| US Robotics USR8054 802.11g Wireless Turbo Router with 100 Mbps |
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Model: USR8054
Brand: USRobotics
Manufacturer: US Robotics
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 24
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
802.11g Wireless Turbo Access Point, 4-Port Ethernet switch, Router, Advanced firewall
Integrated 54 Mbps 802.11g Wireless Turbo Access Point
One (1) RJ-45, 10/100 Mbps auto-sensing and auto-switching Ethernet WAN port
Four (4) RJ-45, 10/100 Mbps auto-sensing and auto-switching Ethernet LAN ports
DHCP server (LAN) and client (WAN) |
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| Description: |
| U.S. Robotics 802.11g Wireless Turbo networking products offer a total solution. U.S. Robotics' simple to install portfolio is sure to meet your particular networking needs.802.11g Wireless Turbo Access Point and Router, model USR8054, is ideal for sharing high-speed Internet access among multiple computers. It includes built-in MAC address authentication. |
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| User Reviews (24 total): |
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Sturdy router and good conectivity, November 4, 2007
By user (Jacksonville, FL United States)
The router replaced my Linksys WRT54G. Linksys had less disconnections than the Linksys with several competing wirless networks. It worked with my cell phone and even through a steel framed house.
Overall file transfer was poor. Large files 1GB would not transfer, the buffer would fill and the file would stop transferring between networked computers. Over the internet there was no problem with terrabyte transfers.
The router works very well. Better than the Linksys I had and does allow VPN.
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Excellent Product, November 8, 2006
By user (California USA)
This is an excellent product that I have had now for over 2 years. Upgrading the firmware was a breeze. After the latest firmware upgrade the average connection speed for a standard linksys wireless g card was 48. Had no problems using WPA-PSK. Never had any connection problems throughout the house. I am not sure why some of the other reviews are so negative about this product especially since I have not seen glowing reviews of the other major brands of routers that include linksys, netgear, and belkin.
In the last year my DSL company replaced my standard router with a wireless Siemens router. For a time I decommissioned my USR Wireless router while testing the Siemens device. The wireless on the Siemens has never been stable and in fact I went back to the USR device. At this price, a must pickup.
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Wireless Router, February 19, 2006
By user (Bristol, Tennessee)
The US Robotics Wireless Router was very easy to install and set up. For the price, it was a great buy. I don't have any complaints about it. I do like the small size and the way it looks. I would recommend this product to anyone who is looking for a wireless router.
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Interference with GPRS towers and phones..., September 27, 2005
By user (Davie, FL USA)
Just because you're a network engineer doesn't means you can get this thing working. My problem started way back when the GPRS network cell phones came out. Started with reboots every couple of weeks or so. To reboots every 5 minutes. I don't think its a problem they can solve, its been long enough for a software solution. My final solution was keep the antennas and drop the router in the recycle bin. Never had a problem ever since.
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Disaster ... Service, what service, April 29, 2005
By user (Tallahassee)
Connecting this router up is no problem. It is like most of the routers around, especially like the LINKSYS which I had intended to upgrade. I now say it is "Like" the router in cabling only. The first issue, was as soon as you plug the router in, no internet. Very unlike the Linksys which auto-detected, and required a minimal amount of tweaking. Even when power went, the Linksys came right back up, and worked great. Not so the USR. After reading all the doco in the box, and then some from the online site which could be downloaded, I then did all it said. Still no internet, but nice view of the screens.
After several resets, as instructed by the doco, and eventually sugested by the emails from support at USR, no internet, but great view of the setup.
Went through the setup cabling and reset a few times over a few days, and then I have the internet, and suddenly no access to the setup screens. The Link worked great, but only one port worked. No wireless connection, and no second PC on line.
Then, over the course of weeks, I was advised what to do in the screens, even though I had told them I had no access to the setup and config screens.
Well, I am sending the unit back tomorrow, and hopefully they will send a working router back. In the meantime, my sturdy B class router from Linksys will be doing the job.
MAY 31: I had sent off the whole box of items, including power supply. They returned a router with NO power supply, and no original setup disk. I called Support on Memorial day, and they are usually not there on most days, anyways, turns out that it will be another week before I get a power supply.
One thing is for sure, if the router works in two weeks, I will be using LINKSYS next time, at least they work first time.
USR should DUMP innovate IT as a company.
