Cisco-Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G Broadband Router
by Linksys
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List Price: Our Price: $54.95 You Save: $25.04 (31%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $39.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cisco-Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G Broadband Router
Customer Review: Spend The Extra $10!
Summary: 5 Stars
I wanted to wait four months before reviewing the Linksys WRT54GL wireless router because this is the third such router I have owned and each brand lasted only for that much time.
I first want to say, 'This router freaking works!' That is basically all I care about, not speed or features or anything else, I just want to turn on my computer or laptop and have the internet work. With this router, I hooked it up out of the box four months ago, set the security password, and have never touched it once! It works 100% of the time, that is why I gave it 5 stars.
The two previous routers I owned were from Trendnet and TPLink - both models being the same speed as the current Linksys. Both times I chose these two cheaper models because they were $10 cheaper than the Linksys but had nothing but problems with both ending up in the trash can after 4 months. The Trendnet router would lose connection for 10 seconds every two mintues which disrupts an applet I run that requires a consistant connection. FRUSTRATING! Spend the entire four months changing setting, researching, etc. to no avail. The TP Link router worked for two months and then would completely lose connection every other day - would not receive packets making internet unusable even though a connection was detected. Again, spent the remaining two months constantly adjusting settings to no avail. Both models were cheap and I wouldn't wish their reliability on even my enemies.
The Linksys just plain works, but it is $10 more. It's pretty easy in my book, spend the extra $10.
Customer Review: Runs Like A Champ With QOS Too!
Summary: 4 Stars
This router was purchased to manage a home network with a digital SunRocket phone system, a Mac G4, a Hawking print server and one or more other computers. Overall I am pleased with router price & performance but am deducting one point for lack of instructions for the Macintosh platform. Setup took about 10" all told. No software install was necessary for the Macintosh & the 150 page Manual is largely irrelevant for Macs; but Mac users should heed the prescribed order in connecting & powering up the various components. Network management is via a web interface. Note--you will not be able to use your System X Safari browser for this purpose [at least on Panther]; but Firefox does the job nicely. By setting voice packets as high priority in the QOS [quality of service] panel, good voice quality is maintained for phone calls. Happily, my Comcast internet speed jumped from 4% of anticipated speed (while the Mac was downstream from the SunRocket Gizmo) to as much as 25% more bandwidth than I am paying for once the LinkSys WRT-54GL was in place. No speed throttling effect whatsoever. Wireless reception is better than expected. I notice that while file sharing between Macs via a hard-wired ethernet connection, I also am picking up unsecured PC shared data from apartments across a 6-lane boulevard. In the future I hope to use the LinkSys's wireless capabilities to operate a front door speaker/controller; & (with an open source firmware crack) to run airport express or similar hardware to broadcast iTunes from the bedroom to the living room. All in all a worthwhile purchase.Customer Review: Can't ask for more
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought my Linksys router three months ago, so my router's been kicked around a little, and I have to say the router has been an incredibly worthwhile purchase. Being a starving student I had to shop around for the best and cheapest router. I did a lot of research on- and offline and after a lucky break at Best Buy that prevented me from getting the inferior WRT54G--my credit card was rejected--I discovered the superior WRT54GL here at Amazon and bought it (The credit card went through this time).
What puts the WRT54GL over the top of all the other dozens of routers I researched and other Linksys models was that it has twice as much Flash (8MB) and RAM (16MB) as the WRT54G and the WRT54GS and that it gets third party support. The third party firmware, DD-WRT, manages to not only improve the router but also compliment it with new features that the default firmware doesn't have while still being accessable to a moderately skilled computer user like myself.
Setup was a breeze and once the router is connected it stays connected. In the three months I've had it I haven't had the connection drop once and I've used it daily with my laptop and to play video games online on my PSP and DS. I haven't noticed any difference in Web speed from being wireless or being connected right to the router and I download music and movies from iTunes quite a bit so I'd certainly notice slowdown.
I couldn't be happier with the Linksys WRT54GL. I feel I made the best possible purchase at the best price.
Customer Review: Another Good Linksys Router
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall this seems to be a very good router. I set it up with the enclosed CD and everything worked well without a hitch. I plugged in all my network components and the built in switch quickly recognized the devices and assigned IP address via DHCP.
It has many features including:
* Access Restrictions which allow you to set up to ten policies which allow you to block services by Web address or by URL, and you can block individual services.
* Port forwarding capabilities which I have use for Remote Desktop Assistance.
* Port triggering, DMZ and QoS functions.
* Firmware upgrades can be performed within the router.
* Firewall protection.
* Wireless supports WPA-2 and TKIP/EAS algorithms
There was one item though that I had an issue with, however. When I hooked up my cable modem, the Linksys pulled the WAN information ok. But later, when I switched to phone service with my cable provider and the technician installed their router, the Linksys would not initially pull the WAN information. Even clicking the release and renew buttons didn't work. After about 5 to 10 minutes it pulled the information. A friend of mine also had this problem with the Linksys model WRT54G. In his case, he cannot set the modem to standby; otherwise, he needs to unplug and plug in the router. There seems to be, in some cases, a delay in pulling this information from a cable modem. I'm not sure what's going on here. But once it found the WAN info, everything was fine.
Customer Review: Jury's still out, but this could be the last "G" technology router able to handle peer to peer file sharing
Summary: 3 Stars
I just received mine and frankly haven't had time to set it up, but can offer four observations.
1. This is the last "G" technology router put out by Linksys with any significant onboard RAM [16MB or more]. The regular WRT54G routers on store shelves are all UNDER 8MB. Very significant even for simple website browsing.
2. There are at least four versions of the WRT54GL, the latest having 32MB of potential onboard RAM. The only one apparently available at Amazon is Version 1.1 [16MB RAM].
3. All "G" technology wireless routers [99% of what's available either in store or online] are going backward in both quality and capacity. This router is one of the last to offer any real RAM or hardware capacity, even the 1.1 [already three years out of date].
4. Neither Linksys nor Amazon offer any specs on RAM or other critical router capacity, much less how many versions of each model there are or how they compare to each other. This is critical information to any wireless router purchase for any use and the lack of it is likely due to the new "N" routers just now coming online, which may be vastly superior for all uses but will require most users to buy brand new computers [go figure].
Something to think about. I'll post again after I'm set up and experiments conducted - the WRT54GL may well be a match for Linksys' original WRT54G 1.1, but that's not saying much. Look up Linksys, wireless routers on Wikipedia for the detailed dirt