| Linksys WET54G Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge |
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Model: WET54G
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 123
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: Game console
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Product Type - Bridge
Complies with IEEE 802.11g standard, and backwards compatible with IEEE 802.11b products
Supports WPA Security, 64/128-bit WEP Encryption
Installs in minutes with easy-to-use Setup Wizard
Built-in web user interface for easy configuration from any web browser |
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| Description: |
| The versatile Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge can make any wired Ethernet-equipped device a part of your wireless network. At home, use the Bridge to connect game consoles, set-top boxes, or computers to your Wireless-G network and its shared high-speed Internet connection. In the office, convert your Ethernet-wired printer, scanner, camera, notebook or desktop into a wireless networked device. |
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| User Reviews (123 total): |
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 of Total 6 Pages
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Terrible product, May 30, 2006
By Jimbob (USA)
Version 3 of this hardware does not work for more than a few hours when WPA encryption is enabled.
Version 2 works fine. Don't buy this product until Linksys has foxed the firmware for version 3.
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Works great, after I figured out how to set it up, May 8, 2006
By Larry Ozarow (Noo Jersey)
I bought this item to connect a Brother 420CN all-in-one
to my wireless network. The printer has a built-in wired
print server.
The only problem I had with it was when I set it up using
a laptop. I was unable to detect the bridge until I manually
set the IP address of the laptop's ethernet port to be on
the same subnet (192.168.1.xxx) as the default on
the bridge. My pre-existing network is a D-Link which uses
192.168.0.xxx). Once I made this change, setup took about
a minute, and the bridge has worked fine since then.
The range is fine. My router is in my basement and the bridge
is on the second floor, with no connection problems
at all. The thing is a little expensive for what it is, but
it does what it's supposed to do.
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Run far, far away from this, April 19, 2006
By Andy (Schaumburg, IL)
I purchased a total of 4 of these units to replace a fleet of aging WET11 bridges (which I may add performed flawlessly in their years of service) at both my home and business. Immediately after setting them up I began to notice problems which required frequent rebooting of the bridges. After less than 24 hours, one of the units went completely dead and unresponsive, and since then one other has bitten the dust as well. I have wasted countless hours with Linksys support online, and was told that I should run WEP encryption on my network to help solve the problem, even though the main reason I bought the WET54G is because it supports WPA. Needless to say I returned all of the bridges for a refund. To make matters worse, now my old WET11 bridges are now also acting strangly (I'm guessing due to my WRT54G router's firmware upgrade that was suggested by the fine folks at Linksys).
I have long been a fan of Linksys even though most other people seem to put them down. However, this product on its own has convinced me never again to do business with Linksys. If you are in search of a wireless bridge, do yourself a favor and go with the Buffalo WLI-TX4-G54HP wireless ethernet crossover, or else look into a WDS system.
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A perfect fit, April 10, 2006
By Calzone (Madison WI)
The Linksys WET54G Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge was easy to set up and worked with all my existing wireless equipment flawlessly. The comprehensive setup options for the router made customizing access and and connections fluid and boasts a easy to use CD wizard that will get even the beginner up and running in less than a half an hour. Over all it is a fantastic product and performs seamlessly.
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Great bridge; priced a bit high, April 9, 2006
By Alan R. (Texas, USA)
I was an early adoptor of wireless what seems nearly a decade ago, and have used Linksys products exclusively, and have helped friends and family use other products.
This was the easiest intallation of any Linksys product I've ever used (seven of them). I bought the brige to hook my young kid's Win98 machine to noggin.com.
I use a different IP range than the defaults (not 192.168.1.x). So for installation: I changed my router back to the default (192.168.1.1) and rebooted; then browsed the brigde (192.168.1.226) and used admin/admin as the username and password (most Linksys products use a blank for user id). I configured the bridge to my desired IP, and set my WEP security. I set my router back, and rebooted again.
I then hooked the bridge up to the Win98 machine; and was done! (I never used the CD)
PS. This was much easier than dealing with Win98 drivers on a wireless card; and, I'm able to place the antenna up higher than the CPU.
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Works reasonably well (V3.0), March 6, 2006
By Mark L. Jacobs (North Potomac, Maryland USA)
I am using this product to connect a ReplayTV 5040 in my bedroom to my network (currently not using WEP or WPA) at 54 Mbps. Had a little confusion at first with the setup program, but switched to connecting it to my router and was able to get setup to work. The only problem I've had is that it won't connect if the bedroom door is closed. I haven't had the problems others have had, but this WET54G is Version 3.0.
