| Linksys Wireless-G Cable Gateway (WCG200) |
 enlarge
|
Model: WCG200
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 138
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
|
|
|
| |
| Features: |
Product Type - Gateway
Warranty - 3 Years Limited
Share the Internet -- connect one PC to the integrated Router via USB and four more via Ethernet using the built-in 10/100 Switch
Wireless Access Lists and WPA to enhance wireless security |
| |
| Description: |
| The Linksys Wireless-G Cable Gateway is the all-in-one solution for Internet connectivity in your home. The Cable Modem function gives you a blazing fast connection to the Internet, far faster than a dial-up, and without tying up your phone line. Connect your computer to the Wireless-G Cable Gateway via USB, or take advantage of the built-in 4-port 10/100 Ethernet Switch to jump-start your home network. You can share files, printers, hard drive space and other resources, or play head-to-head PC games. Connect four PCs directly, or daisy-chain out to more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need. The built-in Wireless-G Access Point allows up to 32 wireless devices to connect to your network at a blazing 54Mbps, without running cables through the house. It's also compatible with Wireless-B devices, at 11Mbps. The Gateway's Router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share that high-speed Internet connection. To protect your data and privacy, the Wireless-G Cable Gateway features an advanced firewall to keep Internet intruders and attackers out. Wireless transmissions can be protected by powerful data encryption. Safeguard your family with Parental Control features like Internet Access Time Limits and Key Word Blocking. Configuration is a snap with any web browser. With the Linksys Wireless-G Cable Gateway at the heart of your home network, you're connected to the future. |
| |
| User Reviews (138 total): |
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 of Total 7 Pages
|
All in one is nice, but this one has problems, August 24, 2006
By B. Beaulieu (Hartford, CT)
I have the WCG200 ver 2 and it frequently freezes (requiring me to power it off and back on again), or restarts itself. This happens about 2 or 3 times a day and is extremely frustrating. At this time there is no firmware update available from the Linksys website.
I like the idea of a cable modem and wireless router in one package, but the WCG200 is too buggy right now. I'm going to replace it with separates from another brand, but I'll hold onto it and see if a firmware update comes out in the future to fix this problem.
|
Do not buy!, August 20, 2006
By Sezer Yalcin (US)
This item has serious issues.
It will freeze and restart when you constantly download things. I assume it is overloading.
Like go to google maps, grab the map with mouse and shake, while web page is trying to download missing images, this item will freeze and restart.
Same happens when playing counter strike game. Every time when I get list of game servers, it freeze and restart.
I got my unit replaced. So this is brand new. It does the same thing, as described by others. Now linksys tells me I should call some number, which works during business hours. I did and waited 30 mins several times, nobody answered. I gave up, now I am selling it who can deal with Linksys.
I will not buy any linksys products which I did several times before.
|
Unknown Reliability but Convenient, August 1, 2006
By Gerry Wang (Raleigh, NC)
I've had this cable modem gateway for about six months. It is a convenient solution for connecting ethernet to a cable provider (Time Warner Cable, southeast US) without going through two different boxes. Unfortunately, the cable modem drops out or stalls (every two weeks on average a dropout occurs requiring power cycling of the WCG200) and TWC indicates it is not their problem. There is no way for me to upgrade the cable modem box from Linksys and there is not much in the way of direct, technically proficient tech support, so I must assume the gateway loses sync or otherwise times out and resets itself for reasons unknown. Since there is no clear-cut technical support from either Time-Warner Cable (a.k.a., RoadRunner High Speed) or Linksys, the rating for this product must bear the brunt of these dropouts. I recommend not buying this product or at least looking at different hardware that can convert broadband from cable to CAT5.
As an addition to my review, I recently learned that if power is cycled for three minutes or more (not merely switching off the WCG200 but experiencing a power outage or unplugging the AC power cord) the WCG200 will lose or corrupt any settings you may have "saved."
|
All-in-one but limited/unreliable, July 4, 2006
By DragonBoy
I purchased the WCG200 from Best Buy for two reasons: one, because I have had a good impression of the Linksys WRT54G wireless AP/gateway router, and two, between the $[...] mail-in rebate and $[...] gift card, it was free. The WCG200 is also the unit that Comcast provides as part of their "Wireless Home Networking" package. Installation and configuration is easy. For six months I had pretty steady service but noticed a few limitations:
- TCP connections that are idle more than a couple of minutes will mysteriously vanish. For example, a telnet or SSH session, left at a prompt for two minutes without input, would stop responding and eventually time out.
