Cisco-Linksys EtherFast Cable/DSL Router with 4-Port 10/100 Switch
by Linksys
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Our Price: $78.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $9.94 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cisco-Linksys EtherFast Cable/DSL Router with 4-Port 10/100 Switch
Customer Review: Win98se and win2000 pro Does not share connection after RR..
Summary: 4 Stars
I will try to keep this simple for non technical people. I would just like to add to this review section a correction to a false review posted by : Charles R. VIau from Braintree, MA USA. In win98se and win2000 pro yes, there is internet connection sharing built right in, and now the hitch. Installing Road Runner software nessary for you to connect to the Internet via Windows PC, disables your internet connection sharing function (at least on Cox RR that is). The only way around that is to get a switch and hook all computers on the local up to the switch and the Cable modem up to the uplink port. Or do this correctly and Purchase a Router to set all the nessary funtions you might want to use. Another word of advice for broadband users looking to share a connection, I suggest staying away from anything that is not technically a switch (don't use hubs), and since the linksys has a built in Switch (they are calling it a hub here but it does not work like a hub it works as a switch), Its good to go. The reason for shying away from hubs is this. Heavy Network Trafic (media apps, gaming or big file tranfers), on a hub tends to be messy with many packet collisions Equalling Currupted data. I have seen this happen many many times. Person A is watching Broadband content at 300k and person B is playing an online game and person C is doing an ICQ file tranfer or something of the like, and more often than not when using a hub the media slows and gets choppy for person A while the file that just got transferred to person C is corrupted and cant be opened or used properly. So with that said just purchase a true switch/router like the linksys and share your Internet connection 24/7 and you wont have to worry about Damaged files due to heavy network traffic on the local and you will thank yourself in the end for a little extra $$ spent up front! And remeber Low pingers live longer, choppy media is bad, and damaged files can make you pull your hair out! PUCHASE THE LINKSYS or an = :)Customer Review: Steer Clear - Great Product, Terrible Support
Summary: 1 Stars
We have DLS service at home hooked up to our home PC. For the last year I have been bringing home my work laptop and dialing up using the phone line. Someone at work suggested a DSL router and I finally got one. What a super product it is. I am now able to connect my work laptop at DSL speed without having my wife remind me every 10 minutes to get off the phone line because the mother-in-law is going to call!The installation was a mess. The product arrived with an installation wizard CD and a flyer that said "use the wizard". So I did. It blew up half way through and I had to fumble through the manual. Eventually it was set up and once it was, it worked like a charm...for about three weeks when it abruptly stopped working.
But that was just the start of my troubles. I called Linksys tech support. Spent two hours with three different support persons over two days. Each time someone from "customer concern" was going to call me back but never did. Each time I had to repeat all the previous conversations as none of the tech specialists made notes or if they did there appeared to be no way for the next one to access them. Each tech support bad mouthed the other one. They could not fix the problem. On top of that they were rude and did their best to make me feel stupid. Not exactly a happy customer experience. After the third tech support person could not help me, he swore up and down that a tech supervisor would call within two hours to help me. That was three days ago. Have not heard from them yet. So I boxed up the product and shipped it back.
For a while I wowed not to have anything to do with the DSL router. But it's just such a great product. So based upon some of their other reviews, I am getting the NetGear router.
Bottom line, this is a fantastic product and a must have if you have DSL or cable modem access and have to use more than one computer. However, based upon my experiences I'd recommend you steer clear of Linksys and check out some of the other makers.
Customer Review: Easy setup; no problem with PPPoe or VPN
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm sorry to see so many people complain about the Linksys router with PPPoe. Before this, I knew absolutely NADA about hardware or networks. I got DSL from Earthlink/Mindspring, which uses PPPoe, and I had no problem with installation or setup of the router (it has 1.30 version software, too). It was a breeze. I also had no problem installing my company's. I connected a Windows NT machine and 2 Win98 machines to the router with no problem. But also, I didn't need any of the advanced capabilities.One time I had a problem where everything was locked up, but it turned out to be in the DSL line. When I removed the router & connected one computer directly to the DSL, it still didn't work. But after powering everything, then restarting everything from scratch, it was fine. The only other time I've had a problem was when I was using the VPN from more than one machine. Once I stopped doing that, everything has been fine since.
