Some time back, I read an article suggesting that Wi-Fi routers are the products most often returned to dealers. The biggest reason is evidently that they are difficult to configure, and thus do not deliver the performance customers expect.

The main problem appears to be inadequate documentation, followed by confusing setup apps or Web-based control panels. This despite the fact that a router’s basic setup routine ought to be fairly straightforward: Plug it in, connect your Internet adapter (or cable modem) to the appropriate port, connect additional Ethernet cables if needed for a wired network, turn the thing on, run a setup app and give the router a unique network name and password. The rest of the installation process, such as verifying your connection and making sure a high level of security has been established, ought to be accomplished behind the scenes.

Only it doesn’t always work that way. Far too many routers configure a default name provided by the router maker (such as Linksys or Netgear), and a password that anyone can guess in 30 seconds. Worse, they fail to configure the stronger levels of security, such as WPA2 Personal for home users, which unfortunately allows so-called “war drivers” to pass through your neighborhood, steal your Internet bandwidth. or may even try to break into your computers and steal your personal data.

The Linksys division of Cisco, a worldwide networking powerhouse known for Linksys home routers, is making a positive effort to help you set up one of their routers, using the Cisco Connect app for the Mac and Windows, but there are still serious and confusing flaws.

On the positive side of the ledger, Cisco Connect will pick a default friendly network name and a strong password for your new router. You can change the settings, if you like, but feel assured that the level of security is appropriate, including the selection of WPA2 Personal for encryption. All well and good, but that doesn’t mean you won’t hit a serious roadblock during the first part of the setup process.

The key problem is that the app is too dumb to work with a wired network connection. On the Mac version, it insists on turning on Wi-Fi, if it’s not being used, and then warning you that you have two networks activated, and you must deactivate one of them. The best workaround is just to unplug your Ethernet cable, and do the setup wirelessly, but, of course, the setup assistant in Cisco Connect doesn’t alert you in advance of the curious setup scheme. Since you can configure an Apple AirPort Wi-Fi without having to disconnect anything, why Cisco can’t figure out how to do the very same thing? It’s not that they aren’t aware of the problem, since their support people will alert you of the need to set up their routers — and even their router extenders, which expand the wireless range — strictly on a Wi-Fi connection with no other active network connection.

To make matters all the more confusing, the Linksys routers I’ve used, even the $199.99 Linksys EA4500, their newest high-end model, come with no printed documentation beyond inserting the setup CD and launching Cisco Connect. Accessing documentation on that CD will merely connect you to the company’s site for the current version. How you’re supposed to do that if you are using the router to configure that Internet connection is anyone’s guess. Talk about a cart before the horse syndrome.

Another curiosity, but one that only impacts power users, is the flawed method of displaying a Status screen on the router’s Web-based setup panel. As with many of you, I do not use my ISP’s DNS servers. Instead, I use OpenDNS, which promises greater speed, superior reliability, and enhanced protection against phishing and known malware sites.

Setting up OpenDNS is really simple with a router. You just enter the two OpenDNS IP numbers as Static DNS addresses. This is accomplished in the Cisco Setup page of their browser panel, available directly or as an Advanced router option in Cisco Connect. Click Save Settings, and it’s activated, except that the panel’s Status screen never shows the altered DNS setup. It only lists the IP numbers for the DNS servers used by your ISP. When I asked Linksys support about this anomaly, which curiously only appeared on recent Linksys routers, they claimed that was the way it was designed.

So, therefore, that means that a Setup page that gives you the wrong information is, to their bizarre logic, the proper method.

This isn’t to say that Apple’s AirPort setups are necessarily perfect. The new AirPort Utility 6.0 software no longer gives you the option to turn on support for IPv6, which is the expanded Internet numbering system that is soon going into effect to replace IPv4, because existing IP addreses have just about run out.

With ISPs and network hardware makers increasingly adding IPv6 support, it seems strange that there’s no way to activate that feature on AirPort router unless you downgrade to an older version of AirPort Utility. Recent AirPort hardware definitely supports IPv6.

I suppose it’s possible Apple removed support in the AirPort app  just to avoid confusion, and will restore it in a future update, when migrating to IPv6 becomes necessary. But all that does is muddy the waters. Perhaps Apple felt that they’d be inundated by people who switched on IPv6 prematurely, only to find that their routers stopped working. One hopes they’ll do the right thing. But the Linksys setup app shortcomings, at least of for now, seem far more serious.

If you’ve read my commentaries about the Office for Mac 2011 SP2 update from Microsoft, you’d see I described it as somewhat imperfect. But based on comments from our readers, the blogosphere, and from others who downloaded the update, it was a true bag of hurt. Between Outlook identity database issues, prompts to reenter your product key (serial number) and other issues, it was clear this was a troublesome release.

