| Linksys WAP11 Wireless-B Network Access Point |
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Model: WAP11
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 206
Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 4, Windows NT 5, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server, Windows
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: IEEE 802.11b
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| Features: |
High-speed transfer rate of up to 11 Mbps
Range of operation of up to 150 meters indoors, up to 500 meters outdoors
Provides roaming, best access point selection, load balancing, and network traffic filtering
Interoperable with IEEE 802.11b (DSSS) 2.4 GHz-compliant equipment, and supports up to 32 users/nodes
Router not included, so you cannot connect multiple users to the Internet |
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| Description: |
| Don't be bound by cabling restrictions any longer! The Instant Wireless Network Access Point from Linksys delivers the freedom to configure your network your way. Utilization of "state-of-the-art" wireless technology gives you the ability to set up workstations in ways you never though possible; no cables to install means less expense and less hassle.The Instant Wireless Access Point's high-powered antenna offers a range of operation of up to 800 feet, providing seamless roaming throughout your wireless LAN infrastructure; an advanced user authentication feature ensures a high level of network security. The Instant Wireless Access Point is easy to install (Just plug it in and you're ready to go!) and easy to use - Windows-based diagnostics and statistic tools ensure that you'll always be in control. When all these features come together in one compact, lightweight, and power-efficient unit, you have the ultimate in flexible networking - the Linksys Instant Wireless Access Point. |
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| User Reviews (206 total): |
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Beware - Poor Performance, July 15, 2002
By user (Phoenix, AZ USA)
I bought two of these units to bridge an existing Ethernet because of their attractive price and flexibility.However, I could not get the units to communicate faster than 500 kbit/sec in either bridging mode or AP mode. This is with both units 3 feet apart in the same room, with all other wireless devices powered off. This is far below their rating of 11 mbit/sec and much worse than the 4 mbit/sec I get in a similar setup with my Orinoco gear. After an unfruitful 1 hour session with Linksys tech support ended with them blaming the wretched performance on "microwave oven or air traffic control tower interference" I returned the units.
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I love version 1.x. I do not like version 2.x, July 9, 2002
By user (Riverside, CA USA)
I love version 1.x which is ATMEL AT76C510 and allows a lot of hacking: you can use it in 4 different modes (AP,AP client,bridge, point-to-multipoint bridge) which makes it a great for cheap local networks. 2 such units allows easy setup of a wireless bridge connecting two wired networks. For sull power use ATMEL SNMP configuration tools. You can even change the output power!! For longer connection I suggest replacing the connectors as my friend found these RP-TNC connectors very poor. Replacing them by N/SMA connector boost the range.
I do not like the version 2.x. Out of two units I got one broke down shortly after the 30 return period was over. Also since they do not have USB (v1.x does) the configuration was a mcuh bigger problem - confiuration software looks buggy - sometimes it can find the AP, sometimes it can not.
My suggestion - unless you like to be a guinea pig for testing - go for version 1.x which rocks and with new firmware is rock solid. Version 2.x in my opinion stinks and requires more work from Linksys. It took me over 4 hours to get it working while v1.x takes me less than 10 minutes (including upgrade of firmware on two units).
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Good technology but bad software, July 9, 2002
By user (San Francisco, CA United States)
The Linksys WAP11 appears to be built on solid technology, however the software it comes with leaves much to be desired. The configurations don't make sense, and the documentation doesn't make sense, even to a seasoned computer and network engineer such as myself.The security settings are done half-hazardly, and it is very hard to get this WAP to work using its maximum security settings, even with Linksys' own pc cards! Linksys tech support seems to be vaguely aware of the fact that the configuration software comes broken, and they have very few answers. Bottom line, I'd say this would be ok for a home, barely workable in a small office (be prepared to tinker with the broken configuration software for hours), DEFINATELY not ready for enterprise usage.
