wireless routers

If you're looking to jump into wireless, this is a simple decision. Don't let the more technical reviews scare you away because if I can make it work, you surely can.

Your cable modem connects into a clearly marked port on the back to provide service to the device. There are 4 ports available to connect your desktop PC (or multiple if you already have a wired network). The wireless setup is simple. You match the channel on the Router/AP to the channel on your receiving PC card and it works. You won't even need the directions if you follow this step: Go to your Internet Explorer window in the address line type: 192.168.1.1 and you'll be in the router setup page. Presto, it's all there.

I'd highly recommend turning the static WEP encryption on to make it somewhat more difficult for anyone to jump on your network. That gets a little tricky, but it took a novice like me about 5 minutes and that's mostly because you need to hand type a long string of characters into the receiving PC (generated automatically by the Router when you turn WEP on).

If you're undecided about B or G like I was, let me leave you with the advice that pushed me: Forget the money, you're going to hassle yourself with a premature upgrade in a few months, maybe a year to save what? $20? History seems to show that we'll need the bandwidth/speed sooner rather than later.

Don't forget to update the firmware on this thing every month or two (it's a button on the setup screen - easy). They seem to be making it better all the time.

First thing I did was updating the firmware. It has very good router features as well as wireless security features. Setting up the newest WPA is easy. Go to the cnet.com to read about the wireless security issue you will know that WEP is not secure and WPA is so much better and will become the new standard. I was very pleased that the newest version of the firmware includes WPA.
The phone support is 24/7 and you will get a real tech support person online which is very rare these days. And believe me you could use a lot of them if you are new to wireless or like to try out different settings (like me). Also their WebChat works pretty responsive as well.

My Panasonic 2.4GHz cordless phone kills the connection every time. Changing the channels on the WRT54G and the clients won't help because the phone changes its channel automatically. I had a hell of time to get the wireless to work when I was talking to Linksys tech rep using my 2.4GHz phone. I was so discouraged I was ready to return the whole thing until I talked to another tech rep and he asked me right away if I was using a 2.4GHz phone. Once I switched to a 900MHz phone we were fine. I guess if my nerghbors start to use 2.4GHz cordless phone I will be in trouble.

Now the only but nevertheless not so small problem is the short range. I read the reviews here and on cnet.com about its short range. I was hoping the newest firmware would fix the problem but it didn't. There is an interesting thing though: When I was registering the WRT54G online with Linksys, it asked me to choose if mine was WRT54G v1.0 or WRT54G v1.1 which indicates there are two versions of the box. When I chatted with the Linksys support, he claimed there were only firmware differences. If anyone knows there is an actual newer hardware version of it, please let me know, I can still exchange it.

Note: On 9/16/2003, Linksys' web site has changed WRT54G's product description (you have to go the product tab->wireless router to see the new WRT54G) which added WPA feature. ...which shows different pictures of v1.0 and v1.1. Base on that picture one can easily conclude that there are hardware changes, at least the front panel LEDs are all different, besides added Cisco logo. Well, I have to hope the new hardwere solves the range problem. If that's the case, I will change my rating to 5 stars!

10/4/03: I got the newer v1.1 which has the Cisco logo and different LEDs. It not just has longer range, it also stays connected much better even with my 2.4Ghz cordless phone on. With the older verion, the Linksys WPC54G worked OK but I was having frequent connection dropped problem with my Gigafast WF721-AEX 802.11b card. Once I switched to v1.1, the Gigafast stays up like a rock. I am changing my rating from 3 stars to 5 stars.

Note: The UPC codes of the both versions are the same.

I bought this router a few months ago and have had a host of problems with it. First, it frequently drops the radio connection. This is apparently a common problem - I've seen quite a few people discussing it on various message boards. Second, the VPN pass-through just stopped working. The customer support people were not particularly helpful (I agree with an earlier post that the people at the call center in India are very difficult to understand), but they did arrange to have a new unit sent out to me. Overall, I wonder if a different brand would have been a better bet for me.