(Deal over)Wireless router CompUSA.com $26.99 no rebates

[allisolm]

295106

FMI 2.4GHz 11Mbps Wireless Router with 4 Port Switch, 802.11b

Internet special $29.99 less 10% = $26.99

"Save 10% Instantly on this Product!!! You will see the discount after you go through the Check Out process." From this page. Thanks PRAISETHELORD for that info - I had missed it.

 

[XZeroII]

nice, thx

 

[mflacy]

Anyone used this one before?

 

[bradolson]

Nice deal. I remember paying over $200 for my Linksys model almost 2 years ago. These things have become so affordable now.

Brad

 

[PRAISETHELORD]

It also gets you a discount of 10% in addition to that price. of couse then you have tax and shipping

 

[ivwshane]

I got it when it was only $20. It's a pretty good router for $30 with lot's of options. This particular router is a rebadged gigafast.

 

[edmeister]

For $30, it's a great router.. It has 95% of the features of my new Netgear 802.11g router, but 1/3 the price.

 

[imobejoas]

This router sucks. I got it, it wireless is messed up or I couldnt' get it to work with my PDA The web GUI locks up all the time. I'm returning it if I can. Dunno if it will work at a B&M

 

[mchang]

router is fine. have one working and haven't needed a reboot in ages. plain jane, and the gui works only in ie. but hey, for $30...

 

[radioouman]

I bought this router and had a LOT of trouble with it until I updated the firmware.

You can get the firmware update Here

 

[dmw16]

My friend just got a wireless Jornada....I'll have to tell him about this. Thanks

 

[RobsTV]

Great router.
Have now bought and installed 3 of them.
All work perfectly and are very feature rich. (edit: maybe not? updated below).
Of course as with any piece of hardware/software, always get lastest firmware/drivers for best performance.
Heck even Windows XP blew chunks before SP1.

 

[manuelku]

I don't know I got it yesterday and I returned it today... maybe mine was defective but the thing got hella hot after 1 hour of usage... not very hot but a lot hotter than most router I used before.. and it reset itself every 20 - 30 sec when it gets hot.. when it's cold it won't.. so I just return it and get a Netgear.. it's more stylish and more stable.

 

[Celstar]

Originally posted by: manuelku
I don't know I got it yesterday and I returned it today... maybe mine was defective but the thing got hella hot after 1 hour of usage... not very hot but a lot hotter than most router I used before.. and it reset itself every 20 - 30 sec when it gets hot.. when it's cold it won't.. so I just return it and get a Netgear.. it's more stylish and more stable.

now thats a hot deal. har.

 

[HarryK]

Anybody know if this can be used as a Wireless Access Point?

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: bradolson
Nice deal. I remember paying over $200 for my Linksys model almost 2 years ago. These things have become so affordable now.

Brad

If everything works out with my MIR's on my FAR Gigafast wireless cardbus card and USB adapter from PC Club, I'll have a complete wireless network set up with my PC and my wife's laptop for $27 before taxes (and shipping) and after rebates.

Mighty is the power of the Hot Deals forum.

 

[Rab]

This router does indeed get hot, and has blocked internet access when it overheats.

My solution was to buy some 1/2" sticky rubber feet and put them on the bottom corners.

It works fine now.

 

[Garion]

Deal is dead - The instant discount disappeared while I was in the checkout process tonight at 10:00 PST. I almost clicked "process order" on it for $70 - That would have been a bummer!

- G

 

[allisolm]

This week they have the Belkin wireless router for $29.99 after $40 MIR and the Belkin notebook card, desktop card and USB adapter for $19.99 AR.

See this thread.

 

[Garion]

.. And, now, it's back for $29.99 again, and I got through the ordering process. Got it, plus a WIFI NIC for $60 shipped, not bad!

- G

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: Rab
This router does indeed get hot, and has blocked internet access when it overheats.

My solution was to buy some 1/2" sticky rubber feet and put them on the bottom corners.

It works fine now.

