| 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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Don't Bother, January 4, 2007
By Annon
Linksys is a poor product. The range is horrible from the computer to our laptop. You can sit in the same place and have different connections (good, excellent, etc..) We have had to replace our card several times, as it just stopped working and would malfunction. The worst is customer service. My husband spent hours on the phone with the customer support person in India. The gentleman could not understand that our laptop would not connect and kept asking my husband to go online with the laptop, he also kept saying, "We may lose the internet connection", when there was NO internet connection. After 45 minutes the man said, " I hope your problem never gets fixed, I'll now connect you with the best technician in the world." Then he hung up on my husband. The next person was in the Philippines and helped a bit, but we are still not connected and have had to take our laptop to a technician to repair the damage done to our laptop by the first technician who was doing nothing other than reading off a script of problem solving. He created a bridge on our system for our TWO computers. We will be throwing away our Linksys system and buying something that is easier to use and set up and has better customer service. I would never deal with this company or advise anyone to buy a product having to deal with hostile and angry technicians. Having help with any product purchased is very important. After the 3 hours of time spent with several technicians it is clear they are reading off a script and going down the line of problems and don't know what they are doing.
UPDATE: We contacted Linksys in CA (not an easy task) and have recieved several phone calls...one apologizing for the rudeness of the technician and another from a CA tech trying to help us fix our computer. This tech knew what he was talking about and has been helpful. I'm not changing the rating though...they record these sessions, they should make sure their technicians are helpful and not hurtful.
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Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router, January 4, 2007
By D. A. Clifton
It's a great router. Make sure you complete the security setup.
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I've bought 4 of them already!, January 4, 2007
By Jmack (Cedarburg, WI)
Yup. I bought one for me and that one works great. I have reception all over my house. Easy to install, configure and lock down for security. It was so easy. I shipped one out to a friend in Iraq, one to my uncle and one to my soon to be mother-in-law. All of them love it.
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Love it!!!, January 4, 2007
By Linda Mussoline
I've had this router for several months now and have not had a single problem with it. It was easy to connect and configure and the online security setup documentation was thorough. I highly recommend it for anyone who needs a home network.
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ROuter, January 4, 2007
By Vitron (New York, USA)
Generally the product performs as advertised. It replaces an older D-Link product to cure the problem with other wireless network interference and an occasisonal freeze up. The occurance of the freezes has gone down but still persists. Part of the problem may be due to a commercial wireless network in the neighborhood or other manufacturer's units in the area (there are six competing wireless networks active at any time). Frequent unplus/replugs are required.
User set up is too complicated. This is a second unit I purchased. The CD that comes with the unit is not very useful in the config process. Too much techno-talk throughout for an average user and no explaination that a layman can understand. There should be an easier way to deal with the set-up/config process. Can we put marketers, not engineers in charge of this process?
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Works great--easy to set up., January 4, 2007
By Wes Edens (Glendale, AZ United States)
Worked great right out of the box. We're not talking great distances here, so I can't judge that, but the router is in one room and the adapter is in another on the same floor about 50 feet away. Excellent signal strength. No problems at all. I'm very happy with this router.
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Ask and you shall receive, January 3, 2007
By gv (Italy)
No manual except online. Tried to set it up by myself but failed. Called the tech support after 9 in the evening, fast response, first they had me update the firmware, then they helped me with a much better wizard than the one on the cd.
Now my wireless laptop is very very close to the speed of my wired desktop. Yeah !
If it stays like this for the next few weeks I am completely satisfied with this product and I will keep it :-)
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Ok, January 3, 2007
By JISIPO
Loses signal frequently. But Ok overall. Signal strengh average (abount 30 inside the house).
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WRT54G restarted, January 3, 2007
By D. Santana (Miami, Florida)
A few time my Router WRT54G restarted without reason. I have the latest firmware but the problem persist.
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Effortless Wireless, January 3, 2007
By D. Collins
The it was less then 15 minutes from out of box to surfing the net. Unfortnately I owned two other routers before purchasing the Linksys, and it by far is the easiest setup I ever experienced. Buy this product!
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Linksys WRT54G flawless, January 3, 2007
By Paul A. Hollrah
I plugged this guy in to replace my old ethernet router and it worked perfectly with nothing to install. Using it with DSL and have had no problems.
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Great Coverage and Relatively Easy to Setup, January 2, 2007
By Sci-Fi Fan (USA)
After needing to replace our aging Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless router, which only supports 802.11b, to a router that supports both the 802.11b and 802.11g protocols, I purchased a Linksys WRT54G router. By following the simple instructions of first running the installation CD and making the correct cable connections between the router, modem and directly-connected PC, I was able to have the Linksys WRT54G router up & running in a matter of minutes. I was then able to reconnect several other computers and an XBOX 360 by setting up the wireless connections between them and the router. This included setting up data encryption between the router and each wirelessly networked device.
