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: Excellent Product
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a Cox@Home subscriber, and my PC was the 'Server' for 2 other PC's for my kids, through an ethernet hub and the use of Wingate internet sharing software. Wingate was good, but could be temperamental at times. This little jewel (Linksys Router) solved the problem of my PC having to be on all the time for the other two PC's to access the internet, and eliminated for a second NIC in my PC, which of course frees up resourses in my machine.
Installation was a snap, just by following the instructions. However, it took a few tries and I did have to tinker with the TCP/IP settings a little. If you have @Home cable service, on the first PC you install, you will open up your browser with the address of 192.168.1.1, and input the following data per the instructions:
1. No "Host Name" needed. 2. "Domain Name" should be set to your assigned @Home name, i.e., CX000000-X. 3. You should click "Specify an IP Address" and enter your static IP address. (if you don't know it, it should be on your @Home paperwork, or there are instructions included on how to 'ping' yourself to get it.) 4."Subnet Mask" should have automatically filled-in itself (255.255.255.0) 5.The "Default Gateway Address" I found on my Cox@Home paperwork, and it was similar but not identical to my IP address. 6."DNS(Required) 1: and 2:" were also included on my paperwork, but for Cox@Home subscribers, these items were listed as: 'primary dns server ip address' and 'sec dns server ip address'. An entry under "3:" was not required.
On #5 and 6 above, if you don't have your paperwork from your original @Home installation, you will probably have to call your provider to get the numbers.
Performance has been the same or better as before with the hub. My son does some interactive gaming on the net with some state of the art graphics and programs. No problem! Napster works fine. The added benefit of a REAL firewall is nice. "GRC.COM" doesn't know any of the 3 PC's exist! No more superfluous Black Ice or Zone Alarms hits.
I wish I'd heard about this product sooner. I read all of the other 180 or so reviews on this site before I bought it, so I had professional networking friend standing by if needed, but I did it all myself! ....
Pax, Jon
Customer Review: Top pick for a wired router
Summary: 5 Stars
I am currently using the Linksys BEFSX41, and it works effortlessly. It too is a hardware firewall based router. Two events happened that made me buy another router. 1) I needed more connections beyond the four. 2) I wanted to have audio capabilities with MSN Messenger. (A free service that gives you free audio with anyone you connect with via messenger, so you have a free long distance method.)What does all of this have to do with the BEFSR41? Simply this, I was having trouble getting the audio portion of Messenger to work on my network. A top tech site stated that if their isn't a multimedia option to allow in your router, then get the BEFSR41, which is what this review is all about. It has the multimedia option, while still having the hardware firewall.
Additionally if you go to the Linksys.com site, you will see it is still their most popular selling router, next to one wireless model. With the current running rebate, it is also a steal. It's a buy even without the rebate, whereas I had paid half again as much money for my current unit.
These Linksys routers hook up without a glitch. Getting a good connect speed with Verizon took a lot more effort. Not because of Verizon, but because I had some hum in my lines at home. Check your lines at home by picking up a phone, preferably one with a volume knob on it. Turn it all the way up, and press any number on the keypad. 5 for example. Then listen real hard. It should be dead quiet. If it is not, then that is wreaking havoc on your connect speed. Noisy lines are caused by running phone lines near power lines. One noisy run, will ruin the whole house. Getting off on a tangent here.
I have had my Linksys router for over 6 months, it just sits there with the lights lit. It never stalls, never fails, and does a very nice job. I also like having the house set up on a network.
All of my tech professional friends say, "For professional business applications, get a hardwired version of a router, because WIFI is too easily penetrable. I must admit I set up a WIFI system for a friend of mine, with a Linksys router, and XP as his operating system, and nothing could be easier.
Highly recommended. This Linksys router is the top pick for a wired router.
Customer Review: Own it and love it... needs a fan
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this router from amazon, it was at my door within 4 days of ordering and set up and running in under 10 minutes, including installing 2 network cards. The computers on my home network consist of Redhat Linux and Microsoft Windows 2000 pro driven machines though at times we've had XP Pro Machines, and windows ME machines. Obviously we had the least difficulty with The linux Operating systems since it's much better and networking and security than windows is, and I'm a linux sysadmin myself and can't figure out window's networking and IIS settings for the life of me, but the cd included with the router did all the work for me on the windows machines in about 5 seconds. The linux machines automatically detected and configured everything on their own.
