Cisco-Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router
by Linksys
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Our Price: $72.97 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $22.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cisco-Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router
Customer Review: LINKSYS WRT54G WIRELESS ROUTER
Summary: 5 Stars
So to start off I am in the tech industry working on Wi-Fi,WLAN, UWB and so on, yada, yada. The 802.11G standard is for 54-108 Mbps. The next generation is 802.11N which is 480 Mbps second but guess what, your access and speed is ONLY as good as the internet allows. My points are intended for the average user here:
1. The difference between this and the Super G router as someone pointed out is the extra flash memory which is not much. Save your cash. A couple of companies I have been at use nothing but this router and we had 20 or so folks on the network with no problems. I'm sitting here downloading 1-5 Meg files as an example fairly quickly.
2. Most hotels offering broadband access run at 10 Mbps or the lower end of the 10/100 standard, so 1/4 the speed of this routers capability. Most T1 lines in business are running at the higher end or 100 Mbps but the pipeline is usually running pretty full due many folks on the system.
3. I'm a road warrior traveling globally so I have been the Guinea pig for my last 3 companies and IT departments. So this router works flawlessly through my present companies VPM through which I'm typing this review right now.
4. So for the quick and short of it, ordered on Sunday evening at around 10 PM Pacific Std Time and 3 days later on Wednesday I have my wireless router up and running. So kudos to Amazon for another great job in delivery!
5. This router replaces another Linksys Router, the BEFSR41, which is a standard router we have had for > 3 years and still works great. I did do a firmware upgrade about a year ago. The reason I'm replacing it because it is hardwire router and it's a problem when my wife and I both want to use our office, with one desk, at the same time. So now I'm using my laptop on the kitchen table about 60'away from where the router is and getting 3.7 Mbps speed via Comcast cable through my VPN connection. This is based on a measurement speed test by going to either www.cnet.com or www.2wire.com and running their bandwidth meter test to see actual connection/throughput speeds. These are both free sites so check out your connection.
6. Setup - got it with the disk but had some difficulties running and connecting to the internet after disconnecting the old router per the instructions. Called tech support, got a very nice lady in Argentina who was very helpful and gave me a couple of helpful suggestions. Had to disconnect the power plug on the Comcast cable modem box for 10 seconds to reboot the cable modem box, which was still reading our old IPCONFIG address. This got me connected to the internet again after the IP address reset itself. Doing the normal START/CMD/Ipconfig /release & /renew for some reason didn't release the Ipconfig address in the cable modem I guess.
INSTEAD OF USING THE CD that comes with the Linksys router, was told to go to www.linksys.com/easy which ran a more sophisticated setup wizard program that configured the router, the WEP Security protocol and I imagine the VPN protocols as well and was up and running within 10 minutes through my VPM. Very cool, wish my Adobe Acrobat 6.0 upgrade went that easy recently. (In all fairness to Adobe, got that upgrade running but not till I had several phone calls and downloads to do with Tech Support who also were great).
Some General Comments from other reviewers - why in the heck do you want to upgrade your distance from 200' to 2100' as one person pointed out? If I want to go drive almost a half mile away from my wireless network what the heck do I need my laptop for? Are you downloading music at a friends or what? I'm really curious about that.
Amazing what reading directions and being POLITE to technical support can you call with a lousy attitude and tear up the person on the other end of the phone, don't expect good results. Most of the tech support people I have dealt with are trying in most part to do a good job.
Customer Review: Please do not purchase this product
Summary: 1 Stars
Linksys released a new version of this product in the October/November 2005 timeframe, which is version 5. Versions 4 and earlier were well-tested and rock solid. However, the new version 5 has many issues. The difference between version 4 and 5 is that Linksys changed the OS from Linux to VxWorks, however it is impossible to tell this by looking at the box, or by ordering online. By doing this, they took a product that was tested and debugged for a couple of years, which made it very stable, and changed it to one that was rushed out the door and is poorly designed. Please ignore any comments that were made before the November/December 2005 timeframe for this product. Those comments are for a product that was completely different at the time.
Out of the box, the router does not function well at all. It cannot access many websites and the graphics do not load on many others. Download speeds were very slow. Also, many online games and gaming systems such as the PSP and the X-Box do not work well with this product. Linksys did release a new firmware version on December 9, 2005. This new version is 1.00.4. It fixes some issues, but still has many more. If you want to download the new firmware version, go to www.linksys.com. Go to "Downloads" which is at the very top of the page. From there choose the product "WRT54G V5.0 - Wireless-G Broadband Router". Go to the Firmware link and then download the firmware. Save the file to your computer. It is a zipped file so you will need to unzip it before you can update the firmware. From the configuration page of the router, there is a "Firmware Upgrade" page under the Administration page. Go there and choose the unzipped file on you computer. This should upgrade and then reset your Linksys router.
