Networking Reviews

Stay away from DLINK if you expect ease of use or have mixed operating systems (XP and MAC)!!!

OK, first of all, the documentation for this product is really poor. If you were to follow the instructions step-by-step I'm pretty sure you would never get it working properly since they leave a lot of stuff out. However, if you are somewhat techwise (were you able to install the wireless network by yourself?) you should be able to get it running. Once you get it going though you never have to touch it again.

I've got 2 laptops (one Win XP and one Win 2000) connected to a Netgear wireless network that can now print to our new Epson Stylus C84 printer. The performance is great and its a convenience to be able to place your printer anywhere you want and not have to attach it to a computer. I was able to get it to use 128 bit WEP and MAC authentication on our network.

Pros:
good performance
convenience
configurable web interface

Cons:
horrible documenation
Only USB 1.x support (would have liked to have seen USB 2.0 support)

All in all, though, I am very pleased with this product. If you have an all wireless network with only laptops this is a great product to consider.

I REALLY like the small size of this unit. It fits great into my new home office setup where I don't have a lot of space near the printer, or an easy way to route a long USB cable.

It is true that the quick start guide is only for Windows XP. I was able to follow the instructions and get everything working on the first try. The only problems I had were with friggin' Windows, not the DP-311U.

Once I had it set up in Windows, I added the Linux connection to the DP-311u's LPR deamon via CUPS and it worked the first time.

I did not bother with the d-link admin program. I never inserted the CD into my CD drive.

Corrections to other postings: 1. This is definately wireless, you only need a 10BaseT wire when you first set it up. 2. There is a "Reset" button that must be pressed with a pin.

I had written a prior review last March with 5 stars, and it came back to bite me. I had bought 2 of these in April 2002, and they worked great for just about a year. Shortly after I wrote my first review, one just died completely, and about a month later the second one started acting up. Other reviewers have had the same problem with it, and I wouldn't have normally cared, except the aggravation I went through with Netgear. Their tech support at several levels was a total waste of time (several hours and days). Granted, they were all polite on the phone, but it seemed they have a "pre-programmed/robotic" response and trouble shooting steps, which had me going in circles over and over again. Never did any one ever even acknowledge that the card could actually have "died", and thus did not want to stand by their so called "life time warranty". I could only blame myself for going through that tech support charade. I have since abandoned phoneline networking, in favor of wireless. I have put Netgear in the same "outcast" category as Linksys,... and Hail to (that's how I spell networking relief) D-L-I-N-K.

Now I know why Netgear has discontinued this product. The product consistency is very poor. I have gone through probably about six of these network (PCI) cards, all outside of warranty. I did have one that lasted a little over a year. I recent bought two used PA-301's and they gave up the ghost in less than a month (one died in just the first day). I would recommend purchasing the PA-101 instead. I have that on my laptop ( it is the USB model) and it has never given me any trouble. I'm going to replace my PCI card with a USB one. The PCI cards don't seem to stand up well against power bumps or static discharges. I use a UPS for my computer, so I think I'm well protected against power spikes, but the card still gets fried. None of my other PCI cards (video, sound, etc) gets damaged. If you have to go the HPNA route, I recommend the USB model PA-101 instead of the PCI cards. They're too inconsistent. When they work, they work great; they just lack the stamina to go the distance.

I bought two of these cards to network both my children's computers which sit in each of their bedrooms at one end of the house. The card physically is very easy to install, provided you have an empty PCI slot (if not, then use PA-101 USB adapter). One computer runs W98SE, and the second runs ME. The driver CD works fine, even better with ME since driver installs automatically. It plugs into any working phone jack, and you're all networked and ready to surf the net. Everything needed is included in the package. You can be on line and still use your phone without any degradation in either signal. The 10X connection is quite fast and not noticeably different than your 10/100 wired ethernet connection. I have a broadband cable modem, hooked to my router. One of my router's LAN ports is hooked a phoneline bridge (Netgear PE102, another great product), and the bridge to a phone jack. I definitely recommend this card, with a bridge, if you want to set up a home phoneline network.