- My PSP refused to associate with the wireless AP unless I put it in B-only mode. Mixed mode would not work.
- Port forwarding was easy to configure but limited to the same port on the inside and outside of the router. Could never get it to accept more than 10 or eleven inbound connections at once, and many connections would mysteriously drop.
- No option for WAN connectivity besides the internal cable modem. No chance of changing type of service or upgrading to newer technology.
- No control over the firmware. Cable company is able to login to the box and view your settings (see how many computers are connected) even if you change the password and have remote management turned off.
- No "official" way to reset the modem through the web interface. Power cycles take too long for the box to reboot, reestablish its WAP, and reconnect to the cable system.
- Quickly refresing the web interface causes the WCG200 to crash and reboot. This is consistent, repeatable behaviour. Bring the status screen up in Firefox or IE, then press F5 about 20 times within 10 seconds; the WCG200 will crash and reboot.
- Three times the WCG200 has reset itself to factory defaults, including default password and a running open, unencrypted WAP with the default SSID of "linksys".
After six months, I started experiencing a degradation of service and lots of problems with it dropping the cable system. This started with maybe one drop every couple days, then once or twice a day, to complete unusability at times. Called Comcast and with two onsite service calls, they replaced all the wiring, splitters, and connectors from the hard line to the box and could find no problems with their signal. My digital cable box had no problems. However, the WCG200 would keep losing sync and resetting, sometimes once an hour, sometimes every few minutes. Sometimes after a reboot it will reestablish connection, other times it requires a power-cycle.
Further investigation revealed the dropouts only occurred during constant wireless traffic. Using wired ethernet produced no dropouts at all. My guess is the wireless radio is somehow interfering with the cable modem radio. I have tried leaving it off for a good period of time and resetting it to factory defaults. Even called up Linksys technical support and waited an hour to speak to a foreigner who could barely converse in English and said I had to tell Comcast to upgrade my firmware but couldn't give me a firmware version number. I asked Comcast to upgrade the firmware and they replied that it was at the latest revision Linksys would provide to them.
Although Linksys has a 3-year warranty, my experience with the device has been less than pleasing. Instead, I have since purchased another WAP and turned the wireless service off on the WCG200. The dropouts have stopped, and the new WAP will let the PSP connect in mixed mode without forcing it to 802.11b. The new WAP is also noticeably faster overall for web, SSH, and gaming, and also has much better wireless signal quality throughout the house. I will need to invest in a new cable modem to get around the TCP timeouts and port forwarding limitations.
Conclusion: you get what you pay for (in my case it was almost free). Might be adequate for the basic household that wants to get on the internet and add wireless right away, especially if the reliability can be improved. Any computer- or network-savvy users without a very limited budget should consider something else, preferably separate WAP and cable modem devices.
|
Nice Unit with serious Problems, June 20, 2006
By D. Zhou
I bought the initial WCG200 ver.1 and it worked flawlessly for a little over a year. One month ago (after Insight finished its network upgrade!) the gateway LOST its "system time" leading to inability to use the "Time Access Control" function. I call both Linsys and Insight. Linsys send me a replacement WCG200 ver.2 under warranty (cost me $9 to ship the old one back!). The new unit has improved wireless security, but had the same problem plus the much talked "frequent disconnect". I found that it loses its wireless connection first when you visit CERTAIN web sites resulting in a loss of Internet connection all together. You need to reset the modem to regain connection. Very frustrated. I think this is due to a combination of the lack of support from both Linsys and the cable companies. I guess this is the risk you have to take when you buy a retail cable modem rather than renting one from the cable company. I am suspicious that the cable companies are causing/ignoring the "Incompatibility" to encourage people to rent their more expensive modems.
|
Problems with frequent disconnects, June 11, 2006
By M. Shah (GA, USA)
This product ran fine for me initially. Now all it does is drop my connections. Linksys points to Comcasr, and Comcast point to Linksys. All they do is ask me to reset the device. Don't buy this product.
|
It worked great in the beginning..., June 8, 2006
By N. Kitchen (Denver)
I bought mine about 9 months ago because I was always having to reboot my old modem and router. I got this and it worked great until about 3 weeks ago. Now I've been getting the run around from comcast and linksys about it and got a replacement from linksys with the exact same problem. Whenever I download a file on a wireless computer from the internet, I'll get up to about 7 megs done and the gateway will reset the connection. The new one does the exact same thing. I just had a tech from comcast here for about 2 hours trying things and escalating to their higher support and now their solution is to go with a motorola. Has anyone else had this problem?
