Opinion on LinkSys WRT54G wireless router

Please reply with comments on this router and suggestions of any better ones that are not overly expensive. Range is not that important since I rent a one bedroom apartment. Thanks

 

I have had 2 of the older hardware versions of this model which were better than the new ones. I do not like the new ones at all mainly because of the button on the front which wipes out all of your wireless settings and reconfigures them. Mine went out a few months ago and I replaced it with a Linksys WRT150N and I am happy with it although it was more expensive. I like the Linksys configuration interface the best of the 3 major brands of wireless routers as I have tried them all at one time or another. Any of the major brands should work for you.

 

Been using it for 1 year, no complaint so far. Easy to set up and efficient unit.

 

I like mine no problems, but the Belkin I had was a different story.

 

I had the original version of the LinkSys WRT54G that I purchases shortly after it was released. I had no problems with it, found the configuration utility easy to use, had it set up and running a secured wireless home network in a very short period of time.

My house caught fire almost a year ago (Thankfully nobody was hurt and it was put out quickly since we live within view of the fire department) and the router was damaged by the smoke since it was running at the time. At first after the fire it was working properly but started to drop the connection from time to time starting about a week afterwards and it continued to go downhill until a month later there was no wireless connectivity at all. I contacted Linksys and after trying to troubleshoot it they sent me out a new one free of charge (plus it was a newer version of the WRT54G). I have had no problems with it since then at all. I am running the wireless network with WPA-2 encryption and after a simple firmware upgrade had no problems connected with my new Vista laptop when I replaced by old one running XP.

I see this button glowing in bright yellow but have never pressed it. I know it looks nice and all but it isn't that difficult to resist =).

 

Thanks for the input. I'll prob give this one a try.

 

The WRT54G is junk. The last one I setup was a v7, it was constantly hanging up on the wired side, requiring reboots. The wireless side worked somewhat. With only 1 user it could handle it. Soon as I added another it would hang up.

Save your money and buy a Buffalo WHR HP G54, it will smoke the WRT54G without the dd-wrt firmware upgrade.

 

I had the WRT54G for nearly 3 years, and it worked without a problem during that time.

It died about 6 months ago, however, after a power surge.

I replaced it with a Netgear router that cost like $40 after rebate, and I haven't had a problem with that one, either.

 

You had Linux version with 16MB RAM and 4MB flash whereas since version 5 this unit is run by VxWorks and only 8MB of RAM/2MB Flash.
This makes it highly unreliable in terms of any P2P, VoIP or even more than one user at a time.
Link to the article again: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/26843/51/

 

its a piece of ****. i know 4 people counting myself that use htis router. it will drop the internet completely from time to time. not a lot but when it goes down its down for a while. this is walmart junk. the only thing good about this router is that it is easy to set up, a lot of other routers require port fowarding and stuff to play games.

 

I've had 2 units, the second one I just purchased about 1 yr ago after the first died (about 5 yrs old I believe). Not a problem with either one, easy setup, great signal and range, and can not remember any problems with being drop from the network. Great units.

 

I have a similar one, the WRT54GS, and I have had no problems with it for three years now. The interface is excellent, and user friendly.

 

No problems here. The only complaint I have is the brightness of the lights. It's set up next to my bed and at night I end up tossing my t-shirt over it so I won't go blind, holy crap.

 

It works great; I've had it for years. For over a year I have been running DD-WRT firmware on it, which gives a lot more features than the stock Linksys firmware.

 

Yeah, I saw that coming. He cannot run DD-WRT on his router without a fight with VxWorks (it's possible though- still may require a JTAG cable) and even if he does only a micro version fits on 2MB flash. Besides current WRT54G still has only 8MB RAM which makes it useless for heavy use.

What you have is now called WRT54GL and is quite a different story.

 

I was unaware of that. Mine is a version 2 model.

 

That’s exactly what they count on. Linksys replaced Linux system with VxWorks which is not free but has a smaller footprint so it allowed them to cut flash and RAM in half. That made the router a cheaper unit and a very different one- but still recognized as frequently awarded famous WRT54G.
That’s how you make fools out of users, even those who take some time to read a few reviews.
I haven’t seen even any router that has acceptable performance in terms of sth more than web browsing that has 8MB RAM, even VxWorks being smaller doesn’t justify that.
For those who would like better hardware along with better and more flexible system there is WRT54GL which is not the best unit on the market anymore (one can find routers with faster CPUs, more RAM, USB ports etc.) but offers great possibilities and is rock solid.

 

The revision matters a lot, the WRT54G has been around for quite awhile now (since 99?) but unlike most computer stuff the hardware in general has actually been downgraded overall.

The very early versions even ran on a different powersupply (5V instead of current 12V. 12V is good though, it can be modded to run off powered ethernet, great for placing remote APs in weather-rugged outdoor mounts) and had internal mini-PCI cards you could replace if the radios started dying or even mess around with A band etc.

I'd say overall the best revisions were in the days of v2 and v3, you could often score a "stealth" GS model sold as G, and it had 32mb ram and 8mb of flash. Current vxworks models (last I checked) have a paltry 8mb ram and 2mb flash...keep in mind memory today is vastly cheaper than it was even just 2 years ago let alone 4, 5 or 6.

DD-WRT and the other OSS firmware projects (except for the ones that violated GPL in spirit if not in law and shall not be named, but a little island in the southern hemisphere comes to mind) helped extend the usefulness of these cheapie boxes really far.

Linksys "glory" days are gone though, I suspect it was due to market pressure and the buyout by Cisco that changed things...after all, its hard to sell $500++ "business solutions" when internet hackers can make a $50 box serve wifi with all sorts of corporate-oriented advanced mods.

If you really want, check out ebay for older versions, but some of the other brands out there are still making newer models more friendly to modding. The "L" version is a insult/joke to most people in the mod community, pay more for something when I'm just going to wipe off your now-ignored and outdated software that you got from the OSS community in the first place? No thanks. (FYI: the firmware used GPL code from the start, and IIRC it took some time before people noticed and pressured them before it was released properly)

The way component prices are today, I bet my very nice 32/8 router from 2003 or whatever could be selling for around $15-20 by now.

 

These are all great responses. Thanks to all. But I still dont know what router to buy. I would like to know what routers are owned by the users that do not approve of the WRT54G. Or maybe suggest a 3 or more routers of diff prices that they would consider buying instead of the WRT54G.

 

Easy way: Linksys WRT54GL (CPU @200MHz, 16MB RAM, 4MB flash)
Reliable, allows 3rd party firmwares and modifications.

The cheap one: Buffalo WHR-G125 (CPU @240MHz, 16MB RAM, 4MB flash)
Allows 3rd party firmwares, similar hardware specs to Linksys WRT54GL but better Wi-Fi chipset.

The mighty one: Asus WL-500G Premium (CPU @266MHz, 32MB RAM, 8MB flash, USB ports with plug&share)
allows 3rd party firmware, a lot of RAM and CPU power for heavy use, 2x USB 2.0 that allows to connect i.e. printer, hard drive/flash drive and run FTP server or LAN server or download via http/ftp/bittorrent directly to the connected media even when the computer is off.

 

WRT54G v3 has no problem for a year for me until last month I made a switch to D-Link for VideoPhone support.