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 $9.99 (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: Easy to Install. Easy to use.
Summary: 5 Stars
I worried this product would be hard to install, configure and use. This sounds silly since I'm an engineer working at a dot-com company, building a large Internet network. Even engineers get stuck with computer hardware they can't get to work. Also, being net savvy, I tend to want my network hardware to work MY way and not in some configuration deemed "good" by marketing monkeys. All fears quickly faded, however as the router was up and running with my network 15 minutes after opening the box. Ease of use is important, as I frequently distrust technical support for networking products. No fault of Linksys, but years with inept customer service apes, trained only to hold phones, ruined me. If I can not get a product to work in short order when other, equivalent products exist, I quickly return, exchange and try again. Thankfully, I did not have to do so. The Linksys jumped all hurtles without effort.
Ease of use goes past the install to the packaging and into the web-based configuration. The packaging comes with a quick start guide. Smart. Impatient males with more eagerness than brains don't want to read manuals, even short ones. The quick start has everything you need to get online in short order. If you need the advanced features, like port redirection, a DMZ host, or PPP over ethernet, the manual is friendly and the configuration screens are kind. Five minutes after surfing the web, I reconfigured my PC to have a static IP address (rather than the DHCP generated address, given to me by the quick start guide), and set up port redirection for my web server.
DHCP is great, especially if you take tote your laptop between home and work. DHCP is a service, run on a network, allowing computers on the network to ask what their IP addresses, gateways, DNS servers and subnet masks are. The DHCP server replies, allowing computers to dynamically configure themselves based on what network the computer is on. Thus, you can conveniently carry your laptop into work, hook it up without reconfiguring the networking. If you're me, you're likely too lazy to set up a UNIX computer on your network just for a DHCP server. So, having the Linksys Cable/DSL router provide DHCP is a big bonus.
Net novices may wonder if this router is a risk to have. With all the media attention, you likely think an army of computer and network savvy teens are just waiting for you to go online, so they can infect and hack your computer. I've never had a problem, but then, I'm cautious from where I download software and with whom I interact. One risk is placing a bad password on your router, allowing others to reconfigure your network. I envision several lazy people not bothering to change the default password on their Linksys routers, creating some minor havoc.
However, because the router uses network address translation, you have the potential to be safer as outsiders see only the IP address of your router and not your host. So far as I know, the only listening port on the router is the embedded wed server and any in-bound port-forwarding you set up, so people trying to get in, from the outside, will likely rely on you to do something dumb. A few dumb things include an easily guessed password on the router -- your first name, or the word "router" are really terrible ideas -- downloading software from any web page with the words "d00d" or "kewl," or setting up a web server from an old Linux distribution without checking CERT advisories for known security holes. More dumb things exist. Use common sense, but never fear making mistakes; it's just a computer.
If you have several computers in your home and want them all to be networked, the Linksys can do the job. Yes, only 5 ports exist on the back, but 10 megabit per second (MBPS) hubs are less than $30 and 100 MBPS hubs are around $100. Multiples of either hub can be added, to get up to 255 computer on your network. Though, if you have 255 computers, just using hubs will lead to frightening performance problems, but one hopes, anyone with so many computers, knows better.
Customer Review: Cheap, solid security for DSL or Cable-modem users
Summary: 5 Stars
The Internet can be a scary place, especially to those of us with DSL. I have Qwest MegaBit Deluxe service and have both a full-time connection and a static IP address. This means that hackers can connect to my machine at any time and could potentially wreak havoc. I tested a web-based security program and found that it knew the name of my machine, my shared drives, and my printer. Could my Quicken data file be next?I tried valiantly to turn an old Pentium 200 box into a Linux-based firewall. (...) Finally, I did some rough estimates of the time I'd spent on this project and decided that even applying a very low hourly rate, I would make out much better by buying this box.
Goals.
I had two major goals for this purchase:
1) Securing my PCs
2) Sharing DSL connection among different PCs
Setup.
The BEFSR41 comes with a slim manual and a slick one-page quick install guide. I still haven't cracked the manual.
I already had network wiring throughout the house, so installation consisted of plugging the power brick into the wall and into the back of the unit and hooking up the network connections.
The power stuff went quickly.
The network stuff took a little bit longer. There are 6 RJ45 network connectors on the back of the machine. One is for the WAN connection -- the line that comes from the DSL box or cable modem. Three are standard switch connections, and two are shared -- one is an uplink port (for connecting to another network hub or switch) and the other is a standard connector. It took me a little about 20 minutes of futzing with the connctions and wondering why I couldn't see the Internet before I remembered that a direct connection to my DSL box required a crossover cable, not a standard cable. Once I figured that out, everything worked perfectly.