|
Keeps dropping the Cox signal, June 2, 2006
By J. Fontaine (CT)
I bought this for my new house since I had used other Linksys products in the past with no problems. Obviously Linksys has a problem with this unit that they don't want to accept responsibility for. Ever since I bought this in January, I have been on the phone w/ my ISP (Cox) complaining how I kept losing a connection and having to reset (it seemed worse if I was on my company's VPN). After them coming out about 3 times, I exchanged my first unit for another, assuming it was defective. It did the same thing, so I tried a known good Scientific Atlanta modem I had laying around, and it worked flawlessly. So I call up Linksys CS and they keep trying to pull all kinds of BS. I have wasted about 8 hours on the phone, half of it on hold. You can hardly understand them. One time I called and told them I was supposed to speak w/ Corporate Tech Support in Burbank, CA. So I tell the guy that, and it takes him literally 45 mins to transfer me (he has to check with his supervisor), then I go to the wrong department anyway.
It is out of the return period for Best Buy and Linksys won't issue me a refund. Now I'm stuck with a useless piece of junk. AVOID THIS UNIT and Linksys's horrible customer service and technical support !!!
UPDATE: I finally negotiated w/ Linksys to send me a version 4 Cable modem (BEFCMU10) and a Linux-ready cable wireless router WRT54GL which have both worked flawlessly for the past 2 weeks, hopefully they stay that way. They did send a "remanufactured" modem which was pretty poor IMO, but the Router was new in retail packaging.
|
Disappointing, June 1, 2006
By B (Denver, CO USA)
Cisco and Linksys must have parted ways with this item. Every time I restart a computer on my LAN, I usually have to reboot the WCG200. Wanna lock in a static IP for a device? Forget it. The modem works, but if you need advanced wireless configurations, this current v2 is lacking. Comcast recommended it, Linksys built it, I bought it, but there hasn't been a firmware update for 2 years. It looks good, though.
|
Becoming a nightmare, May 30, 2006
By www.overtorqued.net (Seal Beach CA)
I purchased this unit three days ago, and I was excited. Now Im dejected. Like many users on here I am expierencing random connection drop offs, and Im on Adelphia. I have contacted their online support to resolve the issue and while they atempted to be helpful, nothing changed. They suggested I turn off the unit and reset it by holding the reset button for ten seconds and then turning it back on. After doing this I thought I was done, yet I wasnt. The unit will not hold its connection for more than 24 hours. Online support also suggested trying a different modem to see if the problem was on the providers side. This is an unacceptable solution, if I had wanted to use a differnt unit I would have bought a different unit.
When the unit does work, it is good and my laptop connects right away. I am using WPA and have yet to have a problem connecting that way.
Over all I am displeased with the frequency that I am having to do a hard reboot of the unit. Linksys needs to issue a fix soon.
*****EDIT*****
I have since stopped using this product. It is simply unreliable. The wireless drops out if you are downloading fairly intensively. You have to reset constantly, not good it you have multiple users on your network. Unless Linksys issues a firmware fix this unit is junk. I spent numerous hours on the phone with their tech support, as well as firing off many emails with them ultimately saying that their product is not at fault. Stay away from this All-in-one solution, it is not worth the hassles.
|
|
|
Another miserable customer, May 10, 2006
By S. Broberg
I'm having the problem that other users below are reporting - the WCG200 is losing its connection with Comcast when I visit steaming video websites like MTV.com (but it still functions as a wireless router for my home network). It needs to be rebooted in order to regain connection to the internet. Linksys tech support is useless - I've contacted them 4 times. They (laughably) claim that my ISP is the only one with firmware updates for the modem. My ISP, Comcast, says (of course) they don't support any hardware that customers buy, only stuff we rent. Also useless. I now have a $100 brick that nobody will take responsibility for. Pathetic.
|
Great...except for one thing!, May 10, 2006
By Jon (Naperville, IL, USA)
The instructions suggest this will be an easy install: Hook it up, call your cable company to give them the MAC address of the modem, and you'll be all set.
That would have worked, except the sticker on the bottom of the modem had the wrong MAC address! I only discovered it after three hours of trying to configure, re-configure, turning firewalls on and off, and rebooting the modem and the computer. Once I noticed the correct number in the modem's set up screen, I called the cable company back, and was going in two minutes.
Once running, this is fine. It combines the modem and wireless-g into one unit, and unlike other Linksys products, actually has an on/off switch to allow for rebooting without unplugging.