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It does not work well with Canon multifunction printers, March 2, 2006
By Rakhi Gupta
I had hoped to buy this wireless ethernet bridge so that I could place my Canon printer/copier in the garage, without having to use a long ethernet cable.
My hopes were dashed, when the product arrived and I set it up. The printer would not be visible on my home network unless I rebooted the ethernet bridge and printer. It would stay visible for a minute or so. After that the ethernet bridge and printer required re-booting!
Overall, it was a bad experience.
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Excellent Replacement for WET11, February 22, 2006
By Jamie Ratliff (Texas, USA)
I bought this unit to replace my Linksys WET11. I was using the WET11 for my ReplayTV, but was converting all of my wireless network over to Wireless-G Only. Just so you know, I never use the CD that comes with these things. I just plug it in and view my router admin page to see what IP it gets (provided you are using DHCP). Then open a browser and type in the IP assigned to it. I have found this to be the easiest and quickest way to configure these. It takes about 30 seconds total. I am very happy with the WET54G - it works great with my ReplayTV, so if you have a ReplavyTV or a TIVO it should work fine.
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Good stuff, February 22, 2006
By Greggory Keele
This product is difficult to set-up on more complicated networks, but tech support answered quickly and stayed with me until the problem was solved. I was impressed. I would highly recommend this product...if you have any problems, you know there will be a competent techie to get you up and running.
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Only works for a day, February 6, 2006
By Mike the Gardener
I've add nothing but trouble with the WET54G v3. The first unit was defective and would not connect to my wireless network. I couldn't connect to the web utility using the default password to debug it. I contacted Linksys support and they asserted that you should not use a username and a password of "admin". Even with a hard reset that did not work so I returned it and tried again with a second unit.
The second unit connected to my wireless network but had the same problem with the web utility. I finally figured out that you have to use admin for the username (even after changing the password). I have several Linksys products and this is the only one where you enter a username to access the web utility.
Currently it works for about a day and then goes south. I've tried it with both a laptop and a network storage device. In both cases it works fine one day and the next day the devices are no longer on the network. You can't ping either the WET54G or the attached device from other machines on the network. But all of the status lights on the WET54G say it is connected and working. If you reboot the WET54G (pull the power plug) then everything is fine again.
One other thing that I found confusing was the static vs. dynamic IP address. When you select static vs. dynamic you are choosing what the WET54G uses and not the attached device. I've tried both static and dynamic and it doesn't seem to make a difference.
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Nice product, January 31, 2006
By a_small_turnip (Seattle, WA)
No problems with this product. I'm using it to connect my downstairs office to the rest of my network without having to string cables down the side of my house. You can plug a switch into the ethernet port and connect as many computers as you'd like (but the unit itself only has 1 ethernet port).
Just be aware that Linksys requires you to use the username "admin" to log in to the administrative portion of the unit, while their previous units required the username to be blank.
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I think they got it right in version 3, December 1, 2005
By E. Bina (Il, USA)
Well, despite all the bad reviews I bought the linksys wet54g because d-link and netgear's bridges got equally bad reviews and I got the wet54g cheap ($71) on buy.com.
My box says version 3 on the bottom. Linksys's web site only mentions versions 1 and 2 so this must be quite new. I really hate linksys's versioning system because when you buy online there is no way to tell what version you are getting which can make a big difference because the different versions aren't firmware compatable. Mine has firmware 1.07.
On to the review: I bought mine to extend the range of my wireless because the linksys range extender sucks. WDS in general seems a bad idea because it is one radio doing both send/recieve so it immediately halves your bandwidth. I configured the WET54g to connect to my existing wireless and then placed the box where my laptop drops off to 20% signal. Because the WET54g is fixed I could carfully position its antenna with a reflector to get 85% signal to my WAP. Then I got a linksys WRT54g ($60) and set its wireless up as a different channel and ssid than my main WAP, and connected it to the WET54g by a 3ft ethernet cable. When my laptop is in decent range (>40% signal) of the WRT54g it connects through it and the WET54g to may base WAP and gives me 88% of the throughput my laptop would get when within decent range (>40% signal) of the base WAP. The same setup with the linksys range extender using WDS gave me 45% of the throughput, so this is a win.
