| Linksys WRTP54G Wireless-G Broadband Router for Vonage Internet Phone Service |
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Model: WRTP54G
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 56
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
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 54 Mbps Wireless-G (802.11g) Access Point
Shares a single Internet connection and other resources with Ethernet wired and Wireless-G and B devices
Two standard phone jacks enable feature-rich telephone service over your cable or DSL Internet connection
Supports two independent telephone numbers
High security: Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), wireless MAC address filtering, powerful SPI firewall |
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| Description: |
| Use the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router at the center of your home-office network, you can share a high-speed Internet connection, files, printers, and multi-player games, and Internet phone service! The Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router is really four devices in one box. First, there's the Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect both screaming fast Wireless-G (802.11g at 54Mbps) and Wireless-B (802.11b at 11Mbps) devices to the network. There's also a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices together. Connect four PCs directly, or attach more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need. The Router function lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection. The fourth function is the phone adapter which enables high-quality feature-rich telephone service through your high-speed connection even while you're surfing the Internet. There are two standard telephone jacks, each operating independently -- like having two phone lines. With Vonage Service, you'll get low domestic and international phone rates, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Voicemail, Call Forwarding, Distinctive Ring, and lots of other available special phone features. Choose any free local dialing US area code, regardless of where you live. Add a virtual phone number in any area code, or even a US-wide toll-free number. To protect your data and privacy, the Wireless-G Broadband Router can encode all wireless transmissions with up to 128-bit encryption, and supports both Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and the industrial-strength wireless security of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). The Router can serve as a DHCP Server, has a powerful SPI firewall to protect your PCs against intruders and most known Internet attacks, supports VPN pass-through, and can be configured to filter internal users' access to the Internet. Configuration is a snap with the web browser-based configur |
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| User Reviews (56 total): |
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Most of the negatives have already been stated!, August 3, 2008
By user
I had this router for ~2 years. Thankfully it finally died in a power outage we had. The concept is great and the outside appearance is good as well. The functionality left a lot to be desired.
I have used Vonage since 2005 and have been more than happy with them. The service is great and the price is right. This Linksys router would occassionally go out or drop all of the wireless connections when I received a phone call. This was a pain because I have to use a VPN system for my work laptop.
I went a different route now and it seems to be more robust. I bought the cheap D-Link hardwired Vonage box and the Linksys WRT54GS wireless router. It adds an additional piece of hardware, but so far it seems to work much better.
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Works perfectly for us, June 30, 2008
By user (NH)
I was browsing around when I ran across this router that I've been using for 3+ years. I was stunned at it's user rating. I have never had ANY issues with it. It works perfectly wirelessly with 2 computers, the phone connection has never been a problem. And I've had no issues faxing. I have a great wireless range. I've been outside with my laptop and used the internet up to 150 feet away with no problem. Setting up for basic use or advanced security settings is simple to fairly simple. The only reason I may replace it is so we can upgrade to a wireless N router. And that may be turn out to be a mistake, since we've never had problems with this router. We've even moved from a Comcast area to a Metrocast Cablevision area. So no issues with either broadband provider. As I've said, it's been flawless. For what it's worth, those are my two cents about this router.
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stay away from vonage, June 19, 2008
By user (Orlandizzle, floridizzle)
I would rather use Morse code than Vonage.
I dont care which router you buy from Vonage, you will certainly regret it. I have had Vonage for about 4 years now and once a year no matter what, your router will go bad and you will have to get on the phone with these people. The customer service could no be any worse. My router stopped working again for about the 5th time since i started the service. Today I was on the phone for more than an hour and the rep told me that if I had any more problems that they would not be able to replace my router again. Please keep in mind that they have never replaced a router for free since the very first year. I have never, never been so frustrated in my life with any other customer service. Not to mention the fact that my phone will be down for about 7 days while I wait for my new equipment. The service is so bad, that the last time this happened I didnt even bother calling customer service until I know I had about 1.5 hrs free to deal with them. Trust me, it is not worth it in my opinion. As soon as I get this new eqipment, i will throw it on ebay and go back to my old hardline service. Even if you see good reviews on here, I can assure you that those people are new to the service and have not had to deal with them on the phone yet. Buyer beware, buy at your own risk.
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Seems to work well for me, April 17, 2008
By user (Virginia)
I am not sure why there are so many negative reviews of this product. I have had a variety of other cable and dsl modems, as well as two other VOIP products. Three years ago, I tried Vonage and quit because the modem's phone function did not work when the computer was plugged in. With this Linksys, setup was a snap. I have only had one major problem, and I traced it to the fact someone else had set up a network on the same frequency I was using. I changed my frequency and all is well. The only reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is that the range and wall penetration are somewhat limited. I have been using it for 9 months.
