Customer Reviews

Linksys W11S4PC11 Wireless-B Network Kit

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Linksys makes a good product, but 802.11b is several years out of date. For the same price as this router you can get an 802.11g which is much faster, has better range and will be more reliable.

I purchased the Linksys router/hub about 5 months ago based on reviews and talking to IT co-workers. I was surprised at the ease of setup and installation. I have 5-6 PCs (using MS Win 98, MS Win 2000, XP Home and XP Prof) networked at home. One recommendation I took from written reviews was to put some money into Orinoco Gold Wireless PC-Card NICs. I'm also running a couple of wired connections via 3Com NICs. Everything has worked beyond my expectations. After 15 years of working in IT, I'm fairly hard to impress, but this is one thing that I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Setting up the access point was a little difficult, but once the right settings were tweaked, this thing hums along with little problems. The signal strength is high even to the backyard: makes working outside on the nice days easy. The security options are nice, since this can screen wireless cards unless you input their hardware address. Some fiddling with ports was necessary to get the virtual private networking (VPN) to go through correctly, but some help can be found on the internet. This access point also plays well with other vendor's PC cards.

However, there are some issues with the PC card. This setup comes with version 4 (v4) of the card. There are SEVERE issues if you need to use a VPN to log into work. This card simply will not do it--but oddly, version 3 (v3) WILL. This is known on Linksys' website, but no fix is available. The v4 also seems to get worse reception than v3.

Overall, it can work well, but be careful with the version of the PC card.

I received the package yesterday. It took me less than one hour to read the instruction and complete the installation of the router and adaptor card. The version 4 adapter card came with the kit works great on my Windows 2000 laptop. Actually, it's signal strength is much better than the version 3 adapter card that I have. I got more than 80% of the signal strength even with the router and laptop separated by two floors in my house. I was worried reading an earlier review regarding the problem with the version 4 adaptor, but that turned out to be unfounded.

I previously bought the D-link wireless set and could not get it to work. I had nothing but problems. I returned both items. I just bought the linksys network kit with the wireless router and notebook card. I hooked everything up and was very pleased everything worked immediately and I didn't have a single problem. I am able to go throughout my entire house and outside in the yard and be connected to the internet. I occasionally get a dropped connection but that is not a problem as far as I'm concerned. I think the linksys wireless is the best.

Everything works well on this router. I was able to install it and get everything up and running in just a few minutes.

The only complaint that I have is that my old Linksys router had a DMZ port on the back that could be configured to be permanently outside the firewall. This made it great for hosting internet games like Ghost Recon. I could switch between DMZ and firewall by just moving the cat5 cable. This router doesn't have that port. Instead, you have to configure a static IP address to be outside the firewall. This one is not as easy to switch between Firewall and DMZ.

The wireless range is good. I put the router in my basement and I can connect with my laptop in every room in the house. Including the second floor (3 floors above the basement). The signal strength is excellent and the signal quality is excellent.

Was online in 5mins with my wired network and 15 with my wireless network. Highly recommend

After installing 4 different systems; including: Belkin, D-link, Netgear, and Linksys, and being dissatisfied with all 4, i went back to the Linksys system which consistently showed the best signal but also seemed impossible to maintain a cable link. The tech i spoke with told me to download the firmware via a wired connection to flash the router. Once this was done i never had another problem. I have since connected the signal booster and can access the internet with outstanding signal from anywhere on my property.

I bought this item because I heard good things about Linksys technical support and didn't trust myself installing networking gear. However, the instructions and software that came with the unit were a breeze, probably because I already had my desktop up and running connected to my DSL modem. It took less than 10 minutes from opening the box to having the desktop up running through the Linksys router (only because I stopped to read some instructions), and a little longer to configure the wireless network card on the notebook.

Probably another hour to figure out WEP security and configure ZoneAlarm on both desktop and notebook to allow file-and-print sharing without being open to the world.

What a breeze!

I recommended to one of my friends that they buy this product. They wanted to share an internet connection and the Linksys products I use and have installed for other people in the past have been great. Installation was a snap but we could not get the wireless device to be able to access the internet. The desktop PC plugged into the router with a cable worked, but not the wireless device. After 4 hours of trying all different types of things, downloading updated drivers, and two calls to Linksys support, I returned this. I bought the separate router and separate PC card, installed it and had it working in 10 minutes. The PC card in this bundle is marked as version 4 and the one we purchased separate was a version 3 card. Not sure what the deal is but I couldn't get this product to work with a Windows 2000 laptop.