When doing this testing I used the WET54g pretty hard and never had a dropped connection, which was the main complaint I read of the older versions. The other complaint of old versions was a weak antenna. Since I'm carefully positioning it with a reflector I don't really care, but decided to test it anyway. So I hooked the WET54G to my laptop by a 3ft ethernet cable and disabled the laptop antenna. Using the WET54g for my laptop wireless straight to my WAP gave me 10% greater throughput than the laptop's built in wireless straight to the WAP! This suprised me, but leads me to conclude that the WET54g antenna is as good or better than my laptop's built in wireless.
Overall I am very very happy with this purchase.
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Very poor reception, August 24, 2005
By B. Dow (Miami, FL)
I own many linksys products and have been very happy with them all with the exception of this one. I've found that it basically doesn't work at distances greater then 5 ft. I think linksys had some quality issues with the first incarnation of this product. I understand the 2.0 version is much better.
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WET54G Wireless Bridge -- It's working!, August 11, 2005
By David R. Streeter
I bought this bridge to workaround an older media server that couldn't use WPA security. By plugging the media player directly into the bridge via ethernet cable, I was able to once again use it with my wireless network with WPA security intact. I had to put the latest firmware version in place, but from that point forward I was able to setup and configure with no issues. I have also used this bridge to connect my XBOX to the wireless network. Works great. The bridge is a little pricey -- not sure what drives the cost over $100 -- seems like it should be less expensive that a full wireless router / access point.
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Product barely worked, July 7, 2005
By mattyp (Wallingford, CT USA)
After serveral hours of trying to get this product to work I was marginally successful. I attempted to install this product for use with my replaytv. I managed to get a signal for a short period of time. (a few hours) Then the product simply stopped working for my replaytv. I tried the product with my playstation with similar results.
I tried visiting the support website, resetting the device and upgrading the firmware but nothing could make the device function properly
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LINKSYS IS JUNK!, May 2, 2005
By spy-hunter (Honolulu, HI)
If your looking for a device to bridge with, as I once did in this device, head on over to Belkin's F5D7330 Wireless Ethernet Adapter and read my review. Belkin's equipment is so much more reliable, it does what you ask it to and doesn't flinch like inferior DLINK and LINKSYS products.
This LINKSYS device is straight GARBAGE!
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Most Linksys products great, this one is *AWFUL*, January 14, 2005
By Hector Osorio (San Francisco, CA)
I don't usually write many reviews, but after seeing so many reviews being so critical of Linksys and people saying that they'll never buy another Linksys product I felt I had to say something. I've been using Linksys products for years, both the 'b' and 'g' products, at home and at work, and they've been great. Reasonable prices, easy to set up, work without a hitch -- just set up and forget about it.
The WET54G is the *exception*. It's like they took all their worst engineers and instead of firing them, made them into the WET54G team. I'm on my fourth box, the first was a version 1 and didn't have a range beyond 5 feet. It eventually died with a blinking power light and I got it replaced by Linksys. The second died during a firmware upgrade. The third had better range with newer firmware but barely got a signal, about 20%. It eventually died too. I finally got them to send me a version 2 box and that's been much better. It's worked for months, gets good signal strength and range, but it seems to lose the connection after a couple of days and sometimes just powers off.
The new WET54GS5 seems to be getting decent reviews other than complaints about the WPA security, so the masochist in my is thinking about giving it a shot.
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Linksys/Cisco:"NOT FOR STREAMING, NOT for VPN...", November 24, 2004
By YourMileageMayVary (Colorado Springs, CO)
If you are considering this bridge to do video/audio streaming inside your house, think again. This review is based on over 2 months worth of testing this unit and then working with Linksys/Cisco trying to figure why it does not deliver. A saleperson at a local store may have told you that you can stream MP3s over your wireless network, or perhaps you have two DVRs in your house and your want to stream recorded TV shows from one to another. This is not the device you want to use for this purpose. Don't belive me? Ask Linksys level 3 support. Its architecture is not designed to support high levels of network traffic needed for streaming -- it has very small or zero I/O buffers to handle it -- as a result, the device will crash after 2-5 minutes of streaming. You can power cycle it and it will resume for the next 2-5 min. But forget streaming for a moment, WET54G crashed when I was simply working from home VPN'd into my company. Not for that either?! Do you think that WET54G ver 2 is better than WET54G ver 1? Been there, don't waste your time -- the architecture is the same. Alternatives? WET54GS5 might be better, but I'm yet to find that out myself. I know you want to try it yourself. Piece of advice -- buy at a retail store, and if it doesn't work, return within 30 days. Do not get into RMA exchanges with Linksys - unless you enjoy 2 months of 2-3 hours/day trying to get your money back.
