Linksys by Cisco BEFSR41EtherFast Cable/DSL Router with 10/100 4-Port Switch: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

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Technical Details

Equipped with an internal, 4-port 10/100 Fast Ethernet switch
Connects all your PCs to the Internet using a single IP address
Includes DHCP server or client and supports PPPoE
Configurable via Web browser
Note: This router requires an external cable or DSL modem with an Ethernet interface

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Product details

Product Dimensions: 15.5 x 18.6 x 4.6 cm ; 499 g
Boxed-product Weight: 953 g
Item model number: BEFSR41-UK
ASIN: B00005KAC7
Date first available at Amazon.co.uk: 4 Sep 2006

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (94 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 21,613 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)

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Amazon.co.uk Review

Linksys is fast making a name for itself in the networking world and the EtherFast Cable/DSL Instant Broadband Router is one of the reasons why. This router lets you connect a group of PCs (up to 253) to a high-speed broadband Internet connection but instead of requiring you to buy a separate hub to connect them all, Linksys made the extra effort and built the hub in.

A WAN (Wide Area Network) port on the back of the router connects the Cable/DSL router, four Ethernet ports and a separate uplink port for expanding the network with an additional hub or switch. The router actually contains a four-port auto-sensing 10/100 switch. This means each port automatically detects both 10 MB and 100 MB Ethernet connections and the router allows them to coexist on the same network while it switches speeds automatically.

Currently, no broadband connection even comes close to saturating a 10 MB Ethernet connection, let alone a 100 MB connection. But this router was built to accommodate a growing networking infrastructure that not only services traffic externally via the Internet but internally as well. So when one machine needs to copy over large files or play high-resolution multimedia clips across the network, the router uses the latest Ethernet technologies, which include 100 MB-per-second speeds, support for full duplex and switching technologies.

It's nice to see quality and features built into a device made with future growth in mind and it's this kind of attention to detail that makes this router the perfect solution for both the home and small-office environments. Installing the EtherFast router was simple. A machine was connected to the router via Ethernet cable (make sure your machine has a network card first), plugged the router into the wall and we were up and running. During configuration a Help button is available that does an excellent job of explaining each of the settings. It also describes the kind of information it's looking for to help ease the installation nightmares of beginners.

The router supports filtering to block specific internal users' Internet access. The EtherFast also has a DMZ host option that allows one PC on your LAN to be exposed to the Internet, providing unrestricted two-way communication between a machine and an Internet service. Also available on this router is support for port forwarding, which forwards requests from the Internet to specific computers equipped to handle the requests. The only problem with port forwarding is you have a limitation of 10 ports you can configure. Advanced features, such as dynamic routing and static routing, allow you to configure the routing functions to help streamline the flow of information after it passes through the router. We found the EtherFast Cable/DSL router to be simple to operate yet powerful. Everything you need to connect up to four machines to a broadband Internet connection based on cable or DSL technology is included. (Note: The router requires an external cable or DSL modem with an Ethernet interface.) --Sean Cleveland

Product Description

Share Your High-Speed Internet Connection Throughout Your Home or Office Think of the EtherFast Cable/DSL Router with 4-Port Switch as a kind of splitter for your Internet connection. Just connect your DSL or Cable Modem to the Router, and all the computers in your household can share the Internet -- all at the same time. The built-in 4-port switch lets you attach four local PCs directly, or daisy-chain out to more hubs and switches as your network grows. Once your computers are connected to the Internet ...

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 101 people found the following review helpful

Linksys BEFSR41 Cable/DSL Router 5 Sep 2002

By "gfgfinlayson"

When I built my second PC, my only option to access the internet and my printers was to configure one PC as a proxy server, which meant running one PC 24/7 (or having the hassle of running upstairs to turn on the proxy machine every time my wife wanted to use the internet). Not any more.

The Linksys BEFSR41 sits between your Cable or DSL modem and your PCs and allows access to the internet for up to 4 PCs via its built in 4 port 10/100 switch. I have a 3 port print server plugged into one of the ports on mine, so I can now print to either printer from either PC as well as accessing the internet.

The web based user interface is very easy to use; from opening the box to up and runinng takes about 10 - 15 minutes. The unit allows MAC address spoofing, which means you can get started without having to wait until your ISP changes your registered address. Firmware upgrades are very easy; the latest firmware also allows integrated use with anti-virus and firewall software.

This router is also one of the most secure available. It's full use of NAT (Network Address Translation) which separates your LAN and WAN IP addresses makes external hacking into your PCs nigh on impossible.

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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful

Linksys used with blueyonder 1 Mb and Playstation 2 17 Sep 2003

By Allan Swindells

I wanted to share my 1 Mb broadband between my PC and Playstation 2 and possibly other PCs in the future or connect my friends up to the net for gaming when they bring their PCs round. This router is ideal for those purposes.

The router arrived promptly on the Amazon super saver delivery. I opened the box and connected it to my cable modem and PC. I was online in about 5 minutes through my router. It even worked through my Zone Alarm firewall with no problems. The router was easy for me to manually set up and has a vast array of configuration pages you can access through your web browser.

If you are new to networking the CDROM disc in the box is superb! It guides you through the whole set up process and configures the router for you!

Next was the Playstation, this was just a matter of running a long straight wired Ethernet cable across my room to the Playstation. This was a cable I already had for this purpose. You do get an Ethernet cable in the box albeit a short one about 1 metre long. I used the provided cable to connect my PC to the router.

Once I hooked up the Playstation it was able to be online at the same time as my PC. For me this was great and means no fiddling around with cables when I want to use my Playstation online. It is a far better solution that Windows Internet Connection Sharing as this was tricky to configure for the Playstation and allowing access for it through my firewall.

Also, being on blueyonder the MAC Address clone feature of the router is VERY useful. This allows the router to emulate the MAC address of your PCs Network Interface Card, meaning you don’t have to inform your ISP of the routers MAC address.

All in all I’m amazed how versatile, useful and advanced this router is. I would not hesitate to recommend it to advanced users or people new to networking.

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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

New to networking 8 Oct 2004

By Derek

After reading some of the reviews here I took the plunge and bought the linksys befs41 to connect 2 PCs to my NTL broadband. I connected up all the cables switched on, and tried the the internet before doing anything els. All was up and running on both PCs. I haven't even taken the setup CD out its sleeve. I can recomnend this one.

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