Aside from the firewall miswording earlier, this is a solid router with decent range covering the floor above and below through numerous walls and doors.

I have a 1500 cable internet connection and test at 1600+with or without the router at early morning hours no difference. (Also experianceing 200 or less sometimes during peak hours alone as well) Average test about 1350-dsdreports

With 4 computers all wireless going my internet connection is slowed consideralbly but still reliable and decent testing 100-750 average. During peak hours we do suffer near outages and peak time but I think this is only due to sharing*non-dedicated bandwith. I do NOT plan to add more computers to the network without dedicated bandwith due to newly limited bandwith availibility. Average work workstation distance about 25 feet Average 3 walls or floors wood, drywall (carpet not calculated).

Everyone on then nework is for the most part satisfied with the network.

Four stars for the router living up to expectations.

The web interface for configuring it is pretty good, but you may have to play with settings. It simply can't guess the information it needs. You may have to talk to someone who understands routers.

Having any router/firewall between you and the internet may interere with certain programs connecting to the internet. That's kind of the point. Making these programs work may require a little extra tweaking.

Finally: walls, floors, and other electronics using the same frequency *will* interfere with your wireless signal to varying degrees. If you have a large house or lots of obstructions, you may want to also get a wireless access point to cover more area. Wireless routers tend to have more horizontal range than vertical .

This is a pretty good router which should serve the needs of most people. It provides some security and lets you get all your computers online.

To put this in perspective, I have been using an older Netgear MR314, and couldn't be happier with it. It provides my full (or at least within 5% or so) bandwidth even with 128-bit WEP on. I have re-installed that and now have an even stronger appreciation for old reliable in that sturdy, quality metal case. I got this for only $30 from someone I knew, so wanted to try it to see it it would increase my range since it has not only two antennas, but both are also longer (the Netgear one I has only has one short antenna).

I've had pretty good experience from Linksys in the past, but have to say I'm VERY VERY dissapointed with the BEFW11S4(v2), and will be more careful about buying products from them in the future.

Wired or wireless connections internal to the network work fine. Connections to the internet are crappy. Specifically items that require sustained connections, like downloads, uploads, IM, etc. For example I got a new PC and installed Windows XP on it, then went to windowsupdate.com to get the thing up to date: I had about 25 updates to install. I had to install each update separately and try several times on each download for a connection that would last the duration of the download. It was horrible - off and on it took about 3 days because I couldn't just select the updates and go.

I then did the exact same thing with another PC, but this time I unplugged the router and plugged the PC directly into the DSL modem and it worked flawlessly.

Linksys support was useless - they told me to adjust my MTU settings which I tried all over the place - to no avail.

I've heard from friends and other reviewers that this issue is specific to this version of the Linksys router, but since they don't care much about my problem I'm jumping ship and going with a Netgear.

Other than that it's great!

However, even after I was guided through the settings, my streaming audio still failed to work.

WHAT EVER YOU DO, DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT.

They were no help AT ALL. Becqause my laptop had a Cisco Aironet Client Wireless Adapter and not a Linksys card, they couldn't tell me a thing. Not even where to look for the properties of my card. Granted, I should know this...but they're supposed to be the experts with everything related to their product. They should anticipate an idiot like me calling...but they didn't. Hence, no help and not even a hint on how to get help or to find the right tabs to click. Very frustrating. Eventually, I figured it out and the wireless router works like a champ...not one problem.

I have a fairly large two-story home, and can be upstairs, easily 200 ft. from the router (which is downstairs), with two laptops on the internet, and it still runs at 11 mbps! It's great. The WEP encryption is easy to set-up as well...and while Linksys will warn against slowdown if you use the 128-bit encryption WEP, don't believe the hype. As far as I can tell, there is no slowdown!

In summary, if you're new at wireless network set-up, like I was, be prepared to troubleshoot for a day or two and don't rely on Linksys Tech Support because they're terrible. But once you get it running, you'll wonder why you didn't go wireless sooner.

Rotten, lousy, piece of garbage. The last Linksys product I'll ever own, that's for sure.

You will be able to use the net on your laptop, but take it somewhere where there aren't too many walls between it and the router. I live in a bungalow, and the laptop gets a good signal most anywhere in the house, BUT take it outside and forget it! Each room in my house is only about 12 foot square, so take the lap top more than thirty feet away from the router and it drops the connection.

