Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys BEFSRU31 EtherFast Cable/DSL Router with USB & 3-Port 10/100 Switch

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

 

 

This is really an "out of the box" peripheral. I plugged it in, followed the instructions, and in no time, I had my desktop and my laptop sharing my cable modem.

The biggest advantage of this is the USB port. If you want to hook up a laptop, it'll save you as much as $50 or more because you won't have to buy a network adapter card. It's plug-and-play compatible with your USB port (though you do have to load a special driver).

The added bonus is that it creates a back-end LAN for all the machines hooked to it. That means for PC's with 10/100 cards and category 5 cables, you've got a 100 megabit highway for transferring files between those PC's.

If you want to know how fast that is... Imagine you have a 48x CD-ROM. Even with network overhead (there's next to no latency because there's only one router/hub and a few feet of cables between them), you'll be able to read files between PC's faster than you can read them off your CD-ROM.

I'm getting a new PC next week. With the transfer rate on the LAN, the entire time for copying files will be about 1/3 the time needed just to write them to a 16x CD-ROM. That's not including the time to break them into CD-sized chunks, move them between machines, and then copy them off the CD. The time savings on a few gigs translates into hours. Just from that, this thing will pay for itself.

It also makes synchronizing files on my PC and laptop a breeze. No more writing files to a CD-ROM or floppy to copy them over. Boom, baby! Just suck it down via the LAN. And if I want to download something big from the net onto my laptop, no more doing it at 56k or downloading it on the desktop and copying it over via CD. I now have high-speed internet access on both PC's... at the same time if I want it.

If you want to establish your own home LAN that shares a Cable/DSL connection to the Internet, getting a router like this is *totally* worth the money. And if you want to network in your laptop without having to buy extra equipment for it... the BEFSRU31 is the router for you! I'm loving it!

UPDATE - 6 weeks later: I now get a "network cable unplugged" error in Windows 2000 if I try to connect a PC to it via USB (I've tried on 2 PC's with 2 different USB cables to be sure). USB connections worked previously. I did everything they suggested including upgrading the firmware and re-installing the latest drivers off their web site.

Not having time to go through a return process because I needed to transfer some large files to my laptop the next day and back to my desktop a couple days after that, I bought a LAN card for my laptop. When all three of my PC's (2 desktops and my laptop) were plugged in via RJ45, the router started looping and slowed LAN transfer rates between my PC's to around the same speed as a 56k modem, though the broadband internet access does not appear to suffer.

Essentially, I can have 3 PC's connected for internet access, or 2 for LAN purposes. I should be able to connect 4 for both and even uplink it to a second hub/router for even more connectivity (theoretically, it's supposed to support up to 253 PCs). I e-mailed Linksys on Sunday. It has been four complete business days without a response. I tried calling and when I chose the option to hold for a rep (instead of leaving a message), that option was ignored and I was told to leave a message.

I have e-mailed them again, sending every bit of info they request (proof of purchase and date, online and offline contact info) and will see if they deign to respond this time.

In view of the person who wrote a review claiming his BEFSRU31 burned out twice and my recent experiences with it losing functionality (with Linksys providing most shoddy customer service), I have had to lower my rating from a 5 to a 2.

Super easy to set-up and use. I spent approximately 30 minutes reading the instructions and installing the unit. It worked the first time. I recommend reading the instructions before doing anything else. After you have configured the unit you can disconnect it from your USB port. When you want to add a computer to your network, you set-up that computer's TCP/IP configuration of it's Ethernet adapter to be assigned an IP address automatically. The router will assign one to the computer at the computers power-up. You only need one DSL account. You connect your DSL modem/router to the Linksys router. Your DSL modem/router sees the Lynksys as one user, unaware that there are several computers using the one connection. I could not see any significant speed loss having three computers all streaming video/audio at the same time. This thing is fast! If you want to share your DSL connection, I highly recommend this Unit.

Bought mine during the summer. Set up was easy and could not tell the difference between speed of my computers when hooked directly to the DSL modem or to the router. About 4 months after purchase the USB port went out. 2 hours on customer service and they still were not thinking it was the router so they sent an email to the next level of service. I was supposed to get an email from advanced support. 2 days later the error light came on and could not be cleared and all the ports stopped working. Emailed support and got a return authorization. Turn around time was about 3 weeks, was shipped back to me overnight UPS which surprised me.

This unit is great when it works, but reliability is a huge problem, and Linksys appears unwilling to stand behind its product when it continues to fail.

My first Linksys BEFSRU31 DSL router failed in less than a year and I was able to get a replacement under warranty. The second one failed in about a year and a half. I'm now shopping for a router made by a company other than Linksys. I give it two stars instead of one because it realy is an easy-to-use router. But, if the darn thing keeps breaking down, who needs it?

The product was working just great...until my warranty ran out that is. I bought the item back in August of the year 2001.. it didn't start malfunctioning 'til shortly before xmas of 2002. First the USB port went out and now I can't even communicate with the router and I can't even log on to the internet through the WAN port, I have to use the uplink port, but there is nothing I can do about it cuz...Warranty...expired!! I talked to Linksys and they said that I was pretty much on my own if I have no warranty and that they couldn't fix it if the warranty expired. There goes my money!... People.. don't waste your money on anything over $... I think I'm gonna purchase a cheap hub and link up that way rather than spend anymore money waiting for the warranty to expire before the thing goes out again!!

I had 2 of these go bad on me within a year. STILL waiting after 1 week to get the RMA to return the second one. It took me 2 phone calls and 5 e-mails to get that far! I'm starting to look at competitors products!

I bought this, unpacked it and plugged it in and everything started working no problem.. No configuration needed.. just change the password... and your off and running..