Cisco-Linksys BEFSR81 🔀 Cable/DSL Router with 8-Port Switch Review

I only bought this product two years ago. Then it was $80. It's only been about a year since they released the latest firmware. I thought everything was fine. It turned out to be the last firmware they ever intended to release. When I got a new modem this week, I noticed that my internet wasn't working properly when connected to my router. Cisco Linksys demanded money for the support. (A fact they mentioned after they deleted my contact details. I can't wait to see what happens.) When I…

A few years ago, I personally took the trouble to connect my home to a computer network because I believed that a wired network would be more reliable than a wireless one. I started with a Linksys BEFSR41 4-port router and after some initial tweaking, this router worked fine for about three years, only needing an occasional "reboot" to fix issues. Severe slowdown started recently and no reset helped, so I bought this BEFSR81. This 8 port router was my choice because I wanted to expand my…

I've owned this unit for about 2 years and it worked but as mentioned by some other reviews it stalled occasionally. Since there's no convenient reset button (there's a tiny recessed button on the back), we had to unplug the device frequently. Eventually, the network connection became unreliable and the device started shutting itself down. The software isn't great either - they released some new features in the firmware and a few versions ago they tried to add a firewall feature which they…

I've been using the BEFSR41 for a few years but have outgrown it now, need more reliable ports as new hardware now requires internet access. Instead of adding more switches, I wanted to use an 8-port router; My network consists of an Ethernet cable and a Linksys WAP for wireless. 4 ports provided reliable service. So when I saw 8 ports available for a good price I ordered them. It arrived last night and was easily installed this morning using the CD that came with the router. My network issues…

I bought one for my home network. My house is connected to a Cat5e network and I have a broadband att cable. The device is quickly configured and NAT works great. It literally took me 10 minutes to get everything working. The problem is my company's VPN software (Cisco). The 8 port device has a fragmentation issue that is causing some issues, so I need to disable ipsec over NAT. (fixed in 4-port version). Also, this device only supports one active IPsec session, so only one computer can be…

Well, the Linksys RV Series has spoiled me and raised higher expectations than I should have of their standard products. This is an unusual little device. It doesn't have much competition in the world of routers apart from its older brothers RV082 and RV016 (which I highly recommend by the way). Anyhow, this seems to be working great until I try to change the remote administration port. I'm using one in the upper range (over 50000) which some TCP/IP gurus would probably find wrong. In any case,

I bought an earlier version of this router (version 3.1 now) and had perfectly reliable good use for many years until a lightning bolt knocked out several ports. I ordered another one, sure it was a good product. Big mistake. It just looks like it's been downgraded - 1 activity light per port where there used to be 3. It cannot maintain a persistent connection to my Time Warner cable modem. I changed my cable modem twice and tried three different routers and they all had the same problem…