Note: unless you have a network switch (you probably have a slower, cheaper, more-popular network hub), you should plug the machines that you want to connect most quickly directly into the unit.
Operation.
How do you administer this new network? Through your web browser. In addition to its other features, this little gem has a built-in web server.
Once you've got the network cables connected correctly, you simply open up a browser and type 192.168.1.1 into the address box and hit enter. Once you've entered the password, you get a straightforward administration screen.
You'll need to go through some of the same steps you did when you set up your DSL in the first place. If you have a dynamically-assigned IP address, you can simply take all of the defaults, reboot your computers and everything will work as if by magic.
If you have a static IP address, you'll have to enter that and tell the BEFSR41 your Default Gateway and DNS server addresses.
You may need to change network settings on your individual PCs.
By adding about 10 minutes of network tweaking and computer rebooting to the first 20 minutes of cable untangling, I find that I spent half-an-hour from opening the box to a running network.
It does come with a setup wizard disk, but I haven't even looked at it.
Customization.
The BEFSR41 provides a great deal of customizability. In its default state, your network is entirely hidden from the world. Your web servers won't be accessable through the firewall, nor would a mail server, or anything else.
To get information through, you can go to the advanced options tabs and choose Forwarding. This allows you to route the ports you specify to specific IP addresses on your network. Tell it to route port 80 to a machine inside the firewall, and your webserver will be back in business.
Conclusion.
I love this box for the same reason I love my DSL service -- because it just works. Once it's set up and working, I don't have to think about it any more.
Customer Review: I don't know what these people are complaining about!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've purchased 3 of these over the past 18 months, for my parents, myself, and a friend. I've NEVER had 1 second of trouble with ANY of them. Maybe these people complaining on here got bad ones somehow, but I haven't seen these problems. No lockups at all.However - Every cable and dsl modem I have ever seen or spoken to anyone about occaisionally DOES lock up. No exceptions. I live in the boonies, and electricity isn't very clean, there are frequent dips, spikes, and outages. When the power starts flaking, you can bet the dsl modem will lock up, everything else runs like a charm. Sometimes it locks up for no aparent reason at all. My parents cable modem like clockwork will freeze once a month. My dsl modem generally makes it 2 or 3 weeks excluding power problems. Cable modems tend to need to be powered off for about 20-30 minutes, then turned back on and allowed to reset. My ADSL modem can be powered off and back on again, and it will take a few minutes of blinkinlights and reset itself. Since my isp (and the others I've setup) uses DHCP, after a connection is broken like that a new connection needs to be made and a new ip address assigned. When using one of these, it's the router that connect to the internet/isp - not your pc! So when I need to reset the dsl modem, I also power down everything else, including the router. I power on the dsl modem, let it do its thing, and only after it has finished do I power on the router. When the router turns on it will log onto the isp, get an ip address, gateway, etc. Then any computer in the house can be turned on again, and get a new ip thru DHCP, and surf away. I have a hub in another part of the house connected to this router. Between me and my roommate we have 5 desktop machines connected to the internet and each other via this router/hub arrangement(with up to 5 operating systems too, some machines are dual or triple boot). We also each have a laptop that we connect sometimes as well. There are NEVER any problems with the internal LAN, even if the dsl modem is wiggin all the machines will talk to each other just fine. This is a completely platform agnostic device and I haven't found a browser yet on any platform that couldn't connect to it and go thru the configuration screens. The firmware upgrades tho typically require windows of some flavor to run.
I suspect the complainers in these reviews are putting the blame on the wrong component in their internet setup, particularly the folks who claim to have returned them and had the same problems with the replacements. I'd put money on it that's the problem for the people that have gone thru 3 or more.
All in all this is an unbelievably fantastic deal for a home network setup. For the price, I am completely blown away by the performance and flexibility of this router. The built in switched hub is awesome. Firmware upgrades only make it better, and with no software necessary to install on anything to configure it, this makes it a great choice for anyone no matter what they are running. I've read a lot of great things about the NetGear router too, but have no personal experience with them. It's been a long time and I don't remember why I chose the Linksys over the NetGear, but I've bought 3 of them and have no regrets. Never had any problems with any Linksys products - always great products at extremely reasonable prices, very affordable for the home.
Customer Review: It doesn't get any simpler than this.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had this gadget sitting under my desk for several weeks now, just waiting for Christmas so that I could give my wife her present: a new 17-inch flat-screen iMac, so that she would have her own toy with which to get on the Internet. Since I was already on-line, with my Apple Titanium G4 PowerBook by way of cable modem, we obviously needed a "solution" for our home-office local area network so that she could do the same.
