SMC Barricade N Wireless Broadband Router SMCWBR14S-N4 - Wireless router + 4-port switch - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n - (External)

I have three of these things and they all work great. I use one as the base router and the other two as wireless bridges/repeaters so I can plug in several wired Ethernet devices into each station as well as use wireless throughout the house. Setup was a bit tricky, but I have a relatively unusual configuration. Setting one of these things up for normal use is a piece of cake. I've been using the base one for months and the other two for a few weeks and I haven't had any problems yet. Great bang for the buck.

There's apparently something not quite wifi standard about these: Some devices will drop connections with them for some reason. Other than that, I can say they're easy to manage and perform decently, but I eventually replaced them with an Apple airport which maintains connections with a variety of devices more reliably.

This is a nice little router for many purposes; my only complaint is that I am unable to connect to my university's Virtual Private Network through it. I can connect to the VPN through my neighbor's router, and I can also connect by plugging my computer directly into the cable modem, but the SMC router blocks the connection, even when the firewall is completely disabled and all ports are open. I spent hours on the phone with my university's tech support and with SMC's tech support, and neither can figure out why this router won't let me connect to a VPN.

I have owned two of these routers (SMCWBR14S-N4) for a little over two months now (not sure why the date on my review was Dec. 2010; it should be Jan. 2011); and I feel comfortable about sharing my opinions/experience on this product.In a nutshell: an excellent product at a very reasonable price! Highly recommended!Performance:Range - This router offers excellent range. When paired with a D-Link DWA-125 adapter on my old XP laptop, the speed fluctuates between 108mbps to 135mbps when the laptop/adapter is located one floor down and two rooms over from the router, never drops the connection in two months. At the same location my old 802.11g router/adapter combo sometimes doesn't even connect!WDS - I also use the SMCWBR14S-N4s in WDS mode (bridge/range extender) to extend the range to the basement of my house, so I can attest to that the WDS mode works very well!Speed - as mentioned above, speed varies in my house depending on the location. When placed in the next room from the router, on my laptop with the DWA-125 adapter, the speed is definitely faster than my wired Ethernet (100mbps) when downloading files. I also use it as my wireless connection (through WDS mode) to my media player to watch Netflix streaming movies as well as movies stored on my media server on the big screen TV. In the past two months only once the playback of DVD movies stuttered; I later found out too many of my neighbors were using the same channel I set for WDS (IMHO this is the only weakness of the SMCWBR14S-N4 - there is no dynamic auto-switching of channels in WDS mode), switching to the least used channel solves the problem.Features:Very decent set of features, including WDS which is usually found only in higher priced routers/access points.Ease of use/setup and documentation:This is not my first router so I didn't need the help of the setup wizard on the setup CD. If you are comfortable with the web-style interface employed by almost all major router manufacturers then the setup is a breeze. I find the documentation (user manual) well written, better than the documentation I've seen on D-Link and LinkSys products in the past.Durability:Don't know yet. I will update the review in the future on the durability.Weaknesses:Not DD-WRT compatible, and no auto-channel switching in WDS mode.Value:Best value for the price I paid in Nov. 2010, it's only about half the current price.

Before this, I had a Netgear router that dropped the internet signal several times a day. After doing some research, I recently bought this SMC Barricade router and all my problems have been solved! I did have a little difficulty with the installation. The installation disc is easy to use, but the router didn't work at first, and I called customer support and was directed to a person in India who wasn't very helpful at all. I ended up hitting the reset button and reinstalling the router using the disc, and the second time, it worked fine. Since then, the signal hasn't dropped once. Such a relief! I live in a small apartment, so I can't really speak to the signal strength. It's certainly sufficient to cover my apartment, and my friend's apartment next door, so that's strong enough for me. The connection is also very fast.

I can't believe I paid a rental fee to Time Warner for this exact same wireless router. It's dependable and hasn't given me any problems. It's also really easy to set up. Well worth the money.

great !!!

If you are not "really " technically inclined, don't buy this P.O.S. Couldn't get it to work with verizon DSL no matter who in India that I talked to.( Verizon and SMC tech support is there). It was always the other companies fault. Wound up buying a used Westell modem/wireless router and set it up myself with only the available online instructions. In all fairness, I must admit when I tried to use Verizon tech support to hook up the Westell unit, they told me the wireless part of my laptop was not working. It was then that I went online and did it myself.