Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys WET11 Wireless Ethernet Bridge

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

Seems like many other reviews here ring true. Spent the better part of two days trying to configure this item in vain with at least four calls and three hours wasted with tech support just to end up with a bridge stuck in eternal boot mode (seems like a failing hard reset is not uncommon). Sent back to Amazon for a replacement and the new one worked like a charm after two minutes of hassle-free configuration (I would suggest linking it straight to your ethernet after setting a static IP on your pc and working via the bridge's IP address - skip the setup CD-ROM altogether - for detailed instructions, see Linksys' tech support website articles 304 and 534).

I use the bridge to connect a PS2 in our basement with our pc on the second floor (and opposite end) of our house and have a flawless connection with the BEFW11S4 router. I am very pleased with our final result - but very dissatisfied with the work it took to get here. My suggestion - if you follow directions and it doesn't work (i.e., stuck it boot mode, won't save your changes), don't mess with firmware, don't waste time talking to India, just return it for a replacement until it does work.

After reading the specs on the Linksys WET11 and downloading the user manual from their website, I decided to purchase a unit. I am very pleased with this product and it works as I had expected.

Setting it up was a breeze. The antenna is screwed on to the right side of the unit (which is surprisingly small). Plug in the power supply. I then hooked it up to a PC laptop with the supplied RJ45 cable and ran the setup program. I have an SMC Barricade 7004AWBR router with a built in wireless access point. The WET11 was configured to use the same SSID and channel as the SMC and then set to DHCP. All done.

The unit can then be connected to your ethernet device in one of two ways. One is directly to your desktop or laptop, for example. The other is to hook it up to a hub or switch and from there wire it up to one or more desktops or even laptops. There is a switch on the unit to select which mode will be used. While I do have a wireless card for the laptop, it's nice to have the flexibility of going wired for desktops.

The icing on the cake is that I now have wireless connectivity for my Mac Beige G3. I've been looking for a solution and the WET11 solves it. Before, I had to run a long RJ45 cable to it from the router. Now I can connect it to the WET11 through either of the two options mentioned and get on the web as before, except it's now wireless. One tip - set the Mac to a manual IP address. For some reason, setting the Mac for DHCP does not work. For me a very minor issue.

I have not seen any dropped connections for the few days I've had it and it sure runs cool. All in all, it has met my expectations, perhaps more so with the Mac. For the money, I see no comparable product out there. Check it out.

This tremendous and inexpensive piece of gear has two great features: one, you can plug any Ethernet device into it and thus attach it to a wireless Wi-Fi network; two, you can take a network of 30 or more devices connected in a wired configuration, and bridge all of their traffic to any access point within range. This lets you hook pods of computers together without wires, bypassing expensive or difficult drilling operations or wiring configurations. It's not perfect, as the full connection is the equivalent of less than the original 10 Mbps Ethernet, but it's an awful good solution for computer labs, homes that are too large for a single access point, or building small office networks. It's also worthwhile for community and neighborhood networks trying to extend their range.

I have a PS2, a Mac G4 running OSX and a Pentium Laptop running Windows 2000 and my ISP uses PPoE and dynamic IP addressing. At first glance, not an easy combination when thinking in terms of a home network. But then I read up on routers, and subsequently, wireless technologies and it's been a snap since then. I ended up going with the Linksys BEFW11s4 4 port 802.11b* router and the Linksys WET11 bridge. Both devices were super easy to setup and despite what the box and setup guide say...you CAN set the whole thing up from a Macintosh via your browser and system preferences.

Once up and running, you are able to set the WET11 up with any device using an Ethernet 10/100 port converting it to wireless. (In my case the PS2.) You can also connect up to 4 other devices via the router and a virtually unlimited number or other wireless, 802.11b compatible devices.. All will share your internet connection, even if its dynamically addressed from your ISP, and have access to printers, scanners and other devices sharing the network.

The system comes with a host of security options if you are concerned about hackers or outside hitchers riding your bandwith. I live in a very congested, tech savy part of San Francisco so wireless security is a huge issue. There are multiple levels of encryption, password protection, and filtering options to lock your system from all but the most determined hackers. You're never completely safe, but you can be confident with the options included here.

Performance wise, the system is above average. This will totally depend on where you live, what other 2.4ghz wireless devices you operate and the distance / walls separating the access point from the wireless connecting device. I have had 2 PS2s (one connected by cable the other wirelessly from another room about 50 feet away, playing SOCOM on 1.5mbps DSL) plus the Mac simaultaneously connected to the internet with little to no slow down. This is not to say the whole thing works flawlessly all the time. I have noticed that at times, especially during the day, lag can occur in online gaming with the WET11. I am assuming this is caused by outside traffic such as 2.4ghz phones and possibly other 802.11 devices. Again, the slowdown is very infrequent and negligable when it occurs. If this is a concern for you, you should look into 802.11a (still in development and about 3 times the price) devices that run on the 5.4ghz frequency which is less congested.

All in all, and if you've made it this far in my babbling, the combination of the Linksys 4 port router and the Linksys WET11 bridge should be perfect for those wanting expandability, compatability, reliablity and playability. Host a LAN party or head online solo from the comfort of your living room sofa, its all capable with this set up.

*(802.11b is the bottom rung of the wi-fi spectrum at the moment, which is the only thing that kept me from giving this 5 out of 5 stars.(11 mbps transfer rate compared the the 56mbps of .11a and .11g. This is only an issue when you transfer large amounts of data from one device to another or if you connect to the internet at T1 speeds) But it is also the most widely compatible and most cost effective of the three current technologies.)