Well, it didn’t take long for Microsoft to get the message. As of this weekend, the update has been pulled from AutoUpdate (it’s still available online), primarily because of problems with the Outlook database, where it keeps asking you to upgrade and won’t let the application ever run, and not because of any other programming lapses. But I’ll get into that shortly.

If you’ve already installed the update, and have encountered database problems, you are left with a fairly involved workaround to set things right, as posted in a Microsoft Support document. If you haven’t done the installation yet, there’s yet another scheme, no less involved, to prepare the database for the update. Or maybe just delete everything and start over.

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My encounters with Apple’s attempts to deliver a reliable online service have been decidedly mixed. Although most of you probably believe that it all began with iTools, a free set of online features, including email, which debuted in 2000, Apple’s shaky online service history goes back further.

Indeed, the progenitor of MobileMe — and now iCloud — wasn’t Apple’s first attempt at taking their customers online. Back in the 1980s, Apple had an online service for dealers, AppleLink. A small startup company, Quantum Computer Services, made a deal with Apple to create a Personal Edition version of AppleLink, which would deliver a similar online service to consumers.

When the deal fell apart, Quantum decided to roll their own, and rebranded the service America Online — later renamed AOL when it expanded beyond the boundaries of the U.S. But they continued to follow the Apple mantra, which was to make the service easy for regular people to master and get online, at the expense of making it too simple according to some skeptics, who also complained about AOL’s infamous walled garden.

But AOL used a clever marketing scheme right out of the starting gate, sending millions of setup floppies to potential users. They also undercut the other players in the online business on price. AOL had a flat $4.00 per hour rate, which later morphed into a flat rate as other services began to try to beat them at their own game.

In the 1990s, AOL and Apple got together for eWorld, which was basically a version of AOL with an Apple-inspired interface. It bombed, and Apple stayed out of the online business until iTools arrived. But the ups and downs of AOL aren’t part of this story.

Beginning with iTunes, Apple’s resurrected online service has embarked upon a long and shaky journey, and the outcome may not at all be certain to this very day. Free became paid in 2002, and iTools was rebranded as MobileMe in 2008. But over the years, basic features remained flaky. There were periodic email outages, and other services didn’t always work as planned. Indeed, the MobileMe launch was so bug-ridden that that Apple staffers were given a dressing down by Steve Jobs at a special corporate meeting.

Segue to 2011, when MobileMe’s end was announced. Henceforth there would be iCloud, basically a scheme to store your Apple-related stuff on their massive server networks. MobileMe fades out as of June 30, 2012, meaning that a few features will go away. But email and the ability to sync some of your stuff, such as contacts and bookmarks, will remain a part of iCloud, assuming the system works. Just this week, Apple began to offer free DVDs of OS X Snow Leopard to help entice more Mac users to upgrade to Lion, and set up iCloud.

But that’s where things get dicey, to put it mildly. The arrival of iCloud has involved a fair amount of glitches. As I write this story, some 1% of iCloud users, according to Apple, have encountered various email outages. My former MobileMe email was part of that list, though the situation has improved. Then again, Google’s Gmail had an outage too this week, so let’s not center all the blame on Apple. It’s clear that cloud-based systems are still works in progress.

That said, my personal experiences with iCloud haven’t been so good even when you take email out of the picture. The same can be said about a related service, iTunes Match, which uses Apple’s massive music library to allow you to put up to 25,000 of your songs in the cloud for a $24.99 annual fee.

With iCloud, my biggest problem is syncing. I want my contacts to be the same on my Macs, an iPhone 4s, and a third generation iPad, but that remains an unfilled dream.

On my main desktop computer, a late 2009 27-inch iMac, Address Book will often list a contact at least twice — some users report over a dozen listings for some of their contacts. Worse, when I try to remove one of the duplicated contacts, it will, ghostlike, reappear just seconds later. I’ve kidded about the phenomenon on my tech show, since I also host a radio show about the paranormal. But it’s obviously Apple’s screw up to fix, and it’s unfortunate that iCloud, although a key to Apple’s future success, is so bug-ridden.

Another problem, with iTunes Match, is the inability to properly match your own music library, ripped from regular CDs and elsewhere, with the corresponding tracks in Apple’s library. I’ve reported about this problem before. Most tunes match, some don’t, and it doesn’t seem as if the ongoing updates to iTunes, which claim fixes to iTunes Match too, have addressed the fundamental problem, or that Apple will even admit to what’s wrong.

The problem for Apple now is that they don’t have an awful lot of time to fix iCloud. Sure, Apple’s products are amazingly popular, and you are thrust into the iCloud environment almost by default as you set up a new piece of equipment. At the same time, Microsoft and Google have their own fledgling cloud services, not to mention Amazon and other companies. Yes, there may be 100 million iCloud users, but it doesn’t mean that they are going to tolerate ongoing email problems and various and sundry glitches for long before they log out forever. Since a great part of Apple’s walled garden — or integrated ecosystem — depends on iCloud working reliably, I wonder how much time they really have to set things right.

