| Linksys WRT54GS Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster |
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Model: WRT54GS
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 556
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Warranty - 3 years
Standards - IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11b
Ports - One 10/100 RJ-45 Port, Four 10/100 RJ-45 Switched Ports
Button - Power Port, Reset Button
Cabling Type - UTP CAT 5 |
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| Description: |
| LINKSYS WRT54GS -- The Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster is really three devices in one box. First, there's the Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect Wireless-G, Wireless-B, and other performance-enhanced SpeedBooster devices to the network. There's also a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices together. Finally, the Router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection. Easy configuration with web browser based configuration utility Linksys Parental Control Service (free trial included) keeps your family safe on the Internet, setting profiles for time-of-day and day-of-week access restrictions, and controlling which of 16 content categories each family member is allowed to see Also includes email & instant messaging filters |
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| User Reviews (556 total): |
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Very fast installation!!!, October 19, 2004
By thiel3 (Miami, FL, USA)
It's incredible how fast you can install Linksys WRT54GS Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster. Since I had the linksys Wireless-B Broadband Router I know how hard it is to install this Linksys Router. It took me almost 4 hours to install the wireless-b broadband router with my DSL Modem. With the Wireless-G Broadband Router it took me only 5 minutes. I definitely recommend this product if you want to go wireless.
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Great Product, October 11, 2004
By AegisRose (Lakeland, FL)
We've just bought this fine product and all we can say is that a child could connect it and be up & running in under half an hour. My laptop is a "b" and my hubby's is a "g" and he's on the couch jamming online radio winamp and I'm surfing the heck out of the net. We're both runnig at 54 Mbps... in case you're not sure if that's fast... it's fast. I don't see a difference between this and my desktop cable connection. ^_^ A GREAT BUY! a steal for the price!
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Works fine - but be careful of installing firmware!, October 10, 2004
By herbabuena (United States)
I'm using this router at home with two notebook/adapter combinations: WPC54GS/WinXP and WPC11/Win98SE. The router seems to work just fine.
The only problem I've had was with trying to upgrade the firmware, which fried the router somehow. I went through troubleshooting with customer service, got a RMA, and had a replacement in about a week - with the new firmware already installed.
Customer service itself was fine, even if the phone queue was sometimes a bit long. Considering they provide 24-hour free human support, I think it's decent. When problems went beyond what the first level of techs could manage, they bumped me up to the more experienced people. There's the added bonus of being able to trade balut stories with the people on the other end.
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WOW!!! Fantastic product!!!, October 1, 2004
By G. A. Hadgis (Rochester, NY)
This is my third Linksys router and continue to be impressed with the improvements they keep making. The product was easy to install. My wired and wireless interfaces were easy to configure and I was up and running in minutes. I never even used the included software. I am amazed at how fast websites load, not only on my laptop but also on my wired desktop. They have improved the firewall features. I checked the "stealth" aspect of the firewall and found it to be totally "stealth"; something I didn't quite achieve with the previous router. They even added parental control. I haven't experimented with it yet, but plan to shortly. The only thing I had to do when I replaced routers (which is in their documentation if you choose to read it) was to reset my cable modem. I didn't do it at first, but quickly overcame the problem. I highly recommend this product.
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Works great with both 802.11b and 802.11g, September 19, 2004
By Book Lover (Davidson, NC)
I originally bought a DLink router, but it did not work with my laptop that has a 802.11b card even after spending hours with tech guys on the phone.
This router was easy to set up including the WEP. And so far has worked great with both the 802.11b laptop and a 802.11g laptop.
It's more money than I wanted to spend, but it's worth it.
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Simply THE BEST router available!, September 9, 2004
By Cool Dude (CA United States)
This Router will boost your 802.11g network even WITHOUT speedbooster adapters! Yes! Unlike Netgear's marketed "108MBps" Super-G and D-Link's advertised "108MBps", you need to buy their associated PC Card, PCI adapter in order to fully utilize the potential speeds. SpeedBooster (by Broadcom) technology doens't require you to purchase a Speedbooster equipped PC Card or PCI/USB adapter to increase network speeds. Alot of people don't know that but my 802.11G is NOTICEABLY IMPROVED with SpeedBooster router. I have the regular Linksy 802.11G PCI Adapter and a SpeedBooster 802.11G PCI adapter - both are FAST!
Router is fast, reliable, stable, and the range is EXCELLENT. This is a must buy if you want a fast file transferring, and secure home/business network! I recommended my friend and he couldn't be happier - he's a programmer so he uses a 3rd party firmware which allows a TONS of features for this router since it's Linux driven.
A+
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Tech Support stinks, good product, flakey Parental Controls, September 8, 2004
By G. Smith (Orange County, CA USA)
I had trouble installing one of the PC cards. Tech Support must be in India and there was a serious language barrier going on when I called. (At least three times I said "I'm sorry sir, I can't understand what you are saying!!!). After I described the problem several times (setup wouldn't run to install the card), he still was having me troubleshoot the router. I got frustrated and hung up. Long story short, removing and reseating the card fixed the problem.
