Cisco-Linksys WGA54G Wireless-G Gaming Adapter
by Linksys
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Our Price: $89.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $24.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cisco-Linksys WGA54G Wireless-G Gaming Adapter
Customer Review: All setup as described here, UNIT NOT STABLE.
Summary: 3 Stars
After reading the detailed reports here for how to setup this Linksys gaming adapter unit, everything worked great for several days. I setup the fixed IPs, and all the rest of the settings through the web interface, all seemed well.
Note: I'm a network engineer, so the dual-fixed-ip recommendation [one for each segment] is actually pretty normal in other network bridging appliances. I suspect the MS game adapter simply performs the DHCP handshake better than this unit and that is why it is so easy to setup.
Then the weird stuff started.
After having had this unit turned on for several days, I notice the connection would become slow and not quite as fast as when the Linksys is first turned on. Yet, the XBOX still shows the signal between 48 and 54 Mbps. Strange.
I have reproduced this several times, booting the linksys device, then playing all kinds of games online for hours, running XBMC and playing media through the network perfectly. All is good for several hours, but come back the next day after leaving the Linksys on all day/night, turn on the XBOX, and the network connection is spotty again, but the link details show a full speed connection in the XBOX wireless interface details.
A swift power cycle of the Linksys unit solves the problem immediately, but why should I need to do this? I suspect some NIC buffer is being filled on the Linksys and the power cycle clears out the unit's network buffers.
If anyone has figured out what settings to use to keep this thing stable, I am ready to listen, maybe I should select a G-only network and set the speed at 54 or 48 fixed, maybe that will work?
Anyway, I am getting tired of power cycling this thing every day.
Good Luck,
F.
Customer Review: Gaming adapter for the tech savvy
Summary: 3 Stars
I use this Linksys WGA54G Wireless-G Gaming Adapter for my PS2 and thus far it has performed adequately. Let me say for clarity that by "adequately" I mean it works, but there is nothing about this product that is outstanding.
First of all, the setup can be difficult unless A) you have a plain vanilla network or B) You are tech savvy and have a good grasp of configuring home/small office routers, wireless access points, and firewalls. I could go into the details of the grief you may encounter, but "Rarkm" does a great job of covering the relevant tech notes in his review so I'll simplify my comments by saying that you'll need some tech knowledge or the help of a techie friend to get set up the first time.
Once the initial setup is out of the way, this adapter should operate without any further setup or settings intervention from you.
Just how well does it function? Well, it does occasionally drop signal, which results in being kicked off online gaming sessions. This can be frustrating but it doesn't happen all that often- unless you're pushing the limits of it's range. Range will vary, depending on a lot of factors like other wireless devices in use, the construction of your house, etc. As a general rule I would say don't count on a reliable signal if there is more than one wall (or floor/ceiling) between the adapter and your access point.
Additionally, sometimes the adapter won't connect at all and must be turned off (unplugged) for a minute or two and then turned back on. This happens even less than the signal drops, but just enough to get noticed as a recurring theme.
Overall, this device works but just feels mediocre in design and execution. Hopefully future versions will address the shortcomings.
Customer Review: Worst Linksys device ever. . .
Summary: 1 Stars
I have a Linksys WRT54G wireless broadband router and am very pleased with its reliability and ease of configuration. I've been wanting to get on XBox live and decided the easiest way would be to use a wireless G gaming adapter, and I figured Linksys would be the way to go. . .
Unfortunately the WGA54G wireless adapter is extremely limited in features. Your choices for wireless security are none or 64/128 bit WEP. There was no option for WPA, the lastest wireless security standard that's running on my Linksys broadband router. So if I wanted to use this gaming adapter I'd have to significantly reduce the security of my wireless LAN and home network. Not good.
Not only that but this device had a serious problem connecting to my router, despite they are both the same wireless G series from Linksys. Other network adapters I'm familiar with connect to a wireless network right away if the SSID and WEP information are correct and a strong enough signal is detected. This unit doesn't do that even if the signal is 100%. You have to choose your network from the list of detected networks and click connect during setup - even if you've already entered the correct SSID and WEP key. I also use MAC address filtering and ran into the same problems another reviewer here had. I had to go the Linksys website and read their knowledgebase on this product to find the answers to this problem.
After I finally got it to connect while it was wired to my router, I disconnected it and hooked it up to my XBox unit. Guess what? No connection and no way to tell what the problem was.
Needless to say, this puppy went right back to the store it came from. Linksys really screwed this product up with limited features and poor firmware. BUYERS BEWARE!
Customer Review: Does not work out of the box
Summary: 2 Stars
To Ben Appell: I'm sure most if not all of us that experienced problems were able to follow the "simple" 3-step instructions which tell you to use the setup on the CD. There's no mention of the more advanced setup program in the documentation that came with the Linksys bridge. In theory it should be simple but not everyone has the same hardware and some newer wireless routers may need a firmware upgrade in order to get it to work. Why did Linksys tech support tell me to set a static IP address on the PS2 when the instructions don't mention that? Hopefully most will be able to use "simple" 3-step instructions, if not, good luck!Update: I got it working, don't know for sure which of the many things I tried finally did it. I won't go into detail since I did a lot of steps and may only pertain to my Netgear WGT624v2 router. What a struggle, I raised my rating to 2 Stars since the performance is great. Note: make sure if using WEP, go to "Advanced" setup page and select Shared Key if not already set, mine wasn't (be sure to APPLY), then go back to first setup page, select your SSID from list (may have to Refresh) and click CONNECT, then APPLY.
I'm having the same issues as "an electonics fan", I even returned first adapter thinking it's defective. More like the Linksys tech support is defective (over hour on hold, online chat failed). She says I need to set static IP in PS2...Linksys intructions doesn't say anything about that in their 3 step instructions. She never asked what wireless router or firmware I'm using (Netgear WGT624). Going thru setp seems fine, sees SSID, enable 64bit WEP (she said it's not tested to use 128bit WEP)...but plugged into PS2 and no worky. She says they've done their part, now rest is up to Sony! Baloney! Buy at own risk.
Customer Review: So, where's the problem? This is a great product!
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading all the horror stories about this product left by other reviewers, I was hesitant to purchase it, even though it seemed on face to be the simplest way to get my ReplayTV on to my existing home network.
After taking a leap of faith based on past experience with Linksys products, I'm glad I did. Setup could not have been simpler. Using my laptop to configure it, I had the adapter running and connected to my Replay in less than 10 minutes. Though my updates run a tiny bit slower than they did when my Replay was hard-wired, they're still plenty fast, and of course (to my wife's relief), I was able to get rid of the cable running across my living room. I tested it this morning on my PS2, and results were great there, too.
And, as was the case when I set up my network last summer, calls to Linksys were handled quickly and professionally, without any rushing despite my picking the brains of the folks with whom I spoke. Do be aware that Linksys has shipped support overseas. Communication was strained at times, but much less so than what I've experienced with Dell's overseas support agents.
And if you call sales or customer service, you can ask for escalation on specific issues, at which point you'll receive a call from a domestic agent (as I did, and that agent was INCREDIBLY helpful, helping me troubleshoot numerous issues and plan the next phases of my network, even though that wasn't what I originally called about).
So, great product, reasonable price, easy setup (assuming you've got your network properly configured in the first place), top-notch support...what's not to like? For less than a hundred bucks, I absolutely love this device--just like all my other Linksys components.