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Great Product! Tweakable too!, June 21, 2002
By user (Attleboro, MA USA)
I don't know why people always bash the linksys WAP11 but it is truely one heck of an access point! I use my WAP11 with 2 cards: the WUSB11 (USB wireless card) and the standard Linksys PCMCIA wireless card.Being someone who is a licensed HAM radio operator and a network administrator, I know that any radio device can be modified to increase it's range and reliability. I found out that Linksys builds these units with 100mw radios! (they're only set at 20mw at the factory). The radio is controlled by software and all you need is an SNMP manager to do the tweak. I offer more information on my website on how to tweak the WAP11. I also offer a link to download a SNMP manager that runs on windows, which will enable you to increase the output of your WAP11. HINT: since the antennas are removable and feature standard TNC type connectors, one could mount external high gain antennas and connect them to the WAP11 and triple the coverage area of the WAP11!! (a friend of mine has done this between two buildings in Boston, both 5 miles apart but within line of sight with each other) Since this mod doesn't affect the hardware I would assume that doing this has no effect on the warranty, but check with linksys first! After setting the radio to maximum output, I was able to increase the range to about 5 houses down the street in all directions and still stay connected to my LAN! (HINT: I now sell wireless internet to my closest neighbors!) The WAP11 also allows you to control who can access the WAP11 through MAC address authorization. This enables the WAP11 to reject signals from cards who's MAC addresses aren't in the MAC Address table within the WAP11!!! Overall well designed product! Grab your today! and visit my site to increase your range! Keep up the good work Linksys! ~ A very satisfied WAP11 owner
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Fantastic product, June 15, 2002
By user (Philadelphia, PA)
Once again Linksys has made a quality product. It worked out of the box, after about 4 minutes of setup time. The instructions were dead on and it works perfectly w/ my Linksys 4 Port Cable/DSL Router. I also got a Linksys PCMCIA wireless network card to use w/ the WAP, and it worked perfectly too. Believe it or not, I don't work for Linksys, but I will now continue to buy their products without hesitation. If you're a novice or networking guru, you really can't go wrong with this product. The advanced features are plentiful and some helpful, but you don't need to set them for this to work right away. Big thumbs up.
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Very pleased with performance, June 13, 2002
By user
I recently upgraded from dial-up to a cable modem. I first installed Linksys Broadband + router and connect my PC and my daughters. Installation took about 5 minutes. Worked great except now I have cables running down the hall. So I bought 3 of the WAP11 Access Points. One for my pc, one for my daughters and one for the router. Had to use cross over cables to connect the WAPs to the PCs also the WAPs on the PCs had to be configured as Clients which is easy to do through the web configuration screen.I moved the router, cable modem and Host WAP to the basement where the main cable comes into the house. The house is about 2500 Sqft, with 2 stories, plus a 16foot tall basement. Both PCs are on the top floor of the house. Performance is very good, ZDnet shows a download speed of between 400kbps and 700kbps. I also downloaded a 2.8MB file from cnet...took 15 seconds. Very happy with the performance. Set-up took about an hour. The Client WAPs have to be set with the MAC address of the HOST WAP...also need to set unique IP address to each WAP or configure to have IPs assigned by DHCP. Each WAP needs to have it's own resource name assigned. Did not have to call tech support. I highly recommend.
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Linksys WAP11 Nice and Easy USB setup with good manuals, June 12, 2002
By user (Perth, WA Australia)
I am an Australian who was in the USA for one week in May 2002. I decided to buy a wireless lan at CompUSA. They gave me a US Robotics kit, but I could not make it work. The problem was that no-one had any experience with it and the manuals were quite poor, probably written by someone who had three computing degrees. Also, it required a wireless connection to set it up, and more information was on a website which I did not have easy access to because I was travelling.
So I returned it all to CompUSA and swapped it for a LinkSYS which was a little cheaper.
LinkSYS had a USB connection (and cable) which allowed easy setup via my laptop (rather than having to make a successful wireless connection first). The linksys instruction books (WAP11 and WPC11) were both quite detailed and well written. It explained what was actually going on and what the device did, although the terminology about the DHCP setting is a little unclear.
In my house there are many brick walls and reinforced concrete floors. When the WAP11 was upstairs beside my cable modem I could not aquire an adequate signal in the front of the house (100 feet). I brought the WAP11 downstairs and 30 feet closer and plugged it in to another ethernet point - now we have medium or weak but always connect. Overall - its great.