Before I actually hooked everything up, I was slightly apprehensive. The outer-box graphics for this Linksys Model BESFR41 Cable/DSL Router didn't say anything about Macintosh compatibility. And, when I unpacked it, there was this 20-page foldout full of instructions on how to install the router for Windoze PC users, with three (!) separate sets of instructions for different Windoze OS's and five (!!) pages of help for these poor souls, should anything go wrong or simply not work. And not a word about Macintosh hook-up! I even inserted the CD-ROM in my PowerBook, only to find not a single Macintosh file!
Well, apprehension be danged! I powered down my PowerBook and cable modem, followed the simple cabling instructions, and then simply powered everything back up (including the new iMac for its first time). Immediately, my PowerBook was back on-line with no perceptible loss of speed.
More to the point, my wife's new iMac required not a bit of configuration. I simply launched both of her browsers (Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari), and there she was, on the 'net without a single configuration step required by me; everything was configured automatically. Now, THAT'S the way operating systems SHOULD work!
With both Macs on-line and surfing, neither of us could detect any loss of speed. I suppose this is attributable to, as the product description says, "...the full-duplex speed of its built-in EtherFast 10/100 four-port switch." A very impressive device indeed! And, while it's a shame that not a mention of Apple is made anywhere in the printed material or on the CD-ROM, this oversight is of little consequence to Macintosh users who - like me - EXPECT that things will work properly, first time out.
Two side benefits: (1.) Software firewall protection now seems unnecessary. Since installing the router, I've checked my Norton Personal Firewall access history, and have noted that not a single access attempt has gotten past the router. (2.) The size of the router perfectly solves another problem for me. With the same physical height as my external Syquest FireWire drive that sits on the opposite side of my PowerBook, I now have matching "stands" on which to put my new Cambridge MegaWorks 210D self-powered speakers.
Now, if you'll pardon me, I'll go review the 17-inch flat-screen iMac and the Cambridge MegaWorks self-powered speakers. My wife and I really spoiled each other this year. :-)
Windoze users have my sympathy. And the very first Windoze user who e-mails me can have the CD-ROM. AND the 20-page fold-out full of silly instructions. Totally free. I'll even pay the postage. You can never tell when you might need these two items.
Bob Zeidler
Customer Review: Wow! Connecting your computers couldn't be easier!
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't usually write reviews but I liked the Linksys BEFSR41 Cable/DSL router so much, I had to take the time to share my thoughts. Many of the online community are going with broadband these days because of the poor performance of modems, the busy signals and relatively high price of modem-based Internet service.
Broadband with the Linksys is as good as it gets. Plug it in, and it works out of the box with no configuration but with some training, you can make the Linksys BEFSR41 do magic!
The incoming cable from the cable company plugs in to the cable modem provided by your Internet service provider. (It actually isn't a modem but that's another story.)
From there you plug the cable into your Linksys cable router and from there you can either plug 4 computers into that router or some hubs to attach even more people to the Internet. (Up to 254 without some special network magic.)
That's the basics.
What many people don't know is actually how your computer gets its address information. All computers, as we know, must have an IP address (Internet Protocol) to talk to another computer.
The Linksys is both a DHCP server AND a DHCP client. (DHCP = Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. I'll spare you the details but suffice to say, as a DHCP Server, this means that all your internal computers are given IP addresses from the Linksys router. Additionally, the Linksys can act as a DHCP client to your Internet service provider, as is generally required to do unless you have a business account and pay for a fixed IP address. That's fun!)
So anyway, you're plugged in to the cable company and all your computers are happily getting IP addresses from the Linksys. Great. Well, there is a lot more.
The Linksys BEFSR41 allows you to cascade up to 254 other computers to allow for access for 254 people to the Internet. Wow! Considering that a T1 or even a partial T1 line can cost thousands per month, paying 40-60 dollars a month to give access to 254 people is incredible. (The only problem might be if every user would attempt to download MP3s at one time, performance would be pretty bad but if only 20% of your users are web browsing at any given time, this would be ok.)
There are other great features of the Linksys BEFSR41 like port filtering, where you can control the types of traffic that comes and goes through the Linksys. You can for example block all external traffic from getting in. OR, you can put up a web server and route all incoming traffic looking for a web server to that computer only, thus providing a nice security setup.
This evaluation is getting too long so I'll send but suffice to say that the Linksys BEFSR41 is amazing and extremely easy to use. You manage it from a web browser interface and there are free software (Firmware) updates available from linksys This is important because us "hackers" are always finding a way around security devices. Firmware updates provide a way for the folks at Linksys to stay ahead of current "hacker" technology.