I chose the Linksys RVS4000 to secure a vistior-only connection for my office. Our company policy requires that visitors (vendors, partners, customers, etc.) not be allowed access to our corporate network. In addition, we often need to have an "outside view" of our web sites and other Internet accessible systems (like VPNs), for testing and performance measurement.I selected this Linksys product because: - I've had good results with Linksys switches and routers in the past- It had all the features I needed- The price fit my budget - It was on the shelf at Frys!We obtained a DSL connection from AT&T, with Motorola modem included, and the RVS4000 is connected to that DSL modem. The setup went as follows: I followed AT&Ts instructions to set up the DSL modem for a single PC - I directly-connected a Windows Vista notebook to the DSL modem's ethernet port. Then, I verified that the DSL line was working from the notebook, authenticating with AT&T PPPoE account, and getting a working IP address. At this point, I disconnected the notebook, connected the RVS4000 to the DSL modem, and connected the notebook to port 1 of the RVS4000, and powered everything on.The instructions (quick-setup box-topper) for the RVS4000 indicated that the default IP address to access the configuration page is 192.168.1.1 - that's was my second guess..., I tried 192.168.0.1 first. I entered the default "admin/admin" credentials, and got in to the Setup Summary page of the router.The web-based configuration is very well laid out and immediately understandable, though I admit I'm not a novice; still it seems like it would be easy to navigate for anyone. The summary page provides an overview of the current configuration and connections. It even has a photo-realistic diagram of the router and shows the ports in-use filled in with green. I suppose a bad port might show up red, but thankfully I've not discovered if that's true. Under the picture, there are links to various other pages you'll commonly need to access to the left, and their current setting to the right. Along the top, there are major tabs for Setup, Firewall, VPN, QoS, Administration, IPS, L2 Switch, and Status. Each major tab has one or more minor tabs - for the Setup page, the minor tabs are Summary, WAN, LAN, DMZ, MAC Address Clone, Advanced Routing, Time, IP Mode.So, first order of business was to change the Local Gateway Access username from the default. I highly recommend doing this immediately and without fail! there is no reason to leave any router set with the default password, or even the default administrative user name, if they can be changed. The RVS4000 lets you change both, so DO IT!(Note, for some of these steps you'll need to let the router reset, and then reconnect or log in again)Next, I clicked "LAN IP", and set the IP address for the router; I needed to change this so it would not conflict with some of our own address ranges. My setup calls for enabling the DHCP server, and then leaving the rest alone.Next, setting the "WAN IP": AT&T DSL requires that the connection type be PPPoE, with the DSL account Username and Password entered below. I set the Keep Alive value to 30 seconds (the default). I also set up DynDNS.org on this page to provide DNS services for the connection; this is mainly to allow easy remote admin for the router, so I can monitor and manage it from my company's internal network. But this service will also let you run other Internet servers off of your RVS4000. Check into this very valuable and free (for home users) serviceOther steps I took: - Set up IPS: There is a manual update process for the IPS signatures; you need to look at the help file on the page, and download the file and apply it manually- Set up the Firewall: If you know you won't be using certain services, you should go to this page and turn them off; I certainly turned off some stuff for which there is no good business need...- Set up remote admin: Oddly, this is not on the Administration tab, but under Firewall. Only enable this if you want to run the router setup across the WAN or Internet; you DON'T need to turn this on to access the router locally (i.e. from a device connected to one of the router ports). If you do turn on remote admin, PLEASE be sure to choose some random port number, and you may also wish to turn on HTTPS: on this page too, so that your remote sessions will be encrypted. Be aware that if you use HTTPS, you'll see the "red bar" in both IE and Firefox (and I suppose other?) browsers when you connect; the address bar will light up red and you'll get a "suspicious site" warning because the host name for the SSL certificate is "Linksys RVS4000" so it will never match any IP address. After you connect the first time, the browser should stop annoying you about it though...So... anyway, there are so many other features that this little box supports which I can't reasonably describe here. As for the downside, there's not much: the only nit-picks I have about this product are- The documentation is sparse (but this is almost to be expected nowadays, right?)- The help files sometimes refer to "the wireless router", which makes me think they are sharing some pages with other Linksys devices (this router doesn't have ANY wireless capability); more attention to detail would be reassuring- The IPS signature files need to be manually downloaded and installed - it would be far better to be able to automate this somehow- It's not totally clear what the IPS is actually doing or has done - there is a report fuction, but it is not at all clear (but sure *looks* scary)I'm also slightly concerned about how log the device will last; we've had several inexpensive Linksys switches fail on us. The box is cheap enough to mke this only a very slight worry.All in all, we are very satisfied users of this product so far. To summarize, I love the quick and easy setup, clear web design of the configuration site, and excellent feature set. Very highly recommended by this 20+year IT Pro.

heyidiot

Concord, CA

I bought the router spent hours trying to hook it up, followed all the directions and still couldnt make it work. I called my internet provider they walked me thru steps over and over, finally when I told them the brand and after an hour of trying they told me it had to be defective. But for the price I paid I wouldnt give up, so I called the company, repeated everyyhing with them. Come to find out I did buy a defective product. So I returned it for a netgear.I understand had it not been defective it may have been a great product but after everything I had went thru with this one I was not chanceing it at all! When you buy something you expect to take it home and have it work!

stephyb87

Steilacoom, WA

I've had this router for about a year now.  I  got it when I bought internet service from Verizon. It was easy to install and I just needed to call customer service so they could set up the connection via Internet.  Works great if you about 4 or less devices attached to the router.  In the beginning had a little bit of difficulty but it had been perfect since then.  Internet is always on and always fast and reliable.

ZamnZaddyDenay

Brooklyn, NY

When I first bought this router it was hard to figure out what the issue was.  We set it up and everything but then it kept dropping connection to the two lap tops we have.  We would have to reset the router to get connection again.  After the first day this stopped on its own and we never had any issues with the connection except when more than two people were on it.  I don't know about you but I think routers are supposed to support more that two people I would at least say a whole household.   Basically we still use it now untill we move and get a new system.  We have one desktop plugged directly into the router and use one to two wireless connections throughout the day and we do not seem to have any issues with it on a regular basis.  When the family was in town there were four wireless connections and differnt computers kept getting kicked off.  We tried reseting it and it did not solve the issue.

ashneedscash21

Greenwood, IN

this router is highly capable of doing any thing that need to be done it stremes vidios very fast has high enternet conection throughout the whole house. it is one of the most important peaces of equpitment that i have since i use the lap top most of the time.If you have old equipment on your network that isn't compatible with Wireless-N -- and you don't want to upgrade it -- experts say you might be better off sticking with a Wireless-G router for now. The inexpensive Linksys... WRT54GL is based on the older 802.11g (Wireless-G) standard, so it's not quite as fast as 802.11n (Wireless-N) routers. But reviews say the Linksys WRT54GL is reliable, easy to set up and secure. Like the Linksys WRT400N, it has 10/100 Ethernet ports instead of high-speed Gigabit Ethernet. Linksys says this router is compatible only with Windows XP and Vista, but thanks to its open-source, Linux-based software, developers have created their own firmware that lets the Linksys WRT54GL do all kinds of things it was never designed to do such as controlling bandwidth usage and signal power.

swaggxtee

Fontana, CA