I would have said "inexpensive" but that would imply that their gear actually delivered value. I have a client who chose to use a pair of BEFSX41 VPN end point 4 port routers. A few years back I got a call from them to help them set up a VPN tunnel between two sites. After an hour or so of tweaking I had the tunnel working correctly. Fast forward about 18 months and I get a call from the client telling me that they are losing LAN connections. Their Windows PCs suddenly announce "A network cable is unplugged" followed a few seconds later with "Connected". After some false leads making it appear to be a switch problem I replaced the router and the customer's problem went away.
A couple of months ago I get another call from the customer - same story only at their other location. Messages about network cables unplugged followed by connected messages. I replace the router and all is good for a while. Then yesterday I get a call saying that they can't reliably connect to the internet and the usual messages of "A network cable is unplugged" followed by "Connected". Unfortunately this is happening every other minute and finally I replaced the Linksys router with a simple Netgear 4 port router I have in the trunk of my car. So all of that is a lead up to my call to Linksys support. After only a 10 minute wait (probably around 7 pm) I get someone who is probably located on the other side of the world. At this point the router hasn't been turned on for a few hours and of course it comes up running and doesn't seem to have a problem. I explain to the tech that at my client's location the router has been pretty much useless and replacing it with a Netgear model got the site up and running again. He isn't too impressed with this information. He says that while he was talking to me it was obvious that the router was working. I tell him that the router is likely intermittent and is probably malfunctioning after some period of use. He says "Can't help you - customer service might be willing to do something". I call them and this time an Indian woman (an obvious ascent) tells me that she can't replace the router unless a "senior" tech agrees that the router is defective. So at this point I take their case number and then set up a few PCs to simply ping the router. Sure enough after perhaps 45 minutes all 3 PCs lose their connections to the router and the only way to get the connections back is to power cycle the router. So the bottom line is the Linksys support staff won't do anything for the customer unless the router is outright dead or completely unresponsive. I'm going to call them back today because when I called them at 11:30 pm the Indian woman I talked to at that time told me to contact customer service and they would definitely issue an RMA. I'm not optimistic. Of course I've already burned more time than the router would cost. I'm also not likely to use another BEFSX41 unless I can't get something else to work. Bottom line - if it's commercial use in any way buy something better (Sonicwall, Cisco, Netscreen...) and stay well clear of Linksys. -Alex P.S. I think the above advice just echoes the same message on this list several times in the last couple of years. ;^) _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
