Cisco-Linksys WAP11 Wireless-B Network Access Point

Mixed reviews for this product. And its hard to tell if they are referring to a early version or the current versions. But I'm currently using the WAP11 v2.2 and it works flawlessly. But I caution users that networking of any type can be frustrating so if you're not sure what your doing, ask somebody for help. Don't expect much from Linksys or any company for that matter.1)Setup: For me it was plug, configure WEP, and play. But I have an existing network. A RR cable modem into a NetGear router. The Router feeds a Linksys Switch and between them I have 10/100 wired Ethernet in every room of the house, 2 jacks in the den and a dedicated print server. So I just plugged in the WAP11, it got an DHCP IP address from the router and it was up. It immediately talked to the IBM nic in my ThinkPad and the Netgear MA401 in my other notebook. It took a little bit (30min) to get the wep going (I think I was entering in a invalid hex key) but I now have 64bwep and mac filtering for the 2 nics. Easy huh? But other situations can be different and end up bringing a lot of frustration.2)Range: I get a usable signal all over the house and outside on the deck. It varies from room to room and placement of the WAP can mean everything. 2.4ghz phones and the microwave cause interference so be prepared for that. And Linksys sells a booster for the WAP11 that gets great reviews.3)Support: None really. And the documentation is useless. It is web configurable but linksys provides no help in how to do it. In short, know what to do with this before you buy it. Don't depend on Linksys for support. In my case, I didn't need them and I give it 5 stars. Others needed help and now give it 1 star.

I bought this thing and a Linksys wireless card as well, and set it up and configured it and everything setup perfectly without a hitch. However, the computers wouldn't connect. When I tested with a script that pinged the computers across the wireless connection I had 90% packet loss at 3 feet! When I moved the computer from the office to the living room I had 100% packet loss and 26 percent ("poor") signal strength - only two rooms away!Email to technical support went totally unanswered.So I can only assume that this product is a joke and that linksys will put out a real product soon and apologize for ever shipping this thing. I'd give up on them completely if their DSL/Cable router wasn't such a great product.

I bought the WAP11 (v 2.2) plus a wireless Linksys PC card NIC and a PCI NIC: all for home use. The WAP setup is pretty straightforward with an excellent Web interface. I set it up with 128 bit WEP encryption and MAC address filtering to provide at least some basic security. I found the signal strength and range to be better than the SMC WAP I had been testing and certainly preferred the Linksys web interface to the setup utility that came with the SMC. My only cricicism of the Linksys unit is its bulk.Although possibly outside the scope of this review, it may be worth mentioning that I'm very happy with the Linksys WMP11 PCI Wireless NIC that I bought as well. It has an actual real antenna that sticks out of the back of the PC and which can be adjusted to get the optimum signal strength. The only problem I had was with the Windows XP wireless networking setup utility doing battle with the utility provided with the one that shipped with the card. I suppose I could have let the Windows-provided utility handle the card but, in the end, I unchecked the box that allowed it to manage the card. This let me use the Linksys utility to handle the setup and things were smooth from then on. Signal strength is excellent - much better than from the SMC PCI card I'd been using earlier. Whether this was a function of having the antenna, rather than SMC's back plastic PC-card type protrusion, I don't know.One more thing, Linksys makes easy work of updating drivers, utilities and firmware from its very well-organized web site. It's worth availing yourself of these updates.

I have had this WAP for a few weeks now and only know that the setup is very easy and well documented. As far as knowing how well this item performs, I have no idea. After setting up I tried to attach to my wired LAN through the WAP11. Although the Linksys Wireless CompactFlash Card WFC12 and Linksys Wireless-B Notebook Adapter WPC11 that I purchased with the WAP11 have communications with the WAP11, they can not get to the Internet through the Access Point. My day job is in the computer industry and I pretty much know what I'm doing. I have checked and rechecked all my settings to no avail. If this doesn't solve my problem it usually means that something has been overlooked in the information provided. My next step is to try technical support. Linksys' off-shore tech support seem more interested in getting away from me and will tell me anything to do so. Because of the accents, every sentance has to be repeated several times. It is a very unpleasant experience. The information I have received from them has always been incorrect. I have never had any of my email requests responded to. At this point it looks like I will be returning these 3 Linksys items. They are no use if I can't get them working. I purchased these Linksys products because of my previous good experiences with Linksys. But it looks like their takeover by Cisco Systems has changed their approach to customer and technical support. As with so many other companies, cutting corners by taking support off-shore is costing their customers dearly and will in the end be felt by their penny-pinchers.

If all you need is a wireless access point, the WAP11 works great. I bought a second one because there were still some dead areas in our old plaster walled house and I saw that Linksys was touting the "repeater" function. The WAP11 has the ability to take a signal from another WAP11 and extend it. All you need is a power plug, i.e. it doesn't have to be plugged into the router (you plug it into the router initially for set-up). So, I had one WAP11 plugged into the router and the other plugged into a power outlet in the living room. The repeater function does "work", that is, I now had a good signal in the previous dead zones. The problem is that the actual throughput or speed of the data was comparable to a 56kbs modem and the access points constantly have to be reset (at least once-a-day). I called Linksys tech support, who had initially told me it would only be slightly slower and probably not noticable, and a different tech said: "yeah, that's a problem we know about and there is currently no soulution." He then tried to give me some crap about a "possible" firmware upgrade. The second access point is being returned and I am now a D-link customer.