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Overall it and Vonage works fine, March 28, 2008
By user (Bolingbrook, IL USA)
I've been using Vonage since June 2006 with relatively few problems overall, and thought I would share my experiences to possibly help others. When I first got this router everything worked perfectly, including the four 10/100 Base-T Ethernet ports that would allow my cable connected PCs to auto-negotiate a 100 MB connection on my Category 5e cables. Overall the voice quality was fine, but sometimes there was a delay in getting dial tone.
One day Vonage automatically (and without asking) updated my router firmware. I have read Vonage has the ability to download new firmware anytime the device is powered off and on. Since then, the 10/100 Base-T Ethernet ports can no longer auto-negotiate anything. I had to set my cable attached PCs to a fixed 10 MB full-duplex to avoid constant messages of "a cable has been disconnected" (100 MB just does not work.) Annoying, but once I figured it out, not bad since it is a rare day you would ever get more than 10 MB of throughput anyway.
Later, as more and more of my neighbors switched to comcast.net, we started having trouble with the phone service as the neighborhood network had more traffic. I contacted Vonage and they pointed me to a web page in their "help" screens titled "Will my cable modem work with Vonage?" (http://www.vonage.com/help.php?article=1097&category=124&nav=5). From this page I learned that Vonage service works best with cable modems that use a standard called "DOCSIS 1.1 or 2.0" (which I had never heard of before.) I also learned from that page, that my model of rented cable modem only had "DOCSIS 1.0". I disconnected my rented cable modem and took it over to the local Comcast office, where they swapped it at no charge for a new Motorola SURFboard cable modem that has DOCSIS 2.0. I immediately saw a HUGE difference in how well the Vonage phone service worked, AND overall faster surfing of the Internet too.
The point being if your Linksys WRTP54G is hooked up to an older cable modem that does not have DOCSIS 1.1 or 2.0 ability (that among other things assures the packets get through), you could have problems with this Vonage router. If you are renting your cable modem, you probably can upgrade for nothing and fix at least some of your problems. My local router ports still will not auto-negotiate or work at 100 MB, but I am hopeful that one day Vonage will download new firmware that will fix that too. While not perfect, Vonage is still better than the "BOE" (Big Old Expensive phone company. :-)
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Don't Waste your time, March 26, 2008
By user (Stillwater, MN)
I have had this about 1 1/2 years. A couple of weeks ago my phone conversations started getting very staticy. After testing everything else, Vonage advised I replace the adaptor. What a headache. I switched to Vonage to save money, but buying new hardware every 1-2 years negates any savings I've experienced. Vonage has agreed to credit my account $40. But where can I get a replacement for $40?
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Good&cheap product, March 10, 2008
By user
I bought this product on 7 February 2008 and since then no problem. Very good web interface and many settings you can change.
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Worst customer service ever ---- read on, February 2, 2008
By user (Aurora, CO United States)
When I terminated Vonage service, they charged the disconnection fee of around $30.00; however, they never advertise this anywhere. I was not aware of the hidden fees by vonage. I am outraged by this.
It took me almost 20 minutes to tell them I want to disconnect the service, but the operator would not accept this and wasted lots of my time, and I had to tell them again and again that I just want to disconnect the service, finally they did.
Now that I dont have vongage anymore, they have bombarded my mailbox with specials, and they need to stop this as well.
I am not recommending Vonage to anyone, especially because of bad support.
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Does what it says - good experience, October 21, 2007
By user (Marlboro, NJ United States)
I was quite skeptic in purchasing this router after reading the reviews. I had limited time before an international trip and so had no choice but to go ahead and buy it. Fortunately, the router has delivered. I've had no issues. The folks at Vonage were excellent in walking me through the setup. I've used this in the US, Europe and Asia, without any problem thus far (purchased in July 2007). I do have a few observations, which should be fixed in the next version but are not show-stoppers. (a) As someone has already observed, the router does tend to be on the warmer side, (b) The LED lights are over-bright - a personal opinion, (c) the Linksys router didn't come with a stand or rubber feet to keep it steady - this can be aggravating. Tech support at Linksys had no clue what to do about it. They have asked me to contact Customer Service at Linksys, and I still have to do that. That's the reason for 4 and not 5 stars. I'm using Vista and XP notebooks/desktops, and I'm a normal business user who needs the stuff to work. I don't have the technical expertise or need to go in and change various protocols. So I can't judge from a smart techie perspective. This is my personal experience, and I don't question the issues that others have encountered.
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No, thank you, May 31, 2007
By user (New York, NY USA)
May 30, 2007
If you already started the bad Vonage trip, be sure to close out your
debit card BEFORE you attempt to cancel. They are experienced at
getting there before you can. You'll open your account and find those
add-on surprise fees for cancelling their very bad product/service.
PLEASE keep records and file complaints. This is dirty business.
