U.S. Robotics USR8022 Wireless Cable/DSL Router (22 Mbps)

Comment: Well, our family has been using USR since the late 80's with a Courier 2400 baud modem (2.4Kbps). Anyways, regarding the 8022, in my experience this device has been rock solid. First the negatives: 1) Only 2 LAN ports (plus 1 for WAN) which may be too few for some people; most other similar products have 4 or so. 2) User manual is sparse to be generous. 3) Doesn't stand vertically (if that matters to you...I just stack the things on top of it and it seems to work ok). 4) One OS's on one of my computers (the other OS on that computer is fine) doesn't like it as a router without some tweaking (which fixes it), but nowhere would you find how to do it if you didn't know how to do it already. These are the only reasons it didn't get a 5/5 in my experience.
For me, the USR8022 is currently is set up to be an access point (I prefer using my SMC wired router still for a few reasons, including the above negatives), with far superior signal quality and range than the Netgear MR814v2 I was using before (which, by the way, shares negative points 2 and 4 with the USR8022). My notebook uses a 3com 3CRSHPW196 and web-browses like it was wired (much better than Netgear); granted I am usually fairly close to the 8022, but it performs as one hopes equipment would perform. I have also used it conjunction with a USR2249 (access point configured to function as an access point client) and was able to transfer 700mb files successfully (win98se->winxp machine), which took significantly longer than on the wired network, but was still successful.

I have not yet connected a printer to this device, but I have not had issues with it's predecessor the USR8011 in connecting printers. I'm sure in the future this 8022 will become a print server too.

both my thumbs up to this product.

Comment: This is my second buy from USR. This one has the same problem: drops connection when downloading big files (the same happened with the USR2249). Must reboot router before it works again. The support people are a bunch of idiots, don't answer your emails. It will go directly to trash can. DONT'T BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS GUYS.

Comment: Like others, my box would lose its internet connection every 15 minutes or so. The wireless feature was dropping off at two feet! WEP was making the connection, but I was unable to get any further.

I found that my 3.2GHz phone was causing the wireless distance problems. I figured the power supply may not be supplying enough current, so rigged a connection to my computer's power supply, which provides the necessary 5V. The system now only loses the internet connection about 5 times a day.

I conclude that this device is garbage, but I am stuck with it for now. DON'T BUY ONE!! In fact, (and I would never have said this 5 years ago) don't buy USR products at all.

Funny.. just found out my interent connection was down when I tried to submit this. had to reboot my box yet again. GARBAGE!

Comment: Okay, I see that I'm swimming against the tide with this review, but I love my USR 8022. I do computer consulting and have installed about 8 of these. All have worked great. It has a excellent range (goes 3 floors away in my house), has a serial port (allowing it to use an external dial-up modem when my cable goes out), has a print server (which I use all the time, so it works for my Brother MFC), and has detachable antennas. IMO, this router is severly underrated. I have used the USR 8022 since it came out and find it to be rock solid. It has port forwarding, a firewall, and all the standard security options.

One word of warning--use v3.1 of the firmware. That is what it ships with it currently. There is an upgrade to 4.2 but it is currently in beta. It works, but causes a printer problem for me, a line at the bottom of the page. So far as I can tell, the firmware cannot be rolled back to an older version.

I have used new 802.11g routers from Dlink, Linksys, and Apple. The USR 8022 is my favorite among them. The only other option would be to try to go all 802.11g to get faster LAN speeds. This would cost you twice as much. You'd need to buy a seperate print server, and you'd loose the ability to attach an external dial-up modem to the router for a back-up connection. Because most people just care about Internet speeds, 802.11b is more than fast enough.

Comment: I took this router - tossed it in the garbage after spending an hour on the phone with the "tech" - (the phone call at my expense) after the hour his comment was "well maybe it is defective" - I then went out and purchased a D-link router and junked this one - they wanted me to pay $25 to expidite the replacement - or I could wait two to three weeks while I shipped mine back (at my expense) so that they could fix it - by the way I won't be buying any other US Robotics junk any more