| Linksys WAP54G Wireless-G Access Point |
 enlarge
|
Model: WAP54G
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 154
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
|
|
|
| |
| Features: |
Supports data rates up to 54 Mbps--up to 5 times faster than 802.11b
Backwards compatible with existing IEEE 802.11b devices at 11 Mbps
Supports 64- and 128-bit WEP encryption
Wireless MAC address filtering
Router not included, so you cannot connect multiple users to the Internet |
| |
| Description: |
| LINKSYS WAP54G - Wireless-G is the emerging 54 Mbps wireless networking standard that's almost five times faster than the widely deployed Wireless-B ( 802.11b ) products found in homes, businesses and public wireless hotspots around the country. The best part is, since they share the same 2.4GHz radio band, Wireless-G devices talk to existing 11 Mbps Wireless-B equipment. |
| |
| User Reviews (154 total): |
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 of Total 8 Pages
|
Telephone Support for Setup (PC & Macbook): Excellent. Coverage Very good, December 28, 2006
By Jose F. Bravo
Because my D-Link router (provided by the broadband company) had a different IP network the CD that came with the product did not work (it could not find the Access Point). I called support and one very helpful lady in India helped me get my Thinkpad and my Wife's brand new Macbook connected. Now all rooms in the house (including deck and basement) have wireless connectivity. No more wires. Support was the key here.
|
Incompatible with other vendors; poor signal quality, November 19, 2006
By dima_ras (Middletown, NJ United States)
This is my second disappointment with Linksys products.
I have purchased this AP to use in AP client mode connected to my Netgear WGR614 wireless router. The product comes with no user manual or technical specifications sheet. After spending some time trying to set up connection I have found user manual on Linksys web site, and discovered that AP client (as well as AP repeater) modes are supported only with another Linksys Access Point. It's not compatible with other vendor's products.
When I tried to use it in Access Point mode, the signal was 2-3 times weaker then my old Netgear's.
I am getting Very Good to Excellent signal quality from Netgear WGR614 (36-54 Mbps) and Good to Very Good (11 to 24 Mbps) from WAP54G...
|
OK, November 9, 2006
By Steven Whiting
This was an ok product.. it didn't live up to my specifications, i was under the impression that it would repeat the signal much further than it did. I needed to expand my range by 500 feet it only expanded it by 150feet.
|
Bugs in firmware, October 15, 2006
By G. Hovden (California)
The minor problem is that the user manual claims the user ID is "admin". Well, it is not. Frustration and wasted time will occur until you somehow find out that the user ID should be left blank to log in.
The major problem is that the unit only works for twelve to 36 hours before it has be rebooted. After twelve to 36 hours it looses the connection to the wireless network. Once you unplug and plug back the power cord, it will work fine for another twelve to 36 hours. I am used to rebooting Windows every time it hangs, but I don't accept having a Wireless Access Point that hangs (I am not sure how Microsoft was able to convince me it is OK for an OS to hang). This box is going back. I already bought a Buffalo that works fine.
|
Works Great, Poor/Inaccurate Documentation, September 10, 2006
By RCP
UPDATE:
I updated my router/access-point and found that the WAP54G does not seem to work in mode 2 (see below: "wireless client") with the new router (D-Link DIR-655). This matches the documentation which says (from memory) words to the effect that "wireless client" mode only works with a compatible Linksys as the router/access-point. I read that as a CYA disclaimer but at least in my case it appears to be true.
I suspect that modes 3 and 4 have the same story.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
(Note to Brian: The WAP54G *can* be configured as a bridge. I have two of them in just such a configuration. Took me about 10 minutes to set them up.)
Major modes of operation are:
1. Wireless Access Point (its default set-up)
2. Wireless Client (connect a wired ethernet device via cable to the WAP54G and you now have a wireless ethernet device)
3. Wireless Repeater (extend range of wireless coverage)
4. Wireless Bridge (connect two ethernet networks without running a cable between them -- acts as one end of a "virtual" cable; you need two to get the job done)
A pair of wireless bridges is just what I needed but hesitated to buy the WAP54G because of Brian's comment that this wouldn't work. Because of my newness to the wireless world it took a bit of investigation to come to the conclusion that Brian was wrong. I bought a pair and they do work.
I rate it 4 instead of 5 stars for a few reasons.
1. I understand that higher-end, more expensive, equipment can be had with more range than this box. Gotta leave some room to rate more powerful equipment!
2. One must dig very deeply into the users guide (a PDF on the CD) to find the default IP address in order to configure this device. Luckily I had read elsewhere what that IP address is (192.168.1.245). Other manufacturers make this info readily available, even going so far as printing it on the device itself. This will be critical info to any Linux user. Also, the users guide says that the default userid for logging in is "admin". Well, it's not. The only allowed userid is an empty field. This had me going for a few minutes.
