Wireless Access Point Router w/ 4-Port Switch 802.11g

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Editorial reviews

Product Description
Wireless-G is the upcoming 54Mbps wireless networking standard that's almost five times faster than the widely deployed Wireless-B (802.11b) products found in homes, businesses, and public wireless hotspots around the country but since they share the same 2.4GHz radio band, Wireless-G devices can also interoperate with existing 11Mbps Wireless-B equipment. Since both standards are built in, you can protect your investment in existing 802.11b infrastructure, and migrate to the new screaming fast Wireless-G standard as your needs grow.The Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router is really three devices in one box. First, there's the Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect Wireless-G or Wireless-B devices to the network. There's also a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices. Connect four PCs directly, or daisy-chain out to more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need. Finally, the Router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection. To protect your data and privacy, the Wireless-G Broadband Router can encrypt all wireless transmissions. The Router can serve as a DHCP Server, has NAT technology to protect against Internet intruders, 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 configuration utility. This product does not connect directly to a telephone line. For connection to a telephone line you would need a separate modem or a "Broadband Gateway" product.

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-11-21 rating:
Two pin plug
Contacted supplier:
Just installed the WRT54GL router. Why does the juice/transformer plug have 2 pins? It's susceptible to 'wobble' in adapter and loss of
connection.
Reply:
This is the UK version of this model. Purchasing have told me that this
is how Linksys make them. If you do not want this product, you can
return to the freepost address below for a full refund.
Me:
UK version with two pins??? Wouldn't it have been better to offer swap of juice/transformer plug rather than return for refund? After all, it is being used now and I don't want the hassle of not having it whilst I get what I really want.

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review by: date: 2008-06-27 rating:
Awful
I am a typical power user, running an RSS reader, iTunes, FTP and IM all at once. In my house we have 2 laptops, a desktop PC, an Xbox 360, a Wii and a DS all connecting to this access point, it worked fine for about a week but when using any sort of program with heavy connection usage (like an FTP program or P2P application) it dies due to a fault which Linksys has fixed with an update to every one of their routers EXCEPT this one.

Occasionally, it also decides to not let new any devices connect that aren't already connected. So my Mac, the desktop and my 360 could all connect but my dad's laptop couldn't. Changing the mode of encryption managed to fix this, though I do not know why.

Avoid at all costs, very, very, terrible.

(I'm on the Virgin Media 10 meg download package, ex NTL user)

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review by: date: 2008-06-10 rating:
Great router
I bought it a few months ago and it has been working perfectly fine for me. My earlier router was a Netgear and it used to drop the connection at random intervals. There is no such issue with this one, though. Setup is very easy too. Definitely value for money!

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review by: date: 2008-05-10 rating:
WRT54g Version 7
Good _budget_ wifi-router.
Pray you get a v7.2 and not a v7.0.

I have received (early May 2008) a version 7 WRT54g from Amazon. Version 7 uses a different chipset to the previous incarnation and suffers from frequent loss of wifi signal. Linksys has replaced version 7 with version 7.2 in which they have reverted to using the original (correctly implemented) chipset. Once updated to the latest /beta/ firmware (contact Linksys) the version 7 /seems/ to be stable, but the signal strength is still less than it should be.


review by: date: 2008-05-06 rating:
Good, but not entirely feature complete
Overall a very good router. I've used other Linksys products in the past (including previous revisions of this router) and have always been pleased with them. Not a whole lot has changed since they were acquired by Cisco so long time customers shouldn't expect anything too different from the good old stuff.

Setup of the router was very straight-forward. I performed the setup from my Mac using Firefox (the admin page on the router doesn't load properly in Safari 2) and configured the security parameters for the wireless network quickly. I must admit to lot looking at the supplied documentation much at all as I've set up plenty of these routers in the past but it looked pretty accurate from a cursory glance.

Network performance is solid - the signal doesn't drop out at all as far as I've noticed. The power of the WiFi transmitter seems to be decent as well. One good thing about this router is that it has two external aerials so if you're struggling with network range you can purchase some higher gain aerials to try and improve it. If you want to get really geeky you can fabricate and attach a couple of parabolic reflectors to limit off-property network coverage and boost the signal where you need it. Do a Google search and you'll find plenty of sites giving instructions. Or buy the Wireless Hacks book from O'Reilly for lots of other tips as well!

There are a couple of features I'd like which are absent. The ability to buy two of the same router and use one as a signal booster for the wireless network, and the facility to increase the power going to the radio transmitter, would have been fantastic. They're not features which everyone is going to want but it'd make a geeks life easier if they were there.

As far as I know, the firmware on this late revision of the router can't be changed. Either that, or the open source hackable firmwares available don't support this revision. The greatest thing about the older models of this router was that you can change the firmware to get these extra features but I couldn't get one to install on this revision. Gutted.

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