I just received the BEFW11P1 wireless router on July 23, 2001. Installation was pretty straight forward. I just followed the instructions. My setup is a desktop PC with CAT5 ethernet, Dell Inspiron 8000 with Dell truemobile 1150 wifi card, & Hawking 5 port hub.

Everything works as advertised, except, when I try to move large amounts of data the router locks up and no computer can network (wired & wireless). I have to unplug the router for a few seconds and it will work again.

There is a firmware patch on the linksys site. I haven't yet tried it.

As for the range, I have used it indoors 50 ft away with 3 walls in between, I still can get about 1Mbps.

The Linksys BEFW11P1 is an excellent router. Installation was a snap, I simply plugged it in, connected from my internal switch to the router and from the router to my cable modem. I then reset the cable modem and I was done.

Ease of use is something I would expect out of a broadband router these days, so were it only this, I would rank it only satisfactory. What makes it excellent is the easy to use web-based administration interface. I was able to get in from many different machines (you can set a password to protect it) including machines running Mac OSX, Win98, Win2000 and WinXP. I like how you can setup different users and groups based on MAC addresses and limit the access given to each to the outside world (packet filtering). Wireless worked like a charm, however I had to enter my 128bit password in by hex code instead of generating it by password, but that was not a big deal. I already had a wireless network going using Linksys' plain old wireless access point, so the conversion to using this product was very easy.

All in all, a great piece of hardware.

I bought the unit because I run a laptop-only network at home, and did not have a desktop unit to use as a printserver. I had never set up a router OR a wireless network before. Even so, it only took about an hour to read the manual and set up 2 laptops, a DSL connection, and an NEC laser printer, all with 128-bit encryption. I'm running W2K on one laptop, W98 on the other. The only glitch in the setup was that the web-based setup program asks for a username and password which is NOT given in the manual (HINT: try "admin" and "admin" -- change this after setup so that your neighbor doesn't alter your settings).

Since I'd heard bad things about the Linksys PCMCIA cards, I purchased 2 Orinoco Gold cards instead. I'm extremely satisfied with this combination. It is truly a "set-and-forget" device. I have had no problems with printing and websurfing from both laptops at once. The speed is excellent. The printserver is rock stable. It even reacts appropriately to out-of-paper errors, and resumes correctly when the paper is replaced. The range is limited, but I'm working in a noisy environment (New York City). Moving the 2.4 GHz cordless phone to the other side of the room helped.

I've seen a lot of lousy reviews of this device, but I've been completely happy with mine. (Once I figured out the setup password).

I'm extremely unhappy with the Belkin OmniView SOHO Series 4-Port KVM DVI Switch with Audio. I'm sure most of this applies for the VGA version

1) It is nearly impossible to connect a cable to the console DVI Connector. Belkin had to overnight a special extender to connect the monitor DVI cable to the KVM.
2) Connecting the Power Adapter to the KVM blocks one of the peripheral USB ports.
3) It's absolutely impossible to put on the cover (i.e. cable management cover) if you connect the four (Belkin) cables to it.
4) Connecting only two PCs with a resolution of 1600x1200 to the KVM resulted in green shadows for one connection. (both NVidia cards GeForce 4 (4200 series) and a Geforce 5 (5200 series)
5) The Microsoft Wireless Keyboard doesn't work as stated in the manual. I did manage to plug in the wireless dongle connector to the USB mouse port on the KVM but now I can't use the hotkeys to switch between computers. Belkin has also indicated that wireless keyboards don't always work as stated in the manual

6) There isn't a FAQ or software/firmware upgrade listed for this device. I would recommend checking out the belkin support pages or lack there of.

I'm pretty dissatisfied with the 2 KVM switches I've used so far. This (the Belkin OmniView) is the second one. An IOGear was my first and it suffered primarily from a problem where it masked the true identify of my mouse and keyboard (it only offered "standardized" versions of both to attached systems). They both barely perform the basics.

What's wrong with this unit?

