| 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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No IP! Horrible!, December 6, 2005
By user (Queens, NY)
I wish I could say something nice. I love Linksys and this box is cute. Everything works great except for the fact that it will not obtain an IP automatically from my cable modem (Toshiba PCX1100U). India's tech support is useless and helpless. Too bad, back to the store...
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Works for me, November 19, 2005
By user (Hilo, HI USA)
I connected the router to my dsl modem and my laptop recognized the signal immediately. No software installed. The signal is excellent and consistant throughout my house.
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AVOID, November 19, 2005
By user (Brooklyn, NY USA)
This router is a piece of garbage. The wireless range seems good but for some reason its very slooooooooooooow. But what's far worse is the buggy firmware. Certain features - like static IP and port forwarding - don't work at all, and the firmware doesn't always like to save your changes when you make them.
Linksys's much-touted 24/7 tech support is staffed by idiots.
Check out dslreports dot com for more information on this abysmal product before you buy.
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Not good for various reasons..., November 11, 2005
By user (California)
Reason 1: The Weight
The weight of the router is so light that it constantly moves around your desktop. Why? The cables plugged into the back pretty much make standing it up vertically a bit of a problem. Not huge...but regardless, I had the router tip over a few times.
Reason 2: The Range
The range on this sucks. I had the Linksys Wireless B router hooked up previously, and the range on it was awesome. I could go downstairs, outside, garage, and I had full signal. The WRT54GC's signal dropped down to 3-1 bar downstairs! I hate to think of what going outdoors might give me.
Reason 3: Firmware Update
I updated/tried to update the firmware to the latest version 1.02.8 after not having much luck getting it to play nice with my Airport Express. The idea was to have the Linksys plugged in upstairs to the internet, and my Airport Express hooked downstairs into my stereo so that I could use Airtunes and use WDS between both. The closest I got was having Itunes look for but never connect to my remote speakers. Thinking maybe its the firmware, I tried updating. Bad idea. They need to mention that you should only do this from a PC and never try it from a Mac. The firmware update stopped at 100% installation. I thought maybe it was restarting. It just stopped. I could never get the router's admin page to show up again. Spoke with customer service and they told me "you should never install the firmware unless the router is not working right". I would think this applies?
So, overall I do not like this router. However, used in a standard setting without needing good broadcasting range, this router could work well. Otherwise, I would recommend maybe getting the WRT54G and not th WRT54GC. Or not.
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Wireless doesn't work, November 11, 2005
By user (SanJose, CA USA)
I was using this with a DSL connection. Whenever I power of the DSL modem and power it on again the wireless router stops working. I have to try very hard and weird procedures to make it work. In the wireless connection the connection between the router and my PC is fine but the router doesn't talk to the DSL. If I do wired connection from the router then it works fine meaning that the DSL modem is fine.
So there is something wrong with the wireless with this router. I update the firmware but it still didn't help.
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It worse then the WRT54G., November 7, 2005
By user (Canada)
Usually I'm okay with Linksys routers, but this one gave me lots of problems when I tried to customize it to my liking. I quickly returned it for a WRT54G and have never been happier.
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Linksys Compact Wireless-G and MAC OS X Perfect Match!, October 28, 2005
By user (Buffalo NY)
Easy to use right out of the box. Works right away . It's a good idea to buy the extra antennea. My Mac's all connect via Airport wireless and Extreme. My biggest problem is however securing the network via the web based interface. I try to keep my neighbors off my network and still see them on. When I limited the Mac addresses it worked by only allowing my comuter ip's and Mac's on the connection.
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WORKS GREAT, SUPPORT FOR OSX OK!, October 26, 2005
By user (Delaware United States)
Great product. Compact, sleek and sexy looking. The installation took very little time and setting up security took even less. When I tried to get support for Mac OSX, they kept saying it was LIMITED. Eventually we figured it out. Works great ever since!!!!
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Great travel wifi router, October 26, 2005
By user (NY NY)
Bottom line, it's a great size, extremely light wireless travel router which also has 4 ethernet ports, best value! I had no problem with reception distance.
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Great function, but don't upgrade firmware, October 25, 2005
By user (NJ)
I just got this thing 3 days ago, but I tried to do a firmware upgrade and it crashed halfway through. Unfortunately, this is the only gateway in the WRT54 series that does not run on Linux based software, so once a the upgrade fails, the unit is toast. Whereas with the Linux-based units, there is a FTP program that can load a fresh version easily so long as you can ping the unit.
I didn't get a chance to test out the range and quality of the wireless, but if you find the unit isn't up to par once you get it, there is an antenna port that flips out and lets you boost your signal.
I would recommend this unit because it's a piece of cake to setup, very inexpensive, and has great future-proof security (i.e. NAT+SPI firwall and multiple versions of WPA2 wireless security). Just don't try to do anything fancy, the original firmware does its job just fine.