The router was fairly easy to set up and the only major problem I had was getting decent signal strength to a PC that was fairly far away. The PC housing is actually in the way of the signal, since the antenna is somewhat "hidden" behind the PC, so I kind of expected it. Might need an antenna extension to increase the signal strength a little more, but repositioning the router and antennas seemed to help a little. Our laptop works all over the house and my PC (same room as the router) is fine too. No problems with the laptop card.
WARNING: The default router settings leave you pretty open to hackers, so change your SSID to something less obvious than "default", turn off SSID broadcasting and use MAC address filtering as soon as you can change those settings! Write down your MAC addresses before you install the cards; it will save you some time trying to get them using Windows.
I don't have any data to support this, but the reliability seems to be better after I installed SP2 for XP. I can't remember the last time I had a problem connecting and it happened many times before I did the upgrade. I either couldn't connect when I booted, or it would just drop during the middle of something. I think I remember hearing that SP2 had better wireless support.
The parental controls feature works great when it's actually working (and it's nicely priced), but it was flakey during my free trial, so I didn't sign up. When Parental Controls are turned on, it appears that all Internet traffic gets redirected through their Parental Controls server. Guess what happens when that server goes down? You either have (1) no access or (2) unlimited access. When I emailed Tech Support, they said they had never heard of that problem (yeah right, even a popular Internet reviewer mentioned it in their review). One more thing, you either have Parental Controls for everyone on the router or no one. So, Mom and Dad have to log in on their PC's if you want your kids to surf safely. A smarter move might have been to use a MAC filter to only have Parental Controls on certain PC's.
The reporting options outside of Parental Controls are next to nil. You get a weak outgoing log that only lists IP addresses. It doesn't even appear to be accurate, from what I can see (entries missing?). Tech Support said they don't have a utility to pull better logs yet (They do have one for earlier Linksys routers).
I have never installed a wireless network before, so I can't give you any comparisons to other manufacturers. However, setup and speed are very good to excellent. Tech support stinks. Parental Controls will be very good if they get their servers to be more reliable.
***Update 9/8/2006: After about two years of usuage, I think I have figured out that my cordless phone (also 2.4 GHz) is interfering with my wireless connection!!!
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Works as expected., September 7, 2004
By David (White Lake, MI)
I am new to the wireless lan area. I considered this rounter as well as that of D-Link and chose the Linksys based on other's recommendations. I got the router up and running in about 30 minutes with the help of the instructions. Everything has been stable thus far and I'm happy. For those of us who are new to the wireless scene, this seems to be a really easy product to use. Use the enclosed CD to help with the setup. Have fun.
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Unbelievable, September 1, 2004
By Eugene B. Bell II (Lexington, KY)
How long does it take to have wireless in your home? Less than 5 minutes!!! Setup couldn't be easier. This is how computer products should communicate with your computer and service provider.
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Plug, play and go!, August 17, 2004
By madman107 (NEW YORK, NY USA)
I've recently replaced my Linksys 802.11B router with this G-version and had no issues at all with the switch. Plugged in, installed new software / drivers and I was ready to go in a matter of minutes. The new version of the router has easy-to-use access to built-in firewalls and other tools to limit wireless access. I'm using this with an updated PCMCIA card (also Linksys) without any issues - very fast, much faster than the old 802.11b. I can actually use for online gaming without any significant degradation vs. being plugged directly in. All in all, a solid product which I'd recommend if you're looking for a wireless router.
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The only thing difference between this and the WRT54G is..., August 12, 2004
By J. Dang (La Jolla, CA)
I love the WRT54G which I have bought for my home a year ago. I am a college student and just bought another one since I moved off campus. At first, I had trouble deciding between the WRT54G or the WRT54GS( with speedbooster). From first glance, the speedbooster tag seems enticing since everybody wants fast wireless transfers that would hopefully come close to wired networks. After reading some reviews and speaking to my best friend who works for Linksys , the only difference between the WRT54G and the WRT54GS is the flash and Ram memory. It is an upgrade from 4mb to 8mb for the flash, and 16mb to 32mb for the Ram. Basically you wont surf the internet any faster. The benefits of this is just transferring files from one computer to another will increase. For those who just want to share an internet connection, stick with the WRT54G and save the extra 20 bucks for a 30 pack of beer. If you like to transfer files between computers, spend the extra dough.