3. Something that 99% of the world won't care about -- I like to have more access to the firmware. For example other Linksys products allow one to telnet to the box and do low-level analysis of the box and the network it's attached to. I think there are third-party firmware loads that enable this.
|
Good Wifi AP, August 22, 2006
By Big A (Chicago)
This is a good basic WiFi access point. I've bought many. Easy to set up and use. It occasionally disconnects, but a firmware upgrade usually fixes it easily. I have many in service.
|
Imporant bit of info left out, July 15, 2006
By Brian (California)
I bought two of these trying to connect two wired networks, rather than run 200 feet of cable. I was mislead by the box which states you can combine two of them to connect two wired networks. I spent a couple hours trying to get it to work and found this on the internet:
"An important point to note (and the source of some confusion) is that most Access Points cannot communicate with each other wirelessly. "
I guess I need a bridge for this to work. Other than that it seems like it is a good product.
|
Beware when using with WPA-Enterprise, July 10, 2006
By Barry
We bought this AP to use with WPA Enterprise using a radius server and basically, it dosen't work. At first we couldn't get it to communicate with our radius server at all. We resolved this by changing wireless channels until one worked. Then authentication worked, but we couldn't get an address via DHCP. We couldn't resolve this so we assigned a static address, but couldn't pass any traffic over the link. Unfortunately, we found the Linksys support to be friendly but ultimately useless. There only suggestion was to try different firmware. Once we had done this, they couldn't help any more. So basically, they might say it works, but it doesn't. Tried a different manufacturers AP, worked straight away.
|
works flawlessly as a bridge, June 11, 2006
By the engineer (Seattle, WA)
I bought two -- the second one after realizing that one will not work as a bridge. It plugs into the Linksys Cable Gateway in one room, and to a 5-port switch in the other room. Nothing more to say -- follow the instructions and it will work as advertised.
|
Flawless installation; excellent performance, May 31, 2006
By USFbobFL (Lakeland, FL)
I'll admit after reading some of these reviews I was a little weary of purchasing this unit, but I got it for $32, so couldn't pass it up. I was replacing a LinkSys BEFW11S4 (wireless B).
In a nutshell, I followed the instructions to connect the hardware, popped the CD in my "hard wired" desktop PC, took a couple of minutes to step through the setup screens (which are totally simple to navigate), enabling WEP along the way. When I was done, I fired up my laptop (which has built in wireless-G card). Network was detected immediately... all I had to do was type in the WEP key (which was generated from my passphrase entered during the setup) and viola! Connected at 54 Mbps!!
Awesome. The setup procedure could NOT have been any easier. I would recommend this device to anyone that already has a cable/dsl router (with a free port) and simply wants to add (or upgrade) wireless-G connectivity in their home.
|
|
|
Works like a charm, May 1, 2006
By bargain sleuth (Tampa, FL)
This WAP is fast and easy to set up. Works like a charm with my router. No problems. Perfect for those who already have a Linksys router.
|
Acceptable performance for home use and small business use..., April 13, 2006
By - www.sysedco.com (Marysville, OH)
I tested this device, among many others, while writing the Wireless# Certification Official Study Guide and have to say that I was surprised. It performed equally well with Netgear and Intel access points when an 802.11b client connected and when an 802.11g client connected it actually outperformed the others. The reason for my surprise was that the WRT54G wireless router from Linksys is horrible compared to Netgear's hardware. In the end, I can definitely recommend this device for small office and home use.
|
Easy and Reliable!, March 16, 2006
By S. Rocco (Pittsburgh, PA)
Very easy to setup and thus far has been extremely reliable. The intitial setup is quite simple. Also very easy to maintain, edit, make changes through the web interface. Nice product.
|
Good replacement for Aironet Access Point, March 12, 2006
By Steve (Bay Area, CA, USA)
I bought this to replace an aging (technology-wise) Cisco Aironet AP. I have a mixed wired and wireless system at home, and a new laptop had the 802.11g wireless client (my older one has .11b).
PROS
Relatively easy to install.
Linksys (now Cisco) brand name implies good quality
Good WEP encyption capability.
Allows seamless VPN pass through to my heavily firewalled business/work infrastructure
Stable once config issues resolved
CONS
Too expensive compared to similar Wireless Router, which I didn't need.
Took several attempts to resolve IP address conflicts, but then I run 3 wired desktops, two home and one business laptops, a print server and a networked laser printer off a 4-port cable router + 8-port switch + wireless access point.
|
Link up with Linksys, March 2, 2006
By User (White Plains, NY United States)
The product does exactly what it is supposed to do. I had problems with a wireless modem that constantly needed to be reset. Got the Linksys access point and have not had a problem connecting to my wireless network since. Did have a small problem setting up the security, but was able to work around it.
|
Useability, March 1, 2006
By Lawrence W. Gatlin
After getting this device, I have yet to get it working with my Wireless network using the WRT54GS router. They say it works with the WRT54G but does not say anything about the GS model. Hopefully I can get with Linksys to get this puppy working.
|
Buy anything but this..., February 3, 2006
By David Kopp (San Francisco, CA United States)
The WAP54G has been nothing but frustrating...which is compounded by the utter futility of trying to get tech support out of Linksys.
Here's the big warning: these access points are evidently subject to a (albeit infrequent) problem: they randomly reset SSID and security. This does, of course, tend to render them entirely useless in most situations. It's possible that there's some way to fix this, but while I found reference to the problem via Y! Search, I couldn't find anything on Linksys' useless support site...and didn't find any solutions on the Web, either.
