meta name="p:domain_verify" content="83432fc69a1d6df071f49df584f9d839 Laurl Designs: Cisco's Valet- faster, easier, better

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Cisco's Valet- faster, easier, better

I purchased the Valet from amazon.com on Wednesday evening after giving up on programming my current router and being tired of being the neighborhood free WiFi hot spot. As I was looking one last time on another way of locking out other users of my wireless router, an ad on the Linksys page caught my eye. It was the Valet and it was just what I was looking for, if it was all that the ad promised. I searched for reviews and they all sounded good. So, I bought the Valet with 10% off and free shipping, a better offer than at the Cisco site.
The Valet promised to set up my wireless with names and passwords, something I couldn't do by myself without locking myself out of the system, with the use of a USB "key". It also promised to be ready and working within 5 minutes. I intended to install it on two laptops, a Toshiba Satellite running on XP and newer laptop running on Vista. I started the installation on the XP, which was probably a mistake as it is older. It ran it program for about 2 minutes and told me to call the help number which was picked up quickly by Ed. We reset the Valet and went through the usual unplugging and plugging in of the modem and Valet. After a reload, it worked though the phone call did take 39 minutes. Laoding it onto the Vista laptop was much faster- about 3 minutes. And, the Roku box plugs into the Valet just like it did on my previous router.
So, the long and short if it is:
Pro's- Easy to set up
          No need for any technical knowledge
          simple, straight-forward options to add computers or visitors
          Easy to change passwords
          Good customer service
          Attractive color choices
          Energy Star qualified plug
Con's- Slower setup on older computers

UPDATE from my 4/3/10 post- If you need ot change the set-up information you will need to inset the "key" and access the set-up from that drive. I didn't know this and spent a lot of time on a WebEx with a non-native speaker that was not helpful. I figured it out myself. How did I know the WebEx was not from the US, the sentance structure was really off. I was like I was messaging with Yoda. They did follow up with a phone call and an email. So they are trying, but it doesn't appear they are trying to hire people in the US.

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