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Go somwhere else, June 9, 2002
By user (Morristown, NJ USA)
I just went through two of these. I was on the configuration web page and I made some minor changes to the settings. The connection timed out and the WAP11 became unpingable. At the suggestion of tech support I rest the WAP. This resulted in wiping out the firmware. Uh-Oh. That right, Linksys doesn't have firmware available for the WAP11 v.2.2. The same thing happened to a second box with a different tech support person. Do yourself a favor. Don't buy this box.BTW, I am a system administrator for a large university. I know how to configure hardware and software.
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Final Update to "Free at Last!", June 5, 2002
By user (Ephrata, PA USA)
I had a Linksys WAP11 die on me after 14 months. I had always been happy with it ... so I immediately ordered a replacement. It turned out to be the new v2.2. The Linksys v2.2 wouldn't work reliably when WEP was enabled (neither 64 nor 128 bit). Also, I seemed to have much more trouble with signal strength. So I tried a second one assuming the first was defective, but the with the same results. So I gave up on the Linksys WAP11 v2.2 and tried the SMC2655W (even though it's supposedly based on the same electronics) and guess what? It not only worked flawlessly with WEP enabled, but it gave a stronger signal, and is about half the size of the WAP11. I DID get the WAP11 v2.2 to work well, though not as strong as the SMC, if I disabled WEP. Looks to me like a move in the wrong direction for Linksys.
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Serviceable; buggy firmware, flawed security, June 1, 2002
By user
A perfectly decent access point as 802.11b goes. Range is good, physical construction is decent. Inside the WAP11 is the same PCMCIA-based card as is used in SMC and other access points; they even run the same firmware.Ditch the illusions, though: there is no security. WEP is totally flawed, and there are a dozen academic analyses demontrating why. If you plug this thing into your LAN, you're exposing that LAN to anyone within a hundred yards, whether you use WEP or not. You should never install an access point without restricting its traffic with a firewall only to an encrypted, authenticated transport system like IPsec or PPTP. The configuration software is decent, except that the unit needs to reboot after every change of a setting (which takes about 3 seconds). The embedded webserver tends to crash. LinkSys tech support has a passable email-support turnaround but does not deal properly with bug reports. The upstream vendor who makes the firmware has a lousy security record -- it took them four major releases before it occurred to them to add authentication to the configuration interface. Problematically, the configuration is accessible over the wireless link, and consequently to a wireless attacker (remember, WEP is no help.)
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Worked like a charm!, May 24, 2002
By user (londonderry, NH United States)
I got this up and running in under 5 minutes,
using a non-standard (dhcp & encryption on a
home lan using ms connection sharing).
The range seems ok - I can connect from anywhere
in my house (WAP is upstairs in a center bedroom),
as well as from my hammock in the yard... :^)
(The link margin is much lower outside.) The only potential glitch was that the access
point initially came up with an IP address outside
the subnet I was using. (I use 192.168 - the
access point came up with 169.something I think),
so initially I couldn't ping, even though the radio
link connected. Typing ipconfig/renew_all (From a
dos window) solved it, and it's been fine ever since. Configuration: 5 node home lan, using connection sharing
of multilink PPP connection. (Access point is being
used with a Latitude CPI laptop, using the linksys PC card
and win98se.) My skills: Reasonably PC literate (used to do PC support
as a sideline to my regular UNIX sysadmin career.) I Would recommend to anybody who is otherwise qualified
to install/configure PC network cards.
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Works great, but tricky, May 14, 2002
By user (Merced)
If you're the type of person that prefers easy set up and great documentation, this device might not be for you. True, the device connects very easily, right out of the box - however, customizing it is tricky. Paper documentation that comes with the device doesn't tell you what IP the device is configured through, or what its initial password is. I had to check out the documentation on the cd, which was also tricky - even though the setup program had a link to the file, it wouldn't open (I had to locate the documentation by browsing the CD).
As a wireless switch, the device works very well. It's easy to configure (once you get IP and password information), and works without a hitch. It also has quite a few options to configure.
As far as distance - could be better. I often have difficulties a couple of rooms over (and I don't live in a large apartment).
Overall, if you're a techie type of person, buy it with confidence. At its price, it's one of the best around.
If you're at all not sure, I recommend a little more researching first.