1. It's not trustworthy. It will sometimes lose contact with my mouse, keyboard or both switching between systems.

2. Following the directions to remedy the problems makes the value of this KVM much smaller. Belkin asks you not to use any additional software related to your mouse or keyboard. I'm trying this without success on the mouse and haven't tried it on the keyboard. The major bummer here? I won't be able to use the handy media, Internet, and email features provided on my keyboard. I will say that a Belkin 8-port KVM I have in the office works great with my Microsoft keyboard (including the extra buttons for media/etc.). However, I need this to work with other brands as well (I remotely suspect that wireless keyboards, my primary focus, are even more troublesome since the transmitters don't like losing power when switching systems).

3. Belkin doesn't support today's more enhanced keyboards and mice (I've tried Logitech's and one other brand). The keyboard manufacturers likewise don't support KVMs. What a kroc!

If you can avoid KVMs, do. Try using Windows XP's Remote Desktop feature, creative keyboard/mouse placement and/or just using the handy multi-input features of most newer monitors.

I bought this over a year ago, and am very pleased with it.

It was easy to set up, and works well with all my Windows XP Pro boxes. Switching between PCs is fast enough, with only about a second delay (typical of KVMs in general) to restore the mouse pointer. Once locked to a particular PC, the KVM is very stable. I've had no problems with either the video display or keyboard/mouse functionality on any of my Windows-based systems and can play games as well as perform all normal office-type tasks with no noticable performance degradation.

The only issue I have is with losing mouse control when switching to my Red Hat 9.0 server running X (not a big deal since I primarily access the terminal from the command line on remote anyway). There is no issue when I boot up the Linux box and use the KVM without switching to another workstation. I suspect the problem may be fixable, but it has never been enough of an issue for me to pursue it, given my needs.

The unit has the unique ability to support stereo audio as well as firmware upgrades. In addition, the cable management is cleverly built in to the sleek housing as opposed to completely exposed as in most square footprint KVMs, thus saving a small amount of desktop space.

Overall, in my experience, the Omniview has been a good KVM for the money.

Pros:

Supports Audio switching
Unique cable management design
Supports most common and higher-end video resolutions
No noticable performance loss with games or everyday tasks
Upgradable firmware

Cons:

Sketchy support for non-Windows OSes (though I haven't yet upgraded the firmware)
Does not support 5.1 channel audio
Requires specific type of KVM cable (male male)
cable management design can be limiting

I'm extremely unhappy with the Belkin OmniView SOHO Series 4-Port KVM DVI Switch with Audio. I'm sure most of this applies for the VGA version

1) It is nearly impossible to connect a cable to the console DVI Connector. Belkin had to overnight a special extender to connect the monitor DVI cable to the KVM.
2) Connecting the Power Adapter to the KVM blocks one of the peripheral USB ports.
3) It's absolutely impossible to put on the cover (i.e. cable management cover) if you connect the four (Belkin) cables to it.
4) Connecting only two PCs with a resolution of 1600x1200 to the KVM resulted in green shadows for one connection. (both NVidia cards GeForce 4 (4200 series) and a Geforce 5 (5200 series)
5) The Microsoft Wireless Keyboard doesn't work as stated in the manual. I did manage to plug in the wireless dongle connector to the USB mouse port on the KVM but now I can't use the hotkeys to switch between computers. Belkin has also indicated that wireless keyboards don't always work as stated in the manual

6) There isn't a FAQ or software/firmware upgrade listed for this device. I would recommend checking out the belkin support pages or lack there of.

While this KVM works great with USB mice, it has terrible support for USB keyboards.

I have one of these at work and I've had nothing but problems. It will randomly type 77777777777 or something when I hit the shift key. The shift key randomly gets stuck for no aparent reason when I'm selecting text. Everytime I press CTRL-ALT-DEL to log onto a computer after switching to it, I am unable to type anything for over a minute unless I press a bunch of the shift keys to 'unstick' them. The problem is, the USB KVM switch is RE-INTERPRETTING the USB keyboard signal so that it can trap the Scoll-Lock key (used for switching). This is totally unacceptable because it also breaks the functionality if you have an enhanced keyboard like the kind from logitech which has many additional keys (volume, scroll wheel, etc).

This device would have been MUCH better if it simply acted like a disconnect/reconnect of the USB cable (which is perfectly fine) for the keyboard.

