Networking Reviews

I've done everything I can think of short of paying the long distance charge to call tech support to get this card to work. I've decided to sell the card to a friend and get another one that will work with WinMe.

A pleasant and very welcome alternative to the 'dongle' type LAN adapter for the Laptop PC. It was a breeze in my Windows XP machine, and Windows 98 worked fine. Windows 95 required the setup disk, but a very good performer. Although hard to mess up, Good job still for led placement and usefulness Linksys.

THE ONLY COMPLAINT -
If you have a INSPIRON 5000 series, or similar form factor, you know that the power plug was ignorantly placed next to the PCMCIA slots. Therefore the size of this card's slightly oversized plug-in 'port' was uncomfortable. Hope this was helpful.

I was walking through Fry's the other day and i came across one of these cards. Since it was an open box it was on sale for practically nothing. I decided to try it with nothing to lose.

My brother and i have two XP PC's connected to a linksys router with a DSL connection. We also have a laptop running win98 which has our old scanner and minolta digital camera running off it. (Why minolta doesnt have an XP update for its camera's beats the hell out of me.) With this card i thought this would be a perfect way to introduce a third PC to our network.

I know how difficult it is to set up home networks. Everyone complains about tech support so i really don't bother with them. Fortunately my brother and i have many (painful) years of experience with trial and error setting up networks so it has become somewhat easy for us now. However when Linksys was introduced to us let me tell you that it really is the best. We dont go with anything else other then linksys. No company has dedicated itself to networking then linksys. Its website is a testament to how dedicated linksys is to making great products and supporting them even when they are discontinued. Its online guide is unrivaled. Not even D-Link or 3com offers that type of support.

Many people on other reviews here experienced a little difficulty but not at the fault of this product. One person using WinMe could not install it. It is quite known that WinMe is inherently flawed particularly with networking. Another person had to install everytime they removed the card. That may be a hardware configuration conflict. If you read all the low reviews of this product they are all software or hardware conflicts. Not a defective card.

As for this card. there really is nothing much more to say. I plugged it in, installed the software, plugged in the network wire and was surfing at 1.5mbps and transfering pictures from my scanner and camera at 100mbps. It was literally that simple. Another great feature of this product is it has a link indicator with lets you know that you are actually connected to the network even if by configuration you are not. The only bad thing I can think of is that its difficult to pull out those RJ45 connectors but I don't plan to unplug it from the network anyway so its really no big deal.

Grab this product if you are looking for a PC card for your laptop. Even though I was lucky enough to find one for 10 bucks quite frankly I would have paid 4 or 5 times more for it.

Even though this kit clearly advertised that it contained "Everything you need to create a wireless network for TWO desktop computers" that turned out not to be the case. Because my current modem connected via the USB and not an ethernet card (like the majority of cable modem installations lately), I was told by microsoft that I would need to go out and purchase an ethernet card and an ethernet cable before I could use this kit to hook up both computers.

System works fine now that it's up and running, but since we already had a router connecting our computers, installation became incredibly tedious. The instruction manual gave basic instructions but left out important aspects (like in which spot to connect the cable to the original router).
Tech support was not good at all the first two times i called, and great the last time i called.
Microsoft tech support is kind of annoying overall because you have to go through a lot just to get to tech support (asking for your full name, address, phone number...then they give you a case number, and when you get connected to tech support, you have to repeat all of this information). It was kind of a pain.
The first tech support person wasn't helpful and had a pretty thick accent. The second got angry with me (she had no reason to because i'm harmless and don't get angry), and i'm pretty sure she hung up on me.
The third guy told me exactly what i needed to know, so if you can recommend which tech support you want to use, say Jed!
Anyway, after three days of messing around with all the cables and setting up everything, we finally got the base station running. The adapter was incredibly easy to set up.
If you know anything about network settings, you have no reason to use the software, and therefore no reason to update anything. We didn't end up using the software because it kept detecting the router instead of the microsoft base, so it didn't work. Even when setting up the adapter, the software was only needed to get the necessary driver. You can put in your own network settings.
This set is good if you don't have a lot of networking skills and only have the two computers to connect. That's pretty much the only reason to get this. I got it because it was pretty much the cheapest thing there, but in hindsight, i would have bought something that was easier to deal with.
Other wireless base stations can pretty much be plugged in and work without all the horrible installation problems, so i would definitely recommend something not by Microsoft.
As said in other comments, don't buy it just because it's Microsoft brand, because it is probably one of the worst brands out there.
In conclusion, get this if you're really concerned about the cost, looking for something simple to connect only two computers without an existing network, and not looking for something that's top quality.