Though several individuals have reported much difficulty setting up the Linksys WRT54G router with non-Linksys equipment, I had absolutely no problems connecting an XBOX 360 using a Microsoft wireless network adapter to this router. The other computers that connected with no problems use Linksys wireless adapters.
With any wireless network, it is generally wise to use a particular router with network adapters from a common manufacturer to minimize the possibility of incompatibility issues. Though a particular wireless router from manufacturer "A" and a network adapter from manufacturer "B" are both listed as supporting an identical network protocol standard, there is a higher probability of an incompatibility between the devices because there is no guarantee that either manufacturer tested their equipment with a competing company's device. I fully expected the XBOX 360 wireless adapter to operate with the Linksys WRT54G router after researching recommendations from Microsoft. I then decided to purchase a Linksys WRT54G router because of both Microsoft's recommendation and the fact that our other wireless adapters are primarily Linksys products to ensure compatibility.
Overall, I rate the Linksys WRT54G router with 4 out of 5 stars for its great coverage and relative ease of setup. My only complaint: Linksys could do a better job with documentation.
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Do not buy (unless you are a power user who likes to update firmware), January 1, 2007
By Jim G (New York, NY)
Short story: Do not purchase this device.
Long story: I purchased the Linksys WRT54G to upgrade from a B-only Netgear router. Out of the box, only wired connections worked. Not one of the 5 wireless devices that I have connected: 3 B-only devices, 2 B-G laptops. (Detail: I would get a wireless connection to the router but could not get DHCP addresses.)
Went online and searched, recent WRT54G firmwares had a bug with DHCP. Details were sparse, but everyone thought it was only their kind of device (Apple, B-only, internal laptop, PSP, XBox, etc). Setting a static IP didn't work for me as it had in some of the posts I saw out there.
My conclusion: Out of the box, you shouldn't expect non-Linksys wireless devices to work with the current incarnation of this router (purchased Dec 23, 2006).
The sad but fated conclusion: A new firmware promised to fix the bug, so I thought I'd be a power user and download it. Note to Linksys: if your firmware download page has seven or more downloads specifically for the WRT54G, you should give the end-user an obvious link telling them how to determine which WRT54G to use.
I submitted the firmware up to the router, and it went to a blank page that said, "Don't interrupt this." I understand you can't interrupt these things, so I went about other business.
After 15 minutes, the page hadn't auto-refreshed, so I opened another tab and logged in, and the router was chugging along with the old firmware. What's a person to do? Wait? Retry? Power-cycle?
Well, I won't invite armchairing by further details, except to state that the router briefly reported itself as running the new firmware, but still wouldn't DHCP my wireless devices, then wouldn't DHCP my wired device, and finally wouldn't respond at all (brick had been achieved).
I've returned to the Netgear brand with one of their new routers, and gee, plug it in and it works. The quick install sheet even has a section: "What if I'm familiar with this stuff and don't want to use the wizard?"
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If your not a computer person dont buy this router, December 31, 2006
By lilbrim (Bahamas)
I dont know if I got a bad one or if all are like this but I don;t have much good to say about this router. At the moment I am using it for wired purposes so I cannot comment on its wireless functionality however wen i start my pc b4 i can get conected 2 the internet i have to unplug my router an plug it bak in again and at times it drops connection. It seems like there are alot of secuity measures in place and i look foward to using them when i get my laptop. So I stress to you if your lookin 4 somethin 2 work perfectly out the box this is not the router for you
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Good product. Bad Installation CDs. Great Support, December 30, 2006
By M. B. Weppner (Buffalo, NY)
I originally bought a Belkin router which I never was able to get to work (and returned it after thier product support gave up and hung up on me). I then bought the Linksys and here is my "brief" story setting up with Windows XP and SP2:
1) Installation CDs didn't work for either the WRT54G Router or the WPC54G Notebook Adapter.
2) My first call resulted in getting both a firmware update for the router and new install progam (these were located at [...]).
3) My second call resulted in resetting the IP address for the router from the default 192.168.1.1 to a new 192.168.2.1 (default address conflicted with my Verizon Westell 6100 DSL Modem).
4) I did use the notebook adapter CD at first but found out the Linksys software required that I keep entering my 26-digit WEP Key almost every time I used the internet. My third call resulted in removing the Linksys software and I got help setting up the more automated wireless connection through XP.
After 2 hard days (including wasting a whole day with the Belkin units) I finally have wireless. Unless you are lucky, you may have the similar issues but Linksys support was great.
A previous review recommended to call support first before ever opening the box and have support right there through every detail. I think that is best advice I have heard since these units are MUCH tougher to install than they first appear. But, if you persevere, you will get there.
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too many setup problems, December 28, 2006
By Charles David (Indpls, IN, USA)
This product does not match the hype for advertised ease of installation and interfacing with other components.
The setup CD did not completely install, but did not give a warning notifying the setup was incomplete. Initially no clue as to why the system would not function properly.
