| Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router |
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Model: WRT54G
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 1702
Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 4, Windows NT 5, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server, Windows
Operating system: Windows XP Professional Edition
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
All-in-one Internet-sharing router, 4-port switch, and Wireless-G (802.11g) access point
Wireless data rates up to 54 Mbps--5 times faster than 802.11b
Shares a single Internet connection and other resources with Ethernet wired and Wireless-G clients
Interoperates with 802.11b clients at 11 Mbps
Advanced wireless security with 128-bit WEP encryption, MAC, or IP address filtering |
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| Description: |
| LINKSYS WRT54G - 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. Operates as a DHCP Server NAT technology to protect against Internet intruders Supports VPN pass-through Easy configuration with web browser based configuration utility |
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| User Reviews (1702 total): |
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Good wireless router, March 6, 2007
By Van (Carlsbad)
After initial setup problems, and two separate calls to tech support, the router is working great providing great coverage to all the house, a large two story house.
The problem resulted from ISP conflict between the modem and the router. The documentation doe not deal with this issue.
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Easy to setup; works as expected; good range, March 6, 2007
By pd (bay area, CA)
I know the wireless N standard is becoming more common and I was sorely tempted but as all the laptops I have only have G/B cards, I decided to hold off. Prices were a bit too high and plus I am not a major fan of those PCMCIA cards sticking out of the side of laptops. The main reason to upgrade then was to access my network external hard drive which has a throughput of 100 Mbps.
I decided to lower the rating as I noticed that the router throughput seems to show anywhere from 36Mbps to 54Mbps, presumably based on distance. That is disappointing as the router has been placed in the next room. I did notice that changing the wireless channel (0-11) can help as you may be facing interference from other routers/phones.
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Useless router, March 5, 2007
By R. Jillani (Boca Raton, FL USA)
Don't ever buy this router. I changed my wireless router from Netgear to Linksys because my roommate took away his Netgear router. After careful thoughts and considering the big discount availbale in December 2006, I bought this router. It works fine untill I am alone on the network. When a couple or more of my friends come over to my apartment, it disconnects and we have to restart it every 15 minutes. I spent a lot of time on it changing its configuration settings. And I called Linksys support guys, even they could not solve the problem. At the end they concluded that the router is not working so they sent me the new router of the same model. But the problem is the same. Even I tried it with default factory settings. Whenever 2 or more wireless computers access the network, it goes down. Moreover, I have also confirmed that my modem (Motorolla SB5120) is perfectly fine because it works if I connect with it directly.
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Crashes all the time, March 5, 2007
By S. Spencer (Los Angeles, CA USA)
Out of the box, my Linksys WRT54G wireless router was great. The Linksys is inexpensive, easy to set up, and has good range. The problem is wireless access.
Now that I'm mainly using the router wirelessly, it is crashing all the time. I've had to reboot (walk to other room, unplug power cord, wait a few seconds, plug in back in) ten times today. Trying to be smart about it, I decided to look for a firmware upgrade.
The upgrade was easy to find on the Linksys website, so I downloaded it. Unfortunately, Firefox would not upload the firmware to the router. After a few failed attempts, I tried a different browser and was finally able to upload the firmware. After processing the software update for a few minutes, the upgrade failed with this cryptic message "Upgrade are failed".
Bad enough the router crashes from wifi use. But the router is so buggy I can't even upgrade the firmware??
Searching the internet, I found a lot of other people are having problems with this router crashing too. Just 1 day ordered a new router from a different manufacturer. Let's hope that works.
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The Setup Wizard CD ROM does work., March 4, 2007
By Romdobe (Florida)
I read some of the reviews that slammed the Setup Wizard CD ROM. My experience was quite the opposite. The whole installation from the CD took about ten minutes and was completely painless.
This Wireless-G router is noticeably faster than my old Wireless-B. The range is about the same. I am able to log on to the internet from a building about 60 feet from my office in the house. The signal strength from this distance is about the same as it was with my old Wireless-B.
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Isn't Linksys a quality brand?, March 2, 2007
By Yoshi
Got my WRT54G v7 a month ago to replace an older model. Been having nothing but trouble since, with my connection dropping as many as ten times a day for no apparent reasons, and I have to physically reset the router because of DNS problems. Firmware is up to date and the router's properly configured. C'mon, my PC is just about six meters from the router!
A lot of people are having the same problem, apparently, and now I really wish I had bothered reading up some reviews before investing in this piece of junk. Shucks, it hardly looks great even as an expensive paperweight....
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first install good.....upgrade not so good., February 28, 2007
By malusldr (Silver Spring, MD United States)
I bought this item because I wanted to upgrade from a "B" router to a "G" router. The automatic setup did not work for me. I even worked with customer support to get this router work. No help what so ever. I ended up casacading it with my current router instead of upgrading. The product is good as far as signal strength and range. I would recommend this router as a first time setup but not a upgrade. Its just too aggravating.
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Nothing but trouble, February 28, 2007
By kquinty (Allentown, PA)
This is a horrible product. I had to run the setup wizard about 10 times before the router would initiate an maintain a connection for any length of time. Each time I ran it I got different error messages, but eventually I got it set up. Then it inexplicately worked for a month or two until it would only communicate with my desktop and no longer with my laptop. After 5 hours of messing around I am going to buy a product from a different manufacturer and take this thing out to my driveway and back over it with my car.