I just got the router today, but I have not run into any heat issues yet. If starts giving me grief, I might be tempted to see if i can dismantle the sucker and start slapping a little heatsink on whatever chip is overheating. Since this is so cheap, I've been toying with the idea of trying to take it apart and mod it into a nice wall decoration (like a faux shadowbox or something) so I can wall-mount it in my apartment without the wife getting upset at seeing a gray box hanging off the wall.

The first thing I did once I had it up an running was to update the firmware, and I must say it runs pretty nicely. There is no speed drop at all from having the laptop hooked into the cable modem via CAT5 (A nice, steady 1,700+ kbps, even with 128-bit WEP enabled and using shared keys only). There really isn't even a noticeable lag when pulling up a new web page with the encryption turned on, which is really nice.

There are a TON of options in the router setup. Lots of nice stuff for the paranoid, such as MAC filtering so you can restrict network access to just your machines and an option for the wireless AP to not announce its SSID. There is even a button on the WEP setup that will generate a WEP key based on a passphrase you type in a form field (Very cool, but it would be cooler if it could generate a random key from scratch like the keygen at the Warewolf labs website). I get a pretty strong signal in the living room, despite the router being on the bedroom floor, sandwiched between a subwoofer and the cable modem. I am using one of the FAR Gigafast WiFi Cardbus cards from PC Club (running the D-Link 650+ drivers in place of the Gigafast ones, since it uses the same TI chipset).

Hopefully the FAR Gigafast USB WiFi adapter I ordered will come in soon, so I can see how it will work on my desktop PC - which needs the wireless connection the most because it is in the second bedroom, which for some reason lacks a cable jack for my modem (otherwise I'd use CAT5 for it). I'm hoping I can get the USB dongle to run with the D-Link DWL-122 drivers.

It is definitely worth picking up for this $30. I don't know how well they will hold up, but at this price you can afford to get two.

 

[Kelemvor]

How does this router compared to the one in this thread? Both are $29 but that one requires rebates...

 

[jbarwick78]

Originally posted by: allisolm
This week they have the Belkin wireless router for $29.99 after $40 MIR and the Belkin notebook card, desktop card and USB adapter for $19.99 AR.

See this thread.

Too bad their out of the wireless notbook cards

router is back and very tempting though. Especially since I think my SMC has crapped out. Keeps
on dropping connections.

 

[batmanuel]

As an update, I've only had the router bloack internet access a few times. Even then, it may not have been due to overheating, but some other outside factor, such as Comcast doing something funny on their end that cause the router to drop the modem. I've certainly had my access go out enough times with the PC plugged straight into the modem to no be able to really say if it was the router's fault or not. The nice thing is that I have been able to get my access back in a jiffy by just logging into the router's admin console and rebooting it.

One other neat thing for you parents out there is a feature on the router that lets you block internet access for certain blocks of time, which is great if you have kids you don't want missing bedtime because they are up late surfing the web. (My parents complain about my younger brother doing this all the time). Of course, it only works well if you have the router somewhere that that can't just unplug it and jack straight into the modem. Another parent/business-friendly feature is the ability to shut off the internet access after a set time period online, and also to block certain URLs. I haven't played around with enough routers to know if this feature set is really common, but it was really nice to find all these capabilities on a cheap, off-brand router like this. The admin interface is not as pretty as most, but it does what it needs to do pretty darn well.

 

[RobsTV]

Originally posted by: batmanuel
I haven't played around with enough routers to know if this feature set is really common, but it was really nice to find all these capabilities on a cheap, off-brand router like this. The admin interface is not as pretty as most, but it does what it needs to do pretty darn well.

Actually it is a name brand router, just repackaged for CompUSA.
GigaFast WF711-APR is what it really is.
Also check out last thing in manual, and you will see tech support is going to 1-800 Gigafast center.


I now have 3 of these in different buildings, and they all do lose internet connection at times.
Heat is not an issue with any of them, as they only seem luke warm to the touch.
Running Ping does help, but still loses connection several times a day, for a minute or so.
This may not be caused from the router, but may instead be caused by Verizon DSL and Brighthouse Cable?
However, anytime I lose connection, simply unplugging power from router, then plugging back in, and instantly back.
That leads me to think that it is a problem in the router.
Then again, since it's only a minute down each time, not that big a deal.