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Great product -- I don't know how I lived without it, May 12, 2002
By user (Howell, NJ United States)
Being able to walk around the house with my laptop and not getting disconnected from the internet is absolutely amazing. The signal is excellent throughout the entire house, but is quite flaky outside (probably because I have aluminum siding which interferes with the signal). Overall, I think it's a great product and would highly recommend it.
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Won't Bridge, May 9, 2002
By user
Don't believe the packaging and spec's. The new WAP 11 V2.2 will not operate as a client or multipoint access point. Don't waste your time trying to make it work - tech support from Linksys was no help as it took three calls to finally be told that the feature is planned for a future software release with no promised delivery date.
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Beware!, May 9, 2002
By user
For me this product was a massive waste of time. I purchased a Linksys WAP11 and WMP11 to connect a win98 PC to an existing (and fully functional) 100BaseT network. The network uses an XP box for routing and Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). The WAP11 was connected to the network via a SohoWare hub and was easy to access and setup. At first I could get no connection between the win98 box and WAP - so contacted linksys support. After 45 min or so on hold the representative revealed a complete lack of understanding of ICS and said the problem is a network issue not covered by their support.I later discovered that the old network card in the win98 PC was causing problems. After removing the card I could ping in both directions but lost about 50% packets and could get no sharing to work. A further e-mail contact to linksys resulted in a suggestion to install network drivers on the win98 box - not helpful. In the end I could share files from the win98 to XP (when no-one is logged into the win98 box - as soon as some logged on sharing hung) and do nothing except DNS/DHCP in the other direction (including no ICS). A further e-mail to linksys was unanswered after 24 hours. So I returned the product having lost about 24 hours of my time struggling to get the products to work.
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Works great and a snap to setup, April 25, 2002
By user
I honestly can't understand the negative reviews. I've never used any wireless network equipment before, and I had no problems at all in setting up the WAP11 with a Linksys WPC11 network card; everything works flawlessly. Nothing to it ... it truly is "instant wireless." The range and strength of signal are superb, plus you can easily configure the secure, 128-bit encryption feature. What more could you ask for? So if you're even thinking about setting up your own wireless network, don't hesitate to buy Linksys; it won't disappoint. By the way, I already had a cable modem router (Belkin), or else I would have gotten the Linksys router/access point combo.
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Great Product But..., April 24, 2002
By user (Eureka, MO United States)
It is an excellent product but I'm a little disappointed in the range. For NIC cards to be at full bandwidth you must be able to visibly line up the card and the WAP (with little or no physical obstructions). If I take my laptop upstairs or just to the other end of the house, I keep getting disconnected. They really need to come up with a signal amplifier or just a more effective WAP.
All in all it is a great little device to allow mobility with your laptop and still browse the internet and write email. I can watch my kids outside and still do my work.
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total piece of crap, April 7, 2002
By user (Seattle, WA USA)
I bought this thing and a Linksys wireless card as well, and set it up and configured it and everything setup perfectly without a hitch. However, the computers wouldn't connect. When I tested with a script that pinged the computers across the wireless connection I had 90% packet loss at 3 feet! When I moved the computer from the office to the living room I had 100% packet loss and 26 percent ("poor") signal strength - only two rooms away!Email to technical support went totally unanswered. So I can only assume that this product is a joke and that linksys will put out a real product soon and apologize for ever shipping this thing. I'd give up on them completely if their DSL/Cable router wasn't such a great product.
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Piece of junk, March 27, 2002
By user (Boise, ID United States)
Spent many hours tinkering with the WAP11. Waited 90 minutes on hold to Linksys tech support only to be disconnected (!) Finally got through only to be told the W.A.P. is N.O. G.O.O.D.
and needs to be sent back. Forget this, I'm gonna stick with wired ethernet for now.P.S. If you are considering wireless - do your homework. These devices are not at all secure despite what the manufacturers would like you to believe.
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Easy set up, poor performance, March 22, 2002
By user
The configuration was simple. Just left it as it was coming out of the box. I used the Linksys card in my portable W2K computer. The operational distance I get is the only problem I have with this product. If you are with 30 feet of the unit it works great, but if you move beyond the it becomes useless. Linksys does not officially support any other antennas that will provide better gain. Other companies do. So if you are thinking about sitting out at the pool, with this box in your office, forget it.
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