| Linksys WGA54G Wireless-G Gaming Adapter |
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Model: WGA54G
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 159
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: Game console
Data link protocol: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Lag-free head-to-head or Internet gaming at up to 54 Mbps, without stringing wires
Converts wired-Ethernet-ready game consoles to Wireless-G (draft 802.11g) network connectivity
Works without drivers on PlayStation2, Xbox, and GameCube
Also connects to Wireless-B (802.11b) networks at 11 Mbps
One year limited warranty |
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| Description: |
| The Wireless-G Game Adapter gives any wired Ethernet-equipped game console wireless connection capabilities. The Game Adapter can be used in two different ways. If you have an existing home wireless network and a cable or DSL Internet connection, the Game Adapter lets your PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube attach to the network so you can get into online games without running wires to the game room. Or, use a pair of Game Adapters to form a "cable-less cable" between two game consoles for head-to-head gaming - in the same room, or all the way across the house. It's completely driver-free, so it works on any platform. Since there are no drivers to load, setup is a snap. In some cases, it works right out of the box! If your setup's a little different - just configure the network settings through your PC's web browser, plug it into your game box, and go. The Wireless-G Game Adapter provides lag-free gaming with communication speeds up to 54Mbps when connected to other Wireless-G devices. It can also connect to Wireless-B (802.11b) devices and networks at 11Mbps. Spend your time gaming, not stringing wires, with the Linksys Wireless-G Game Adapter. |
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| User Reviews (159 total): |
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Not ready for primetime, September 6, 2005
By greg has pants (Rohnert Park, CA USA)
For whatever reason, Linksys thought it would be a good idea to write a manual that covered roughly 40% of all wireless network setups out there. For the rest of us, this product (and the customer support) are practically useless. I look forward to the day I return this product.
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simpleton' luck, September 1, 2005
By Dr. Detroit (ny ny)
Plugged it into my replay 5500 without programming it at all.
plugged wireless linksys adapter into my existing linksys befsr 8 whatever and configured again.. nothing ! Everything works great for monthe including program guide , streaming video between multiple replays . viewing other units program guides and tying into my pcs on net , remote DV software and photos no problem . Some deity obviously takes care of lazy BSEE's like me . YMMV
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Set Up Problem and Solution, August 30, 2005
By Rich T.
I first tried to set this up by running the setup CD, etc., but after hooking it up to the PS2 I could not get it to connect. I tried messing with settings on the router and the adapter, but it would not work. Finally, I tried the following and it worked: I disabled the security settings on my wireless router, and reset the game adapter to its factory settings (as if I pulled it right out of the box). I fired up my PS2, then went through the PS2 browser for adapter setup, with everything set to auto detect and no passwords. It connected! Thinking I would have to keep my wireless security disabled, I decided to disable the broadcast of my wireless router, hoping that it won't be detected and hacked by a neighbor. Then, for kicks, I decided to see what would happen if I enabled the WEP 64-bit security on my router, and it still worked. I have not had the chance to actually play a game with it yet, but for me, just getting it to connect was a major accomplishment.
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A review the Wireless-G Gaming Adapter deserves!, August 17, 2005
By Tom (NYC)
This product is great!!!!!!!! So many bad reviews and I was scared to buy it, I even canceled my order once but then reordered it cause I had to see for myself. First of all, great price for such an amazing product. Second, setting it up with hard ware and software took under 5 minutes put together. Its small and does not take up room and it run smoothly. Great Product!!!!!!!
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What a horrible product..., August 12, 2005
By Chad Thomason (Montgomery, AL)
To put it mildly, the WGA54G is a worthless pile of garbage. I've had nothing but trouble since I purchased this game adapter two months ago.
I play Socom 2 online and I get booted every single night, usually every 20-30 minutes. I've spent countless hours with Linksys tech support. I even went out and bought a brand new Linksys Wireless-G router, hoping that the problem was with my Microsoft router...WRONG! I'm still having the same problem.