Smooth operation, although the firmware set up is a bit confusing and more complex than it needs to be.
|
Almost Completely, Very Nearly 100% Mac Compatible, April 22, 2006
By Mister Jalopy
Looking for a device that would eliminate a desktop full of routers, firewalls, wireless and cable modems, this device seemed to be a miracle solution -EXCEPT it was not Mac compatible. Believing wireless standards to be, well, standard, I took a chance.
Everything works perfectly except there is no Mac driver to use the USB connection port which I would not have used anyway.
|
Non existent customer service, April 14, 2006
By minacel
Bought this product at Best Buy.
Works fairly well, but only at half the promised speed.
It came with old firmware (Docsis 1.1, altough the box claimed 2.0 support)
Since it is your own modem, the ISP wont support firmware upgrade.
If you see the admin window, the firmware upgrade can be done only by the ISP, not by you. Check linksys site, and no firmware is available for download.
Contacted linksys, and here's the response.
(Quote)
Thank you for contacting Linksys Technical Support.
The firmware of the WCG200 is being developed by the ISP so Linksys do not have an available firmware for your device. If you purchased the Device from Best Buy, you will be unable to update the firmware of the device since it can be obtained from the ISP. You may try to reset the device and reconfigure the settings if you are having problems with the connection from the gateway.
Have a nice day!
If you have further questions, please send us an e-mail at support@linksys.com so that we may further assist you.
Sincerely,
(Unquote)
-----------
|
Failure Repeated - No COX support in San Diego, March 29, 2006
By Disgruntled (San Diego, CA)
This modem failed, twice, and the Cox rep. refused to service. No support offered. Do NOT purchase this modem. Failure at 1.5 megabits or greater on wireless. Returned to Fry's San Diego, twice!
|
Fails to sync w/ ISP, March 19, 2006
By John in RI (Bristol, RI)
Attempted to get unit to sync w/ ISP on 2 occasions, using DOCSIS 1 and 2 and failed both times. Then attempted to use 2 different model modems provided by ISP, motorola and rca and both of those sync'd nearly immediately. Believe either modem is defective in this particular unit or I'm having filter/security problems like a couple of the other 1-star posts under this item. I have otherwise never had any problem w/ any linksys product and am returning for another gateway to try again.
|
Worked out of the box, March 16, 2006
By D. Wright (Nashville, TN)
I previously owned a cable modem and a linksys VPN wireless router. Sometimes the combination of the two would result in slower internet speed. The benefits of combining the modem with wireless and eliminating one more power cord from the cluster of wires seemed good enough to purchased this product. After numerous conversations with Linksys, it was determined that the latest version contained one antenna. I purchased the unit, plugged it in, spoke with comcast to inform them of the mac address/serial number, and was up and running in about 20 minutes. It seems to work fine. Internet speed has increased. It doesn't have the same range/signal strength as the wireless VPN did, but i am still able to use it throughout the house.
|
Simple use only, March 10, 2006
By G. E. Cole (USA / UK)
This product was a big dissapointment. It assumes that you are gonna use a non routed class C network on the LAN, and that you have just one IP addy from your ISP. If you have number of static IP, and want to run bidirectional IP conversations in/out of your site, this box just won't do it. It's a NAT (network address translation) only device, so much so that it doesn't even say it is. The manual is lousy. I like Linksys products, and have a lot of them. I like CISCO - they are the Internet, but in this case, they have produced a (not cheap) product that in not worthy of their badge.
|
Great Product, February 28, 2006
By Manks (Ottawa,ON,Canada)
It is an all in one solution, no need to wait around for a modem to be delivered, if the service is already coming to your house it takes minutes to set this up.
Definitly a great buy.
|
The Amazing Gateway, February 25, 2006
By critic extraordinaire (Boise, ID USA)
I had purchased the Linksys Wireless router to work with my existing cable internet (CableOne), but ended up having to bounce the router at least once every 24 hours, as it seems the router and my cable modem wouldn't talk together properly. I went through 2 of the routers until I gave up and decided to get this, the Linksys Wireless-G Cable Gateway. A friend of mine (who has the same cable internet provider in the same city) has this gateway, and I know that it worked well at her house.
The setup was a breeze - the only thing I had to do was call up CableOne to have them link the MAC address on the gateway to my account, and it was ready to go. The Linksys Administration panel makes wireless security setup a snap. So far I haven't had any issues at all with the gateway, and it takes up far less room than my old modem and hub/router (not to mention it's way cuter).
I highly recommend this gateway to anyone wanting a simple solution to wireless networking in a cable-internet-enabled space. Don't think about the "high" price - it's totally worth it.
|
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 of Total 7 Pages
|
|
| Copyright 2001-2007 WiFiReview.com |
|