I plan to try to send it back to get my $70 back...but I don't imagine I'll get the hours of frustration or lack of productivity back. Please give me the satisfaction of knowing that I helped save you from the frustration though: don't buy this and rate my review helpful to let me know I helped!
|
Wireless Bridge, January 23, 2006
By C. Epifanio (Bay Area, CA, USA)
After being forced to move my cable modem to a new room to get better link quality, I decided to set up a wireless bridge to my comptuer room to avoid running new cable. One thing to watch out for with other brands is that the security capabilities vary by hardware version- which you can't determine until after you buy it and look at the bottom of the device! I've got my complaints with Linksys, such as the weak manual that didn't fully describe how to set up a bridge, leading to much searching through app notes and raw experimentation. But I have been impressed that they do seem to insure that all hardware versions for a product can be upgraded to the same set of features. Other vendors will note in the small print that this or that feature is only available in the latest HW version- which I repeat you can't determine until after you've bought it! Its entirely likely you can get a hardware version several generations old, especially through on-line vendors that may have accumulated a large inventory and offer a discount to clear it out.
Anyway, I upgraded my WAP54G to the latest firmware, and noted they offer WPA2 security. The WPA2 (from the new 802.11i standard) has been certified for use in DoD and other government agencies, so its certainly sufficient for home user needs. Unfortunately, I couldn't make the WPA2 work in bridge mode, but it is up and running in WPA mode. The WPA2 likely works fine in normal access mode.
One annoying thing in my case was I received two boxes with two different hardware versions. This becomes a minor irritant when I have to track and maintain two different firmware versions. Note that you will have to upgrade firmware for any wireless product. By the time the box gets into your hands, there has likely been several firmware releases, and you should keep it up to date. But at least both boxes offer the same set of features, and aside from the WPA2 issue, they communicate with each other just fine.
|
Some initial setup problems but works as advertised!, January 17, 2006
By arprince (NJ USA)
I'm using the unit in a REPEATER mode. My house have 3 floors and my router (WRT54G) is located in the basement. I get a signal of 11 Mbps on the sec flr using a centrino powered notebook. The signal would drop to 1 Mbps after some use and the only way to get the signals back is to to reboot the notebook for some reason or go to the first flr. Hence, decided to get this unit and use it as a repeater.
Steps that worked for me are as follows:
1. Disable any security you have on the router (I'm using WEP) and enable SSID broadcast prior to any configuration .
2. Configure the unit using the setup disk and provided the ff:.
- provided a different SSID (or you can provide the same SSID) with enabled broadcast.
- no encription
- the same transmission channel (Chan 11) as with my router
- new password
3. Exited program setup. Run browser and connect to the AP interface using the default address http://192.168.1.245
4. Configured the AP in REPEATER MODE placing my router's wireless MAC address as the repeated source signal.
5. Saved the setup.
6. Test if working by removing the wire behind the AP. On your PC/Notebook, open up a command window (START,RUN, type in "cmd" and click [OK]). Type in "ping 192.168.1.245" and press [ENTER]. You should see something like "Reply from 192.168.1.245 bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=225". If you get a "Request timed out." then that means your AP cannot be seen in your network and was not configured successfully go through STEP#1 again.
7. If successful, you need to enable security back (NOTE: At this point, the AP is running stand alone with no wires connected at the back from the router). Since I'm using WEP, connect to the AP using a browser at http://192.168.1.245. Go to wireless security and enable WEP and add the key codes and save your setup.
8. Now enable security back on the router with same key as you have on the AP and save your setup.
9. Test connection again by running STEP#6.
10. Place the AP where you want it to.
11. With a wireless PC/Notebook, scan for wireless networks. You should see the new SSID as well as the old one. Connect to it so that your PC/Notebook would save that information.
12. Connect to your AP, disable SSID broadcast, save setup.
13. Connect to your roter, disable SSID broadcast, save setup.
14. You're done!
I placed the WAP54G on the third floor. After all is said and done, my signal was boosted to 45 Mbps (max at 54 Mbps). Works like a charm!!!
NOTE:
- These procedures is specifically if you want to configure your AP as a REPEATER.
- If you configure the AP with WEP security on the get go, you will never be able to get it to work!! I spent hours on this to no avail.
- You can use the same SSID. I used a different one because I want to see what wireless unit I am connecting to when i transfer from floor to floor.
|
Obsolete and Doesn't Last Long, December 31, 2005
By excellentdriver (Portsmouth, NH United States)
The Good News: I had no problem setting up the WAP54G. Easy to setup and deploy. The Bad News: This device appears to have been made obsolete by Linksys. Check their web site to compare models and current offerings. Also, the device died completely after only 1 year of use. So did my Linksys Cable Modems (2 of them ... you'd think I would have learned from the first one, but I didn't). I now use an SMC Barrier combination router/wireless access point. It's far more reliable and just as easy to set up.
|
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 of Total 8 Pages
|
|
| Copyright 2001-2007 WiFiReview.com |
|