If you have a broadband internet connection and multiple people in your house who need access to it... rather than fight over one connection, buy this kit! It's cheap, works great, and supports up to 4 additional remote desktop or notebook PC's (note: PC's only, non-Wintel, e.g. Apple computers, are not supported). The install was not quite as smooth as I would have liked. I got what turned out to be a phantom error (a false negative on a standard test built into the install program) and had to call Microsoft support. But they quickly realized the error was false and I completed the install with a little help from them. The end result is fabulous! My wife has high speed access from her office just below mine and we didn't have to pay the cable company for a second hookup and another cable modem. Now I can add a couple laptops and another desktop should the need arise by purchasing only the wireless adaptor and installing the software and putting in the encryption key (which you get at from your wireless base station using the included software). Performance is great... sitting at her desktop, I quickly forgot I was accessing the net wirelessly via my desktop one floor up.

I've had this router in its previous incarnation for about 18 months. I've finally gotten fed up and I'm replacing it. It constantly needs to be rebooted and it's a total pain. I echo all of the other negative reviews here. Next time I'm buying Linksys.

I bought this about 4 months ago to replace my Linksys HPRO200 router whose PPPoE wouldn't work with my new SBC Yahoo DSL and whose firmware hasn't been updated for the last two+ years. I must say this is a great product. Very easy to set up. If you know the basics about setting up a router, you can set it up in 5 minutes. You don't even need the CD that comes with it. Just connect the DSL modem to the router and the router to your computer and browse to 192.168.2.1 (the router's deafult IP address - this can be changed). The set up screens are very friendly. In my case (SBC Yahoo DSL), I just had to go into "Connection Type", select PPPoE and enter the log in id and password and it connected in a flash.

The unit itself is a lot more professional and elegant looking than the blue Linksys routers. It can be laid on the flat bottom or can be placed vertically using the small stand that comes with it. It also has a 4-port switch which replaced a Linksys switch that I had. The price is unbeatable [...]. I would probably have gone for a different model if I didn't already have a wireless access point, but what I was looking for was a basic router and this perfectly fits the bill for my needs.

Now the reason for giving this only 4 stars - One problem that I have with this router is that it hangs once in a while - once in a week or so. Since I keep this in my basement, that means a walk down there to reset it. I am not sure if this is a problem with this product or something in my house or on the network making it hang, but it never happened with the Linksys router (on the same network in the same house). It is a little annoying.

Although some people may say that setting up this router on Windows XP is difficult, it is actually easier to set up than one thinks. People say that setting up the internet is easy, but then setting up communication between users is difficult. however, all you have to do is edit a few settings in the Local Area Network. First, turn off the Windows firewall. Then, go to Network Connections> Local Area Connection> Properties> Advanced> WINS, and under NetBIOS setting, select" Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP. This should clear a path for the network to share between computers. Overall, this router is a good deal, and I have had no problems with the internet connection.

(...)
I currently use this LinkSys KVM with a Logitech USB Wheelmouse (Optical version with a PS/2 adapter). This optical Logitech mouse always seems to work well even with the PS/2 adapter for the USB mouse. The mouse always responds and works whenever the keyboard can control the KVM.

That said, I would like to point out one of the most irrating physical features of this KVM as well as others that are designed like it. It places connector attachments on three sides. Even with neat molded cables from (...), this configuration results in an 3-sided octopus like cable management problem. For those with limited desk space (or floor space) this is not a good (certainly not great) solution ~ maybe you should mount it to your wall! I actually mounted this monster to the bottomside of my computer keyboard stationary pullout support to keep it and the associated cables out of the way. I must lowly rate any KVM that uses more than 1 side for cable connections and attachments since one of the objectives is to reduce waste of working space with redundant cables, keyboards, mice, etc.