It's good for the price though.... one more thing. You will need to use an ADSL modem with Ethernet connectivity. I recommend the Eicon Diva 2340 (what I use)

Mark E. Cooper
Warrior Within (ISBN:0-9545122-0-0)

I have had mine for 90 days, and now am unble to return it. Stay wired!!!!

I would not advise this as a purchase.

Using the WPC-11 PCMCIA cards, I have encountered constant connectivity "hangs" over the months, always requiring me to hit the reset switch on the back of the unit to regain a connection to the Internet. Too late to return the unit and 3 wireless cards - stuck with the thing.

Downloaded and successfully installed 3 firmware upgrades to no avail, including 1.39.2, 1.42.7, and 1.44.2.

Tech support, somewhere in India or Pakistan, told me my chip set is damaged, even though the unit has been plugged into APC UPS with filters, etc. for the last 30 months.

When the unit did work, I never got better than 30 foot range. Beyond that the signal would degrade to the point of no connectivity.

Company unwilling to offer a coupon or discount on latest and greatest unit, so I'll move on as you should.

A Dissatisfied Customer

I used the installation wizard which worked flawlessly and I was online in minutes. This router also works well with the MN-510 I have on my other computer. File transfers between the computers are a little faster with this router than with the MS router. Wireless range is very good, appears to be about the same as with the MS Router but perhaps a better quality signal.

... I had no problems in installing the Linksys. If a total novice followed the directions carefully and used the Wizard to install the Linksys router, they won't have any problems either. But if the wizard should fail to run, setting up this router might not be as easy ... .

I like the design of this router better. It lays horizontally like a typical external modem would, and is built heavier ... . ... But the ability to surf, download, upload, etc., without any fear of the router dropping the connection is a real treat.

I helped, it worked, both wireless and wired. It took me a whole Saturday !

I was phoned next day. No Internet connection. Since I am a smarter rat and learned from yesterday, it took me 2 hours to get the connection.

Next day, I called. My shy friends told me, it lost again.

So, situation for the next 7 days was:

..Infinite Loop Begin for this Router
....1. Let that fool think he fixed it
....2. Greater than 1 hour or not
....3. If longer than one hour
........3.1 take a random number
........3.2 lose that damn connection
........3.3 and do not tell those fools how I did it
....4. If less than one hour
........4.1 show them the confidence
........4.2 pretend everything has been under their control
..Loop Back to Beginning

The loop has been repaeted for about 10 times. and, I can feel my friends get shyer and shyer.

I thought I have 15 years' experience on Computer Hardware and Software. Tell you a truth, I never met this kind of product.

Their tech supports let me feel ashame to be an engineer. No wander IT is declining.

PROS:
-Installation with cable or DSL modem is really easy. SEtup in windows XP is almost automatic.
-Regular websurfing for WIRED computers works well.

CONS:
(NOTE: I am using a linksys wireless 802.11b usb enabled, which connection appears to be STRONG (4/5 bars); the router is located on the second floor, but not more than 40 feet away)
- Though connection appears strong navigation is slow and lags. At time it does not even respond.
- If you plan to do online games, forget it. You will lag out constantly. I also reinstalled it several times opening different ports, and nothing worked.
- The lagging occurs even while WIRED to the router, so it is not the wireless feature that has this problem.
- If you are a webmaster, and need to FTP to a server from your house, forget it. This device, (wired or wireless) only occasionally (1 of 10 times) lets you FTP files.

Basically, for the most expensive 802.11b wireless router in the market, this is not worth the price or the trouble.
I find myself bringing the DSL modem downstairs whenever I need to FTP files to the server, and sometimes during websurfing I get so annoyed at the constant 'hesitation' that I bring it down again. Defeating the purpose of having a wireless connection, (while leaving the other people without internet for the time I need to ftp files).

I tried different ports, and none gave me good results.

Any suggestions are welcomed.

I've set up a wireless phone system, wireless headphone system, and a wireless guitar connection system and have to say that the Linksys product provided the easiest, fastest, out of the box setup. I don't think you can go wrong with this product.