Linksys products have come and gone through the cablemodeminfo labs, and we've seen that they offer a "scratch" for every home-networking itch. One of their latest products, the BEFSX41 Etherfast cable / DSL Firewall Router + 4 port switch, is a powerful blue box that offer security and peace of mind over your home network integrity, while also offering a wide range of secure connectivity options to the corporate office (or other network). They call it "UPnP", for universal plug and play, and this product certainly doesn't fall short in any potential networking need (or itch) you could have.

Right out of the box, we were impressed with a wonderful color manual explaining how to hook up the BEFSX41 to your existing cable modem, DSL (or any other Internet source) hardware. The instructions are simplistic enough that someone who is not familiar with the gear involved could look at the illustrations and figure it out easily. The manual itself is in .PDF format on an included CD-ROM. Running a "setup" program from this CD will start an install wizard that will get your manual installed and easy to get at.

The BEFSX41 shares all the characteristics common to most Linksys products. Great LEDs show you every detail of each of the 10/100 switched LAN ports, as well as your WAN and DMZ port (4th of 4 ports on the back). Control and configuration of the firewall / router is done through a web browser. Pretty standard stuff, and if you have ever used any other Linksys networking product, then you will be familiar with the layout.

Linksys BEFSX41 basic firewall configuration.

The BEFSX41 is really 3 products in one, so let us run through the options and some details of each of these. As I mentioned above, this is a 4 port 10/100 switch w/the fourth port being dedicated as DMZ (optional function activated via browser configuration). There is also a 10/100 WAN port to connect to your Cable/DSL modem or other network connection.
Next up, we have firewall options. The graphic above illustrates the basic front end of this feature where you can turn it on or off. Built in web filters for Proxy, Java, ActiveX and Cookies are an easy "allow" or "deny" radio button. There is also a blocked URL content section where you can select keywords for the filter to look for. All very handy to keep things in order on your network and protect innocent (or paid) eyes from content they shouldn't be viewing. Other nasties that can be avoided are; ping of death attacks, SYN floods, IP spoofing and DoS attacks. All of these are notoriously common ailments in unprotected networks.

Linksys BEFSX41 router filters in action.

By far, the most extensive options of the Etherfast Cable/DSL firewall/router have to do with its routing features. One of the best we've seen, hands down. You have your basics such as NAT, DHCP and Port Forwarding, but you also have some extended features such as being able to select static or dynamic routes where you can designate hop counts and hardware interface. A simple routing table is available to see things in an easy to read list. There is also built in support for NTP (network time protocol) synchronization, SNMP ver. 2, PPPoE connections, remote administration and some handy traffic and event logging. One minor complaint here is that there is some redundancy with the UPnP configuration page. It is basically the same as port forwarding, but it has all the basic server operations and appropriate port numbers built in so that you can just click "enable" and point to the IP desired. Nice, but not really necessary of its own configuration page. Another point that might be a potential issue, we had trouble FTPing with this router. This would be both from the FTP server, who kept disconnecting client uploads before they were through (time outs), and with downloads from a client on a different PC where a generic "receive blocking" error would be given as the reason. This sort of FTP weirdness is fairly common, but it seemed consistent with one of our testers where as this problem never existed before introducing the Linksys to our test network. Can we blame the BEFSX41? Not quite sure to be honest. However, when we finished the review process and took down the router, the problem immediately ceased. There was nothing fancy in our router configuration that should have contributed to this. The FTP server was hosted on the DMZ port, which is as unobtrusive as we can get.

One of the features we like best is the option to have two individually configured IPSec VPN tunnels. How handy is that you ask? Very handy...especially for families where both parents or roommates require secure connections to the corporate office or other remote networks. Your System Administrator will love it! The graphic below demonstrates the simplicity of setting this up.

Linksys VPN options. Tunnel #1 or 2 is selected via the drop down menu. Summaries for configuration are there to see with a click of the "summary" button.

As I said at the beginning, we see a lot of Linksys products. They never fail to impress us and the BEFSX41 is no exception! Linksys has set a precedence in home networking hardware, and this product could just be the flagship of their home networking connectivity options. Just add a Linksys WiFi access point (which would stack right on top with their proprietary peg holes built into all of their products), and you've got the home network power user smiling from ear to ear. Peace of mind, solid performance and the #1 brand name in home networking gear all in a single package for less money than a pair of good shoes. We love it!

Features of the Linksys BEFSX41 Etherfast Cable/DSL Firewall Router:
- All in one product, 4 port switch, router and firewall
- Built in protection for Ping of Death, IP spoofing, DoS, etc
- Excellent documentation and simple to follow setup instructions
- Dedicated DMZ port for hosting a server outside of your secure network
- Supports 2 independent IPSec VPN tunnels simultaneously

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars!
Pros: Excellent router/firewall combo box. Extensive built-in functionality for all common needs. Easy to use and configure (even the advanced stuff). Great price!
Cons: Browser based configuration is a tad on the overkill side. Sometimes, less is more. Strange traffic issues (FTP errors) that seemed very likely to be caused by the router.

Linksys BEFSX41 Etherfast Cable/DSL Router Firewall
Current Street Price: $72 - $85

Available from
PCConnection.com for $82

Linksys
17401 Armstrong Ave
Irvine, CA 92614 USA
http://www.linksys.com