I'll wait awhile until USB-DVI-KVM switches mature before purchasing one for home use.

This is my review for the Belkin 4-port USB/Audio/VGA KVM. I share with you the following experiences and tips.

First, you can't NOT plug in a USB keyboard without the unit beeping incessantly. However, if you have a wireless keyboard/mouse combo that has a single USB dongle on the receiver, you have to plug it into the mouse USB port on the KVM to use the both the wireless mouse AND keyboard. Which causes the no keyboard beep. Which will drive you nuts.

I spent approx. 2 hours trying to update the firmware to a NO KEYBOARD BEEP revision available from Belkin. It requires enabling a parallel port in your BIOS, making sure to set the BIOS port to NORMAL as opposed to ECP, EPP, BI-DIRECTIONAL, etc. This is NOT documented, from what I could tell.

Additionally, Belkin recommends running a firmware driver fix for Win2K and WinXP machines prior to the firmware flash, as the firmware updater won't recognize the parallel port properly without the driver update. A friend also noted that you should to run the updater in compatibility mode (Win98) in WinXP and Win2K.

The firmware update took about 5-10 minutes. After the update, you're asked to disconnect ALL cables from the unit to get it to reset. ALL CABLES MUST BE REMOVED -- POWER INCLUDED. Be prepared for it to beep again when it resets. I honestly thought the firmware flash had not worked when I heard it.

I read online that this KVM DOES NOT WORK WITH DOCKING STATIONS, which is why I bought the unit for use with my desktop and a Dell laptop/port replicator. Thankfully, it DID WORK, and I was able to switch from desktop to laptop/docking station without too much trouble.

Sometimes, when the USB is switching, the computer that I'm going to can't reinitialize the USB device and WinXP throws a minor error. I just go back and forth for a second to get it to re-initialize. Try switching to an empty KVM channel if you need to.

I'm wary of using the KVM's built in USB hub (2-port) because of this USB switching issue. I had planned on connecting a USB hard drive between the two computers, but I'm concerned that I would (a) lose data or (b) damage the hard drive switching back and forth between the two computers, particularly if USB switching doesn't always work.

So far, I've used it while playing hi-res games on my desktop which hasn't caused additional problems like video or USB bandwidth issues. Good luck with your purchase.

IT's not USB 2.0, with the same amount of money you can buy a USB 2.0 Hub that will work better.

Not Recomended.

Don't buy this! I used this on a Mac. It worked OK when I just had a couple of devices on it, but when I added a Wi-Fi USB adapter, it caused frequent computer crashes on startup, loss of Internet connection, and freezing of my mouse. I thought it was the adapter's fault, but after reading the reviews here, I bought a D-Link USB hub to replace it. Haven't had a problem since!

I've had this USB hub for about six months, and it has worked flawlessly so far, with one very notable flaw. Devices, which derive their power from USB, like some webcams, cameras, and scanners will not work with this device. So far, my webcam is the only thing that will not work with the hub. My mice, yoke, usb pedals, joystick, PDA/phone cradle, and anything else I have plugged in worked fine.

The AC power adapter is bulky, and not really needed considering this box doesn't act like a good self-powered USB hub anyway. I was able to disconnect power and it still works fine (and free up some space on my power strip).

I tried to use this as an extender for a D-Link 624 router. It works fine for around a half hour, then loses the connection to the router, disabling the internet connection of all computers on the wireless network. Repeated hard resets and rerunning of the setup utility are required to get it to work for another half hour before it dies again. Updating the firmware had no effect, and I don't have time to mess with tech support, so I returned it to Amazon. Instead, I bought a Hawking HAI15S directional antenna for my D-Link router, which improved my signal significantly, obviating the need for this range extender. It's also much cheaper.

At this point, about 5 days after receiving the range extender, I have spent more time on the phone with tech support than I have with my family. And it still doesn't work. The config is easy, but it still doesn't work. Power up, power down, reset. And it still doesn't work. The first level techs say they don't understand (with an accent). The second level can never be found. The third level only works M-F 9-5. Well, so do I, and I can't dedicate my entire life to making myself available at D-Link's convenience so that I can make their product work.