Additionally, although the Logitech optical mouse always responds whenever the keyboard also works, I've found on many different occasions that the 'Hot key' controls, [the ALT-CTRL-SHIFT-#-ENTER sequence], sometimes do not respond with PC's in certain operating conditions. This is especially true when ACPI or powersaving modes are in use on some PC's. To overcome this frustration it is necessary to manually cycle through the connected PC's with the one button (which slightly sticks sometimes - maybe its (...) plastic). This is inconvenient compared to the KVM's with fixed buttons for every connected PC.

If I had to choose another KVM for a small office, I would choose a KVM having physical buttons for each PC connection and also having all cable connections on one side - namely the back.

For the money, you can't beat this KVM switch. I use it with a Win98 machine, 2 NT workstations, and a Solaris8 x86 box. The only thing I've had to give up were the extended functions of my Logitech MouseMan plus mouse. On the Win98 machine, I can't use the mouse's wheel or the thumb button (which I had grown very used to using). On the NT boxes I can use the wheel, but still no thumb button. On the Solaris box - well, a mouse is a mouse, so you don't lose anything there.

I especially like the hotkeys - you can hit ctrl+alt+shift [1-4] to choose screens 1 through 4. There's another that allows you to automatically cycle endlessly through all screens, and another mode that lets you switch back and forth between screens screens by hitting the shift key.

Given the fact that there are cables going into all 4 sides of the box when you're using it with 4 PCs, it's nice that there's hotkeys to switch between screens, because there's NO way that hitting the button on the box will be practical.

Bottom line is that if you're a geek like me with a bunch of PCs that you want to access with a KVM switch, this is great. However, if you're a gamer with special mouse functionality being used, or a hardcore thumb-button user, you'll have to pass on this option.

This is a very simple KVM. Lacking the fancy bells and whistles of the more expensive untis, this one does it's basic tasks.

I bought this router because of its print server, however, this doesn't work with my Powerbook...it is a real disappointment!

I've had the DI-714P+ for about 3 months. I'm retired and live in a small ranch house, and have excellent results everywhere, including the deck and yard, front porch and basement. The router sits on an upper shelf in my den/office, about 2 feet from the ceiling. I use my HP Pavilion laptop in the wireless mode 95% of the time. Both my LAN and wireless are integrated, so no cards to mess with. I download very large files and applications (750 Mb was the largest so far) with no interuption whatsoever in downloading. However, it has dropped connections when idle, but mostly after coming out of hibernation or standby. Re-booting the router fixes this. It has gone for a couple of weeks without needing a reboot. Instllation was a breeze, having it up and running in less than 30 minutes. The print server worked for a while, then stopped working. I actually think it was something I did when messing around with configurations, and haven't gotten it fixed yet - I just dock it when I want to print something. As for conflicting with my 2.4 Ghz phone, I've not noticed any problems. It's not perfect, but for my needs does an excellent job.

Have had the router for a week now and after the setup hassle, it's worked well. My old Lexmark Z32 inkjet printer works fine after turning off bi-directional connection. I'm using a Netgear MA521 notebook adapter after incredible frustration with the D-Link adapter originally purchased.
I thought the Quick Installation Guide could be more clear-then again I've never done this before. Use the D-Link FAQ site-it helped me figure out how to attach to AOL.

This router may appear to work fine, but I assure you it is a momentary occurrence. It will spontaneously reboot, interrupting your connection, eventually completely preventing any connection as it cycles through a reboot process continuously. Sometimes this will happen immediately, sometimes after a year or two of working perfectly. Netgear will send you a replacement router if the hardware doesn't work (which is what this problem is). However, they can send you one that has the same problem, since this issue has never been fixed by them. Before you consider, do a web search of this model and "spontaneous reboot" you'll see many have had this problem, and the final resolution seems to be purchasing a competitor's router. Save yourself the aggravation. Not to mention the aggravation of an inept and unreliable tech support staff based in India.

I purchased a FVS 318 on March 2004. FVS 318's administrative interface allowed me to change HTTP port forwarded traffic from web server 'A' to web server 'B'. However, FVS 318 never implemented these changes I made within the administrative port forwarding interface. FVS 318 continued to forward traffic to web server 'A'. Nothing short of resetting factory settings would allow me to reconfigure HTTP port forwarding. Not acceptable for a small business.

