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If I'd read the review dates more carefully, I'd have noticed that most of them were many years old, going back to 2001 or earlier. No, I said, it's brand new. Bad decision. I admittedly bought this in a bit of a hurry, as it was for a nearly-late birthday gift for my son, who had just moved into a new apartment and wanted a router for his new cable service. Knowing that would have altered my buying decision.Prospective buyers, be aware that you will not be able to get support for this router without paying a fee - this thing has NO WARRANTY COVERAGE from the time you open the box. We were told that it was out of warranty.
But it was all looking older and older.Unfortunately, the router wouldn't work right away, and after getting information from the cable company to no avail, we called Linksys support to get configuration help with our "brand new" router.
This I failed to do, however (my bad, I know).I knew something was out of whack when I opened the sealed package, and discovered a layer of dust coating the top of the router.
Properly configured, it has worked fine for the last week.
The reviews for this model sounded good - and I have another model from Linksys that works fine - so I took the bait.
Checking the model and serial numbers, the tech assured us that it was indeed well out of warranty and offered to provide support for a charge of $29.95 We turned down that generous offer and figured the configuration out for ourselves.
The included ethernet cable refused to plug into the back of the router - a bad cable end - so I replaced it with a cable of my own.
Entering setup, I found a primitive UI and limited set of choices; there was enough there, though to set it up for what he wanted.
But I call it unethical to fail to mention in the product description that the new product you are purchasing is NOT COVERED by the expected manufacturer's warranty.
It may be new to you, but not to Linksys.
At first, I was just doing some light surfing and e-mail, and it almost seemed to be working. the 1.5M I had). This lock-up failure is easily repeated and reproduced. In the meantime, I tried using this Linksys router again, (hoping for a miracle I guess), but with the heavier traffic volume I'm able to produce with the 5x speed improvement, the router now locks up almost immediately. When this occurs, there is no way to clear it besides powering it off (such as by pulling the cord). I initially figured it was the cable company, the modem or something with my computer.
But those initial assumptions were wrong.After deeper investigation, I tracked down the problem to the router. With a heavier traffic load (such as downloading large files, online gaming, etc), the router will lock up. I've owned this router for several years. Other people I've met with this series of router have had the exact same problems, and all the evidence points to a severe design flaw with the BEFSR11 itself. The horror story of the BEFSR11 could end there, but sadly it does not.Recently, I moved to a new house and my new cable company has a much higher download speed (7.5 M vs. My trusty D-Link router is still back at the other house where my wife is living and working until we complete the final move to our new house. Even if you can get one for free, avoid this router.
After this it usually begins working again.at least until the next time it locks up.minutes, hours or days later depending on how much internet traffic you're producing. Every now and then, I'd encounter a lock-up, and I'd just reset everything (modem, computer & the router) to get it working again. I've tried all versions of the firmware, and none of them fix the problem. Allow it to stay off for about 10 seconds, and then power it back up. Eventually, I bought a DLink router and it works flawlessly. In fact some of the versions are worse, causing the unit to lock up during even light internet activity like e-mail. It's simply not worth the frustration.
The thing BARELY works, it locks up, linksys' support is a joke, their latest firmware still doesn't help. This thing is a piece of garbage. You'd think in 3 years they could fix the bugs. I had one sitting in a drawer that I quit using a while back (replace with something better). I pulled it out the other day for a different application, and now I remember why it was in the drawer. the problem is they don't care. It's now in the garbage, as the cheap flimsy case isn't even useful as a door stop.
it will not reset the password. I've been using this model for two months. I can still connect to the internet through it, but I can't change any settings because even when I power it down, hit the reset, do both at once etc. It may be fixable by updating firmware, but that's a pain. Also remember it only has one port, If I bought a router today I'd get the standard a standard multiport.
There ought to be a class action lawsuit against Linksys for making a product this poor - there is simply no excuse. This router is a piece of garbage. I've known several people who have these (or the 4 port version) and they all have problems with it locking up, and there is no way to fix it besides pulling the plug. Didn't they do any testing at all before releasing it to the public.Their ethernet cards are total garbage too - they cause your computer to spontaneously reboot under heavy network traffic. Do yourself a favour, and don't buy Linksys.
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