JUNE 6: After finally getting the power supply, the unit was up and running. I had to ring "Customer Service" because the wireless signal was non-existent. Well, turns out I DID have all the settings right, but sending about 100-150 feet is out of the question. If the advertised capability is what you want, you actually need, according to what customer service told me, a more capable router. If you are lucky the 4 DBI extended antenna may resolve signal issues.
US Robotics ? Not in the future. I will go straight back to Linksys, especially when the new versions of the routers above the G class protocols come out.
If you really need to use a USR router, you have three alternatives, one is a extra strength antennae, one is a booster aerial for about 30 dollars, and the third is a booster aerial for MEGA send capabilities, cost about 90 dollars. Avoid this 90 dollar option for the moment. The new N protocol will resolve your problems, but do NOT touch USR items... their customer service technicians are a waste of time, and the products are currently a waste. LINKSYS is still the markets best.
JUNE 30: The Antenna to get if you get this Wireless router is
3COM Corp U.S. ROBOTICS 4DBI DESKTOP WIRELESS ANTENNA ( USR5480 ), which is useful if your house or apartment is over 800 square feet. This antenna is essential for this USR turkey.
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Look elsewhere, April 14, 2005
By user (Alberta, Canada)
I picked up the 8054 WTR at Future Shop on the representation that this was a cheaper, but very comparable model to the D-Link wireless router - which was about $15.00 more.. Took a little work getting it installed, no big deal, and once installed, was working like a charm, til I turned my computer off... when I went to reconnect, nothing - went through all of the help steps, nothing...and customer services is limited. When I finally got through, I could hardly understand the customer service person (thick accent) and she ran me through all of the steps I had already done a hundred times.
Finally after trying about three different reset attempts, I was connected - and when I asked her what the problem was, she basically didn't know - said, if it happens again, just do the same.
Well, it happens every freaking time I log off and on. No explanation obviously from customer "service" (word used loosely) and I have to reset every time.
Here's the really stupid part. As I write this, I am connected, with a continually flashing "status" light on the router - but my wireless connection to the modem will not work from my xbox unless I power down and restart the router.. at which point the xbox will work, but the lan connection to my computer will not...
I have resigned myself, for the moment to using one item at a time (kind of defeats the point of a router) -
The moral of this sad tale - stay away - far away, from the USR wireless router.
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Best performer, WPA, stable, VPN works perfectly., March 8, 2005
By user
This is a great product that's served me well for over a year. WPA security is offered by a firmware update. And I've found no reset problems after the update. Infact, the security features are better than ever.
I use VPN from home behind this USR router with RSA secure token and exchange encrypted emails every day without any problems what so ever.
After the firmware update, the maximum theoretical throughput of this USR router has been upgraded to 125Mb (achievable with matching USR PC card), and the channel selection is now dynamic and would automatically adjust according to interference, etc.
The performance is great. Especially since it has a built in co-processor to help with encryption. This means that with the encryption turned on, the performance throughput will not be greatly affected like other routers. Most review sites rate routers' performance without any encryption turned on. With encryption turned on, the performance throughput usually drops to half or less on other routers, except for this US Robotics router. This router holds on and almost has no decrease in wireless throughput.
It operates at a cool temperature and it does not overheat like other wrieless routers I have tried. It's a good buy for the money.
However, there are some minor glitches. The settings of this router can be saved so that in case of a reset, you don't have to reconfigure the router again. You can simply load the saved file and all the settings would be loaded back to the router. However, I have never found this to work properly. The settings can be saved, but the file cannot be loaded properly.
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A fine product if you don't need WPA, February 26, 2005
By user (San Diego)
I bought my USR8054 about a year ago, and it worked flawlessly with WEP encryption. Since upgrading the firmware to WPA, however, the device has been tremendously unreliable. I have to reset it several times a day in order to be able to connect to it. I'm STILL waiting to hear back from USR support. If you don't need or want WPA-PSK encryption for your wireless connection, and can settle with WEP, then this is a good product. But if you want WPA encryption, save your money (and your sanity) by choosing another product.
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Great product, great range, December 27, 2004
By user (Vancouver Island, Canada)
This is the best router I've used yet. The range is great, works great with my older devices in 802.11b mode and 802.11g devices from other manufacturers. Never had to call tech supports so I can't comment on that, however I haven't needed to. The instructions are less than polished and you will benifit using setup wizard in the web administration. Never had any connection drops, but have solved them in other routers using a hard reset (usually involves unplugging router and holding reset for 30 seconds or so, then plugging back in and releasing the reset button).
