Average Rating: 
Rating: - My PC and my Mac now share high-speed Internet access!
We have a PC upstairs, which is our primary computer, and a Mac downstairs in the tv room. I wanted both to be able to share our broadband Internet service. I looked at several routers, both wired and wireless. It came down to the Linksys (wired version) and SMC Barricade Wireless. I kept coming back to Linksys because a friend owns one and raves about it. Besides the fact that it looks really cool, it almost took me longer to get it out of the box than it did to set it up. No kidding! Using the QuickStart guide, I was up and running in less than ten minutes. You hook up the necessary cables, restart your computer, log-in to the Linksys website to configure your router, restart your computer again, and you're good to go. I wasn't as optimistic about setting up my Power Mac G3. However, I was pleasantly surprised and it took me all of about five minutes before I was doing some high-speed surfing on that machine as well. Fortunately, my Mac has an Ethernet port so it was just a matter of attaching the CAT-5 cable from there to the Linksys and setting the TCP/IP control panel to the Ethernet and DHCP options. I saved my configuration, opened up my browser and spent the next two hours high-speed surfing with no problems. I have no problem recommending the Linksys, especially for its ease of setup on a PC and Mac network. While I would have preferred a wireless setup, they've received mixed reviews and I was concerned about Mac compatibility. After seeing how well my Mac performs with this Linksys, I'm ready to make ours a wired household!
Rating: - Once Set-up, works like a charm!
When you get through the technical side of setting this product up, you'll find that adding, and removing devices (usually PC's) to the network is a sinch.I use this product to split off my Internet Access to 4 pc's in my house. I had some slight setup problems when i began, but calling techsupport and having them help me was a breeze. Now i simply plug my modem Cable wire into the Wide Area Network (WAN) port, and my computers Cable wires into the "pc" slots, and the entire network is off and running. Simply add some of the Network Adapters (software that allows devices to communicate between themselves) and you're off and venturing into some extra-ordinary territory! You can play games online (without crashing: a hub-like symptom which is non-existen here) and you can do other things like share internet connection, share files, and share a printer among many users. Good for Small business use ore home use. The price of one month of Internet access will buy you unlimited connections in one house! Although you can now buy the "wireless" version of the same product it can get costly. So watch out. It may be suffice to get this one for the price... (also remember that if you buy the wireless product that you will not only pay more for it, but you'll be required to buy more expensive network cards (wireless) ones that will interface with your Router. The wireless one is generally (2) twice as expensive, as are the network cards. Note: network cards are the devices you need to have in your computer that allows you to plug into the router. (it is the thing the cable wire plugs into in the back of your computer). Suffice to say, if you are using Cable now (for internet access) you'll be fine to buy and set this up.
Rating: - I'd pay twice as much for the ease and wonder of this gem
Simply put - believe the other reviewers who say this is a snap to put together and make a home network. It's so easy, that unfortunately having a network at home is no longer a geek thing, since anyone can do it. This is the easiest, simplest, and best working router/hub combo I can think of. No more silly winpoet on the computer, no more logging into the DSL account. This router stays connected all the time to the account. All you have to do is turn your computer on to be connected.The most time consuming aspect of setting this up was taking it out of the box, unwrapping everything from the plastic, and fishing behind my desktop to connect the ethernet cables. The actual set up took about five minutes, and was so uncomplicated, I assumed I had done something wrong. But I didn't. Worked perfectly the first time. And this does work as a hub, which I hadn't realized. I used a hub for a while, and then after moving my equipment around, I experimented to see if it work as a hub so I could remove one electrical device. By golly, I could! I highly recommend this gem. The router has a built-in firewall, and works with PCs and Macs. Don't know how it works with linux - haven't tried to connect it to my linux box yet.
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