The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Whick linksys wireless router?

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by Mr. Hollywood, Jan 1, 2006.

  1. Mr. Hollywood

    Mr. Hollywood Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    49
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    There are a few of the WRT54's that are available. It seems from reading on different places on the internet that the version that linksys sales now isnt a version that you can hack. They do sell a WRT54GL though that is able to. This one costs more but seems to be more robust. Theres also the WRT54GS which has speedboosts capability. I dont think this applies to me because my laptop uses broadcom. So which router should I buy?
     
    Mr. Hollywood, Jan 1, 2006
    #1
  2. alexjl

    alexjl Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    2
    Messages:
    205
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    My intergrated Broadcom wifi card supports speedboost.

    As far as what router to recomend. I have had D-Link and Linksys and so far am very happy with my WRT54GX4. It supports WPA2-PSK w/AES maing it very secure. It also has MIMO that I don't use. But maybe some day I'll mess aroud with it and get a card that supports it if I feel the need to.

    So I recomed the WRT54GX4 based on security and that I havent lost a connection within the past week that I have had it. Whick is more than I can say as far as other wifi routers that I have owned.
     
    alexjl, Jan 1, 2006
    #2
  3. Mr. Hollywood

    Mr. Hollywood Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    49
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    That router is kind of out my price range.
     
    Mr. Hollywood, Jan 1, 2006
    #3
  4. nickspohn

    nickspohn Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    1,532
    Messages:
    2,742
    Likes Received:
    20
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Hack?

    You just need a WRT54G, but i don't get where your getting at a hack. I just did a review on this router so you can check that out. Otherwise, the GL router is fine.
     
    nickspohn, Jan 1, 2006
    #4
  5. skinticket

    skinticket Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    10
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    i have a wrt54gs and its great. Never been disconnected or anything.
     
    skinticket, Jan 2, 2006
    #5
  6. daacon

    daacon Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    93
    Messages:
    423
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    By 'hack' I assume you mean third party firmware. The Linksys WRT54G(s) versions 1 to 4 support third party firmware. The (s) series from what I understand has more internal memory (as well as speedbooster - unless your card supports it not a big deal) So if possible the best bet is for a WRT54GS Ver 4. (you have to look at the actual router to determine version nr - it is not usually on the box unfortunatley)

    I own a WRT54GS Ver 1. I use DD-WRT ver 23 released X-mass day and so far it has been great.

    My Acer was suspect to frequent disconnets , but I think it is the card (2915abg) and drivers - as my other wirless computers that use Linksys cards seem much more stable.

    That said the last few days the Acer seems stable. I manually removed all w29* files from $WINDIR\system32 (a sys file and 2 dll's ) and installed the latest driver (9.0.3.9) only (ie: not the Intel ProSet software)

    I believe version 5 of these routers no longer support 3rd party firmware (ie: not open source) and has less memory.
     
    daacon, Jan 2, 2006
    #6
  7. Mr. Hollywood

    Mr. Hollywood Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    49
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Yeah thats right, they switched OS's to VxWorks instead of linux but they said since it uses a smaller memory footprint that it doesnt need as much RAM. I wish bestbuy carried the wrt54gl because the wrt54g is on sale with $30 MIR this week.
     
    Mr. Hollywood, Jan 2, 2006
    #7
  8. Mr. Hollywood

    Mr. Hollywood Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    49
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I went to best buy and went through their wrt54g's and I found a v4! SO i picked that up.
     
    Mr. Hollywood, Jan 2, 2006
    #8
  9. nickspohn

    nickspohn Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    1,532
    Messages:
    2,742
    Likes Received:
    20
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Cool, let us know how it goes.
     
    nickspohn, Jan 2, 2006
    #9
  10. Mr. Hollywood

    Mr. Hollywood Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    49
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Well I hooked it up to a wired pc and it worked. I wont know about wireless performance until the laptop gets here. It seems the firmware can be flashed to make it Speedbooster compatible which is what broadcom uses. Has anyone done this with a version 4 of this router?
     
    Mr. Hollywood, Jan 3, 2006
    #10
  11. nickspohn

    nickspohn Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    1,532
    Messages:
    2,742
    Likes Received:
    20
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Whats the Model number of this card. Im trying to look it up and i can't even find it.
     
    nickspohn, Jan 3, 2006
    #11