We are constantly downloading and uploading things at the max rate that our cable internet provider allows us and I have an FTP server set up on one of my computers that the Router forwards one port to (which was easily set up in the browser based configuration menu that it has) so this router gets pretty hot considering that it has no fan whatsoever. We also had a big scare one night when someone had laid a magazine down on top of the router blocking it's ventilation holes while we had been downloading at 1500k and uploading at 256k and sharing mp3s over the network with each other at 100 mbps for a couple of hours and by the time we noticed that the magazine had been left on the router it was so hot that it nearly burned my hand to touch it.
However I easily took a CPU fan off of an old computer that I had laying around and I screwed it down into the ventilation holes on top of the box and wired the fan into the 9v ac (the fan was for 12v ac but works fine, just doesn't spin as fast) power line for the router and now it always runs completely cool and it even performs better since it's not getting so over heated.
I really love this router though and the lack of a fan shouldn't be a problem for the average user however adding one on is a cinch and I would reccomend doing so to anyone who uses this router for long time (more than a half hour at a time) high bandwidth downloading/uploading/LAN transferring.
Customer Review: Works fine with PPPOE, Win2000, WindowsNT, and Linux
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this product after reading the reviews here on Amazon.com.The 4-port version was easy to setup and configure, and I did not have any problems when configuraing the router to work with PPPOE and my ISP. I am now running a Win2000 platform, a Linux platform, and periodically my laptop from the router. Linksys does not provide any instructions for configuring Linux to work with the router, but if you're familiar with Linux, networking, and TCP/IP you won't have any problems.
As per another reader's comments, I too have a mix of static and dynamic/DHCP IP addresses. All you need to do is set the router to start at a higher IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.100) and then the other IP addresses (e.g. 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.99) can be used as static/fixed IP addresses. This works great if you're like me and want at least one DHCP-managed IP address for a laptop or similar.
All outbound activity (from your computers to the Internet) works without any configuration changes. Individual ports (e.g. FTP, Telnet, etc.) are not exposed/available unless you configure them in the router, and when you do expose a port you map it to the specific/static IP address of one of your computers. This is a much better approach than attempting to use Linux as a firewall, since with the router you know exactly which ports are open/visible to the Internet.
I also like that (by default) a feature called "WAN Blocking" is enabled. If an Internet user PINGs your IP address, they won't get a response.
Consider doing a firmware upgrade from Linksys' website. You'll need to download the upgrade, unzip it, and then connect to the router and apply the upgrade. Note that this wasn't a difficult task.
The documentation for the product is pathetic. If anyone from Linksys reads this, please hire better Tech Writers or spend more time on producing thorough documentation (ie., "Linksys Router for Dummies").
In summary, a solid product at a good price. I now have a firewall and router/hub in a single, compact unit. Spend a few $ more and buy the 4-port version of the router if you ever think you might need more ports in the future.
Customer Review: Great product, feeble documentation, great support
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer feedback I had read on the BEFSR41 indicated a very solid product that performs well and is easy to install following the instructions provided. I love the product, but my experience with the installation was different. I had no luck at all on my own (and I even read the product manual -- PDF only, btw, nothing on paper -- in advance). The installation program (run from the CD accompanying the router) was hopeless. It tells you to start by leaving the router out of the system altogether, and connect the computer to the internet directly via the modem, which I did. The program then checked the internet connection, and gave this report: "Your router is already connected to the internet, and nothing further needs to be done." How can this be? I wondered, my router isn't even connected. And when I did proceed to connect the router physically, the internet was inaccessible and the installation program would not work. So the installation program failed completely.
Fortunately, a call to the LinkSys help desk solved the problem quickly and efficiently. My call was answered right away, and the technician (a charming and courteous young woman in India!) took me through a simple series of steps to complete the installation. (They involved connecting to the 192.168.1.1 web address and changing a few configuration settings.) It was laughably simple, and took only a few minutes.
I mention this because I've read feedback on other LinkSys service encounters that gripe about the terrible customer support and especially about the foreign service technicians. My experience is just the opposite -- fast, friendly, efficient, courteous -- and no American support person could have improved on it.
My question about LinkSys documentation is this: why can't they just write documentation as clear and simple as the help desk can provide? (I am no newbie, btw, having worked with computers and software for over 20 years. I've installed hardware and software on dozens of computers during that time, and I'm not intimidated by instructions for either kind of installation.)
Bottom line: great product, great support, lousy documentation.