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Does this Router fit the Bill?, October 25, 2005
By user
Nope. This router is a joke. When I use a Peer to Peer type software to download various goodies from the internet the rotuer would lock-up after short period of time. The CPU in the router can not handle the 250 simultanious Full connections Linksys is rating the router as being able to do. I believe that it can barely handle 10 much less 20 simultanious TCP/IP connections. The Support from Linksys was no help as they kept trying to have my change the MTU value on the router. When I question them on just how the MTU value would affect my connection stability they could not provide me an answer. Since Cisco purchase Linksys the quality of their product has gone down hill. Older products receive no new Firmware updates; only product revisions. The Helpdesk Team has been outsource to a Third world country where English is not its native language, and they take away the jobs from good honest Americans. Off of the soapbox now. I returned the Rotuer to the place of purchase and am going to auction it off on the Internet to re-coop my purchasing costs. To wrap up, DO NOT BUY LINKSYS. But buy Cisco if you can afford an Enterprise solution.
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pahal's recommendation, October 23, 2005
By user
it is a great product. the wireless router is really compact and gives really great performance with all kinds of network cards. thumbs up for this one......
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Great Product/Exceptionally Difficult Set Up, October 20, 2005
By user (Chicago, USA)
5 stars for quality/1 star for installation -- so overall, 3 stars. Product works great on 3 floors of my house, but it took more than 3 hours for set up with Linksys help staff, who were totally incompetent. I finally gave up on them and figured out that the security settings were the problem as to why I could not get my network to access the Internet. The CD set up disc does not work. One must invariably go Linksys' web tool. Even that did not work. What a shame for such a wonderful product. Be prepared for several hours of frustration if you buy this router. Don't count on quality Linksys help assistance.
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A perfect solution to share your connections, October 19, 2005
By user (Tucson, Az)
I have a lot of visitant consultants and sometimes there is not enough wire connections to share the network and internet connections in the conference room.
This small marvel proved to be versatile and easy to setup and use. I'm able to share my network connection with a conference room full of consultants without the wires mess or I can easily transform a hotel room into a conference room sharing one connection with my fellow travelers.
The antenna expansion extend the range and capability when is needed and retain the compactness and portability for the road.
My only suggestion for the next firmware release is to have the option to choose between an advanced and a simple interfase.
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Poor Wireless Connectivity, October 17, 2005
By user (Bogota, Colombia)
I recently bought 3 WRT54GC and brought them to South America. I experimented several troubles working with my brand new gateway laptop so I decided to run in depth trouble-shooting myself as returning the items is not viable for us. We found that the problem was when using the wireless function of the router. I run several tests but the analysis that we made using ping-plotter was that the wireless links has several real important problems. When you ping the gateway (router) from your wireless connected device very rarely the one that answers is the cable modem or even the ISP router itself. I tried with some of my clients (I own a VoIP company) and thesame trouble with ADSL. I do not complain for the willing tha linksys support has had trying to help me. I have done everything they have said but apparently there is a problem with the hardware or maybe the firmware but they say they do not have more devices experimenting this same issue... the truth is I see another buyer having the same trouble. What the user sees or experiments is poor wireless connectivity. The wired "part" of the device WRT54GC works just fine.
I suggest you buy a router with more time on the market...
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Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54GC, October 17, 2005
By user (Columbus,Oh,USA)
The wireless router "linksys" is a good product but it doesn't give too much of reception without antenna. Great customer service and the best compact design easy to hide. Cool product!
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Good router but poor wireless coverage, October 15, 2005
By user (Chicago, IL USA)
The installation was easy. CD installation idea is very dumb. One could install w/o the CD too. Configuration was partially automatic. Since I knew what I was doing I finished the rest of the configuration. Surprisingly the wireless coverage is VERY poor. I am sitting 20 feet from the router and I get signal strength of 40%. Totally ridiculous. This is my 4th router and I am tired of returning. The only thing I am going to try is changing the channel to something other than my neighbors use to see if it helps.
It looks like there are quite some folks here having the same problem.
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User Friendly, October 15, 2005
By user (Woodmere, OH USA)
The Linksys Router replaced a Netgear router that I have had for serveral years. I needed something right away and was going to be easy to use. I work in IT and all my co-workers recommend a Linksys product. This one works great! anyone could use it. even the firmware upgrades are painless. I like the compact form.
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Poor Wireless Throughput, October 13, 2005
By user (Corvallis, OR)
It works fine as a hardwired router, but wireless throughput is poor. Web pages that display in under a second hardwired can take anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds to display wirelessly. At those speeds surfing isn't much fun. I returned it and replaced it with a Netgear WGR614, which works great (and is $10 cheaper).
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linksys wireless g wrt54gc router, October 12, 2005
By user (fort worth tx)
great product as usual from linksys. bought it to replace netgear wireless router which suddenly stopped letting me access random but necessary websites.
fast, reliable. the setup is idiotproof. in fact too intrusive. anyone who's ever set up a router or has 1/4 of a clue doesn't need the dumb CD. only thing i liked better about netgear is they print the default/reset username and password right on router. linksys' setup in that area is a bit grey.
small!!!! works like the bigger comparable units. same range, speed reception that i can see. didn't give it a 5 only because i've only had it about a month and it never fails; things go belly up the minute you decide they're fantastic.
buy one. you'll like it.
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