I've spent a total of 4 hours with Linksys tech support...upgrading the firmware, changing the settings, etc. Anything you can imagine, I've done it.
The truth of the matter is this is a horribly unreliable product, period. I hope others don't make the same mistake that I did. This is truly the worst $100 I've ever spent in my life.
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Great for Gaming, July 19, 2005
By And Drew (New York, NY USA)
This was great, I have a Xbox and a PS2 in my upstairs room. Everytime I wanted to play online I had to run wires up, which became such a pain and just always looked cluttered. Replacing the wires with the wireless-G gaming adapter has made great difference in the overall look of the room, no messy wires showing and no more falling over things. Also now I am connected all the time so I tend to play even more.
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very dissapointing, June 28, 2005
By answermonkey (Seattle, WA United States)
I got this to try and hook up media clients to my Personal Video Recorder (SageTV) without using wires. The unit setup on my laptop fine and connected to the Linksys wireless G router I had no problem - signal was strong, life was good. Hooking it up to the little media client (a Hauppauge MVP 1000) worked fine - I was stoked.
It works for about 1 or 2 minutes at a crack when streaming media and then completely drops the signal to the wirless router for about 3 to 7 secnds - the wireless light is completely dark. Then it'll snap back on and work fine for another minute or two. Unfortunately the buffer on the little MVP runs out and the show stops playback if the delay is too long which was happening often. Keep in mind that for testing this was about, oh, 3 feet from my router.
I fiddled with this unit for hours, upgrading the firmware, testing other devices with it etc... I could not get it to fly reliably. I went and got the MS XBox wireless adapter, it works flawlessly. Not a single drop, strong signal and solid performance.
I have several other Linksys products (wireless router, wireless access points, cards) that all work dandy, but this product is horrible, the support is bad and it clearly needs to go back into the oven again as it has major problems. It could be that I just got a bum unit as some other folks out here did but I don't have the patience to keep sending it back and trying a new unit until I get one that flies right.
My advice is to avoid this product.
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Linksys should have done better..., June 1, 2005
By Extremely Disappointed (Morgantown, West Virginia)
Wow! I purchased this item before reading the posts. I have used Linksys wireless routers and access points without any problems. I never imagined having any problems with products by Linksys.
The first unit I purchased would not connect. It would have my network listed, but, it would not connect. After about 2 hours on the phone with Linksys tech support I was told to upgrade the firmware. I was given a web link and was left to perform the firmware upgrade on my own. Needless to say, the firmware upgrade changed nothing. The game adapter would still not connect to my network. By the way, this is with my network wide open: SSID broadcast on, no security, no firewall, nothing...wide open.
I then called tech support again. Round 2. This time after about 1 hour, I was told that the device must be defective and to return it; which I did. I exchanged the unit for another one, thinking that I must have just been unlucky with the first one. WRONG. The second unit went a little further. This time the web interface would say that it was connected, however, the unit would not talk to the network. Yep, you guessed it, Round 3 with tech support; another 2 hours. This 3rd person started all over again. All the same steps as Round 1 and Round 2. She finally told me that the wireless part of the game adapter must be defective and that I should return it for another unit. So now....what to do. She ensured me that these units don't have problems like this. After reading all the posts I would venture to say that these units are very troublesome.
Well, the glutton that I am, I exchanged it for a third unit. This time, BAM, perfect. The unit worked as advertised with no problems. I did not use the setup disk on this final unit. I actually disabled my wireless network on my laptop and connected the game adapter to the LAN port. I went directly to the web interface (192.168.1.250). I started with the network wide open. The game adapter connected and I was actually able to ping my router from the laptop and surf the web. I then turned WEP back on. After reading the posts I only setup 64 Bit. It connected and I was able to ping and surf again. Wow, the dang thing actually worked.
I then turned to the PS2. I could now finally attempt to get the PS2 online. No problems here as well. The PS2 was able to test and validate the network on the first try. We then tried Area 51 on-line. Everything works great. The unit works pretty darn good, if you can get a unit that works. My son has been playing online now with no problems.
