Home > Consumer Reviews > Linksys BEFN2PS4 EtherFast Cable/DSL Voice Router

I've got 2 10baseT computers on a separate hub, connected to the Uplink port of the Linksys, then 1 100baseT laptop and a 10baseT desktop connected directly to the Linksys. The Linksys is connected to the cable modem, and all 4 computers have high speed internet access. I also have a telephone connected to the Linksys, which gives me cheap net2phone calls over the internet, with no computer involved. Everything works great, but to get net2phone to work I had to set the Linksys to use the static IP the cable company gave me to connect to the internet, rather than allowing the cable company to randomly assign the Linksys an IP with DHCP. But all my computers on the network are randomly assigned IPs by the Linksys, since the Linksys is also a DHCP server.

This is a good router for a small business/office LAN since it is also a switch - even make things better. The interface via web browser is easy to use, however, it would be nicer if Linksys provided a telnet console option to the router. THe VoIP feature is great, I use it almost daily for my long distance calling in the US. I wouldn't recommend using it to call internation though, it's not Linksys's fault but Net2Phone's fault. THe international voice quality is noticeable lower than that of a regular phone or phone card. So if you do a lot of int'l calling, the VoIP feature with Net2phone will not please you. Otherwise, it is a great choice.

I bought this plugged it in to my network then plugged a cordless phone in and started making phone calls. The rate of 3.9 cents a minute was much cheaper than my other second line and its about the same quality so I canceled my second phone line. I guess this is where voice over IP is going. Works just like a regular phone... that's the way it should be...

The Linksys router did not have an account number or pin number in the box for the Net2phone service. Both Linksys and Net2phone blew me off after hours of phone holding, computer answered e-mails, and phone conversations. Both companies do not care to support this product, so save yourself some grief and time and stay away from it.

I've an iCafe with less than 10 PC's, I used to make calls using a PCI card from other manufacturer and ecerytime a phone call was made and a client was using this PC, the computer used to fail. Therefore I always tried not to use this computer for normal internet but only for calls (8PCs - 1=7pcs for my business).

Besides, my ISP gave me 1 IP address. so I was doing NAT using a linux server. Linux is quite good but customers dislike to sit in linux machines (it's somehow different after all), therefore I was working with only 6 PC in my iCafe.

Now with the linksys router-phone, I've again 8 pcs and the quality of the calls are quite good. Just a few drawbacks:
1- The router doesn't offer cache, therefore I'm not saving bandwidth in this way.
2- No echo cancellation, and in fact no means to control the quality of your calls (volume of the speaker, mic, etc) as well as the usual problems from net2phone's bundle hardware: No way to know exactly how long the call lasted.
3- Sometimes I can hear no dialtone.. or calls simply doesn't get along... you've to switch off and on the router in order to get the call feature back working.
4- I got no net2phone account so now I've to pay local resellers for my phone cards. Linksys nor net2phone knows how to recover my account, or give me a new one.