| Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54GC |
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Model: WRT54GC
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 186
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 98SE/2000/ME/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 Wireless-G (802.11g) Access Point
Shares a single Internet connection and other resources with Ethernet wired and Wireless-G and B devices
Compact form factor fits in anywhere
High security: Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA/WPA2 Personal), wireless MAC address filtering, powerful SPI firewall
Compatible with Windows 98SE, Me, 2000, or XP |
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| Description: |
| The WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router puts you onboard for the newest wireless networking standard. Wireless-G is 54Mbps wireless networking that's almost five times as fast as the widely deployed Wireless-B (802.11b) products found in homes & businesses. They can interoperate with existing 802.11b equipment, making them more flexible thanother networks. The built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 connects 4 PCs directly and lets you daisy-chain out to more hubs and switches for as big a network as you need. To protect your data and privacy, the Wireless-G Broadband Router can encode all wireless transmissions using 128-bit WEP encryption. The powerful Stateful Packet Inspection firewall will defend against most Internet attacks. |
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| User Reviews (186 total): |
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Poor excuse of a router..., March 16, 2006
By user (New York)
Scenario 1: I'm in a new apartment, walls are paper thin, router works fine, even through walls (once again, thin sheet rock walls) and down the hallway.
Scenario 2: I'm in another apartment, walls are solid, router has no signal around ONE SINGLE corner. I literally have to be in visual line of router in order for me to connect. What are these walls made of? And why isn't this router able to send signals through it?
Conclusion: Save your money and get the WRT54G
Wireless-G Broadband Router instead. I use that in a house from basement to second floor with 100% signal. What a waste of money...
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very good for price, March 15, 2006
By user (baton rouge la.)
Bought this so could use laptop arround house .Linksys support was very helpful when I had a little trouble setting up.now I can use computor when wife shopping eBay.
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Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54GC, March 13, 2006
By user
The Linksys Compact Wireless-G Router is great. It was very easy to setup and the small form factor make it ideal to carry with my laptop and use when traveling. I like that it supports both WEP and the more secure WPA (though not at the same time).
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It Works, March 10, 2006
By user (Maryland)
Got my router in a couple of days and it's working as advertised.
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Great Size/Price/Functionality!!!, March 10, 2006
By user (For now, Guatemala CA.)
This is my actual first WiFi router, and I was waiting to get one because I wanted the best and smallest, without sacrificing features. Well this router has all that and more.
Has 4 LAN wired ports, WiFi B/G capability, and lots of security features that make it the best choice in a very tiny box. The LAN cable I use takes more room in my backpack than this router. Has amazing WiFi coverage for a router without external antenna, and has also the option for a external antenna to make the coverage better.
Couldn't be more happyo with it!
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Works like a charm..., March 3, 2006
By user (Marianna, FL, USA)
I bought this to carry me when I travel. I plugged it in, followed the instructions to configure it, and it worked like a charm from then on. I stay in a lot of rooms that do not have wireless internet. This device lets me enjoy the benefits of wireless without much fuss.
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weak signal, February 28, 2006
By user
this product has a weak signal and only proforms with in a couple of feet from the router. and knowing this i would have not brought it.
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Disappointing, February 24, 2006
By user (Los Angeles CA)
This antenna-less model just doesn't transmit adequately. My two PCs are only some 20 feet apart, with a single wall in between. The signal ranges from barely usable to unusable. Even the expensive addition of an external antenna (which completely negates the savings for this model compared to the next-most expensive model)only brings the performance up to satisfactory.
Harry
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Great size, but questionable performance, February 20, 2006
By user (Bryn Mawr, PA, USA)
I bought this router because it was so small and would free up some more space on my crowded desk. It was also very inexpensive. It does give me more space, however I've been having problems with the wireless portion of it.
My notebook is 3 feet away from the router, and most of the time the signal is fine. Then, inexplicably, the notebook can no longer see the router. All the while, my desktop PC, which is plugged into the router via one of the ports, has no problems seeing the router.
I've upgraded the firmware, but this didn't fix the problem. I'm going to give it a few more days of looking for a solution, and then back to the store with it. I had a 4-year old D-link that I never had a problem with.
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Very Poor Range, February 11, 2006
By user (Cornelius, NC USA)
I have it mounted on a wall in my study about 6 feet away from my computer, about 7 feet from my modem and monitor. I did that to minimize the possibility of EMI. My Dell laptop has a new Linksys 2.4 GHz WPC54G notebook adapter. At 6 feet away it has 100% signal, at 12 feet it has 54% signal, at 35 feet away it has 18% signal, at 50 feet way it has 1% signal and stops working. I have 900 MHz and 5.8 GHz phones. I live in a condo 1335 sq. feet. I did not see an advertised range for this item. If I would have been aware that it has such a short useful range, I would never have purchased it. I wouldn't buy another one or recommend it. I will wait until something better comes along.
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Worked OK until I tried to upgrade the firmware, January 29, 2006
By user (Sunnyvale, CA USA)
This wireless router worked OK at start. It had some quirks getting an IP through DHCP from my ISP (Comcast). I tried to upgrade it to the latest firmware to try to fix that. The upgrade failed. I spent 2 hours with Linksys support and they concluded that the product was gone. They promised me that upgrades were succesful all the time. I returned the product, not wanting to deal with it anymore.