If they hadn't sucked the life out of me, it would have been funny. But my 624 router performance is fine if you are within 20 feet and no obstructions. As the D-link tech told me, "well, are there walls in your house?" Yes, I have one of those funny houses with walls. D-Link never figured on that. What a total, unmitigated disaster this piece of useless junk is. And I want D-Link to give me back the hours of my life lost to making its junk work.

Added 6/29/04: D-link tech finally tells me that this repeater is defective (duh). But their RMA mechanism is worse than their wares. It's a 32 step procedure that ends up costing even more money even though you've already paid for their defective equipment. If you should happen to be interrupted in the middle, you can't finish. The qualifications are ridiculous. And, as I've now found out, the defect rate on repeaters is extraordinarily high. Don't expect to get one that works on the first 3 tries.

After three hours and getting to the second level of Tech-Support, we were able to get this extender to work. It works very well and, really, there is NO OTHER option if you need to expand your wireless network.

This is my second buy from USR. This one has the same problem: drops connection when downloading big files (the same happened with the USR2249). Must reboot router before it works again. The support people are a bunch of idiots, don't answer your emails. It will go directly to trash can. DONT'T BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS GUYS.

Well, our family has been using USR since the late 80's with a Courier 2400 baud modem (2.4Kbps). Anyways, regarding the 8022, in my experience this device has been rock solid. First the negatives: 1) Only 2 LAN ports (plus 1 for WAN) which may be too few for some people; most other similar products have 4 or so. 2) User manual is sparse to be generous. 3) Doesn't stand vertically (if that matters to you...I just stack the things on top of it and it seems to work ok). 4) One OS's on one of my computers (the other OS on that computer is fine) doesn't like it as a router without some tweaking (which fixes it), but nowhere would you find how to do it if you didn't know how to do it already. These are the only reasons it didn't get a 5/5 in my experience.
For me, the USR8022 is currently is set up to be an access point (I prefer using my SMC wired router still for a few reasons, including the above negatives), with far superior signal quality and range than the Netgear MR814v2 I was using before (which, by the way, shares negative points 2 and 4 with the USR8022). My notebook uses a 3com 3CRSHPW196 and web-browses like it was wired (much better than Netgear); granted I am usually fairly close to the 8022, but it performs as one hopes equipment would perform. I have also used it conjunction with a USR2249 (access point configured to function as an access point client) and was able to transfer 700mb files successfully (win98se->winxp machine), which took significantly longer than on the wired network, but was still successful.

I have not yet connected a printer to this device, but I have not had issues with it's predecessor the USR8011 in connecting printers. I'm sure in the future this 8022 will become a print server too.

both my thumbs up to this product.

Okay, I see that I'm swimming against the tide with this review, but I love my USR 8022. I do computer consulting and have installed about 8 of these. All have worked great. It has a excellent range (goes 3 floors away in my house), has a serial port (allowing it to use an external dial-up modem when my cable goes out), has a print server (which I use all the time, so it works for my Brother MFC), and has detachable antennas. IMO, this router is severly underrated. I have used the USR 8022 since it came out and find it to be rock solid. It has port forwarding, a firewall, and all the standard security options.

One word of warning--use v3.1 of the firmware. That is what it ships with it currently. There is an upgrade to 4.2 but it is currently in beta. It works, but causes a printer problem for me, a line at the bottom of the page. So far as I can tell, the firmware cannot be rolled back to an older version.

I have used new 802.11g routers from Dlink, Linksys, and Apple. The USR 8022 is my favorite among them. The only other option would be to try to go all 802.11g to get faster LAN speeds. This would cost you twice as much. You'd need to buy a seperate print server, and you'd loose the ability to attach an external dial-up modem to the router for a back-up connection. Because most people just care about Internet speeds, 802.11b is more than fast enough.

I can't get this PC Card to even be recognized as a network card on the Compaq. I tried sticking it in an old Toshiba laptop running Windows 98SE and it worked! The Compaq keeps looking for a network controller not an adapter. This may not be the fault of the card, but rather teh computer itself. Good luck if you buy one of these. Their tech support knew less than I did.