Finally figured out that an Internet Download was then needed to complete the installation process (after 2 hours and incoherent Tech Support suggestions). Then, there was some type of issue between Linksys and SBC DSL, as the downloading setup software kept generating a disconnect from the Internet. Finally, after repeated attempts the setup software was fully installed.
Finally, we were able to wireless connect with our new Win XP notebook as well as the hard wired main PC.
Getting our older notebook with Win 98 SE on the wireless network was an additional challenge. After hours and HOURS of wasted time, finally concluded the Linksys WPC54G would not work. Purchased Belkin F5D7010 notebook adapter and was up and running in 10-15 minutes.
Too much wasted time in getting a simple wireless network set up. Sorry I chose Linksys.
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Wired & Wireless Works With Macs Too, December 25, 2006
By electronics guy (USA)
A number of people have written reviews saying the Linksys WRT54G doesn't work with Macs. It does - both wired and wirelessly. When I first connected up wired to configure it, my Mac detected and asked if I wanted to join the wireless signal (still running fully open). I am writing this over the wireless link configured with 128 bit WEP with no SSID broadcast. It works great.
The fact is that configuring networking and especially secure wireless networking requires that the user know at least a little bit about what they are doing. Linksys includes software to automatically configure on Windows boxes but I didn't use it and can't comment other than to say there might be a way. But the user should understand what the different settings are just for their own security and to know the rouuter and their computer is configured properly.
A couple of negatives to mention, though. The help screens on the configuration pages have a few omissions and also refer to a few settings by names different than listed on the configuration pages (access is through a web browser). But a quick web search will either get you the definition of the setting or make it clear what they are referring to. I only saw a few of these omissions/naming changes.
This is my second Linksys router and the first with wireless. Both configure right up and allow you to do port forwarding, URL blocking, firewalling, etc. I just wanted to make sure that there was a very definite review that says this router works with Macs both wired and wirelessly. I do need to say I haven't done any of the things like video chat or stuff like that that might challenge a router but I have no reason to think that wouldn't work just as well.
Edit -- WEP has been compromised for a while now. I was running it with WEP to allow some old stuff to connect but switched over to WPA. It also works fine with Macs. With 128 bit WEP you have a little more security but not much. You can tickle the network to get encrypted packets and with enough of them you have the whole enchilada. Someone has to know what they are doing to crack your WEP encryption, but it isn't that tough. Just wanted to add the WEP warning and mention that WPA works great with Macs too. No problems connecting at all.
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Bring Your Patience or CALL Tech Support FIRST, December 18, 2006
By WorldWeb Communication (Florida)
I design web sites for a living and thought I knew a little bit about computers but the Linksys Wireless-G Router is not easy to get set up. I started over again several times trying to get it installed and decided it was not EVER going to work so I packed it up to take it back.
The next day I decided to take a deep breath and break down and give tech support a call. I didn't do it the first day because who wants to waste loads of time listening to elevator music or advertising for the company to speak to a technical person.
Actually I didn't have to hold for very long and the technical person I spoke with made me wish I had called them earlier.
So my BEST advise is to CALL technical support and while you are on HOLD OPEN the box and do NOTHING until a tech support person instructs you to do something. This will keep you from wanting to send your computer through the window. CALL FIRST - then OPEN the BOX - save your sanity.
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Get yourself a better model (the GL version), December 17, 2006
By Allen Benusa (Hutchinson, Minnesota United States)
I normally have had good luck with Linksys products as I do a lot of home/small office networking setups as a sideline business. However a client of mine went out and purchased the WRT54G ver 6 router without consulting me first. What a nightmare. Linksys has really cheapened the WRT54G and WRT54GS routers with less flash memory and less RAM and a new embedded operating system.
Router acted flaky right out of the box. Went into the web interface and discovered that the interface was in German. Flashed the firmware to the latest revision thinking that would fix the language issue. It did not. Do a Google and you will see this is a known problem with the this version.
So off to Big Box Mart to exchange the router with an identical one. At least the replacement worked. Web interface was in English as expected. Using IE7 and discovered an issue with the web interface though. Was not able to set up MAC address filtering as the interface would not refresh correctly. Used another laptop with IE6 and was able to set up MAC address filtering.
My advice: Avoid the new WRT54G and WRT54GS routers like the plague. Do yourself a favor and order the WRT54GL which has more flash and RAM memory and a stable embedded Linux for an operating system.
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Mac Users: avoide this like the plague, December 15, 2006
By Derek Owens (Long Island, NY)
I bought this because it's roughly 1/2 the price of Airport. Spend the extra $ and go w/the Airport--I've spent days on the phone w/linksys tech support, Mac support, and fussing for hours, and I still can't get a wireless connection from my laptop to the router. Linksys apparently does work with Mac, but the company does not recognize Mac equipment in its documentation or tech help.
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