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Nice Upgrade, August 2, 2004
By M. S WEINER
It all started one evening when my visiting 19 year old son, picked a fight with his 14 year old sister. I had an established 802.11b home network that was functional and dependable. My son decided that to deprive my 14 year old daughter of internet access, he would just unplug the Wireless Access Point... to my dismay, the access point did not come back after this incident. I decided instead of using a BEFSR81 router with another WAP11 access point, I decided to go G, replacing the access point and the router. I see an appreciable difference in reception reaching all corners of the house. The setup was simple as with all of the Linksys products I've owned. Completly compatable with all my PCMCIA/PCI/USB devices, so I'll purchase a Linksys WPC54GS Wireless-G Notebook Adapter with SpeedBooster and see how it goes. It's been a cool summer and I enjoy computing on the deck.
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It works!!, August 2, 2004
By D.Z from NY (Flushing, NY United States)
Just pluged it in and EVERYTHING works! Let's see how long this router can last, so far so good.
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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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inept support and lousy product, July 30, 2004
By R. Andrews
I am on my third LinkSys wireless-G Model WRT54GS. The first one didn't work out of the box. After 2 hours with LinkSys tech support telling me the problem was my computer or my DSL modem, I gave up, exchanged the router for a new one and amazingly the new one worked.
Two months later the router ceased to function. Again I called LinkSys, spent 2 hours with their tech support and got the same run around as the first time that I had called. Again the problem could not possibly be with their product. According to them the problem had to be my computer, my DSL modem, my ISP/DSL provider. LinkSys tech support insists that no other customers are experiencing failures of their routers.
Tonight, my third router died and I cannot connect to the internet through the router either hard wired to the Ethernet port or with the LinkSys wireless card. As a matter of fact the wireless card does not even gat a "link" light. I tried to connect with another notebook computer using the built in wireless antenna and could not detect the router. I then tried to connect through the Ethernet port without success.
I spent 2 hours on the phone with LinkSys tech support again tonight. After hours or changing settings and not being able to connect through the LinkSys router, the LinkSys tech again gave me the party line. "The problem has to be my computer, my DSL modem, my ISP/DSL provider. LinkSys tech support insists that no other customers are experiencing failures of their routers.
I told the Tech that I was working with that I was sure that if I were to go out and buy another LinkSys router that it would work. I asked him if it did work would he agree that the one I currently have had died and is defective. I was told no; It would only prove that the problem is with my computer, my DSL modem, or my ISP/DSL provider. When I asked him to explain his reasoning, he couldn't.
I give up. Doesn't any company provide support anymore or do they just try to push their problems back off on the consumer? Purchasing a LinkSys router has been the worst choice that I have ever made. I will not make that mistake again.
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Good signal strength, good connection, no problems, July 30, 2004
By dogstar49 (Denver, CO)
Setup was easy, even with another vendors wireless NIC and 128 bit WEP. Firewall setup is easy. Many options for lan gaming. My only complaint is I can't hack it the way was described in the latest issue of Linux Journal. No ping back door, they sewed it up. Oh well, I could go and load an older version of firmware I suppose.
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What Speedbooster?, July 28, 2004
By Ronald (San Francisco, CA United States)
Ya ya ya, Turbo mode this turbo mode that. Super G, Afterburner,
4x Speed... is just a marketing hype.
First of course, you have to buy the Wireless adapter that
support the Linksys Afterburner. Another $$$.
Also, speed improvement is maybe only 7Mbps more than the
standard 802.11g Wireless Router.
Second, during Turbo mode the other brand of wireless adapter
won't connect.
Maybe speed booster is good when you use Wireless LAN with
only one or two Wireless adapter that has the same technology.
but not in a multi-vendor enviroment such as Small Office and
Public hotspot...
I would wait for the new 802.11n standard which is 100Mbps
in Real throughput and not just on Specs and marketing hype.
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Great product, July 27, 2004
By mix579 (Sudbury, MA)
I recently upgraded my network (3PCs, 2 laptops, 1 Tivo, 1 NAS) from b to g, and the WRT54gs works flawlessly with both b and g equipment. The feature set is very rich, but the administration interface is not that easy to navigate. The only problem I have seen so far is that the Linksys EFG80 NAS has come to a screetching halt after the upgrade, but I suspect it is a problem with the NAS box, not the router.
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Works like a charm, July 27, 2004
By Martin (Atlanta, GA)
I bought this router to replace a Netgear 802.11b router that I've used for a couple of years. This one worked from the time I plugged it in. The DSL service I use required some changes to the MTU setting to pass along secure webpages, but the customer support solved it easily and it's described (a little obscurely) in the online documentation from Linksys.com. It provides good distance (>100 feet at highest speeds) and solid connections.
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Worth every penny!!!, July 21, 2004
By C. Haar (Chicago, IL USA)
This router works wonderfully. I have set it up wired with my desktop and wireless with the Lynksys wireless-G PCI with Speedbooster for another desktop. Both run at or near the same speeds when Im browsing the internet or downloading. Setup was so simple. I do not know how this router will work with other wireless devices, but the linksys products connect to each other without out any problems.
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