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AVOID !!!, January 16, 2006
By user (Atlanta, GA USA)
Trim little unit if all you want is basic connectivity.
HOWEVER if your needs extend at all beyond that, you will be better served with something else.
Example: I needed to forward a port for BitTorrent software. This port is a high number above 33,000 which is perfectly okay in other routers I have used. On this router it would accept the number but garble it when you came back to same page to check. So far firmware not updated since middle of last year, tech support not helpful, so this looks like a dead-end unsupported item.
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Poor Signals, December 30, 2005
By user (Gaithersburg, MD USA)
Do not even try. The router by itself gives a poor signal, and adding a high gain antenna (HGA7S) does not improve the signal gain yet all. It gives me a total upset and ruins my values.
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Works but could be better, December 29, 2005
By user (Newington, CT USA)
It was easy to set up and got it up and running. The signal is strong only near router. I brought my laptop to 1 floor down in my house and the signal dropped drammatically and mostly couldn't stay on with the connection.
I didn't have the antenna installed. The cost of the antenna is almost the same the router itself. I will need this antenna if I plan to have my PC in the basement (2 floors down).
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Worst wireless router I've seen, December 27, 2005
By user (Chicago, IL USA)
This is the only wireless router I've seen that includes no antenna whatsoever out of the box. Without an antenna the range is ridiculously poor. 15-20 feet from the box, through clear air, the signal drops to zero. Even five feet away the signal is less than from my neighbors' router which is at least 100 yards away. It really is that bad.
Linksys sells a range-extending antenna as an "optional" accessory, and it costs AS MUCH AS THE ROUTER ITSELF. Selling a product without an essential component and then charging extra -- way extra -- for that component is a classic scam, and Linksys deserves to lose business for marketing this trash.
If that isn't bad enough, when I tried to update the firmware the router stopped working entirely. I called linksys tech support and their reset procedure did not work. When it became clear that a replacement was the only option, I went out and bought a Netgear WGR614 which is cheaper, easier to set up, and performs flawlessly.
Do not buy this garbage!
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Perfect... after a troublesome install, December 24, 2005
By user (Fake Town, Fake)
It's tiny, very lightweight, and has a good range. The install, however, was not easy by any means. The router would not connect to the internet for some reason. I consider myself to be computer savvy but I buckled and called tech support. Tech support was outstanding and led me through a process of re-assigning my IP address and changing a whole bunch of settings. Total time spent for install maybe 30 minutes. After that it's been perfect. I'd still buy it even after the questionable install.
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Good guy, December 22, 2005
By user (United States)
This router by Linksys is a really good guy and it works fine through 3 thick brick-made walls and over 10 meters away from the place it is sitting right now, although I did not buy the antenna. The only problem I have to report is installation. All the reviews are correct when they complain about extreme difficulty to set up this fellow...
As this Linksys router operates together with other routers (generally in cascade connection), the first thing one has to do is check the configuration of the older one and choose the right configuration for this Linksys device. It took me a couple of hours to realize Linksys router was not able to do it on its own. I had a signal there on the taskbar icon, but I could not get access to internet, since in South America most providers work on PPPOE, which requires a username and a password to login. It is no use trying to create a network connection from Windows to "dial" the username and passwork. All you have to do is reach the setup page of the Linksys router and configure that to PPPOE and fill in the blanks there using the data you need to gain access.
Well, I have to say that I did not do all this by myself: linksys 24-hour chat helped me a lot. They were really patient and competent.
Right now I have one laptop and 2 old desktop computers running on the signal cast by this babe. Despite all the hard time I had with installation, I would purchase WRT54GC again and recommend it to my friends (the ones I could assist with installation :) ).
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Excelent little router!!!, December 18, 2005
By user (Miami, Florida USA)
I use it to share my Internet connection and to communicate my home computers and it works pretty well!!!. Wireless, Small, cheap and stylized. Buy it with confidence is a Linksys.
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Problems-thrown away, December 12, 2005
By user (New York, USA)
Reset Button did not work. Was locked out after what seemed a thousand attempts to reset it. Got fed up and just bought another wireless router from the local store. It seems experimental, so buy it for your home, but not your buisness.
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Dead, dead, dead, December 10, 2005
By user (USA)
This would be great except for the three-show-stopping problems that I've had with it:
1) My first unit was mostly dead on arrival some of the leds would light up, but not all the right ones. I could plug in my PC and have that LED light, but it wouldn't be able to see the unit or get an IP address from DHCP. The power LED also always remained dark, although the unit was definitely getting power.
2) My replacement unit was like a sluggish monster waking up. IP traffic routed through it was taking about 4 times longer to get through. I went from a 1.2MB/s to .3 MB/s connection. Something definitely wasn't right with this replacement, as I was about to see...
3) Finally, I woke up the next day to the smell of burning silicon. Yes, and it turns out my personal home router was producing this smell, lights off. It did not turn on when I cycled the power. It had burned itself out in the night. What, too many packets to handle?
All in all, I don't think I'll buy Cisco/Linksys again. My old D-Link is remarkably solid.
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