Netgear technical support (located in India) was ineffectual. Both support technicians were clueless regarding Web Services, HTTP Headers, and DNS. After 45 minutes I was told the firmware on my recently purchased FVS 318 router was two versions behind the latest 2.4 version. Neither support technician could confirm a firmware upgrade would resolve bugs regarding reconfiguration changes to HTTP port forwarding.

Fortunately, once FVS 318 was operating the latest 2.4 version firmware, HTTP port forwarding could easily be modified.

I have lost faith in Netgear. Netgear appears to sell products which are not fully quality tested. Given my difficulty with port forwarding, I can only imagine the bugs awaiting my implementation of VPN and/or Network Printing.

I choose to spend my money on a Cisco SOHO 90 series router.

In the future I will give greater credence ti other customer reviews. (reviews not written by Netgear representatives)

This device works great and has been the best of it's kind I've used for the price range. I currently access about 6 of these devices using SofteRemoteLT on a daily basis and I am very pleased with the performance. The VPN is rock solid and great for running terminal services over. If you are looking to send files over your VPN, I only got about a 6Mbps throughput rate when I used Chariot and 3DES to test it in my lab (my Linksys BEFSX41 got about 16Mbps).

For a few of my clients I've even set up "static" tunnels using the FVS318 and Linksys BEFSX41's as "clients". The performance is fantastic and it is the configuration I recommend for people connecting to the office from home. Using DDNS on both the FVS318 and the BEFSX41 work great for dynamic connections.

As for people having connections drop or trouble routing traffic to internal networks, I suggest they read up on how to properly set their key lifetime and learn how to setup static routes. It is also important to realize that you have to have each network on a different subnet in order to route traffic successfully :/ As for those having trouble with port forwarding, I suggest you RTFM. Regardless of your troubles, there are plenty of resources on the web to help you set up rock solid VPN regardless of the make or model.

My only criticism is that the latest firmware v2.4 seems to be a little buggy when using PPPoE. If you connect to a DSL provider using PPPoE I would either downgrade to firmware v2.3 or look for another solution. If you have a DSL provider that doesn't use PPPoE, then enjoy!

HTH

I recently bought one of these mp3 players and have enjoyed it. The 256mb size holds enough music to fill all the boring spots in school, with enough space left over to transfer a few files. The sound quality out of this thing is great. While it doesn't have a random button, it does play songs in order of insertion so grouping by sound works.
The voice recorder works great, but only records at 64k quality, compared to the mp3s at minimum 128k quality. Also, while it is enough mic range to record little notes to yourself, it can not record lectures done by teachers.
My only real gripe with this product is the trouble I have had in making it transfer files in Mac OS 9.1. Every time I try, the whole computer hangs on the copying message. Other than that, it is a handy little thing to have.

I justified my purchase of this gizmo because I needed a voice recorder. It works fine but I found out that you need to press a series of buttons to record. I needed something more convenient.

My real desire was to have a small lightweight MP3 player. This accomplishes that in spades. Very easy to use-plug into your USB port and transfer MP3s to it. Plug in your earphones and away you go.

256 megs is about 3-4 hours of music total. I've never loaded it that much. It has the most amount of memory that I've seen in a MP3 player this small. This things not much bigger than a flash drive unit. By the time you add space for the extra electronics to play MP3s, battery and a LCD screen, it's amazing that they could keep it this small.

Controls are limited. Basically you have volume and skip forward, backward. There are some equalizer presets to change the sound but no actual bass or treble control. Random would be nice but not available.

Also, it doesn't come with an armband-only a cord to hang around your neck. Not too convenient if you are going to exercise or do something that requires a lot of movement. In fact, the small size of this unit caused me to make a mistake. But it also shows that Buslink has good customer service.

I was using it when I would do yardwork, etc. Instead of using the neck cord I put it in my pocket. My body movement caused too much pressure on the earphone jack. It caused the connection to become unstable. However, I emailed Buslink with this problem and they sent me a RMA number within 1-2 days. I need to send it back but was able to jury rig it to keep working. I hate to be without it for 3-4 weeks to send it back.