I purchased this to connect my ReplayTV to my broadband DSL. It works great for that, and so I wanted to make sure anyone who had a broadband enables Replay TV or TIVO knew this thing would work with it. Thanks!

When XBox Live was looming on the horizon I started wonder how in the world I was going to get my XBox online. My TV is nowhere near my broadband connection and dragging a cable around wasn't an option. When Linksys introduced the wireless bridge, all of my problems were solved. I was able to easily connect my Xbox (and any other device which happens to sit near the TV) to my home network.

Think of the bridge as a device which extends your wired network, just without using a wire.. :) A wired network comes out of one side of the bridge, allowing you to connect a device that accepts a regular ethernet connection. If you need to attach multiple devices, simply put a hub or switch in the mix.

During the initial setup I had some problems. My wireless access point was up and running, but I couldn't connect to the bridge. It turns out I needed to connect it to my wired network to get the initial configuration correct. Once I did this the rest of the setup was a breeze and it has been working flawlessly ever since.

Again, for those people that are considering this for use with an XBox (or probably any other gaming console), I've had no problems. I regularly run game servers on my XBox and the bridge has been great.

Purchased this to use with the Playstation 2 network adapter to connect to my wireless router on another floor in the house. It works just as it should and is extremely easy to set up. I get a full 11 mbps connection wirelessly to my upstairs wirelss Linksys router. I recommend this for anyone looking to connect a gaming system or other components to a wireless network.

I purchased the WET11 bridge and the WAP11 access point for two reasons: to hookup my home office network and to play Xbox systemlink games.

The home office usage worked well from the beginning. Setup was simple and quick. My only problem with the home network was that I was losing my connection every two hours or so for a few minutes.

The home network requirement was important, but the reason that I chose Linksys over other wireless options was because of the potential of using the WET11 for Xbox systemlink play. I have two Xbox consoles that are too far apart to conveniently string a cable. The downstairs Xbox is on a wired router (also happens to be Linksys), but the upstairs Xbox was disconnected. To my disappointment, a technical issue prevented the WET11 from being the systemlink solution that I was looking for.

Things have changed! Linksys recently provided new WET11 firmware (version 1.5.4) for download. The notes included a cryptic reference to supporting Xbox systemlink play, but no details beyond selecting a new checkbox in the browser setup screen. Last week I finally had a chance to update to the 1.5.4 firmware in my WET11 and test system link. It works!

Here is my setup:

DOWNSTAIRS
===========
(Xbox #1)
. |
. |
(Linksys 4 port wired router) --- (Cable Modem)
. |
. |
(Linksys WAP 11)

UPSTAIRS
========
(WET 11 #1) --- (Xbox #2)

(WET 11 #2) --- (Laptop Computer)

I played around an hour of systemlink Halo with this setup. I noticed a couple of minor glitches, but overall it was a very smooth experience. This is what I have been waiting for! The trick after upgrading the firmware is to then use the WET11 web setup utility to enable the MAC cloning feature before plugging the WET11 into your Xbox. I am running in Infrastructure mode.

As a warning, I did not do thorough testing of all wireless scenarios. I have no reason to think that this isn't a solution for all Xbox wireless systemlink play, but try the scenarios below at your own risk.

(1) I have not tried to use 2 WET 11 units for systemlink. I have one Xbox wired to a router and one using a WET11.

(2) I have not tested Ad Hoc mode (since 2 WET11 units would be needed for that). I am running in Infrastructure mode since I am hooking into an existing network. Ad Hoc mode would allow the 2 consoles to be connected wirelessly without any other networking hardware.

(3) I did not test wireless Xbox Live with this setup. However, other reviews indicate that the WET11 was already a solution for that. I run Xbox Live from my wired Xbox.

The upgrade also seems to have improved my home office disconnect issues. I haven't had enough time to tell, but I seem to get disconnected less often and the signal seems to be available again almost instantly. I still have some troubleshooting to do and the new firmware has a signal testing tool that should help. For example, I found out that there are other wireless networks in range that are probably causing interference with my network. Based on that, I expect that I should be able to change some settings to improve my home network reliability even further.

Even though I have had some minor issues with Linksys technical support over the last couple of years, they have generally been very helpful. Also, even though the new MAC address closing feature was not well documented it was easy enough to figure out. Therefore, these issues did not lower my product rating.

We've used this device to connect our Turtle Beach Audiotron MP3 player, as well as our SonicBlue ReplayTV unit to the wireless network that is connected to the broadband connection. We would like to use this for our PS2 but can't find the network adapter anywhere.

I've also heard that it works great with the Xbox. If you have any of these devices (anything with an Ethernet port), get one of these to connect to your wireless network without having to run cables.

The device is extremely easy to set up, it takes less than five minutes to get everything running. Since this has come out I've seen wireless bridge's like this from two other networking companies, but I still love the Linksys.

The one obstacle that kept me on the fence in terms of deciding whether or not to purchase an X-Box Live Starter kit was the fact that I did NOT want cables running through my bedroom into my living room in order to connect my X-Box to my cable modem. The Linksys Wet11 Wireless Bridge was the answer to all my concerns. This smart little piece of hardware was very simple to install. All you do is attach it to your PC or laptop and load up the starter disk. From there it self-configures matching the settings of your wireless router (in my case I'm using the BEFW11S4 v2). Then you detach it from your PC and attach it to the X-Box or whatever ethernet hardware you need to use. I do hear that it works equally well with Playstation 2. Setup time was about 20 minutes.

I then popped the X-Box Live disk into the X-Box and was able to sign in easily. The connection has been fast enough to maintain connections to X-Box live without any lag in gameplay.

The Wet11 is a nifty little product that works great for me. Look, Ma, X-box Live with NO WIRES!