I realize that you are probably the most poplar home networking company today. I realize that you probably have a difficult time keeping your products on the shelves because people are buying them as soon as they are available. I realize that you have to do whatever you can to ensure those shelves remain populated with products, but...
YOUR PRODUCTS ARE STARTING TO TURN TO CRAP!
I am on my fourth router in about five months. Admittedly, the first router lasted a couple of years, but when it died one day back in June, little did I know how much trouble I would be in for.
The router I purchased to replace it was a straight swap. It was simply a router that connected to my network. (My network consists of five desktop machines, three laptops, one network laser printer and one shared inkjet attached to a desktop machine)
The new router did not seem to work and I was having a difficult time determining if the problem was with the router or the existing cable modem. I went out and purchased a LinkSys cable modem to force the finger pointing inside of one company. Ultimately, it was determined that the second router arrived DOA.
I purchased the third router toward the end of June. Instead of a straight swap, I purchased an integrated router/WAP. I plugged it in and it worked immediately. I performed all of the standard wireless security steps:
1. I changed the password to connect to the router.
2. I turned off the SSID broadcasting
3. I turned on 128-bit WEP
4. I restricted access to only the MAC addresses of my laptops.
Everything was running fine until last night. The router died again. It was only three and a half months old.
I have now installed my fourth router. It has been setup and secured. I seriously considered purchasing a different brand, but thought I would give LinkSys one more chance. I also thought about upgrading to .11g but have hear horror stories about a mixed .11 network and am not yet willing to upgrade all of my cards to .11g. Lastly, I like to try and keep all of my network components coming from a single company. It does make technical support a little easier.
Posted by swfields at October 9, 2003 04:18 PM | TrackBack