loxiej wrote:According to the datasheet on the smc website, they don't explicitly support win7. Still might work in compatibility mode, but it's a crapshoot.

The datasheet may have been written before Windows 7 came out. There is a Windows 7 logo on the product page, so there shouldn't be any problem with it.

radi0j0hn wrote:Dumb question: I work in an area where wireless networks are limited. I have an iPod touch with some apps that allow transfer of files via mutual connection to a router address. If I simply power up this unit, but do NOT connect to the internet via a cable, will I still be able to exchange files from my 'touch to my laptop wirelessly? If I can, then this is a good $20 expense for me.

I don't know what apps you have, but if they don't use the internet, they should work. I know VNC viewers can work on an iPod Touch without an internet connection.

Read this.

shlamele24 wrote:This may be a SPOOKTACULAR! question, but if my old laptop's wireless card is too old and crappy to be compatible with "N" signals, will I still be able to use the wireless network, even if not at N speeds?

Yes. From the item page:

"fully backwards compatible with existing 802.11b/g products"

Note that this is not a dual-band router, so your entire network will run at G speed.

arthurbarnhouse wrote:I'm having trouble opening the manual for some reason (keeps saying the file is corrupt). It has Bridge mode, but does it have an option to set it up as an extendor?

Also, for everyone talking about Computability with the 360, it's compatible through the ethernet port on the 360. You set the router as a bridge, identify the network you want to use, run through the setup, and then plug an ethernet cord into the router and the router. I use the same setup for my 360. Mine is with a DD-WRT router, but if it has a bridge option it can be setup.

I'm not sure what you're asking in the first paragraph. A wireless range extender, or "signal booster" is a dumber device than a wireless bridge. So if you use this as a bridge, you accomplish everything an extender does and more (except for omni-directional signal boosting). Are you looking to "dumb down" the router?

Regarding the XBOX 3560, you could indeed use a wired connection (whether or not the router is in bridge mode), but I think most people were asking about wireless (which should also work fine).

NightGhost wrote:I'm not sure what you're asking in the first paragraph. A wireless range extender, or "signal booster" is a dumber device than a wireless bridge. So if you use this as a bridge, you accomplish everything an extender does and more (except for omni-directional signal boosting). Are you looking to "dumb down" the router?

Regarding the XBOX 3560, you could indeed use a wired connection (whether or not the router is in bridge mode), but I think most people were asking about wireless (which should also work fine).

I just wasn't sure if bridge mode necessarily meant that I could use it as a range extender.

It works with wireless on the 360 in the sense that it can operate as a wireless bridge. Not all routers have a wireless bridge, and not everyone is excited about stringing wires across the house. A bridge is a cheap solution.

dissatisfiedcustomer wrote:MAC address filtering is best.

MAC address filtering can be cracked in micro seconds. MAC address is sent in plain text.

rileyper wrote:can you put ddwrt on it

No. Brand isn't even listed on the DD-WRT supported device list.

To the person who said they wouldn't recommend this to their WORST enemy:

You need to work on your enemy skills!

For all of those asking about speed, at best, you're getting a 72Mbps bit rate, which is roughly 20-30 Megabits of actual throughput. That's about twice what you'll get from an 802.11g network.

This router doesn't have a lot of the features that make 802.11n significantly faster, which is why it's so cheap. The more expensive routers out there run 5 GHz radios; these are suitable for double-width channels, which double your throughput accordingly. Additionally, this router only supports one spatial stream, versus more expensive routers which support two spatial streams (again, doubling throughput). A $100 Linksys router will support all of these features, giving a bit rate of 300 Mbps and an actual throughput of ~120 Megabits.

gwbaker wrote:I, in anger, damaged a lapatop because I thougt it to be a unit of crap. But, later I realized, that the culprit was the crappy router made by SMC and labled Barricade.

A crashed hard drive, due to my anger, and a lot of hair pulled out, finally led me to the defective SMC Barricade router.

Ahhh, anger issues we have, do we?

SumDuud wrote:Not likely. XBox does not support most dongles, they want you to get their specific stuff. I just went through testing a bunch of dongles for my Live play and nothing worked, ended up hitting up eBay for a XBox wireless adapter.

idrivea911 wrote:It will work with an XBOX 360 but the USB dongle won't. The 360 only works with XBOX specific wireless adapters. You can use ethernet cable from the 360 to the router, or use a 360 wireless adapter (802.11g or 802.11n) to connect wirelessly.