I wonder if some of the problems could be from inferior NIC cards? Just a thought... I don't want to start a flame war or argument over that. The Linksys router was recommended to me by my company's network/hardware/WNT guru, who also recommended that I spend the extra money for 3COM NIC cards for my computers (the WNT machine belongs to the company and already had a NIC card). Our company networks just about every commercial version of Unix on workstations, plus Windows NT, Windows 98, and Windows 2000. There are probably close to 800 different computers just in the one building; and that doesn't count the numerous other locations around the world that are all connected via the Intranet.
I think that not including a cable is not a drawback; as another person mentioned, Linksys has no way of knowing how much cable we will need; even though my computers are in a fairly small room, I needed a 50' cable for one computer so I could run it up the wall and across the ceiling & down the other side.
Customer Review: Router: maybe. Customer service: Extremely poor
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm not a network person, but after reading the generally positive reviews of the Linksys BEFSR41 router, I ordered it from Amazon. My main concern was getting some type of firewall protection, and various software options were causing problems with my Mindspring/Earthlink DSL connection. Their excellent customer service explained that it was because of their PPPoE system (whatever that means). They recommended a router, and specifically mentioned this router.It was easy to install, and initially worked just fine. An unexpected plus was the fact that the other computers on my home network also had fast access to the Web. But after several days, I had problems establishing a connection. The frustrating part was that the other network computers were online when the main computer wasn't.
I tried resetting the modem, rebooting my computer, changing cables, fiddling with addresses and various protocols on the network (dangerous territory for me), and everything else I could think of, but the connection sometimes worked, and sometimes it didn't.
It was then that I had a chance to call their tech support people. I was told they'd call back, but it would take at least 6 hours. They finally called back, and what a miserable experience it was; they were arrogant, surly, and clearly anxious to move on to the next customer. They offered absolutely no help except to tell me to wait for the next firmware upgrade--due in one week, they said.
It's still taking me about 10-15 minutes of fiddling around with things to get a working connection, so if the new firmware upgrade doesn't help, the router is going back.
I hope this review helps. I'm not trying to trash this product, because it clearly works for most people, and when I can make it work, it is really great. But if you are like me, and not really familiar with networking, you should be warned that Linksys is not going to be there to help you.
Customer Review: Good for home use
Summary: 4 Stars
The BEFSR41 v3 Cable/DSL Wired Router is an excellente router for home use, it has DHCP capabilities (To assign a pool of IP addresses to your PCs), NAT (To allow the connection of more than 1 PC to the internet using only 1 public IP address), VPN passtrough (so you can connect 1 PC at home to a VPN server at work), it is UPnP aware (capability turned off by default, but you can turn it on and if you use Windows XP you can configure the UPnP Fowarding services within the OS).It has 4 LAN ports to connect up to 4 devices to it (PC, Hub, Switch, Router....) and 1 WAN port to connect your Cable/DSL Modem to it.
Setup is real fast, assuming your ISP assign a Dynamic address, it includes 1 UTP Cat5 Straight patch cable to connect your Cable/DSL modem to the WAN port, you will need however a UTP Cat5 cable (straight or crossfoward, doesn't matter, it's autosensing) for each PC you want to connect to the LAN port, connect the PCs, turn on your cable/dsl modem, the router and the PC, and Voila!!! ready to surf.
If your ISP assigns Fixed IP address, you will need to know (ask your ISP) at least, Public IP address, Network Mask, Gateway and Primary and Secondary DNS Servers, maybe the domain name suffix and If using a DSL service with PPoE, username and password, don't worry it is easiest than it sounds, the only real difference with the steps for the Dynamic IP is that you need to log in to the router and add the information manually for the 1st time (by the way, don't forget to configure the PC to obtain a Dynamic IP address). Router Web Interface at http://192.168.1.1/ by default, and password "admin" without quotes, and please, be sure to change the password after 1st logon.
My router came with firmware 1.4012, new firmware 1.4017 is avaliable at linksys website, don't upgrade unless you need some of the new capabilities or specific fixes, you are warned.
Any question or comment, see my profile.