Review on 🔌 Enhanced Network Everywhere NWR04B Wireless-B Access Point Router by Michael Custodio

Pros: Cheap, small, good LEDs Cons: freezes every few days, requires reboot, firmware hard to get I bought the NWR04b at the Staples Boxing Day Sale for just $19 Canadian. I already have a WiFi router and was looking for a 4 port hub and it was cheaper than a hub so I decided to try it for fun. The physical product impresses with lots of LEDs for port and box status, I was able to get a full-bandwidth (11MB) signal from anywhere in my three-story house, and the user interface is decent. The device connected perfectly to my ISP and initially worked fine. Unfortunately the firmware freezes; every 2 days I have to unplug it for 5 seconds and then plug it back in - then it has to log back into my ISP but then it works fine. It gets very hot, but I'm not sure if that's the main issue. Web support is very limited. From what I read online, the older 1.2 series firmware is more stable. I have a newer 1.3 series firmware but since you can't download it from the web (only 1.2 is available on the site today) I don't want to reflash it unless I can get it back. So I just disabled DHCP and WiFi and used it as a 4-port hub from time to time and also reinstalled my Dlink WiFi router. If you can get it cheap and they release more stable firmware, go for it. If not, you might want to consider spending a little more for a sturdier device, or just unplugging it every few days. Much of the hype I've read about this device has praised it for having Linksys guts - if so, those are pretty painful innards, and if I were branding Linksys I'd happily disassociate my trademarks from it Crate. World from Canada, January 2005