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Wireless-Network-Adapter-Networks/dp/B002RS7NB2

But you can use a bridge for that. Which was the question I asked earlier(if this router supports that). Set up the router as a bridge next to your 360, use a patch cable to connect to the router, no need for a 70+$ MS adapter

NightGhost wrote:Yes. From the item page:

"fully backwards compatible with existing 802.11b/g products"

Note that this is not a dual-band router, so your entire network will run at G speed.

Very good to know, thanks.

toezilla wrote:Until whoever is accessing your network just monitors the traffic and grabs a MAC to clone.

A bouncer at a private party has a list of invited guests. All guests present themselves and announce their name - if they are on the list, the bouncer admits them. Loiterers at the entrance can hear the names of invitees and use any one of the names to gain entrance. That is MAC filtering.

shacky003 wrote:I roll currently with an old Dell 280 running the x86 version of dd-wrt - I could route my town with the thing if needed

The whole town? Do you have BGP/OSPF on the device? How about enough memory for the internet routing table? LOL.

dgbarstow2 wrote:anyone who trashes a computer in anger ain't thinking straight to begin with!

wolb me... oh, and I'm dyslexic too

bhcompy wrote:the hardware. using wlan it won't max out most cable internet connections and it really struggles with pppoe(which some dsl providers still use)

Ahh - a reference to precisely the Protocol I wish to use with this router.

The parents still have DSL with PPPoE, and I need to flesh this out. Where, pray tell, did you see a reference confirming that this does NOT, in fact, play well with PPPoE?

Thanks!

does anyone know if the usb adapter work with a wireless ready device, such as a samsung dvd player?

I can't believe we're still on Wireless-N... shouldn't we be on like Wireless-XYZ by now? I bet aliens are.... humans are sloooow.

revstockli wrote:does anyone know if the usb adapter work with a wireless ready device, such as a samsung dvd player?

The odds aren't good, but it would depend on what operating system the wireless-ready device uses.

As an example, the TiVo uses a modified Linux installation for the operating system, and it doesn't recognize generic USB wireless adapters, so you have to buy the TiVo-branded ones to get it to work.

Likewise, most wireless-ready devices aren't going to be running a full-blown version of Windows, OS X, Linux, or any other operating system, so support for USB-attached peripherals will be very limited.

NightGhost wrote:In my experience, the only way to get rock-solid reliability is to spend the big bux for a commercial router, such as a Cisco. Of course, i'm not talking about Cisco's home user brand - Linksys (note that they are now "Linksys by Cisco," so don't get fooled).

If you want an in-between solution, go for an Apple AirPort router - I've read lots of reviews that suggest they're more reliable than other home brands, but not perfect.

I have a 6-7 year old WRT-54G(something), running dd-wrt since I had it in bridge mode with an identical unit for a while a few years ago, that's been powered up for about 2 years in its current position without a single hiccup. My Netgear router (free after rebate) didn't even last that long, but I put its demise down to a lightning storm...

loxiej wrote:According to the datasheet on the smc website, they don't explicitly support win7. Still might work in compatibility mode, but it's a crapshoot.

If it works on Vista it should work on 7, most likely. Not sure.. does it work on 64-bit though?

I just replaced a 5-year old Linksys WRT54 with an Apple Airport Extreme. The Linksys still worked, but I have many more 802.11N capable devices now and the dual-radio design in a premium router will always be faster for B/G and N. The point is - you get what you pay for. This SMC will give you wireless at some speed and reliability, if setup correctly. Do WOOTers know how to set the B/G channel properly in a location with many other competing access points?

The wireless dongle included will NOT work with an XBOX360. You have to use a Microsoft Certified adapter or it won't connect.

The review NightGhost pointed out saying that it works with the XBOX360 is talking about the wireless router only, as in the Microsoft Adapter connected to the router easily.

Here is a pretty informative datasheet.

http://www.speedguide.net/broadband-view.php?hw=531

In for one. Ok now my turn. Someone has already answered the question, but I would like to point it out. Wireless "N", or any wireless router for that matter will only go as fast as the slowest node. This means if you have 9 laptops with "N" and 1 laptop with "G" than your network can only go as fast as "G" speeds. If the 1 "G" laptop was disconnected then it would ramp up to "N" speed.

There are 3 reasons that this is a good deal
1) Price
2) "N" adapter included
(great for upgrading "G" device)
3) SMC has been around a long time and usually has decent products

I have used mainly Linksys, Actiontec, Netgear, and Belkin routers over the past few years. No matter what at some point in time every router I have ever owned required a reset, even a master reset on occasion. NO ROUTER IS FOOLPROOF.