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Completely Disappointed, August 1, 2004
By Caleb J. Howard (Los Angeles)
Review of the LinkSys WET54G bridge point, and WRT54GS router
Completely Disappointed
("two Stars", both for the support, and none for the products)
These LinkSys wireless device both failed utterly. The WET54G was replaced, and the replacement failed identically.
Who will repay me for my lost time, and productivity? Noone.
I have used LinkSys wired devices for years, and have found them reliable. This is why I purchased the LinkSys WRT54GS wireless router and WET54G bridge point despite their higher price, and negative reviews.
I must start by saying that LinkSys gets full points for the fine women and men in India whom they employ as their technical support staff. While I have mixed feelings for the socioeconomic ramifications of the North American jobs being outsourced to India, I must say that the general level of courtesy and expertise was higher than I have ever experienced before. Kudos to India for training such superior technicians who can work so much more cheaply than North Americans. In all, I spoke with eight LinkSys support technicians, and seven of these were from India. The Senior Support technician I spoke to in the end was in California, and he was also most excellent in his demeanor and knowledge.
That said, the devices don't work.
At first, I thought the router (WRT54GS) was working, and that I was experiencing signal drop out on the Bridge point side (WET54G). There was some initial contact, but it faded quickly to nothing. I suspected that the doors between the two points were affecting the radio signal, or that the local airport was interfering. Bringing both devices into the same room didn't help, though, and the airport shuts down at night - removing that as a source of interference. The senior support person I spoke to suggested that my wireless phones (also operating in the 2.4 GHz frequency range) could be interfering with the LinkSys products, but it made no difference when I disconnected them.
The Bridge point (WET54G) repeatedly power cycled itself - establishing a link for a few seconds, up to a few minutes, and then mysteriously shutting itself off, and losing the link. This happened every few minutes forever, and eventually it failed to find the wireless connection at all. It just sat there turning itself on again, and off again. After speaking to several technicians in India, I was advised to have the Bridge point replaced. The replacement failed identically.
No amount of tweaking, configuring, upgrading, or resetting makes it work for more than a few minutes. The failure is unrelated to distance between the nodes, time of day, version of the firmware, temperature of the product, OS of the host machine, or any other feature I may discern. It simply does not work. In fact, the two of them failed identically.
I had thought that at least the router (WRT54GS) was working, but I was wrong.
The router functions (or it's supposed to) as a 4-port wired router with a wireless connection. I was attributing the failure of the wireless connection to the Bridge point (WET54G). It took me a while to suspect that the wired connections to the router were perhaps failing sometimes as well. When I did notice that the configuration web page on the router was sometimes inaccessible through the wired ethernet port, I upgraded the firmware (on the advice of the local senior technician). This didn't seem to help, and in fact I then found that there was a complete failure of the wired machines to ping the router.
Unfortunately, when I re-reinstalled the firmware (guessing that the first reinstall had perhaps failed partially), the wired connection to the host failed in mid-upgrade, leaving the firmware corrupted, and unfixable. (There was no firmware to tell the machine how to upgrade the firmware - a sad state.)
The unit started lame, and died completely. Dead, dead, dead.
LinkSys has offered to replace the units, and to replace the bridge with the more recent version (WET54GV2), but I have declined the offer. At best, the units were sometimes working - transmitting with a 50% packet failure rate, which is unusable for me (and most people, I suspect). I now realize that I will fare much better with a trench, and a buried cable to my garage. Ironically, I had initially opted for the wireless equipment on the notion that it would be quicker and easier than digging a thirty foot trench. That was three painful weeks ago. I am now looking gleefully at the trench as the cheaper, quicker, easier, and more reliable option.
After having been a happy and loyal LinkSys customer for years, I am sad to say that I am utterly disappointed with my most recent experiences.
What a major drag. I am very frustrated. If you need speed, and reliability in your network solution, I strongly advise you to seek another solution than LinkSys Wireless devices
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Consider the WET54GS5 instead, June 24, 2004
By Eric D. Tooley (San Jose, CA USA)
For just a little more money, the WET54GS5 adds a 5-port switch. Installation could not have been easier, and the unit seems well-made.
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