Wireless-Network Reviews

The driver for the SpeedStream could be installed. However during installation the default settings are shown (e.g., channel 11), but you can't change them. I couldn't find the file to edit. When you bringup the SpeedSteam Wireless LAN Utility the icon does not appear in the system tray. I also couldn't use browser to access www.speedstream.com -- "The connection was refused when attempting to contact www.speedstream.com".

I use to have a Microsoft wireless adapter, but it died so I wanted to try out Siemens. Big mistake. I have PC with Windows 2000 Professional. So I just use the 10/100 ethernet instead.

Look elsewhere if you want a wireless connection.

I spent many hours tring to connect my computer to the wirless router. I could not figure it out. Electronic cards going bad was the last thing I would suspect but I was not correct. The Card 1024 was my problem and I don't recommend buying one. I know electonics and this card failed me where other have not.

I am using XP pro to configure this device....the included application was unnecessary and I think caused problems.

I had several issues at once so I am not sure if the application was at fault, but I have been running fine 3 months without it.

There are significant issues with this combo, attributed to the new internal architecture and reduced power. The card is also new, and has some issues. The connection is constantly dropping off, even in close proximity. To date, Linksys is not being helpful. Rather buy the separate base and card for about $10-$20 more.

The router in this package is based ona completely different chipset than the Linksys WRT54G router. The router in this package only has one antenna which severly limits the usable range. Each change to the router configuration will require a 10 second 'reboot' of the router. This gets to be very annoying after a few changes.
It will only cost about $10 more to get the real WRT54G and PCMCIA card and it will be well worth the extra $10. I'm not sure what Linksys is trying to achieve by selling this combo with a such a crappy router. They should package the regular WRT54G with the PCMCIA card and offer a discount, instead they put this piece of crap router in with the regualr PCMCIA card and try to pass it off as a good deal. Shame on you Linksys. You will ruin your good reputation with this router.

I received the Linksys Wireless-G kit last week, had it working in just a few minutes (just follow the instructions). Works great !! Much faster than the 802.11-b which I have used in the past. Also, this is a great price, and delivery was free and quick !!! Thanks.

I had an intermittment problem where the print server would lock up. I would need to power cycle the router to fix this. Spoke with tech support last night and they had me download the firmware from the D-Link website and reinstall,even though its the same version as what was shipped. Did not work. I then had D-Link exchange my unit. Major hassle to do the exchange. Still have interimitent problem with print server locking up which requires reboot of router. Wireless connection also freezes up from time to time. Overall,not reliable.

The wireless connection has good range in my home. I bought this for the print server. It works well with either my HP PSC 1350 all in one, or my Hp Deskjet 970Cse. I will use this with a laptop so that I can print without docking the laptop.

The only thing that tripped me up was configuring the Windows XP printer port setting. After installing the DLink print server software, the IP address for the printer server port setting automatically defaulted to the correct value, but would not actually work until I typed the value into the field.

Other than that, very good.

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.

I't simple. I purchased two of these one for each computer. In under a year they began heating up and finally burned out. I didn't get a single response from customer service requests. <br /> It'sa dud!!!!!!!

I bought this under the impression that it worked with Linux and the Mac. Though it didn't say so on the box, a friend had one and the drivers for Linux, Mac, and Windows were on the disk. I worked on setting it up in Linux for 4 days to no avail. When I tried to set it up on my roommate's G4 Powerbook I had many of the same problems as before. After 2 calls to IBlitzz, dealing with people who hadn't a clue, I was told that my issue was given Level 2 status and that someone would contact me the next day. Today I got an email saying that the BWU613B is not supported on the Mac.

I bought this at my local Walmart store about six months ago. It was easy to set up with my router and it's been running ever since. it was a great value for the price, definitely would recommend it.

I just bought one of these and right out of the box it didn't work in wireless mode. Fails POST. It appears to be a very cheap WAP attached to a very nice wired router. After reading the reviews here, and reviews about their use of offshore technical support (sending american jobs to India). I would urge people to aviod this router and netgear in general.