The 1.00.4 version actually does perform much better than the default version that was shipped with the router. The download speeds are much better, and the accessing of most sites has been fixed, along with some of the online games. However, there are still some sites that do not load properly and several online games do not function properly. A couple sites that I still cannot access are:
www.2kgames.com
www.mbtrading.com
Some more sites that are somewhat slow loading and I've heard of other people having problems accessing are:
www.tmobile.com
www.ebgames.com
www.nvidia.com
www.gogamer.com
www.costco.com
www.realtor.com
One online game my wife and I play frequently is Disney's Toontown (www.toontown.com). This game still does not function properly with the 1.00.4 version of firmware for the WRT54G V5.0.
I do not recommend this product at all. Versions 4 and lower of the WRT54G are very stable and perform very well, the reason why some of the comments are very positive for this product. The Version 5 does not work well at all. Please do not purchase this product. If you are still thinking about possibly buying the Linksys WRT54G, I urge you to go to www.google.com and search for WRT54G version 5. You will get many web sites and messages boards detailing the problems others are having with this product. From what I have read, the WRT54GL is the same as the WRT54G version 4, where the L stands for Linux. If I were you, I would go ahead and purchase the WRT54GL product instead, or go with another manufacturer such as Netgear. I do not want anyone else to have the headaches I have had with the WRT54G version 5.
Customer Review: Very poor quality product
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this product in Sep. 13. Unfortunately, I got very bad experience in this product. The following is the letter I set to Linksys and hope can let you know what the situation I met.Sir,
I don't know whether you have found the fail rate of your WRT54G 802.11g wireless router is very high recently. I and my colleague bought 2 WRT54G 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, both of us meet some critical issue in your product.
The following is the problems I met.
1. WRT54G can't access to internet through wireless connection.
I've set down the PPPoE setup of the this device. But, after I turn on the wireless router, my laptop can't connect to the internet. While enter the setup function through 192.168.1.1, the internet status is shown "disconnected". Even I click the "connect" button, it still can't connect to the internet.
After then, I turn on my desktop PC which is connected to WRT54G through wired connection. Strangely, it can access the internet. And my laptop can access the internet after the desktop turned on. Of course, the connection status shown in setup page is "connected".
2. WRT54G can't work
In above issue, I think maybe I can solve the problem by upgrading firmware. Hence, I download the latest version firmware (wrt54g_1412.bin) through your website and run the upgrade function through my laptop (which is connect to WRT54G through wireless). But, the setup page hanged after the upgrade process complete. And my laptop can't connect to WRT54G. After then, I turn on my desktop and found desktop can link to internet and the firmware is updated to 1.412. All of this were done in the day before yesterday.
Yesterday, I think maybe I should update the firmware once again to insure it's upgraded correctly. I upgrade the firmware again from desktop (again, it's connect to WRT54G through a LAN wire). It seems this upgrade process is OK, but, the WRT54G seem got critical problem. Not only I can't access the internet from my desktop, my laptop can't find any wireless signal! In other word, My laptop can't find any access point around it even the WRT54G is on and there is less than 3 feet between this two devices ! I feel very strange about this issue and check out with the LEDs on this device. I observed only the power LED has very weak light. There are no other light from other LEDs. Even though I've try to reset this device by pushing the reset button in the back, but it still doesn't work.
After turning off for several minutes, I turned on the WRT54G again and it seems the LEDs are working correctly, but, I still can't access to internet even though my laptop has found the WRT54G but still can't connect with. And, most worsely, I even can't access the 192.168.1.1 setup page no matter from the desktop or laptop!
Please help me to solve this problems ASAP. Considering with the fail rate is 100% we met, I hope you should have a very serious attitude to deal with this issue.
The following is my environment information and hope it's useful to you to solve this problem
1.Laptop: IBM X22, with D-Link DWL-650+ wireless NIC. running Windows XP system.
2.Desktop: Windows 98SE system. And link to the WRT54G through LAN wire.
Customer Review: It works, but for how long. And setup was a bear!
Summary: 3 Stars
Note: After a year, I have my answer: it lasts at least 4 months, and I haven't had any significant problems. Every once in a while, when there are four computers on the network, it helps to unplug it and plug it back in and then all's right with the world. I'd go 4 stars if I were writing this today (Nov. 16, 2007) It was still a bear to set up: one forgets how if one doesn't set these things up every day.
I bought this WRT54G as a replacement for a 4 years old Linksys (b) that had to be unplugged and plugged back in again two or three times a day so that the two other computers on our network could stay online. I was told that the WRT54G would be 5 times faster anyway, and much more reliable.