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Works Perfectly - Just as Advertised, May 20, 2007
By user (Madison, WI United States)
Summary: This product works perfectly as a wireless router with my Dell laptop PC and also works perfectly with the new Vonage phone service that I signed up for. I'm using a Panasonic 5.8 GHz cordless phone plugged into the Linksys. Call quality is great - domestic and overseas.
My only surprise was that I needed to wait several hours after signing up for Vonage before I could routinely make and receive phone calls. I don't know if it was normal or not but now - 12 hours later - all phone features works perfectly. Most importantly, it operates just like any regular phone service - no difference.
I've worked for local telephone service providers my whole life and they FEAR broadband (or VoIP) phone service in a big way - whether it's Vonage or the cable TV version of VoIP. They will do anything to discredit it. The fact of the matter is that I can now speak from first hand experience that this service - along with this particular wireless router - is great.
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Not working properly after 1 1/2 year, March 31, 2007
By user
I got this router and vonage service for about a year and a half. For the most part, it worked OK - vonage voice quality and the router, except I have problem with the fax and it didn't work with my security monitoring service. But starting a week ago, the router started to lose packets and connection -- and I have to reboot the router every 2 hours or the phone line will not work. I called Vonage and they said the warranty of the router has expired and I'll have to pay another $50 just to get another router/phone adaptor, or I can bid and get one off eBay. I tried Sunrocket before and the sevice is much worse than Vonage -- frequency of drop, voice quality, customer service. I may consider switching back to the landline with AT&T.
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Run, don't walk away from this device!, January 26, 2007
By user (Aurora, IL)
If you use a VPN connection to work from home, don't buy this device. I did thinking it would be nice to upgrade my router, but ended up wasting both time and money trying to make this device work properly. If you have a router that is working just go with the phone adapter. I would hate to total up all the time lost trying to get this to work (and I am IT savy). My stubborness prevented me from crying uncle as early as I should have. So if your considering Vonage or any VoIP service, run don't walk away from this device.
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Terrible device, January 9, 2007
By user (kalamazoo, mi USA)
Not much to say here. I bought this and for months had a delay when I answered the phone using Vonage. I'd say "Hello? Hello? Hello?" and after 5-10 seconds someone would answer. At first my friend suggested that my phone was bad!
Not only that but when calling out it'd take 3 seconds to hear a dial tone.
I replaced this with the new D-link Vonage Wireless router and the problem was instantly fixed! Too bad I can't return this defective product.
Works fine as just a wireless router though. I've had no problems with using my laptop wirelessly using this device.
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Don't buy Vonage Service and Certainly now this router, November 26, 2006
By user (India-US)
Vonage service is twice costly compared to Sunrocket. The Linksys WRTP54G failed in just 7 months.
Don't buy Vonage service. Lot of complications to deal with once you get into trouble with the devices. They don't have a contract but they charge you $40 to cancel service. Now that's a mental torture.
Then they have a distinct entity to cancel services which remains only open for few hours on working days and they promise a credit which does never get reflected on your statement. Then when you call back they say they don't have notes it. Where's the value of the word they give.
The customer service has sweet sound but they will waste your time by making things complicated, till the point you say why the hell did you get into this one. The opportunity cost of time wasted in dealing with Vonage is too high.
Plain and simple don't get a Vonage Service. Cost of cancelling out may be pay for getting a cheaper and simpler service.
Oh, its such a pain !!!!
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Worst phone service I've ever experienced, November 15, 2006
By user
I don't know how much of my problems can be attributed to the router, and how much to Vonage service. But from what I've read elsewhere, lots of people have the same problems with different routers. Seventy percent of the time the call quality was so poor that the person on the other end couldn't hear us. Not just static, but garbled noises that my kids called "the phone going techno". They still argued over the home phone because no one wanted to use Vonage. I stuck with it hoping I could do something to improve the reception, and being to busy to start looking for another VOIP service. We had used Packet8 the previous year, and while the call quality was good, the service went out sometimes, and customer service was hit and miss. It turns out the Vonage customer service is worse. When I signed up the web site was touting no contracts, no disconnection fees, which was the main reason I chose them instead of going back to Packet8. However Vonage customer service says I'll have to pay $39.99 for having service less than a year. But that's still better than paying $30.00 a month for the next four months of really bad service.
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Not truly VPN capable, October 28, 2006
By user (Canada)
I'm not going to comment on Vonage as a Voip company, but I can speak to two issues:
1) this router has real problems with the VPN pass-through function, so forget about telecommuting with this one. It works, but often only after 4 or 5 tries
2) the stability of the wireless connection is poor. I've had much better experiences with my (pre-Vonage) D-Link router.