Overall I think it's a great router, the only cons i can find are that there is no Static DHCP Server and the setup could be difficult for persons unfamiliar with how routers work.
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Poor product, November 8, 2004
By user
I do not recommend this product. I have had mine since March and although the basic functions work, they still do not have reliable WPA-PSK. It will work until my portables wake from deep sleep an d tehen the router must be reset for them to recognize it. There are many functions lacking such as DDNS support. Tech support keeps placing the blame on the cards used in my portables even though they are two different brands of cards. I highly recommend the D-Link DI-624 and DI-524 products
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I give up!, October 30, 2004
By user (Whitby, ON, Canada)
I've had this router for about a year now and have been plagued with stability problems the majority of the time.
The first couple of months after buying it were pretty much trouble free, if I remember correctly. After that, it's been going steadily downhill. At first there would be a period of several days of frequent spontaneous router reboots (sometimes every 5 to 15 mins). After this, I'd have several weeks (perhaps a month or two) of trouble free operation.
The past month or so, I've experienced disconnections at erratic intervals (sometimes I'll go several hours without a reboot/disconnection, other times I'll get disconnected every 15 mins). The only way I've found to break the chain is to:
1. Reboot the router from the setup screen.
2. Unplug the router and plug it back in again.
3. Turn off Wireless Radio for a period of time and then turn it back on again.
Some of these don't always work - sometimes manually rebooting or powering off/on the router doesn't clear up the problems. When the reboots finally stop I'm always left wondering what did the trick.
I've tried the different versions of the official firmware that's been released with little difference in the stability - I might go a week or two with few problems only to have several days of frequent disconnections (same firmware, no changes in settings).
The WPA Pre-shared key encryption works well (just choose an SSID that has 7 characters or less). Unfortunately, the same firmware that introduced WPA also introduced the dynamic channels feature. Dynamic channels is supposed to allow the router to search for channels with less noise/interference to broadcast on. Maybe it really does this, but my wireless network card (a US Robotics 5416) can't seem to pick up on the signal when the router is set to "dynamic" (I've tried using included utility and also SP2's native wireless support). That by itself isn't a big deal - just turn the option off on the router. The problem is that the option doesn't stay off! Every now and then the router spontaneously reboots with the dynamic option set to ON (even though the default is supposed to be OFF), and when it does I can't connect without running to the next room with an Ethernet connected computer to change the setting back on the router. I'm not sure if this has been fixed with the latest version of the firmware (1.64b34) - I recently upgraded to it but am still having connection problems (now also with my Ethernet connected computer).
The latest twists with this new firmware:
1. I'm having trouble accessing the web setup page for the router (only powering off/on the router fixes this).
2. I can't connect to the internet from my wireless comp even when I'm wirelessly connected to the router.
Anti-virus and trojan checks have come back clean.
I've even tried putting my computer in a DMZ and checking my firewall log to see if the disconnections could be due to attacks on the router, but I haven't noticed anything unusual.
While the newest firmware is supposed to allow speeds up to 125 Mbps (about 15.5 MB per sec) and my software tells me that I have a 125Mbps connection, I've never gotten transfer rates higher than 5Mbps (about 550 KB per sec) between locally networked computers (one wireless, one connected by Ethernet to the router). The distance between the router and my wireless computer is about 15 feet, with 2 walls and some furniture between them (despite this, I'm still getting an average of 82% signal strength). I'm not expecting anything close to 125Mbps, but 5 still seems kind of low to me. I haven't tried bringing my wireless computer into the same room as the router to see what the speed would be.
Anyhow, I give up on this router.
I would absolutely not recommend it.
I'm off to go shopping for a Linksys.
Number of disconnections while writing this review: at least 5
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Poor product, October 12, 2004
By user (San Jose, CA USA)
If you are looking into buying this AP/Router do yourself a favor and look into linksys or dlink (or even netgear). I bought this few months back and never could use it for more than an hour or so before the router dropping my connection. Then the only option is to reboot the router before my laptops can connect back to it. This problem is prominent when you have WEP enabled. I finally went back to using my old linksys 802.11b AP/Router and now use this one solely as a switch. If you are not planning to use WEP or WPA and do not mind occassional drop in connection then you may get away with this. But I would not suggest running AP without password to anyone.