In a nutshell, it's a great little MP3 player, very small, lightweight. Also functions as a voice recorder and flash drive. If you want more storage or more audio features, look elsewhere. But if you want an MP3 player that is practically unnoticeable, get this one.

I bought it too and that a nice stuff ! I bought it on ebay @ 30 + 15 shipping. cheer Target ! :)

The Linksys EPSX3 EtherFast 10/100 PrintServer3 is used for making your printer independent on the 10BaseT and 100 Mbps networks. You hook up your printer/printer cable to the Linksys EPSX3 EtherFast 10/100 PrintServer3 and your network cable to the RJ-45 port.

It comes with it's owm AC plug-in power supply, Status and Error Lights.

Hookup is easy but when it comes to software, you need to install the driver for the printserver on each PC that need to use it. You also need to select SC811326_p1 Printserver port and install your printer driver on each PC. Remember to select "LOCAL" printer port because the instructions tell you to do it.

Overall, after the software is install the right way, this Printer Server is the best thing that I bought because it makes the printer independent. Any PC can now print reguardless of other PC's.

This print server took less than 10 minutes to set up, and it works like a charm. There's only 4 steps to the whole process:
1. Connect the print server to your network.
2. Connect the printer to the print server and turn the printer on.
3. Connect the power cord to the print server.
4. Install the software on your computer.

It worked right out of the box for me. It detected my Epson Stylus color 600 printer correctly immediately, and setting it up to print on my computer was very straight-forward. I did make some changes to the configuration although that is not necessary. I just like to run a thight ship, so I gave it a static IP address (by default, the DHCP client is enabled), and disabled the protocols that I don't need.

The print server supports AppleTalk, so it should work with Macs as well as Windows computers. However, there are no drivers for Linux, but it supports IPP, so it should be possible to print to it from Linux boxes as well.

Update: Here's one minor issue I've found: I'm printing out pictures that I've taken with my digital camera. These pictures are fairly large, and when printing out several images at the same time, you'll get a warning saying the print server is busy. The message does go away, and the image will print... As I said, minor nuisance.

After reading the reviews posted by other users I was a little nervous about whether or not this would work OK with Windows XP, so I called Linksys prior to purchasing to find out if my three printers would work. They confirmed they would, although they didn't sound too sure about it. I have the following printers:
1. HP LaserJet 6P
2. HP LaserJet 5P
3. HP DeskJet 722C.

I connected the hardware, as per the Quick Set-up guide, and then ran the Configuration Wizard from the CD on my three machines:
1. Server running Windows Server 2000
2. Desktop running Windows 2000 Pro
3. Desktop running Windows XP Pro

The print server was quickly detected on my PC running Windows Server and the printers were added quickly and easily. On the other two PC's I had to install the three printers I wished to use as local printers, but this is also covered in the Quick Set-up guide.

All-in-all it was a quick and easy set-up, probably about forty minutes from start-to-finish. One thing I must mention though is that I do not have Windows XP's Internet Connection Firewall enabled as I am using a Linksys WRT54G Wireless router as a firewall. Once I had the system up and running I turned on the Internet Connection Firewall and could no longer connect to my printers. So if you are a Windows XP user you MUST turn off the Internet Connection Firewall in order to use this product.

There are at least three versions of this router with the print server. Mine is DI-704P revision B

This is a great print server "when" it is working. Unfortunately, it gets hot and unexpectantly quits working. I live in Calgary, Alberta and the temperature has been bitterly cold during the last two weeks. I keep the house temperature around 65 deg F in the winter and the router is well ventilated.

To get it working again, I have to unplug it and let it cool down. Then I have to reset the router. I have two other DLink Routers, a DI-604 and a DI-624. The first time that this happened, after reading the manual, I assumed that the router is reset using the same proceedure as my DI-624.

After trying many times, I contacted DLink and found out that I was not using the correct proceedure. So, I went back to my manual to see if I had misread the instructions. I discovered that something got lost in the translation from Chinese to English.

I have had to unplug (to cool) and reset the router about four times in the last two weeks and have decided to give up and replace it with the DI-604 that I had previously used. This router was purchased in September or October, 2003 and should still be under warranty. I will wait to see what DLink will do.

