the wlan activity lights. I hit the reset button no go. Checked my desktop.. the lan connection was fine. Did a full power down and power up. Still nothing. Checked the website for firmware updates (in case I missed one that fixes something).. nope I had the latest firmware. This was on a friday so I just let it be. Saturday.. still no luck. After going nutz on Sat, I finally emailed Customer Support on Sunday. They responded fairly quickly (within hours) and after a couple and back and forth emails.. the response: "This can happen if you are under warranty we can replace it" Well the warranty is a bleak 1 year and I had had this router for 2 years...soo.. bottom line.. I am getting a new router and probably not going with Linksys again. A response of "This can happen" is not acceptable to me.

I bought this wireless cable router to allow me to share my Blueyonder broadband connection with my business laptop (running windows XP & featuring adaptec £18 pcmcia 802.11b card) and my XBox using cabled XBox live.I got my broadband, xbox live subscription + router all in the space of one week and have not had any experience in setting any of these up before. Therefore, I wasn't expecting everything to run smoothly.However - I could not be more surprised. I ran the auto-installation disk supplied with the router, which obtained my cable modem setting and the whole thing just...worked. When does that *ever* happen?The router also provides four wired network ports to allow you to share your internet connection between devices, so I plugged my XBox into one of those and everything, once again, worked perfectly without any problems.So this router scores 5 stars plus on its ease of installation. That alone should convince anyone with any worries about installation.The other thing that impressed me was the range of the unit. I live in a modern 3 bedroom semi and can get full 11Mb rate wherever I am in the house. I haven't tried it in my garden yet, but I imagine it'll work fine there too. Remember that I'm running a cheapo pcmcia wireless card and this seems even more impressive, as there is no external aerial attached to it. Oh - and I've stuck it in the corner, on the floor of the living room behind a tv, video, telewest box, xbox + playstation. There must be more interference there than anywhere else in the house. Therefore, 5+ stars again, as it does absolutely everything that I need it to do.Linksys really have a well sorted product here, which proper documentation + comprehensive software. I would not hesitate in recommending this to anyone with a similar setup to myself. And it only costs £50.70p - how can it be so cheap!I'm just sad that I didn't save up another mere £15 to get the 54g version of this unit. In the next few months I imagine that that will be the product I upgrade too.Hope this review proves useful to someone as all the previous positive reviews did for me.

I use this little wonder to act as a gateway between my internal network (currently consisting of a PC and Apple PowerBook) and the outside world (through a Telewest-supplied cable-modem).Setup is really simple: connect your PC directly to the cable modem, run the given install program, switch the connections so that the router's between the PC and the modem, and click 'Next'. It automatically picks up the settings you need to get going and configures the router.That's all you need to function perfectly well. For the more inquisitive, the router has the functions you'd expect: static and dynamic routing, WEP encryption, MAC address cloning and filtering, port forwarding and a DMZ.HOWEVER...Beware if you're intending on connecting an Apple PowerBook (or, I suspect, anything else that's Airport Extreme) via wireless. Although the PowerBook picks up an IP address via DHCP consistently and with no problems, you'll have to crank back the Tx speed on the wireless to 1-2Mb (rather than the default 1-5-11), or suffer horrendous packet loss that renders it unusable. For most people this isn't a problem, as broadband typically operates at 0.5 to 1Mb/s (2 if you're lucky). But it may cause problems if you do heavy file transfer between network machines via wireless.Even with that caveat, it's a very nice piece of kit.

I purchased this router for the usual reasons of sharing a broadband internet connection between different members of the household. This device worked straight out of the box with very little set-up - only the cloning of the MAC address from my "primary" PC was necessary. Being a complete novice to anything networking I then added wireless cards to the remaining machines and one by one they were all connected with very little intervention. My more paranoid colleagues have encouraged me to switch on 128bit WEP encryption which again was simple to get going. This is an ideal hassle free way of getting a home LAN up and running. Although this seems like an advert I have to admit to one failure - the wireless side inexplicably shutdown - LinkSys support, although rather annoyingly take your details and then ring you back, proved very helpful and replaced the router without any issues - can highly reccommend both the product and the support.

As an ntl cable customer with a laptop & a PC both with wireless cards this product is a life saver. The product was easy to set up requiring no details from Ntl... If you have ever used peer to peer wireless cards (as sold cheaply in todays market) and been disapointed then this product will solve your problems the wireless access point is a god send no droped conections and no having to leave the main pc switched on . As a new customer to amazon I was impressed that they delivered free of charge within 3 day of my order being placed on a saturday and were 33 % cheaper then other online companys in the internet "jungle". A 1st class product and 1st class service from amazon...

Ok, i'll keep it simple... I plugged it into my NTL modem, configured the IP address, rebooted... and here I am. So far I've used it in the garden (I had to!) the kitchen and the living room. I have a laptop but was confined to the spare room, but not anymore... I don't usually review stuff, but for this product, at <£100, stop thinking! I have to point out I have a Toshiba Protege laptop with built in Wireless connection to WAN but would pay £30 or so for a card if I had to. Thinking still?