The other posts are mostly all correct. The green wireless LED will not stay on solid. It only flashes when its sending information across the wireless network, and, even then, its hard to see. The settings are not that difficult to setup if you go directly to the web interface and bypass the setup CD. The setup CD only asks you for game play mode (unit to unit or unit to internet - which chooses adhoc or infrastructure depending on what you pick), SSID name, encryption scheme, and IP address for the game adapter. These settings are easily changed directly through the web interface.
The unit is not difficult to setup and you don't have to be a network guru to figure it out. Linksys definitely dropped the ball with this device and should be doing more to fix the problems. I, like everyone else, would also like to see better security in the game adapter. Home networks should not have to become vulnerable in order to play PS2 or XBOX games on-line. That's probably why Sony is incorporating all networking features directly into the PS3. My guess is the next version of XBOX will do the same.
My recommendation with this unit is that it is a crap shoot. It does work nicely, when it works. If you buy it knowing you might have to return it once or twice then go for it. Hopefully you won't be as unlucky as I was. You might want to purchase it at a local store if at all possible to make the return(s) go a little easier.
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Worst Linksys device ever. . ., May 27, 2005
By Gaming Geek (San Francisco, CA)
I have a Linksys WRT54G wireless broadband router and am very pleased with its reliability and ease of configuration. I've been wanting to get on XBox live and decided the easiest way would be to use a wireless G gaming adapter, and I figured Linksys would be the way to go. . .
Unfortunately the WGA54G wireless adapter is extremely limited in features. Your choices for wireless security are none or 64/128 bit WEP. There was no option for WPA, the lastest wireless security standard that's running on my Linksys broadband router. So if I wanted to use this gaming adapter I'd have to significantly reduce the security of my wireless LAN and home network. Not good.
Not only that but this device had a serious problem connecting to my router, despite they are both the same wireless G series from Linksys. Other network adapters I'm familiar with connect to a wireless network right away if the SSID and WEP information are correct and a strong enough signal is detected. This unit doesn't do that even if the signal is 100%. You have to choose your network from the list of detected networks and click connect during setup - even if you've already entered the correct SSID and WEP key. I also use MAC address filtering and ran into the same problems another reviewer here had. I had to go the Linksys website and read their knowledgebase on this product to find the answers to this problem.
After I finally got it to connect while it was wired to my router, I disconnected it and hooked it up to my XBox unit. Guess what? No connection and no way to tell what the problem was.
Needless to say, this puppy went right back to the store it came from. Linksys really screwed this product up with limited features and poor firmware. BUYERS BEWARE!
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go with another adapter, May 16, 2005
By J. Kammerer
I bought this adapter to use to wirelessly set up my xbox and after I bought it and brought it home I was having problems setting it up. So I called their tech support and after being on the phone and trying all sorts of methods the technician told me to take it back and get a new receiver, what a waste of time. I went out and got the adapter that microsoft makes and it set up in less then 5 minutes and the gameplay is great. This product wasn't worth my hassel when the microsoft adapter was so easy.
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WGA54 wireless gaming adaptor, April 13, 2005
By R. Fritz (Plano, TX)
Purchased this device, and installed as expected. No issues encountered during the setup, including WEP. HOWEVER...
XBOX would drop randomely (Linksys WAP54G 1 room below)which according to my son = HALO death. So... in an attempt to troubleshoot.. Plugged a PC into the Linksys WGA54G Wireless-G Gaming Adapter's 10/100 port. Ran ping test to the default router address(again 1 room below), every 4-7 pings would timeout, and ms was in the 4k ms count for some replys. Then turned on my wireless card on my PC, and ran the same ping test to the default router, NO dropped ping or delayed replies.
Don't know if anyone has had this issue or not, but this device does not work as expected in this case. I am going to return the device and try the MS wireless adaptor. Update to follow.