Meantime, I’m happy to make a pitch once again for some way for Apple to allow you to combine your various Apple IDs. I’ve heard that they may already be doing this on occasion, and I really have only two names to merge, so maybe I’ll see if I can get a favorable response. Maybe the answer is for every one of my readers — and feel free to tweet the message — and loads of other Apple customers to complain and request that Apple combine their Apple IDs to help ease the iCloud transition. Apple may even listen, even if they need a few million wakeup calls to show them the way.

As you may have noticed, Apple’s stock price dipped by the equivalent of $50 billion in market value earlier this week for various reasons. Certainly the stock market’s volatility was but one possible cause. Another was the claim that wireless carriers resent having to pay Apple high prices for the iPhone and will be looking at other smartphones to offer instead. But that’s just one potential challenge, real or imagined, which Apple may face in the next few years.

All together, should any of those fears be realized, it may reduce Apple’s amazing growth, or maybe move the revenue curve in the wrong direction. Or maybe not.

When it comes to the needs of those wireless carriers, let’s not forget that the success of a mobile handset is very much customer driven. If people weren’t crowding the stores and buying up iPhones, sales would go down. If customers want iPhones, and dealers don’t have them — or try to push them into buying an Android or Windows Phone device instead — the customers will just go elsewhere. So long as huge numbers of Apple customers love their iPhones and are only too willing to upgrade on a regular basis, it’s not as if dealers are going to be able to easily change their minds.

So maybe one reason why Apple’s stock price began to climb once again is simply that Wall Street investors realized the fears were unfounded. If and when Apple’s revenue appears to be poised to stall or take a fall, there will be sufficient advance word from industry analysts who actually measure sales — as opposed to those who are just making it all up — and investors can act accordingly. Certainly Apple’s guidance about future quarterly sales would be a key indicator of potential trouble ahead. Apple tends to be conservative about such matters.

Now that doesn’t mean Apple has a free ride either. Obviously Nokia and Microsoft are really hoping and praying you’ll buy a Windows Phone instead, particularly the Lumia 900, although the ultimate success of that smartphone is still not quite certain. Yes, AT&T, the sole dealer in the U.S. to handle them, claims that the Lumia 900 sold out during the first days on sale, but that, of course, doesn’t mean much. After all, it’s very possible that they deliberately didn’t have enough available to hype a potential sellout, or because production is still ramping up. You’ll know a lot more when AT&T delivers their financials for the current quarter.

There’s also a published report claiming that the iPad’s market share is doomed for a huge fall by 2013, in part because of the arrival of Microsoft’s Windows 8. As you recall, Windows 8 is Microsoft’s attempt to deliver an OS that works on both mobile gear, run by ARM processors, and traditional PCs. All well and good, but it’s not at all obvious if customers will willingly embrace the user interface, Metro, borrowed from Windows Phone and the Zune. Once again, the success of Windows Phone is by no means certain, although it’s a sure thing that Microsoft and Nokia will give it all they got.

Remember, when it comes to tablets, Microsoft has done poorly. Will Windows 8 change that? Honestly, I haven’t a clue how the people will react, although I expect businesses will be skeptical. Warm and fuzzy, or the attempt at being warm and fuzzy, may encourage consumers to embrace Windows 8 and Metro, but that doesn’t mean that businesses will accept it as readily. I’m skeptical.

It’s also true that Google will continue to rev up the Android, but only the Amazon Kindle Fire, with a highly altered Android OS, has shown any potential for success. And that may have only been a holiday phenomenon. Early reports indicate that production orders for the Kindle Fire were sharply cut after the first of the year. There are also reports claiming that Google will concentrate on low-end Android gear to attract customers who might regard the iPad, starting at $399 for last year’s model, as a little too expensive. That move, if it happens, may simply take customers from Amazon.

Some even claim Apple is poised to release the so-called iPad mini, with a 7.85-inch display, in order to cater to people who simply want e-book readers, and won’t feel so confined by the smaller screen. But the fact that Apple may have been sampling iPads in different sizes doesn’t mean they actually intend to produce any. As of now, the iPad remains in control of the tablet market, with no evidence whatever that any other contender, whether Amazon, Google or Microsoft, will be successful.

When it comes to Macs, it may well be that sales are only slightly higher than last year’s March quarter, at least in the U.S., if you can believe current estimates. But since Apple is getting lots of action overseas, it may not matter so much. A slate of product refreshes, now expected because Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors are finally beginning to ship, may very well boost Mac sales for the current quarter.

This doesn’t mean Apple can’t or won’t screw up. There’s still skepticism how well Tim Cook will fare as CEO after the supposed inventory of products approved by Steve Jobs is used up. While next week’s financial conference with analysts may reveal a different picture, right now the trends still appear very positive. But I’m not an industry analyst, nor do I play one on TV.