The wireless link always works, but the _wired_ connection to the rest of the network hangs quite often. A total factory reset seems to solve this problem.

The Linksys on-line chat support (from www.linksys.com) is quite useless. The staff doesn't seem to know their products well, nor do they seem to know anything about network architectures. ie. expecting to see a fixed IP device show up in a DHCP server table.

Here's a quote I got from the support staff about their WAP54G:
"That means that the accesspoint is hung. It either a proble with the firmware or it may be getting high throughputs from whatever device it's connected to, causing it to hang."

Buyer beware!

Thinking perhaps it was a dud I exchanged it and had the same problems with another one. I even went to a local store and bought another brand name (D-Link) and subsequently returned it before 30 days as it had the same problem. It seems that all of these wireless APs simply stop working after a few days, but I'm not sure why. The only thing I can think of is that I send a lot of data through as I'm using terminal services a lot and often to multiple computers simultaneously. I am disappointed with the uptime of this device.

1.) Changed the default IP address to coorespond with my addressing scheme.

2.) Changed the gateway address to point to my existing wired router.

3.) Changed the default SSID and disabled SSID broadcast.

4.) Enabled MAC address filtering and added the MAC addresses of all five devices on my wired and wireless network.

This device has worked flawlessly and I am getting very acceptable data rates with no lost or dropped packets. Overall, I am very satisfied with this WAP and I would recommend highly for someone looking for an inexpensive way of adding 802.11g capability to an existing wired network.

1. The logging function is worthless. I wanna know MAC and much more detail for all connections and attempted connections. Don't even try Linksys tech support - they don't know: how often the unit attempts to update the log on the selected IP, how it does this, or why. The details are critical when configuring a firewall on the receiving machine. Nobody's got them.

2. There is virtually no way of knowing when and if anybody is actually connected wirelessly. Even the WLAN indicator lights don't work. In the user guide, WLAN link lights up when you've got a successful connection, and WLAN act lights up when packets are sent. In reality: WLAN link lights up solid and WLAN act blinks constantly - no matter what's going on wirelessly. The super-duper e-mail tech support says to "click disable wireless" on the setup page to turn off the light. This is not only a silly solution, but I don't even have a "disable wireless" button to employ the ridiculous solution.

This thing could be great. I really hope firmware upgrades eventually fix these little (but crucial) issues. If it does it'll go 5 stars for me. Linksys has gotta get some experts on the other end of the tech support lines as well.

Bought a WAP54G recently. Performance is decent. Range is good. Anyone who claims that they don't see a speed difference between a wired and wireless connection probably isn't looking close enough - a 100Mbps full-duplex ethernet has much faster throughput than a wireless connection. Try comparing an FTP of a file that's a couple of hundred megs and you'll see what I mean...

The issues I have with this unit are what I believe to be firmware bugs, and their tech support claims they can duplicate them but hasn't done anything in the way of fixing them in the last month that they've known about them. I was told that a future firmware release "might" address these things, but no indication as to when or if at all.

I feel that security is critical, especially on a wireless device that any passer-by can potentially connect to if in range, and the logging on this unit falls short of my expectations.

Powering up the WAP54G while the logging utility is capturing yields two log entries stating that the syslogd and system have been started. Attaching to the network using a laptop equipped with a WPC54G yields an additional message stating there was a "Wireless PC connected" with the date and time - "Somebody" is connected, but who? (MAC address would be nice, but none given). As far as the logs are concerned, I've never seen any additional messages generated. Short of resetting the WAP54G, I've never seen another log entry gererated depsite the activity on my network. The logs entries captured by their loging utility are always four hours ahead of the correct date and time, and that ought to be addressed as well. Disconnecting and reconnecting (rebooting the laptop) does not generate any additional log entries. For MAC address filtering, you can specifically permit or prevent up to twenty MAC addresses. If you make your entries on that screen, and then refresh the page (either by logging off and then back on, or by resetting the WAP), the addresses remain, but the indication of whether you're permitting or preventing those addresses disappears. This might be cosmetic, but I'd still like to know what my devices are doing... Using XP Pro and setting up WEP took some trial and error - not as intuitive as I'd like.

If speed and convenience are what you're looking for, this unit will probably fit the bill. If you're interested in security and knowing what this device is actually doing at any given time, the logs are sure to keep you in the dark. If/when they release a firmware upgrade that addresses this issue, I think they will have a five star product.

Interface bugs with the AP config.
Connection problems with security settings.
PCI card flakeyness.

Interface problems.
1. Enabling WEP consistently erases the the SSID.
2. If you select MAC address filtering, apply and then go back into the config, MAC address filtering displays as not applied. It actually is, but displays incorrectly.
3. Logging only seems to work if MAC address filtering is selected and is inconsistent even then. An inconsistent log is a useless log.

Security problems.
First, let me define what I consider a good and secure setup.

WEP encryption, ideally with a fix for the weak key flaw.
Custom SSID.
SSID broadcasts disabled.
MAC address filtering (access list)

The moment I try to enable any of the above (even one at a time), except for address filtering, all bets are off. The clients will not reconnect immediately once their configs have been updated. Sometimes a reboot works, sometimes leaving the machine sit for 30 minutes works, several times the machines have sat for several days and then miraculously connected. Because the problem is inconsistent it is both difficult and frustrating to deal with.

PCI card problems.
This probably won't affect most people, but it's worth mentioning. Unlike most companies that use a unified driver for all their NICs, the 54G PCI card uses a completely different driver than the PCMCIA laptop cards. The interface is different, not all of the options are available and it seems to have more problems than the laptop cards. It is possible that this is because the PC has a slightly weaker signal, but at 80%, I suspect it's just buggy.

All in all, I guess I knew what I was getting into when I decided to buy a product before the standard was ready, so I shouldn't really complain. If I could switch back to my 11MB Orinoco AP, though, I'd do it in a heartbeat. It just worked.

My first attempt at wireless also worked on the first try. Then I tried 128bit WEP. The wireless connection fails at very regular intervals (3 minutes 6 seconds). 64bit WEP was stable and it was stable with WEP disabled.

Linksys service made several suggestions (all obvious). After trying all channels and various hardware placements, both 64bit and 128bit WEP now fail at 3min 6sec intervals. With WEP disabled the connection is stable.

I have wasted many hours on this thing. I am now shopping for a different brand.

Range is not a problem. No matter where I am in my 2 story house I get a signal at 60% strength or better, and I'm mostly above 80%. I know that does not sound too good, but I can't tell the difference between 100% and 60% based on the performance. I use the wireless mostly for web browsing on the laptop.

All in all this is working great for me.