Customer Reviews:
 Latest v5 is inferior! January 23, 2006
Vincent Fox (Atlanta, GA USA)
28 out of 31 found this review helpful
DO NOT BUY THE CURRENT VERSION OF THIS *FORMERLY* EXCELLENT PRODUCT!
Linksys WRT54GS v1 through v4 were terrific products and the reason for the reviews with so many stars prior to this one.
Recently Cisco/Linksys changed internals completely, cut flash memory to 2 megs and switched OS to something called VxWorks. I don't understand why they did this. Or at least could have called it by new model number? To know if you have the dreaded v5 unit you can look on the box for serial number CGN7. Easy to do in a retail store, but you cannot do this by mail-order can you? So you will probably get the new one.
As it is the old customer reviews for this product do not reflect the current product which looks same externally. But new GS v5 unit does not work nearly as well if you try to do BitTorrent or anything beyond basic usage. Also complaints of connection speeds being way slow unless you upgrade firmware. Is Joe Consumer now expected to upgrade firmware on a device just to get it basically working? How did this get out of the factory with so many bugs?
 Installed Flawlessly in less than 30 minutes! October 25, 2006
Wolf (Southern California)
26 out of 26 found this review helpful
I had an existing Router and Wireless access point from Linksys, the router started acting up so I decided to replace both of them with this wireless router.
The key is to get an Internet connection from your DSL modem directly to your computer, once you can get online the rest is cake.
I unplugged my main computer from the old router and plugged it directly into the Verizon DSL modem. Turned on my computer and was able to get online immediately. Once you can, insert the CD that comes with this router and follow the instructions. It checks for the Internet connection, and instructs you to then plug in the router. It took few seconds for it to recognize and configure the new router, it then installed some basic security setting for me.
It automatically let my computers that are hardwired to the router access the Internet also. The wireless devices that I have had to be changed to the new security settings, unless you use your old security settings again.
The thing that bugs me is that it doesn't tell you how to log into your router from the web browser. I know from experience so I did it automatically. This is important because you should always change the default password, or anyone could log into your router and change it. Becuase the default is widely known. To change it, go to your web browser, type in 192.168.1.1 in the address field (without the http://), when a box pops up the log in is: admin and the password is admin. CHANGE THE PASSWORD. Even if you do not set up wireless security, you should, but if you don't at the very least change the password and write it down so you don't forget it.
When you are logged in it is a good idea to set up the security settings for wirelss access. You can find some good intructions on the Linksys website. If you don't do this anyone in your neighborhood may be able to log in and use your Internet connection. A friend of mine had this problem and someone had also changed the default password.
 version Differences and DO YOU CARE??... February 1, 2006
M. Bendall (potomac, MD)
24 out of 26 found this review helpful
[previous reviewer]- you are absolutely correct that the new version (5) of this router is downgraded compared to others. the "original" router shipped with 32mb ram and 8mb flash, and version 5 shipped with 16mb ram, 2mb flash. you should also take note that you implied that v.4 was a fully featured product; it only has 16mb of ram and a 4mb flash (a downgrade from v.3). but you are correct, the most crippling thing that linksys did to this router was switch the operating system from the open source linux to VxWorks.
So i guess the real question is: DO I CARE?
for most people the answer is no. if you hook this router into your network, it will run smoothly, no problems for the average consumer. the reason so many people are criticizing the router and its new release is because the old wrt54g and wrt54gs were big items in hacker communities, and they afforded people who wanted to modify their router's firmware great flexibility to do so. the added ram fueled the power and speed that people were able to gain from their router.
so if you are !NOT! looking to modify this router, i would give it five stars.
if you !ARE! looking to modify this router, i would give it -1 stars, just because the old product was so good compared to the new one.
/*if you are deciding between the wrt54g and the wrt54gs, you need to have speed booster adapters to gain speed. those adapters will cost 20 bucks over the price of the regular ones (can get pricey if you have many computers) the older versions (1.0-4.0) of the wrt54g can be enabled for speed booster, but you won't have the hardware advantages provided by the wrt54gs.*/
The best wifi router out there for techies March 30, 2006
Leigh F. Ishikawa (MA USA)
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
I've owned several wireless routers. (SMC, Belking, Netgear, and Linksys to name a few). Hands down this is the WIFI router a techie should get. Now someone who don't care about security and just wants to plug and get things done, I've found Netgear to be more frienlier but lacks features. So why 'THIS' WIFI router?
1. Linksys has stable releases of firmware. Especially if you like to do things like port forwarding, and so forth you want good support.
2. Linksys has provided the source code to the firmware. And there are several open source firmware codes for this thing. Some provide few additional configurations while others are compltely new firmware. It's a geek's dream come ture.
3. If you use VOIP. (telephone service running on top of your internet), this router is one of the very few who provides QOS. QOS (Quality Of Service) can put higher priortiy by physicial port, or network port. I just plug my VOIP to the port and prioritize it. My calls are substantially more stable then before.
4. Reputation (Solid hardware.) I bought Linksys's first home router back in 1999. Linksys has always made reliable and good routers.
5. So do you need the GS? Actually no, but they are pretty much identical hardware with GS having more memory. Besides the speedboost thing (which I never used), it doesn't matter. Which ever is cheaper and more readily available, you should pick it up.
I have to repeat that this is a great techie router. A beginner will be fine too, but I found 'Wizard' like menus of other WIFI router to be more 'consumer' friendly. But for someone who wants to configure the router to do a lot of things and require something that can take heavy abuse, this is THE router.
 Linksys WRT54GS April 27, 2004
J. Loftus (Fort Collins, CO United States)
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
I purchased the WRT54GS to upgrade an outdated router that I'd had for about 4 years.
Ultimately I was hoping this router would allow me to use my laptop anywhere in my town home (~1300 sqft) AND work with Xbox Live despite it's absence from the list of approved routers; I figured "how much different could it be from the WRT54G", which IS approved for Xbox Live.
With some minor difficulties I was able to get it to work with Xbox Live. You'll need to toy around with the security settings (SPI, Anonymous Internet Requests, and DMZ) a little bit, but it WILL work. Once Xbox Live is connected you can re-secure everything until you turn off the Xbox... at which point you'll need to go through the routine again when you want to reconnect. This has something to do with the way Xbox initiates communications... hopefully Linksys releases a firmware patch to correct this simple, but annoying issue.
The laptop network connection works anywhere in my town home, but if I take it outside onto my deck the signal is eventually dropped. To be fair the router is on the complete opposite side of the town home when I'm on the deck. I'm betting that I could improve my coverage area if I could move the router to a central room and elevate it a little bit. The WLAN coverage is about what I'd expected.
The browser interface is a breeze so adjusting your settings to work with Xbox and secure your WLAN is not hard at all. Initial setup was incredibly easy. I literally plugged the router into my cable modem, plugged my desktop PC into the router and I had internet. The router automatically spoofed the MAC address required to get through the cable modem.
I haven't had to use Linksys technical support, but their knowledge base is decent enough to solve the most common problems. This product is fairly new however, so knowledge base articles for out of the ordinary problems are somewhat sparse as of right now.
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