Unlike some others here and elsewhere, I've had great success with this card, which was inexpensive, easy to install, and worked fine immediately. I have a Version 2 card. However, in spite of the description here, in spite of the description on the box, and in spite of the description on the datasheet at SMC's site, this card does NOT support WPA. A driver update was supposed to have available (according to SMC literature) in Q2, 2004. But there is no such driver yet, and no one I've talked to at SMC will predict when it will be. So it this kind of security is important to you in the predictable future, choose another product.

On a plus note, the telephone support from SMC has been terrific. I would deal with this company again.

First, you should install smc utility software. The driver files locate in the smc utility dir.(for example:C:\Program Files\SMC\SMC2635W Wireless Cardbus Adapter Utility\drivers\WINXP). You need locate it to windows installer so that XP could find hardware driver.

Unfortunately, the reviews below are spot on... I have the same complaint for the SMC2804WBRP-G -- the print server does not work well (I bought it for the print server). Per the recommendation below, I changed the Idle Time Out to 0 (in the SMC SYSTEM Password Settings page). Some improvement printing to my HP LaserJet, though inconsistent and it depends on the size/complexity of the file. The print server is VERY, VERY slow, hence the time out issue. The router will suddenly drop the internet connection sometimes when trying to print. Annoying. Customer service is quick to answer, helpful, though sometimes it is a challenge to effectively understand each other.

Strangely, printing seemed to work OK for me for a couple months. Then it died. Now, it prints about the top 2" of any documents and then printing stops. Sometimes the router needs to be rebooted to regain Internet access, but sometimes not.

I've tried upgrading firmware, to no avail -- even including some of the beta firmware versions floating around.

Otherwise, seems to be an OK router. But don't count on this baby as a print server.

After reading the reviews of this router, I was a little nervous purchasing it for a friend of mine. He specifically wanted printer server capabilities and many of the reviewers stated they had problems with getting the print server to work correctly and/or reliably. Other routers with print servers were $50-$100 more expensive (and reviews also indicated various problems printing), so we decided to purchase this one from Fry's electronics, confident that we could return if it had problems. I have one of SMC's original routers (the 7004WBR - with a parallel port print server) and it's worked reliably for the last 3.5 years ( I paid ~$299 for it back then, the price of early adoption).

My friend also wanted to go wireless with 2 notebook PC's, so we also purchased two SMC wireless cards. One of the notebook PC's was a relatively new Dell Inspiron, while the other was an old IBM A20 with just 128M RAM, 10G HD and a ~500 MHz CPU. Both the Dell and amazingly, the IBM had Windows XP running.

Installation of the router was fast and easy. Per the quick start manual, I installed the software from the CD, then checked the "wired" capability to the Dell. I was able to log into the router and check the settings. I did not change anything from the default (including security) before installing the wireless cards. Those too went quick. I was surprised there were no real problems with either PC. One reboot later and both notebook were wireless. I enabled some of the security features (WPA, discard pings from WAN, MAC Address filtering) and left the rest untouched.

The last task to do was to install and configure the print server. I had to pull up the full manual for this as I remember the process was involved for my old SMC router. This is not in the quick start guide. Following the instructions word for word, I set up the print server. Several "wizards" and related windows come up during the process, but manual is pretty easy to follow. My friend had a HP deskjet 940c, which was on of the many HP printers on the list. In fact, the list of "configurable" printers seemed very comprehensive. We printed a few documents without problems. The printer seems to print the last page first now, but otherwise worked fine. I set up both computers to print to the SMC print server and tested several documents. No problems.

Some reviews have mentioned reliability and the need for reboots as a problem. Well I cannot say one way or another as I just installed it, however my older SMC 7004 WBR has lasted almost 4 years with no reliability problems.

I gave it 5 stars because after only about 1 hour of setup I had both computers wireless and using the SMC print server without any problems at all. My friend was very impressed. I showed him some "cool" multimedia links (www.ifilm.com) and we watched a few movie trailers wirelessly from the kitchen. He was impressed and very thankful.

I'll update the review if I get a "support" call from him.