Customer Reviews

Linksys Network Everywhere 4-Port Cable/DSL Router

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Pluses:
Housed in a metal casing, this is very small unit. ..., this is a great bargain!

Negatives:
It runs very hot.
No cat.5 cable included.
No support for larger network (net mask is 255.255.255.0)

Firewall:
Portscan reports all but two ports were in stealth condition. HTTP and AUTH were in closed-status and accessible only from internal interfaces.

Administration:
This router is managed by HTTP interface.
NAT is configurable via browser interface.

Default setting is all you need.
Class C; 254-host support with DHCP.
100-line logs report inbound/outbound access attempts - but no time stamp.
Dynamic and static route can be viewed and edited.
10/100 switch works well and can function as stand-alone 4-port switch.
1st port can uplink to another switch/hub.
WAN interface MAC address can be cloned.
IPSec, L2TP, PPTP passthroughs are supported for VPN.
DMZ host can be defined.

I've geen waiting to get a router as a firewall in my home until they were dirt cheap, but good. Here it is...and it works great too. Any idiot could install this thing in minutes, although this idiot made a mistake I want to pass on: If you're using a software firewall like ZoneAlarm, make sure you disable it before installing this router. Although this tripped me up for only 5 minutes, I can see where this would cause a serious headache for a novice (then again, a novice probably doesn't have a software firewall). Other than my initial stupidity, setup is extremely easy and the thing works as advertised. Cheap firewall, and now my laptop can share my home broadband connection when I bring it home from work.

The only negative I can think of is that the thing runs hot. I'm sure this is normal and not a problem. Just make sure you don't stack anything on top of it.

So you're worried about someone hacking into your home or small office PC, right? You've been told by a friend who's into computers or maybe the super-busy computer guy at work that you ought to get a firewall to protect your system. Woah, sounds complex, over your head, right? Not so, this 4 port broadband router made by Network Everywhere (it's all Linksys underneath) is simple enough to set up that a 10 year old could get it working in just a few minutes. It's small, unobtrusive form doesn't do justice to what's inside. It's got all of the features of units costing thre times as much and even more than some of them have. Start with the setup wizard and make a few guided choices based on how you are connecting to the internet. The next thing you know, you're surfing just like you've always done, but now you're behind a pitbull tough firewall that will keep the hackers on their side of the line. I almost forgot to mention, this unit will even let you share your now protected internet connection with other computers in your household. It's got a total of four network ports to hook other computers or network equipment to. It comes with all of the cables and instructions needed to be up and running in no time. Can you tell I'm excited about this product? I'm actually the "busy computer guy" that manages a big computer network for a living. I'll be reccomending these to the people that stop me in the hall and ask what they shoud do for their home broadband connections. Quick, powerful and inexpensive, what more could you want?

This is a terrific broadband router that delivers what it promises: a fast solution to share an internet connection, printer, etc. in one's home. I bought it because it was the least expensive device of its kind that supported the cumbersome PPPoE platform. A mere twenty minutes after having received the router in the mail, I was happily surfing the internet in the comfort of my own room. The setup is that easy. All one has to do is follow the enclosed installation CD to the letter (with special attention paid to the instruction booklet that's also included in the package) and you'll be up and running in no time too. The router itself is rather small and heats up fairly quickly -- a minor inconvenience I should think. Needed in addition to the router is one RJ-45 cable to connect the router to one's modem. The cable one used to use to connect one's host computer to the modem can now act as a link to the router's first port. This is the path I chose and as such it required that I purchase only one more RJ-45 cable to connect my second computer to the router. Conclusion: great, inexpensive product from a reputable company. Highly recommended.

I am a home networking contractor. So, I have seen a lot of routers in my work. This little one is pretty impressive. It is of an old school style, it has a durable metal case. It is relatively easy to set up and has some impresseve features for the price. The DHCP ability is easy to use for Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP. Access to the controls are easy and done through the Internet Explorer by typing a default IP address. I set this perticular model up on a DSL connection. The POPoE was easy to access in the setup and it was rather simple to make it talk to the DSL modem. The firewall is simple and effective, and there are even options to limit it as well. Print sharing, drive mapping, file sharing, and network gaming are all possible with this router. I now recommend this to any client that is looking for a low-cost, easy alternative to the more expensive Linksys hardware. If you know what your doing, or even if you don't, there should be little problem getting this little box to do what you want it to.