Frustrated Dad
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Great once you get past the setup, April 1, 2005
By Craig Hughes (Houston, Texas)
Here's what I did to get the WGA54G talking!
I first followed the instructions to a T in the manual and the setup disk...plugged into the XBOX and no go.
I then plugged the WGA54G back into my router (a linksys WRT54GS) and opened the Web Config utility. I located the network and noticed I had another WiFi on channel 6 (the default) - I then changed to channel 7, made sure the WEP was the same as my network, set the IP,DNS, Gateway to Automatic and hit apply. Then hit connect button on main screen until device showed Connected to wireless network and the Wireless-G light was lit on the WGA54G.
I unplugged the power cable and plugged it back in, brought up the config utility just to make sure the setting took.
Then unplugged the Ethernet cable and made sure the Wireless G light still flashed or illuminated a little (doesn't stay solid all the time)
Then unplugged unit and hooked RJ-45 into Xbox. Plugged it in, and then turned on XBOX.
Go into XBOX Network settings...advanced, and wireless setup...the device was found and showed a stong connection. Then (B) buttoned back a step or two to the Network Connect and tried to connect to XBOX LIve. Had to set IP and DNS to Auto and wait 30 secs or so...all settings autoprogrammed and device sidned into Live
Done.
This took me a couple tries because for some reason at first Xbox would not connect through my IP or DNS addresses, no matter if they were set auto or manually...When I finally changed the settings in the WGA54G web config utility to channel 7 and auto for the addresses...everything started working.
I place the trial and error problems on the user and can't blame the part because it works as advertised. Only problem, it doesn't work right out of the box as it says it most likely will. Too bad they couldn't get a step by step for Xbox or other game consoles included with the device. So for this I'm docking 1 star :(
After about 3 hours of frustration - I'm now a happy camper!
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Whats up with all the bad reviews????, March 25, 2005
By Kimberly M. Snyder
I got the wireless system about a day ago and ran the setup disk and had no trouble with it at all!! it connected quite nicely with my linksys WRT54G router. Ever since i plugged that baby into my xbox ive been playing lag free xbox!!!!
DONT BE DISCOURAGED BY ALL OF THE BAD REVIEWS!!!!
BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!!!
IT WILL WORK AND QUITE NICELY AT THAT!!!!!
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Beware of this product!, March 22, 2005
By Mark Loftin
My entire network at home is Linksys wireless, so I assumed this product had the quality of the rest of the components. After 5 hours of trying EVERYTHING, I called Linksys tech support. The person was polite, but spoke broken English. After 90 more minutes, we gave up. I am a Microsoft Certified guy with a pretty deep understanding of networking, but this wireless adapter just would not work.
As for me, I turned off WEP, SSID hiding, and every other option. Yes, I also upgraded the firmware to 1.10 as well, but to no avail. The documentation is poor and the Linksys website is technically weak. If you have a lot of time, take the risk with this product. If not, then look elsewhere.
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Great Product Once It's Working..., March 18, 2005
By Rico (ABQ, NM)
I didn't read all of the reviews so some of this information is probably repeated. Although some people have not had any problems, I feel I should walk through a good method for setting up this device with most security features, i.e. WEP, disabled SSID broadcast, and MAC filtering. I also use DHCP, so I will talk about this as well.
1) Log in to the web utility and perform all of the following manually (don't use the setup disk). If you are unable to log in to the web utility, this may be due to an issue which Linksys has conveniently left out of it's technical documentation. On some computers, you must set your IP address and Default Gateway for your wired adapter. IP: 192.168.1.100 and Default Gateway: 192.168.1.250 Now log in to the utility as suggested by Linksys
2) As far as entering all of the necessary information, I recommend disabling the SSID and MAC filter (on your router) first. Go ahead and enter the WEP key and SSID into the WGA54G's web utility. Save the information and then proceed to the advanced tab. If your router uses DHCP, click on the appropriate button, then save the settings. (You probably won't be able to access the WGA54G after this using your PC). Follow the correct device startup sequuecne discussed below and you are almost good to go.