First, a disclaimer. Wireless networks drive me nuts. I understand how they work: I just don't understand all the jargon that Cisco and Belkin and "normal" folk use in describing how they're set up. That is NOT why it too almost 3 hours to set this one up with Cisco's "easy set up" CD or Windows "make your own network."
I have one primary PC,a laptop, and my wife's PC. The laptop is 3 feet from the router and modem. My wife's computer is maybe 10 feet away. No biggie. So, the disk say to unhook the power from the modem, and the "cable" from the computer. Look, 80% of all routers have a yellow and a blue cable. Cisco couldn't refer to them as the "blue" and "yellow cables?" Evidently, that would be too simple.
Finally, I got it physically set up, and hit the "East Setup" button. No way. WEP keys and certificates and all kinds of crap kept getting in the way. So I called Cisco, and the folk in the Philippines couldn't have been nicer or of less help. (It's true: never tackle something like this on a weekend!)
Then I called my tech reps at Dell. I paid extra for our corporate licensing, and I even if this was the only call I ever made, it would have been worth it. I stumped the tech rep and his boss, and we tackled everything from auto set up to the CD to Windows stuff. The PC worked. The laptop worked. My wife's computer on which we have the company's books didn't work. Finally, out of sheer exasperation and inspiration (the inspiration was the the old router worked yesterday), he told me to do a System Restore to yesterday. It worked!
I should be happy as a lark, right? Well, not quite. The new router is not as fast as the old one on the two peripheral computers. So far - 6 hours - it has remained on line, however. It's fast enough on the primary PC, but only two-thirds the speed on the other two. I don't know why. If I knew why, I'd be a tech rep. In order to "know" something, it's good if you work with the same stuff all the time. How often do I change routers?
One last thing for Mac users, and I mean Mac as in Apple not Mac as in MAC: If you use a WEP key for encryption, don't forget to put a $ in front of the WEP Key, a little something that Dell told me three years ago and Apple didn't.
Cisco gets a C. Apple gets a D. And Dell gets and A+ just for sticking with me until it was resolved.
I love the question below that asks if you're over age 13? By the time I get done with these "minor" computer problems, I'm over 90.
Customer Review: The speed! the speed!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
Got this with a Wireless g PC Card for my laptop. The original installation wizard did not work for my broadband service (Cox) but I was able to get very specific help from their web-site knowdlege database which resolved the issue.Once I had the internet connection going I found that I kept losing it on the laptop intermittantly. That was fixed by changing the speed setting on the router to 'auto' from the default of '54mbps.' (don't know why it's shipped like that).
Some other concerns which I think need to be mentioned. If you're using the free version of ZoneAlarm (like I was) for a firewall, it won't work with the wireless network. I've tried various settings and then finally found out that I will have to upgrade to the 'pro' version for the firewall to work while allowing the network to operate. Haven't done it yet, so I don't know how well it will work, but I gather it should.
There is very little documentation provided with both the router and the PC Card. And security issues are totally ignored. It appears that to make it as easy to install (for all sorts of users out there), they have opened the system as much as possible but don't even mention security. Do go to their web-site and get details on securing your network (it's nicely detailed in there).
In particular users should be aware that the network is set to broadcast it's SSID which is factory set for 'linksys.' This is an open invitation for hackers to hack into your system. Diable the broadcast feature and change the name of your network to something unique.
The MAC address filtering is also a very good feature (where you can define the unique MAC addresses of all your computers) and the network will only allow those computers access (of course, a good hacker will be able to overcome this, but it does make it much more challanging). Again, no mention in the documentation - get it from the web-site.
The network also supports 64 bit and 128 bit encryption. I have not yet set up the keys so can't really comment on it. However, encryption (particularly 128 bit) will degrade speed somewhat, but it is probably worth it. I'm planning on working on this aspect next.
Once the system got going, it was a beauty. I would give it five stars, but am not because of the lack of documentation, particularly as it relates to security.
I have not tried it with the old 11b standard. But tech-support did confirm to me that if I have adaptors running on the g and b standard, the WHOLE network WILL slow down to 11 mpbs (the 11b standard). So be forewarned. However, this may not be an issue for users if all they're doing is surfing the net, etc. (the speed is more than adequate).
Also, the signal-booster (for the 11b routers) will not work with the wireless g router, even though both operate on the 2.4 GHz frequency.
However, signel stregnth is pretty good and I can move my laptop pretty much anywhere in my house. It does flactuate but dudes/dudettes - 54 mbps is a LOT of speed - some degradation from that won't be noticable to most users. This speed rocks....
I don't want to give the wrong impression here. I really like this system and would easily recommend it to others. However, just be prepared to work on a few issues.