Ok when I first got the Netgear HR314 I played around with it on my wired network. Now I have 5 computer systems 4 wired and one wireless thats in another room. Now when I connected it to my cable modem and to my wired systems I had no problems, but the issue came when I tried connecting the wireless system. This was a problem. My network was two rooms away from the wireless system so its obvious I did not receive a connection. So after trying a whole day of unsuccessful tests my instructor at school give me a few ideas, so I tried them and they didn't work. But I found out that the signal must be strong not to mention you must not be around intefearence when trying to connect for the first time. Now this goes also if you set your connection and then you reboot your system and come back on thinking your going to connect which will not work unless the router is in the room, So I suggest you get a wireless access point and put it in the middle of all the areas you work at. Plus keep your router in a cool area away from heat cause that is your problem when your system acts a fool on connection. Also sit your router up in an elevated area that will help your connection also it will keep it cool a lil bit. Then beware of walls or metal walls that block you from your connection cause it will degrade your signal. This is what has helped me and if you don't have an access point between your network and the wirless computer then you need one that way you can shut your system down and not worry about going through the long setup trying to get a signal again just bootup and your connected. Also the price on this is wrong it is not a 100 dollars or more it's more like 40 dollars from Tigerdirect.com so go there and look for all your computer peripherals cause thats where I have been shoppin for my equipment.

I have had this product for 2 months now, I have had no problems with it, the set up was extreamly easy. My only complaint, which I should have known, is that the signal degrades fast, especially thrue walls(due to it opperating at the 5MHz band). In the same room I get a 54Mb/sec connection, 40ft and two walls away I get a 6Mb/sec connection, which is fine for web surfing (Roadrunner = 1.5Mb/sec). I just have to bring the laptop into the room with the router for file transfers.

This card is functional if you are completely new to wireless technology and do not plan on using encryption. It installs fine under Microsoft Windows 9x, ME, XP Pro, and NT. However, there were a number of problems with this card.

One: Linux drivers that work with this card are extremely hard to come by. The only way you are going to make this card work under Linux is either by getting extremely lucky and finding some support or getting the rare linux distro that has the card supported by default.

Two: The GUI for the card that runs under windows is a horrible system hog, takes forever to get commands through, and keeps getting blocked by my firewall when it tries to contact microsoft.com. Shutdown the monitor program and all this goes away.

Three: The card itself is inefficient. Running at maximum power it still has horrible range. The maximum distance I got out of this card was 27.2m from the hub. In comparison, the other card I have (a Linksys USB 801b) gets a range of 52.1m.

In all, the only reason I would recommend this card is if you want to set up a hassle-free wireless network unders microsoft windows, and you don't mind sacrificing everything to expediency.

I tried 3 brands of wireless cards, and the only one I had trouble with was the network everywhere NWP11B. The card would not connect to three different networks. Got a warranty replacement, and the second card will sometimes connect.

This card is missing an important feature - you can't set the WEP encryption key using a passphrase. Better brands will let you use ASCII text, (your dog's name or some other phrase) to generate the 64 or 128 bit key. Even with the new firmware, this card requires you to translate the passphrase into hexadecimal, and then type in a 26 digit number. Twice.
This is not fun, especially because the card often will not connect, and you will be typing this number in over and over.
Unless you are good at memorizing 26 digit hexadecimal numbers, buy something else.

I bought this card as a combo with the wireless-B broadband router for about $80 - great deal. It worked great right out of the box. Took about 2 minutes to setup and it gets a strong signal through a few rooms. I don't use the WEP security features but it works great just to get on the internet. Highly recommended for basic internet use.

Would have given it 0 stars, but obviously it's not available. This product is absolutely terrible. It does not work with even the Sony Wireless LAN Card. Had to return it and purchase the Linksys.

It works fine i have two of them i can go any where in my house and it works may be it is how you set it up. But i only need one.

Not too bad if you d/l the most recent software. This is a rebranded Orinoco Silver Card (also in AP). Biggest problem is that Sony customer support is clueless about the product. he manual has -0-ref to XP, but it works. Nice feature is that you can easily add external antennas to both ends. All these wireless products have poor performance unless you're in the same room.

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.

I purchased this over a year ago. After constant frustration with lock-ups and reboots, I went and bought the MS access point (which worked flawlessly right out of the box) and threw this one to the IT guys at work. They couldn't get it to work for more than 15 minutes at a stretch either. Then I found a posting about a firmware upgrade on dslreports.com. It was produced, presumably, by the OEM (Gemtek) for the device (see their website). I flashed and it works now, its been up for three days! Shame on D-Link for not providing working firmware; I can't begin to calculate all of the time I wasted with that thing thinking it was something with my network. Though it appears to finally be working, I will never do business with D-Link again.

It took me 3+ days to get this thing to work with my notebook. Cannot get it to work with my desktop. Tech support was no help at all. They just had me retrying things I already did. If your not a networking wizard do not buy this router. Newer models don't need the manual setup of this one.

Using it with Comcast cable modem and two computers about 500 feet and 1 floor apart. Works quite reliably, it auto detects the IP and does eveything transparently. My only gripe is D-Link's support seems to be run by underqualified technicians that just give you the run around. Good thing it works fine already, so it's not much of an issue to me.