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Poor Instructions, no software, and the help is even worse, September 29, 2004
By user (Pearl City, Hawaii)
I bought the USR 8054 Wireless Router on a Sunday afternoon. After following the instructions, I was left with my lan connected computer able to reach the router, but unable to locate my modem. The instructions never mention when to insert the CDs, so I tried to do so at this point. The only software on the CD was for Norton antivirus.
I called the help desk phone number only to discover that the line only operates from 9-5 M-F Central time. (I am in Hawaii, but I imagine that these hours are pretty inconvenient for anyone with a job that does not involve installing U.S. Robotic devices.) I followed up with an email to their website's technical help section. I got a response Wednesday morning simply telling me how to reset my modem (which oddly is not anywhere in the pictograph instructions.) While this was good information to have, it didn't really answer my question. I returned the router and have ordered one from LinkSys. I gave the USROBOTICS a two-star rating, because I couldn't get past setup. For all I know, it may be the finest router in the world, if you can get it working.
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This Router Rocks, September 9, 2004
By user
This is a great router. Plug it in, turn it on, forget about it. It just works, and works fast. Great product, no problems, highly recommended.
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Excellent router -- unless you have a 2.4GHz cordless phone, August 24, 2004
By user (Durham, NC USA)
Great router. I'm tech savvy, but had it up and running without problem in about 10 mins! Excellent performance too. Until I got a phone call!! Aparently my 2.4GHz DSS cordless Uniden phone takes out the wireless connection completely. I have not been able to find any workaround. I'll update this if I do.
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No problems, August 2, 2004
By user (Claremore, OK)
I've been running with this router for several months now and I've had absolutely no problems with it. After reading the previous reviews, I don't know if I would have bought it, but after working with it, I'd recommend it to people who I would have to support later.
It worked right out of the box, having no problem communicating in a mixed network. It replaced a LynkSys hub - I wanted to add a another computer without messing with running a drop to another room. Later, I enabled some of the security features on it through the built-in web interface; everything works fine unless I forget to add the MAC address of any new machine that wants to talk to it. As for a VPN connection, the company I work for has a Cisco VPN host running, and I have had no problems with establishing a link with our host and doing what I need to do from my laptop across wireless.
I'd love to take credit for getting the thing to work, being as I'm a professional tech, but I can't. Truth is, I've done few things to it apart from rebooting it a couple of times. It's worked like a charm ever since I got it.
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Do not buy this router, no matter the price!, July 20, 2004
By user (Toronto, ON Canada)
The previous reviews have laid out many of the issues with this router, so I will try to succinctly tell you why I would never recommend this router.Since I purchased this modem, I have experienced continuous disconnections. I have upgraded to the latest firmware and still see dozens of disconnections per day. The only way to stop this is to take the antennae of the unit. Do yourselves a favour. Buy a LinkSys.
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Disappointed., June 22, 2004
By user (Sunnyvale, CA United States)
I decided on this router due to its reasonable price combined with a brand name which, in my mind, has always been associated with reliability. Unfortunately, since my purchase over 6 months ago, the router has been rebooting several times a day, everyday.My laptop and other wireless devices have no such problem with other routers, so I had to think it was the router. I upgraded to the latest firmware to no effect. US Robotics support replied (after some delay) telling me to try all eleven channels in case there is some interference on the default channel. After going through this exercise over the course of a couple weeks, it was clear that this was not the problem. I contacted US Robotics support again and am still waiting for a reply. I would like to think this is just a case of a single defective product, but there are accounts strewn throughout the web of sporadic reboots. Even though the functionality of the product is satisfactory when it is working, obviously it is impossible for me to recommend this product.
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Works great, June 8, 2004
By user
I have had this router for 3 weeks now and have had no rebooting issues at all. When I got it I went and got the latest firmware and have had no issue. The range is great awsome. I can go accross the street to the park with my laptop if I want! Great product!
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Non-existant phone support, June 5, 2004
By user (Stockbridge, MA USA)
I couldn't get this thing to work either as a router or an access point with any degree of success. It couldn't connect up to my cable modem, so I plugged it into my SMC 7004VBR and tried to use it as an access point, that didn't work too well. The documentation that comes with this product is minimal, and in order to capitalize on the warranty you must call customer service.The fact that their customer service is not a toll-free call is slightly annoying. The experience of waiting on hold for literally thirty minutes at a time, three times in a row, without ever speaking to a person is one way to ensure that I never buy a US Robotics product again.
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