Heavy Duty Router

Author's Rating:

Pros: Heavy Duty 4-port Switched Router

Cons: Setup, updating the firmware

The Bottom Line: 
Heavy Duty it can take on heavy packets and speed!

Author's Review
Linksys 4-port Switched Cable/DSL 10/100 MBPS Router
Model: BEFSR41

This model is wired box not wireless, but is very heavy duty compared to the others on the market for routers. It offers 4-ports switched and 1 uplink port shared (note that will make this 3-ports instead of 4 when connected to another switched or hub).

You can hookup 253 PCs with optional switches and hubs which you need to purchase. Otherwise it's powerful router for the price of only $59.99 at CompUSA. Well they had it at $79.99 with a $20.00 instant off making it $59.99, plus Linksys has $10.00 rebate on top of that making it only $49.99. Not even Wal-mart who sells this unit for $88.78 and everyone else had it for $79.99 retail store prices.

Highlighted Specs:

Reset button up front (you'll need this feature)
Hardware Firewall (NAT)

1 10 MBPS WAN Port
1 Uplink Shared /10/100 MBPS Port
3 10/100 MBPS Ports

Cable: Ethernet Cat 3-5e RJ-45

Case: Two tone plastic (blue/black)

Heat output: low

Mounting: stackable feature for Linksys products only

Each port has two different LED amber lights

Power

LAN
1. Link/Act
2. Full/Coll
3. 10/100

WAN
1. Link
2. Act
3. Diag

Out of the box experience:

Router
Power Supply
Quick Sheet Manual
CD for Modem / Router Connection Setup/Checker

Setup
You will need to buy Ethernet Cat 3 - 5e depending on how fast you want to go. I would recommend going with Ethernet Cat 5e at full duplex 100 MBPS.

Depending on how many computers you're going to be hooked up to you'll also need to buy 4 Ethernet cables for 4 PCs desktops or notebooks

1 short 3 or 5ft Ethernet cable 5e for your WAN hookup to the Router, since this Router doesn't come with one.

PC Desktops - needs PCI (32-bit)10/100 PC LAN Card (NIC)
PC Notebooks - needs PCMCIA Card bus (32-bit) 10/100

Note some notebooks can't do full 32-bit, so you'll need to buy the 16-bit PCMCIA cards they are fast and use an extra ram buffer to make up for not having the extra 16-bit bus, but for most you won't notice the difference.

If you just got a DSL or Cable modem the hookup to this Router is not so hard, but the manual (quick sheet) is a bit tricky to figure out. There is a CD to help you out if you're new to hooking up routers.

User Interface (UI)
There is an interface for adding and changing the router commands using your web browser and for security reasons I won't post that information here. Just type in a URL and IP address for that router and your login plus password.

Tip: Remember to create you own password for your router

Firmware Update
Upgrade the firmware in this model to fix the know bugs.
Note: Updating the firmware can be tricky with newer browsers security settings which have to be set to low or if not you have to run the optional installer to update the firmware.

Software Firewall Combination
As of 12/3/02: Zone Alarm Pro and PC-cillin have been removed from this router current firmware and will be replaced by Norton Internet Security 2003, which is now being offered to those of you who had purchased the router after 9/02 for free by mail goto linksys web site to learn more.

Hardware Firewall
This router has a NAT built-in (hardware firewall) which this router uses, where I did some testing under Shields-up, and Sygate SOS both have shown that the router firewall is blocking and all ports are stealth coming into the router.

Otherwise this is a good and stable router, which can stay on all the time (it's just like having a second computer) around to monitor your traffic in your network for your home or business.