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'Junk product '& 'below Average Customer Service', February 25, 2007
By Bombay Boys (Boston, MA)
I did not have a good experience with this product. CD provided with the router couldn't install the software, so I called customer service which was useless. I was directed to linksys download website for some kind of upgrade. If I bought brand new product, why the hell I should to install any type of upgrade? I paid $60 for this unit and I want it to run without any upgrade. After all this upgrade mess, the router went online just to find out that there is language bug in router. The router setting page was not in English. Called customer service again,. after trying few commands in windows explorer and DOS prompt, I was told that router is defective. I will need to return back to seller. I have ordered for replacement, if it doesn't work then adios to linksys. Customer is useless. Every time I called them, some inexperience operator waster my time and then forwarded the call to senior technician. I bet there are other networking companies out there who are willing to provide good service and product for my money.
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Excellent Product, February 24, 2007
By A. Scavella (Bahamas)
I purchased this router about a month ago and was very pleased with it. The signal strenth is excellent and its very easy to install.I have three wireless laptop computer and I can move them anywhere in my house and still have excellent signal strength. This router is highly recommended.
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OK product, HORRIBLE warranty fulfillment, February 22, 2007
By JMG
I had this item for almost 2 years and it worked great. One day it stopped working and since it was still under warranty, we called Linksys. My boyfriend spent hours on the phone with them until they finally agreed that the unit needed to be fixed or replaced. I completed the online process and mailed the unit in.
From the time I mailed my unit in to the time I received what I think to be a factory reconditioned unit was over 2 months! After a month of not hearing a word from Linksys, I called customer service. They informed me that since they changed warehouse locations since I mailed the unit, the unit was likely sitting unopened at the old warehouse. I provided the tracking number that verified Linksys had received the unit, and they agreed to "expedite" the process.
It took another month of calls and threatening emails to finally receive the unit. When I received the unit the install cd was cracked, but luckily still worked. The new unit is functioning fine, but was a headache to wrangle over with Linksys.
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Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router, February 22, 2007
By Augusto Sanchez (Caracas, Venezuela, South America)
Some times it loses the wireless connection, may be it is only my router and in this case I always make the reconnection
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Great product, February 21, 2007
By D. Borras Porras
This was a great purchase. I installed at home and after fighting for a couple of hours with its configuration a made it work. Now i have a wireless network with fast access to the internet with my laptop.
The only issue i have now is that i cannot connect to the internet thru the wireless if i set a WAP2 password. I have to use a regular WAP encryption.
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Watch out Bellsouth DSL users!, February 19, 2007
By Bellsouth DSL (Atlanta, GA)
There might be nothing wrong with the product and just might be an issue with the internet provider. However, be aware that this product will not be compatible with a Bellsouth DSL modem. If you are an IT Specialist have a go at it...
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Good router, February 16, 2007
By dlp (Lapeer, MI United States)
Good router for the price. Pitch the CD-ROM that comes in the box. Use the web interface to configure the router. Set security! The router works great! The software on the CD-ROM is just awful! Once set the router just works! My ranch house is very long and a Linksys repeater was needed to get the signal from one end of the house to the other. My "barn" has a Linksys as well since it is too far from the house to get a good signal inside. The two routers are wired together with Cat5 resulting in a very good signal everywhere on the property.
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linksys, February 12, 2007
By B. Regan (Wheaton, IL)
difficult to hook up. i am fairly knowledgable with pcs and this was hard for me to fine tune
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Linksys Wireless-G Router, February 10, 2007
By jj (Minnesota)
Very reliable. Not one problem in 2 years. To set it up, I just called Linksys and the guy was super helpful. He helped me make the network secure and had me up and running in 5 minutes.
I would highly recommend this system.
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Good product, I suspect, but inadequate support, February 10, 2007
By Mawmaw of 3 (Huntsville, AL USA)
I bought this router to replace the same model I'd had for several years until it died. I was able to get the router working with our DSL, thanks to BellSouth support after LinkSys support was not able to resolve the problem. In spite of two calls to LinkSys and a great deal of time on the phone, the router is still not working with my Sony notebook with a LinkSys card in it. A visit to the LinkSys website and proceeding step-by-step through the online documentation did not solve the problem, either. So I have a wireless router that does not talk to my wireless device--it just sits between the DSL modem and my desktop, taking up space. Up to this point, it's been a waste of my money and time.
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Awful, just awful, February 9, 2007
By J. Jenkins (New York, NY USA)
Almost constant disconnection problems with the wireless connecting with two MacBooks and a Nintendo DS. Judging from the other reviews this router is really hit and miss with the manufacturing. There's a direct correlation between price and quality with wireless routers. Don't get something cheap.
I upgraded to a AirPort Express base station and all of the issues went away.
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Poor wireless speeds, February 8, 2007
By T. Nadeau
Ethernet connected computer speed was great but the wireless performance was sub-par. We tried different locations and orientations of antennae placement to no avail. Returned for refund. We have the same unit in our airport office and it works perfectly there. We thought it was our house but another wireless router set up in the same place yielded much better connectivity and speed overall. I would give this router a try first then exchange it for another if your results are sub-par. A good router for the price but it may not always be the one that works best for you. Worth a try.
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