Cisco-Linksys WRT54GS Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster
by Linksys
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Our Price: $159.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cisco-Linksys WRT54GS Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster
Customer Review: Do not buy if it is version 5 or later!
Summary: 1 Stars
Our ISP provides us with an static IP and static DNS server addresses.
When I first setup the router, it appeared to work with the exceptiont that it kept replying with the gateway address as the DNS server address every time we plugged a computer into the network. I, however, got the damn thing to work by forcing one of the ISPs DNS address into the network interfaces of one the PCs.
I then went to the linksys support page and upgraded the firmware as suggested there. This apparently went well, we didn't see the bad DNS server problem again in the computers that were directly connected to the router. We were happy that the network was up again.
What a dissapointment followed when the wireless adapters quit working! We did get the IP address and the DNS address correctly, we could even ping the router and the DNS servers, but the router kept garbling all of the packets once we tried to use the browser to open the configuration page.
As indicated in other postings here and everywhere, the older hardware versions of this router were more powerful and ran an embedded version of Linux. I believe that Linksys changed that to save a few bucks and now the router runs a different embedded operating system (VxWorks?) on a cost reduced version of the hardware. Well, as we all know replicating quality software on different operating systems is not an easy task. This is, I believe, the reason why the quality of the product has dramatically gone down.
I am talking the thing back today.
People (in India?) that do Linksys costumer support were nice but not technical enough to understand the problem (I offered a file with garbled TCP packets but did not take it!) and did not know how buggy their own products are.
Customer Review: The best wifi router out there for techies
Summary: 5 Stars
I've owned several wireless routers. (SMC, Belking, Netgear, and Linksys to name a few). Hands down this is the WIFI router a techie should get. Now someone who don't care about security and just wants to plug and get things done, I've found Netgear to be more frienlier but lacks features. So why 'THIS' WIFI router?
1. Linksys has stable releases of firmware. Especially if you like to do things like port forwarding, and so forth you want good support.
2. Linksys has provided the source code to the firmware. And there are several open source firmware codes for this thing. Some provide few additional configurations while others are compltely new firmware. It's a geek's dream come ture.
3. If you use VOIP. (telephone service running on top of your internet), this router is one of the very few who provides QOS. QOS (Quality Of Service) can put higher priortiy by physicial port, or network port. I just plug my VOIP to the port and prioritize it. My calls are substantially more stable then before.
4. Reputation (Solid hardware.) I bought Linksys's first home router back in 1999. Linksys has always made reliable and good routers.
5. So do you need the GS? Actually no, but they are pretty much identical hardware with GS having more memory. Besides the speedboost thing (which I never used), it doesn't matter. Which ever is cheaper and more readily available, you should pick it up.
I have to repeat that this is a great techie router. A beginner will be fine too, but I found 'Wizard' like menus of other WIFI router to be more 'consumer' friendly. But for someone who wants to configure the router to do a lot of things and require something that can take heavy abuse, this is THE router.
Customer Review: The easiest router to set up
Summary: 5 Stars
I just purchased this router for my sister-in-law because she received a laptop for Christmas and wanted to connect it wirelessly to the Internet. By following the very simple steps provided by the CD that came with the router, I was able to have the new laptop connected to the Internet in less than 20 minutes. The instructions that came with the CD can be resumed in these steps:
1- Load the CD into the already existing desktop computer (the one that is already connected to the Internet)
2- Follow the prompts to install the software
3- Connect the router between the modem and the PC with the CAT-5 cable provided
4- Click on the Add Another Computer tab
5- Temporarily plug in the laptop to one of the existing ports on the back of the router (you should have an extra CAT-5 cable to do this) or just copy the security settings to a USB flash drive
6- I used the first method, so all the security setting from the router were transferred to the laptop
7- Unplug the CAT-5 cable from both the router and the laptop, make sure the Wireless switch in the laptop is turned on, and you're done.
With the SpeedBooster feature of the new router, we were able to transfer several Gigabytes of my niece's pictures into the new laptop within a few minutes. Also, we tested to see how far she could move the laptop away from the router and she could actually take the laptop all the way to the laundry room in her apartment complex (about 200 feet on the same floor as her apartment) without experiencing a loss of speed.
Now she is quiet happy with her new laptop and router, and I came out looking like a super-hero in her eyes because the simple setup instructions made a daunting task very easy.
Customer Review: Equipment works well - so do Parental Controls
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this router mainly for the parental controls feature. I didn't want to buy software to control each computer in my small business network and this looked like a good solution. Here are some points:
- setup of this router is fairly easy. I was able to get my wired and wireless clients set up within 1/2 hour. Be warned - in order to get that "Speed boost" you have to buy special linksys equipment for EACH computer - not worth it in my opinion. Speed of the router is definitely better than 802.11b, but don't go looking for a full 54mb. Theoretically, that's possible, but practically it runs around 22 or 23.
- the parental controls work very well. I tried to go looking for gambling, violent, and smut websites on the internet after purchasing ($29/year) the router-based program. It blocks almost everything! The only way I've found around it is to go to a few select foreign-language websites (and you reaaallly have to work hard to find those). Even then, you can report these offending websites and they will be added to the database. The other way around it is to Google search (or other engine) for images. The parental controls allow you to bring up thumbnails (because of search engine caching), but don't allow you to go to the original site. I don't think there's a way to block that kind of content.
Overall, I would recommend this router specifically if you are looking for a speed boost and haven't already bought other wireless equipment, or if you are looking for robust parental controls for your kids or small business. I favor this method of parental control over software because it allows you to control all access from one central point easily.
Customer Review: Works great plus Parental Controls
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this router primarily for the parental control feature so I will primarily comment on that, but routing and wireless functions seem to work great and I have had no problems with them.I know this smacks of big brother, but I really didn't want to have to hover over my 12 year old's shoulder every time he was on the computer and explain all the **** out there.
So far the parental controls have worked well for us. You can set up accounts for all family members if you want and set the limits accordingly. The drawback is there is a login prompt when you first try to access the internet. You can setup limits for the time of day that the internet can be accessed and what type of content can be viewed. My main objective was to filter out hardcore porn type stuff which it seems to do fairly well without interfering with normal surfing.
It works for me a lot better than Norton's Internet Security software which really slowed my computer down. With this solution once you log on, you hardly know its there. The down side is there is a yearly subscription fee (about $40). Of course Norton has a subscription fee as well. I don't mind paying it as long as they keep their end of the bargain by providing up-to-date filters.
Another thing that I like about this solution (but it can be a drawback) is that it works for all things connected to the network. For example if a friend brings a laptop over or you have an X-Box that connects to the internet, etc. It may cause problems for some devices (e.g. ReplayTv). I had to switch my ReplayTv back to a telephone connection. With a 802.11b PocketPc I still had to login to my account (through the browser) but I was able to access the internet.