The DI-704P router runs considerably hotter than my other two routers. The high temperature has been reported by others on DLinks website. My experience seems similar to what others have reported.

I was thrilled when I first installed my DI-704P last summer. Internet connection sharing is a breeze, and the print server was a great feature. I soon found, however, that Windows (98, 2000 and XP) would often fail when trying to print to either of my Canon printers (BJC-2100 and S750) using the print server. I had to reconfigure Windows to print directly to the printer, which causes the program doing the printing to hang until the printing is complete. Even at this setting, the print job will often fail, requiring a re-boot of the PC. I have better luck when I cycle the power on the printer JUST before sending the print job, but that really shouldn't be necessary.

The firewall has recently began to give me problems, following a firmware update to version 2.70. I use Lotus Notes and an IBM AS400 Client emulator to access my company's VPN from home. Both programs worked flawlessly through the DI-704P until recently. Now, I have to physically bypass the router by re-plugging ethernet cables to get onto the VPN. I tried to configure the DMZ (which supposedly bypasses the firewall for one computer), but found that when I set a static IP address for the computer (as required by DMZ), I was unable to access the internet. Firewall settings are VERY spartan, and some seem to be completely ineffective even after several re-boots of the firewall and all client PCs. Overall, the management software for the DI-704P is severely lacking.

Technical support is limited (almost non-existant), but that's par for the course these days. Their web site offers firmware downloads and a FAQ section, which is very sparse on meaningful information.

I've set up several SMC and Netgear routers for my clients, and currently plan to replace this DI-704 with an SMC "SMC7008BR Cable/DSL Router with 8 Port Switch" (Amazon has a great price!).

My recommendation? Bah - skip this product and look for comparable products from SMC or Netgear.

This product works exactly as advertised. We have two computers in the house and our previous setup was with one of the computers being the gateway to the outside (via proxy server software), connected directly to the cable modem. The gateway computer also shared the printer off of its parallel port. Without going into any of my issues with finicky proxy software, this setup just did not work well. Whoever was using the other computer when I decided I wanted to reboot the gateway machine, lost all Internet connectivity and the ability to print. It was a requirement that if the other computer wanted to get on the Internet or print, the gateway computer had to be up.

Enter the D-Link DI-704P. This little box solved all of our problems with needing the gateway machine to be on to access the Internet. Now both computers are peers on the network and can reach the Internet and print without any regard for the other computer. This also bumped us up from a 10Base-T network to a switched 100Base-TX network. All of our problems are solved!

Never could hook up the printer, but it worked OK for a while until it started making erratic connection with the cable modem. Then "POP", a bad smell, and I'm out $100!
Serial FR14A278A011564

I read the other reviews here with some dismay before I bought this unit. I decided to go ahead with the purchase because I had spent a lot of time researching router/switch combos with print server capability and true SPI firewall capability. There are not a lot of reasonably priced options out there. In summary this unit has performed like a dream. I had two PC's, a NIC laserprinter, and a parallel port printer (via print server) all plugged in, configured with my DSL service, and all up and running in less than 30 minutes. Please note that BEFORE I purchased this unit I made 3 separate "pre-sales" calls to Netgear tech support and received what I considered to be good information in each instance (I even placed a call at 3am one morning to check if they really were 24/7). Read the installation guide from cover to cover BEFORE you actually DO anything and you will probably find (as I did) that this is a no-brainer deal.

Thought I'd throw in my 2 cents:
Seamless, brainless install for network connectivity.
Printer driver works fine, but install on 2 *very* similar machines was oddly different (see a previous review).
Didn't have to put the game machine in the DMZ, or even setup any port forwarding, it worked right out of the box with stock settings (thank you Netgear). Have played Unreal Tournament 2003, Quake 3, and Soldier of Fortune 2 straight out of the box. It's sooooooooo nice not having to f**k with network settings when all you want to do at the end of the day is play a round or two of a game. DSLReports.com actually shows a slight increase in upload/download speeds, so there's probably no difference compared to my previous PC/firewall machine, and from what i've seen, my software firewalls are all reporting about 99% less activity. The print server feature is pretty sweet. All this ... is pretty amazing and a great buy.
-Hope this helps the curious-