5 minute setup(if that long).
I have WindowsXP n Windows98 on other computer, works great.
You really can't make a mistake.
Didn't need to use included CD.
Just use QUICK INSTALLION data included in box with router.
I run the router all day and it is Warm not Hot.
I would advise like others not to place on a rug though.
Actually never place any electrical or flamable items directly
on a rug(carpet).

My situation is that I was paying [$] a month for an Earthlink DSL connection for my desktop, then another [$] a month to connect via dialup on my laptop (Earthlink gives you 20 'free' dial hours in their DSL package, then $1 for each hour after 20 hours of use, capped at [$]). Since I work back-and-forth on the two computers all day, I was hitting that [$]cap consistently.

With that background, I purchased the Linksys Network Anywhere 4-port device. This unit does not come with any Ethernet cables. You need a total of three cables to connect two PCs. Most folks like me have one in place. So, factor the cost of two additional cables into your purchase price.

My only complaint is about the setup documentation - you're advised in a couple of places that unless you really know what you're doing, it's best to just allow the set-up configuration wizard to handle everything. Well, I ran through the wizard-controlled series of steps twice. At the each of each sequence, the program concluded "Link successful." A test revealed otherwise.

So I pulled up the detailed configuration manual (included on the CD in PDF format), and buried down in Chapter 6 ('Configuring the Router') there's this buried text about configuring a 'PPPoE connection.' The wizard assumes Dynamic IP, but the config guide reveals that you want to set up PPPoE 'whenever you require a user ID and password to connect to the Internet.'

Well, duh, that's like 85% of us (anyone using Earthlink or MSN, for example). So what's this text doing buried so deep in the manual? Anyway, you use a browser-based admin interface to configure the router with the User ID and password, then you're good to go.

Once you set up that first computer, it's easy from that point. Because the steps I described above configure the router appropriately, the second PC simply worked as soon as I connected the Ethernet cable.

My total cost, including two 3-ft. cables and tax, was [$]. That means I'll get a payback in a little less than four months. By any measure, that's a heck of a good deal.

I purchased this router in August of '03. It seemed to work great, although I did have a "freezing" issue whenever I would attempt to access files on a secondary computer on the network. Primary computer seemed to lock WinXP up for about 25 seconds each time. It only did it if I hadn't accessed the secondary's HDD for several minutes though. So I figured it must be some sort of communication issue between XP on primary box and 98SE on secondary box. But after reading about all these horrible experiences so many people have had with this thing, I now realize it was probably the router. I shall find out soon enough.

Yes, "Seemed" is in the past tense here, as this thing up and failed on me tonight - right out of the blue. As others have reported, "Diag" light stays on all the time and won't reset no matter how many times you push and hold the reset button. It's just dead. I'm pissed, because it only had a 1 year warranty. It did work for a little over a year, but come on - now I'm sitting here on a Friday night totally unable to use my network and unable to contact Linksys support until Monday. If I had known it was going to die right after the warranty was up, I never would have "saved money" buying this cheapest of routers at Fry's Electronics. Anything that dies right after it's 1 year limited warranty is up, in my opinion, is a total scam. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS(...)!!!

I have had this router for about 6 months and have no trouble with it. I installed it and haven't had to mess with it since. I did have a little trouble installing it, but I called the Linksys support and we got it figured out. The router is a good product and I found the Linksys support was pretty good. Would recomend

For basic functionality (sharing a broadband connection, file and printer sharing, etc), this is a solid little router with few, if any, reliability problems. I've had it running for almost six months, sharing a RoadRunner cable modem between a Win2k PC and a RH Linux PC, and I don't recall it dropping a connection or needing a reset.

The 'fun' starts, however, if you try to use some of the advanced functionality, like port-forwarding. I've tried everything under the sun to forward port 80 to my Linux PC (to run a webserver) but the router wil do so for a few hours (or minutes, or not at all!) then switch to forwarding it to my Win2k PC. As another reviewer here noted, this is a bug acknowledged by their tech support with no plans for a fix (I'm running the latest firmware). As far as I can tell, other features like forwarding non-standard ports (for P2P or voice chat) and the DMZ feature work fine.

If you need/like to tweak advanced features, then stay away from this router. But if you have no plans other than plain-vanilla internet, file and printer sharing, then this is not a bad purchase for the price.