As far as security I have this to say. Unless your running a bank from your home or are prone to being hacked than the security on this router will be fine. I have read discussions about MAC cloning, etc. Yes cloning is easy - No,not every average Joe can just go do it. How many open "unsecure" networks do you see available in your neighborhood? Those will be the ones that get hacked first. Take precaution, use a form of security, but don't dwell to deep on what's being said regarding MAC filtering, etc.

toezilla wrote:That's pretty standard fare for wireless-N routers. Most of the gigabit routers are closer to $100+.

I'm curious...since most internet connections (cable, DSL) are under 10mb, why is everyone so hepped that their router be more than that?? I can understand if you have like twenty computers and are basing this on a LAN, but most people on woot are using a wireless router to connect to the internet. So....you can go real fast from you computer to the router....and then you hit your connection from your house to the ISP...which is much slower. Its great if you're connecting to a server in your house....and your printer will not go fast (grin)...so what's the point?

ZandersZa wrote:OK, so here's my question: is there any wireless router out there that is consistently tolerable? I've ran into problems with just about every brand. I'm convinced that while all technology moves forward, wireless routers are still an absolute crapshoot when it comes to whether or not they'll last, whether they'll arbitrarily boot users off the network, whether you'll have to unplug it every day to reset it, etc...

I find it extremely frustrating, and I'm in the market for a router. This is so cheap that I almost think it's worth the chance. Anyone have some advice? I'm getting a little sick of this 50 foot blue ethernet cable wrapping around my apartment. Thanks in advance.

Apple Airports are great and I have never had any problems with them or at many client locations I have installed them. They work just fine with pcs and are very robust. One of the few Apple products I would recommend.

bhcompy wrote:anyone know if this will work as a wireless ap serving an existing network(or more accurately, work as a wireless switch providing addressing from the existing network to devices directly connected/wired to this ap)

According to Page 31 of the product manual, yes, it can operate either as a straight wireless access point, or as a WDS Bridge to bridge a wired network to another wired network over WiFi

Can you connect two of these together to extend the reach of the WiFi network? I live in a looooong house.

howismydriving wrote:Apple Airports are great and I have never had any problems with them or at many client locations I have installed them. They work just fine with pcs and are very robust. One of the few Apple products I would recommend.

I've had plenty of trouble trying to connect to Airport devices using anything other than Apple computers.

revstockli wrote:does anyone know if the usb adapter work with a wireless ready device, such as a samsung dvd player?

The answer is NO... it will NOT work with Samsung DVD players and TV's. They require a proprietary Samsung wireless USB adapter.

I own both a Samsung DVD and Samsung LED TV and explored this months ago. I ended up using a Netgear solution that uses your household electrical wiring. It works for both.

gwbaker wrote:I had an older SMC Barricade router that would quite frequently disconnect then reconnect with all wirelessly connected computers. While you might not think this is a problem, consider downloading a large file that cannot be resumed....

I, in anger, damaged a lapatop because I thougt it to be a unit of crap. But, later I realized, that the culprit was the crappy router made by SMC and labled Barricade.

A crashed hard drive, due to my anger, and a lot of hair pulled out, finally led me to the defective SMC Barricade router.

Since then, I have not recommended their stuff even to my WORST enemys.

Tread lightly!!!!!

SMC is the only vendor to service 12 of the top 14 multi-service operators (MSOs) in North America including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Rogers, Suddenlink, and Shaw. It also has about 4 million routers distributed in the U.S. and has been around since 1971.

I have not heard anywhere on the Net that SMC does not make good products nor that throughout the U. S. that your experience is common.

Sounds like you have some issue personal to your computer and software. And it also sounds like you did not have the patience to figure out what was up, considering you appear to be saying you "threw your laptop against the wall" in anger, so to speak. (As tempted as I have been to do that at times, I have always remembered that 30 minutes after my anger subsides I'll regret having punched a hole in my monitor, who didn't do anything wrong. ;)

Given the prevalence of SMC routers and success of the company, your negative experience is the exception not the rule and people certainly don't need to "tread lightly."

As I always say, no matter the product there's always going to be someone, somewhere who had a bad experience, no matter the solid reputation of the manufacturer. If we all "treaded lightly" because someone, somewhere has issues, our homes would be empty, you would not be able to eat anything, nor drive anywhere.

To be sure, do you own anything that you think is the greatest thing since sliced bread? Well, Google the product's name and the word "complaint" and you will find someone who says the product you believe in is a P-O-S.

moliva914 wrote:I was thinking about getting this to replace my god-awful Belkin setup I have now with which I've had similar experiences with. What brand would you guys recommend?