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Vonage Calling plan Bill needs a through review, October 21, 2006
By user (Raleigh,NC)
I have been using this router and had not experienced any issues with the vonage service but cannot say the same thing about the vonage phone monthly bill.
Vonage seems to be adding additional charges to the monthly bill some line items include Regulatory Recovery Fees , Federal universal service surchage. These items are not charged by other VOIP providers such as AT&T Call Vantage service.
Copy of my October Bill Charges Detail include :
Residential Basic 500 for 1-(919)-xxx-xxxx (01/Oct-31/Oct) $14.99
Regulatory Recovery Fee $0.99
Emergency 911 Cost Recovery $0.99
State Telecommunications Sales Tax $1.19
Federal Universal Service Surcharge $0.90
Total Amount $19.06
When I looked at my billing history for the $14.99 500 Minutes calling plan , the monthly charge seems to have increased from $16.94 in Dec 05,$17.42 in April 06 ,$18.67 in May 06 , $19.06 in Oct 06.
My thoughts were Vonage is supposed to be an innovative company and these hidden charges tacked to the monthly bill donot seem to be earn any customer loyalty.
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fairly smooth surfing, October 14, 2006
By user (Alexandria, VA)
I'm very untechnical so many of the other reviews in this forum are out of my realm, but I've had good luck with both Vonage & the wireless router.
Mine was installed by someone from CompUSA as I would not have been able to. He wasn't able to get the security to kick-in, but I'm not worried if a neighbor happens to be able to piggy-back off of my network, should they happen to find it. The router seems to send a strong signal to my laptop & has work flawlessly the 15 months I've had it.
I did call Linksys tech support once to see if someone would have been willing to walk me through the set-up of making it sucure, but was essentially told to follow the manual. If I wanted to just have followed the manual, I would not have called.
As for the VONAGE part, after some initial problems - it seems fine. It did take a month to move my phone number as others here have noted, so the free month doesn't mean much as the old service was still needed to receive calls. Vonage tech support worked with me to get the service functioning well; it did take a bit of effort, but they were OK with me. My monthly phone bill dropped from a total of $45 (w/ taxes) to about $17 using Vonage. Since the house already had the $60/month high speed cable internet anyway, I look at it as a $28/monthly savings. Also Vonage customer support was good to work with when I had to switch credit cards for billing.
Finally, I got the router free with using several rebates involved in the purcahse in July 2005 with Vonage, Linksys & CompUSA. The rebates more than covered the $99 cost of the set-up/installation. It's been OK for me. I am, however, very glad I did not jump on Vonages stock IPO I was offered as a subscriber, but that's another story.
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Vonage is a sinking ship, October 13, 2006
By user (Minneapolis)
I had Vonage since April, 2006. I finally switched back to Qwest after unending problems and hours and hours on the phone (my cell phone, as my Vonage line didn't work) with tech support. Here is my experience:
1) It took about 2 months and about 2 hours on the phone for them to switch my existing phone # over to Vonage. Don't be too excited about getting the first month free- if your moving an existing number it will take about that long to get it switched over.
2) After my number was finally switched over, outgoing calls were constantly being dropped after about 20-30 seconds. Incoming calls would also be dropped occasionally after about a minute. This resulted in having to call the person back, saying "sorry the call was dropped- we switched to this cheaper phone service and have been having problems...."
This is with the highest speed cable internet service available (8mbps download, 600kbps upload) and a wireless 'g' system which has provided top notch internet service consistently while I had Vonage problems. I spent no less than 4 - 5 calls and over 5 hours on the phone with tech support trying to fix the problem. After talking with tech support, sometimes the problem would be fixed temporarily- while I was on the phone with them- but return shortly thereafter.
3) As a result of the problems I had, I asked to be credited for the months in which my phone service was not working. Be warned, they are very hard-nosed about providing any credits for poor or no service. I spoke to a tech support person about getting a credit for a month of no service, and he told me to wait until the problem had been fixed so they could determine how much credit should be given. After the problem had been fixed (temporarily), I called back and they told me they could only provide credit for the current month, not previous months of no or poor service. THEY ARE NOT CUSTOMER FRIENDLY ABOUT PROVIDING REFUNDS FOR POOR OR NO SERVICE.
4) Finally, in September, still with dropped calls from Vonage, I switched back to Qwest to get reliable phone service. I found customer service there has improved and is much better than Vonage. And they gave me 3 months free promotion for coming back.
In the end, I am happy to pay the extra $10/month (after the first 3 months free) to get phone service that works. I notice that $5 of the extra cost is for fees, etc. that the phone company has to charge but Vonage does not, which is unfortunate. In any case, I guess you get what you pay for.
One last thing: Vonage has never made a profit and many business analysts say with their current business plan, they never will. This means eventually they will either go out of business, or have to raise rates.
Save yourself the problems I had- pay the extra $ to get phone service that works.
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