Customer Reviews

Asante FR3004LC FriendlyNET Cable/DSL Router

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It works, which is more than I can say for the Netgear FR314 I used to work with. The well designed graphical user interface makes administrative tasks a breeze. The access log tells you the IP numbers of people trying to run port scanners, and other nasty little programs, against your network. Installation is a snap, within 10 minutes of turning the router on I had my cable ISP service routed to 5 different computers without having to buy additional IP numbers from the ISP. The built in print server allows any normal parallel port printer to be shared by all of your networked computers. I also suggest that users of this router upgrade to the 2.15 beta version of the router's firmware. I've been running the 2.15 beta firmware for a few weeks and it's rock solid. 2.15's new features include the ability the discard WAN side ping signals and additional distributed server setups, 20 in total (this is where you redirect incoming traffic to different computers based on the port number it is coming in on).

I've been running the Linksys DSL/Cable router for over a year and have had nothing but problems with intermittent slowdowns, hesitations of up to one minute before my mail is sent and unable to hook onto the net without numerous reboots to my computers (2 macs and a Sony Vaio w/Win98) and even had Linksys send me a new replacement. I checked the DSL modem, my ISP, the DSL circuit, my OSs, the configurations, the cabling and the ethernet card and after changing it to the Asante FriendlyNet Cable/DSL router, it was like "night and day". Five minutes after it was out of the box, I was getting the quick DSL speeds I should have been getting. The router hummed along while I downloaded a 10Mb file, downloaded a 36Mb quicktime movie trailer on Apple's website and sent a color document to print over the router to my network printer...all at the same time! And the download speeds were quick with all of this activity at the same time. It took Linksys two days to get back to me to answer my support question which was normal, Asante picked up the phone within 3 minutes for the 3 times I called them. And if you own a mac, don't expect any help from Linksys. The Linksys goes to eBay to sell..."I pity the fool..."

The Asante FriendlyNet FR3004LC works exactly as advertised. And the best part is that it sets up in minutes. I bought one so I could share a cable Internet connection between a Windows PC and an Apple PowerBook laptop. I was concerned that I would have to do a lot of fiddling with the TCP/IP settings on my Mac. But set up was a breeze. It took about 10 minutes. All you have to do is plug in the cables, change the configuration settings to DHCP and Ethernet and you're set. We didn't even need to use the Asante Web site to set the router. It was ready to go right out of the box. Now me and my wife can work on our own computers sharing the same Internet connection. I would recommend the Asante router to anyone who wants to run a PC and a Mac on the same Internet connection.

The manual isn't great but getting this thing going is very easy. Asante' made it as simple as it could be. Other than what appears to be a misprint in the manual regarding the status LED, everything else with setup and functionality of this product was perfect. This is the second cable/dsl router I have purchased... I bought this one for the Shared Printer/COM port and it is well worth it. If you do not need the shared printer or com port, buy the FR3004 product. I never spend time writing reviews but feel this product was worth writing about.

This router is easy to setup. It is not a stateful packet firewall. It does not permit private LAN addresses other than on the 192.168 network. It will not allow a statically assigned DHCP address leases (for a print server perhaps).

It is fast and has a DMZ port as well as a backup modem port -for when your cable provider goes away.

If you dont need the serious features this firewall is probably just fine.

I recently had a cable connection installed and knew that I needed a router/firewall due to the "always on" fact. I'm so glad that I picked this router (I was looking at the Netgear/Linksys products) and the fact that it has a print server is another great feature. Installation was a cinch - log into the web-based control panel and select what type of connection you have, then the rest of the install is tailored to your specific service. It literally took me 10 minutes to install it! The same day of instal I checked the security log and noticed numerous attempts at port 111 (RPC), 27374 (SubSeven port probe) and 137 (NETBIOS)... I'd honestly say this is the best money I've spent on such a well-rounded product.

I used this router to successfully set up a home LAN off a DSL
connection with a PC, a laptop, and a Laserprinter. Setup went fairly
smoothly, but it was critical to run the WINIPCFG program on both
computers in order to release then renew the DSL lease once all the
connections were established. The printer connection was easy to set
up with the accompanying software and works well, allowing both
computers to share a HP LaserJet Series II printer.

First I bought linksys and I could not even make it work so I returned it back to the store. Then I tried Netgear RP114 router it still took me some time but I made it work it was definetely better than linksys. I realized that I needed to share my printer but Netgear did not have an LPT port in the back of the router so I bought Asante 3004LC router, it is a really great router it took me only couple of minutes to set it up and It required only one parameter to enter that's it!!.Well like linksys Netgear goes back to the store. Asante is simply the best PERIOD.

This product is well worth the price. I am not too familar with networking but this product was simple to use and has been working great for 3 months now. It is important to run the winipcfg program, though. At the Start menu, go to RUN. AT the Run prompt type winipcfg. Then press Release All. Then press Renew all. Thats it. You are ready to go. The printer is also simple to share.