3) Now you can worry about the MAC filter and SSID broadcast. Changing either option does not require you to re-access the WGA54G. Change the appropriate settings on your router and you should be good to go.
Note: Don't worry if the Wireless-G LED isn't lit. This does not mean anything. The device could be working perfectly and you wouldn't even know it because the LED is rarely solid. Nice of Linksys to mention that, huh?
Note2: Make sure you follow the correct startup order of devices. Router on, WGA54G on, XBox on.
Note3: I found patience to be the most important thing. If you are like me, you require instant network gratification. I am using this device to play Halo with some friends on a LAN at home. When the XBox starts looking for a multiplayer game, give it time!!!!! Give it up to 30 seconds (the first time) to connect to the router and find the game. After the first time, it should find games right away.
Fianl Note: The router I used was the Linksys WRT54GS, although the use of a different router with the same capabilities should not affect (ideally) the above process.
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Quick and Easy, March 12, 2005
By Stony (Port Townsend, WA)
So I opened up the package 15 minutes ago and I am up and running. Started up a game on my xbox and didn't see any lag at all. I wasn't able to config with cd setup wizard so I had to call tech support. This is my second time i have had to call them for config issues. If you get one that you can understand they seem to be very helpful. She walked me through every step very professionaly. I have a WRT54G wireless router on windows XP. Didn't give 5 stars cause i am waiting to see if it still works in the future. So far so good. Price was $20 ceaper then the xbox wireless adapter.
Bottom line- No config hassles at all!
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Works great!, March 2, 2005
By Digital Gambler (Atlanta, GA)
I took the adapter out of the box, hooked it up to my laptop, followed the instructions and had it setup in under 2 minutes. Surfed the internet for a while using the adapter, then took it to my xbox where I continued to follow the instructions, the xBox went online immediately, signed up for xBox live and started playing online, the whole process took under 10 minutes.
My router is a LinkSys with Speedbooster.
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Worked immediately, March 1, 2005
By Latin Teacher (Lawrenceville, GA)
Despite the presence of plenty of negative reviews about this product, it was the best suited for my needs. I have a Linksys WRT54G router all the way across the house from my PS2, and wanted to play games online. It worked right out of the box. The documentation that comes with all Linksys products is minimal, storing the full owner's manual on the included CD rather than printing a manual when you may not need one. I hooked up the gaming adapter to my router, ran the included CD, then hooked the adapter to my PS2 and was online in about 5 minutes. There was no lag time, even at extremely busy times of day. I understand that installation may not be this simple for everyone, but my installation process was what Linksys intended, and it worked just like it was supposed to. If you want to play online with a game console, I highly recommend this product.
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Nice product, February 27, 2005
By J. Mullen
The Linksys Wireless-G gaming adapter does what it says for me. The setup cd didn't work, so I had to go in throught the ip address and configure some settings from there, but it only took about 15 minutes. It's now working from 3 stories up at 128-bit encryption. The only problem is that it is a little slow and sometimes drops the connection, but that is probably because it is three stories up from my router. Overall a nice product.
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set it up in 15 mins, February 21, 2005
By C Vasquez
After reading many reviews I was scared to buy this as they said making it work was very hard. I got this last week for my xbox and I also got my wireless router that same week and I am clueless to wireless networking(I just learn about B and G wireless, I thought it was all the same I'am that new to this) so I was scared of this after seeing many review.
I got it up and running in no time hook it to my pc then ran the cd and it work, my only thing is sometimies it will drop me form a game and kick me offline not allot but it happen mostly when my AC is off it gets too hot maybe, as when it drops me I feel it and it is very hot but when AC is on it is fine.
Online play is fine when it works no lag and everyone on the mic is loud and clear some games play a lil less laggy now like NBA2k when I would host there would be lag it may also be that I have a new router also but now it plays fine.
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