For a long time it seemed the need to reset your router every week was an inevitability, but I've had zero problems for over a year now with Linksys' (a la Cisco) WRT310N. The gigabit switch is nice, too. Don't buy it at retail cost, you can frequently find it on sale for around $40.

product specs:

http://www.linksysbycisco.com/AE/en/products/WRT310N

willidiots wrote:For all of those asking about speed, at best, you're getting a 72Mbps bit rate, which is roughly 20-30 Megabits of actual throughput. That's about twice what you'll get from an 802.11g network.

This router doesn't have a lot of the features that make 802.11n significantly faster, which is why it's so cheap. The more expensive routers out there run 5 GHz radios; these are suitable for double-width channels, which double your throughput accordingly. Additionally, this router only supports one spatial stream, versus more expensive routers which support two spatial streams (again, doubling throughput). A $100 Linksys router will support all of these features, giving a bit rate of 300 Mbps and an actual throughput of ~120 Megabits.

This is a quality post, but I think you need to put it in extremely basic terms so people can benefit from this valuable information.

Sidenote: For most home users, unless they are uploading and downloading lots of large files (for example, as part of a home business) this router is fine, especially at this price point.

revstockli wrote:does anyone know if the usb adapter work with a wireless ready device, such as a samsung dvd player?

Nothing works with a Samsung that isn't made by Samsung. Don't even bother teasing yourself with the notion, it simply won't work. Period.

Just a tip: The USB dongle that comes with this is supposed to make it easy to connect wireless devices to the router (sometimes called a wireless hub).

Sometimes the software that comes with these routers does not tell you that when a device cannot connect with the dongle, it's often the device you are trying to connect is outdated and it cannot "talk" with the router.

That is not the fault of the router, it's the device you are attempting to connect.

For example, I have some old notebooks (2005) that have Windows XP installed, with Service Pack 2.

I have a Cisco Valet wireless router with one of these dongles. If I try to connect wirelessly with the dongle, the Valet USB dongle (and software) will say words to the affect "Sorry, Cisco Valet Connect requires XP Service Pack 3. Please install Service Pack 3 and try again."

So if you are having problems connecting a notebook, for example, make sure the device has updated software (the operating system) or that a patch, if available, has been installed.

Bonus Tip: Often times, on newer devices (but not that new) manufacturers will provide firmware upgrades that will update your devices network card or communication. So always check the manufacturer website to assure you have the latest files.

Note: A manufacturer may not provide a firmware update or upgrade because... it wants you to buy its new products. So don't despair, it's a good excuse to buy something new.

Bonus Tip: Google your device's name and "can't connect SMC router" (not in quotes) and see if there's a forum(s) that discusses the issue and provides a solution. I have used this technique for years and resolved problems.

For example, I will sometimes put in quotes (meaning I am looking for the exact phrase) the error code I am getting on screen. Nine times out of ten I will find multiple sites discussing the exact error message.

stevesds wrote:Wireless-N 150Mbps, but only 100Mbps for wired ports??
What a crock!!

The "crock" is that you and everyone else in the world believe the numbers thrown around by peddlers of WiFi gear. Range? Nope. You won't get it. Connection speed? Nope. You won't get it.

Wireless FAQ

Anyways, the short of it is that the "Wireless-N 150Mbps" would only be the link speed that Windows reported. The actual throughput is a fraction of that. Try it sometime! Copy a few GB over the fastest Wireless-N connection you got, and then try copying the same file over a 100Mbps Ethernet connection. Chances are the "slower" connection finishes the file copy first, every single time regardless of what Windows reports the connection speed to be.

pg318 wrote:I have a 6-7 year old WRT-54G(something), running dd-wrt since I had it in bridge mode with an identical unit for a while a few years ago, that's been powered up for about 2 years in its current position without a single hiccup. My Netgear router (free after rebate) didn't even last that long, but I put its demise down to a lightning storm...

Absolutely - some people have had this experience with most models, but not all people with any SOHO router. If your devices rarely lose connection, and you don't have to reboot more than once every few months, you're lucky.

BTW, I use a WRT54GL with Tomato.

richardhod wrote:If it works on Vista it should work on 7, most likely. Not sure.. does it work on 64-bit though?

It will work.

Compatibility Center

jjruiz wrote:Can you connect two of these together to extend the reach of the WiFi network? I live in a looooong house.

Yes. Use one as the router, and put the other in bridge mode.

Are you a Viking?