| Linksys-Cisco WRT54GL Wireless-G Broadband Router (Compatible with Linux) |
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Model: WRT54GL
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 321
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Firewall - SPI
VPN Support - Yes
VPN Passthrough - Yes |
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| Description: |
| The Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G Broadband Router combines the functionalities of three devices into a single device, a wireless access point, a four-port full-duplex 10/100 Mbps switch and a router. The wireless access point lets you connect Wireless-G or Wireless-B devices to the network while the switch connects your wired-Ethernet devices together. The router function ties it all together by letting your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection. The push button setup feature makes it easy to configure your wireless devices. The router serves as a DHCP server, includes an SPI firewall to protect against Internet intruders and also supports VPN pass-through. The WRT54GL even features TKIP and AES to protect your data and privacy with up to 128-bit encryption. With the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router at the center of your home or office network, you can share a high-speed Internet connection, files, printers and multi-player games with flexibility, speed, security and simplicity. Status Indicators - Port status, link activity Compliant Standards - FCC IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3U, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g Data Link Protocol - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g Interfaces - 1x network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX - RJ-45 ( WAN / DMZ ), 4 x network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX - RJ-45, 1 x network - Radio-Ethernet Dimensions - Height 4.8 cm x Depth 20 cm x Width 18.6 cm Weight - 0.5 kg |
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| User Reviews (321 total): |
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FINALLY! A ROUTER THAT WORKS!! THIS IS THE ONE!!, April 5, 2008
By user (San Diego, CA United States)
As you can see from my reviews, I returned several junk routers for refunds. This is the only router that worked. I ran it non-stop for a month and it hasn't dropped the connection yet. Very fast download speeds and great stability. This is also the first router I ever owned that didn't stop broadcasting when I turned on the microwave. If you are not interested in the third party firmwares for this, it runs great on the Linksys firmware. VERY easy setup, the setup completed in 10 minutes! All you gotta do is set it up and let it go! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
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Fast and Stable Router, April 5, 2008
By user
After owning several previous routers, this has by far been the best. Very stable and secure, compatible with all of my wireless devices, and smaller than the others.
NOTE: I chose to install an open source firmware, Tomato Linux Firmware on this device.
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Probably the best router I've owned, April 4, 2008
By user
The WRT54gl was recommended as a very hackable router and that is very true. It worked perfect with the DD-WRT Firmware I installed that allowed it to do everything I wanted it to do. I made it into a wireless repeater that changed the name of the network. For using the internet I didn't notice a loss of speed.
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Great Product, April 3, 2008
By user (Onalaska, WI United States)
This is a replacement for a NetGear router the was failing. So far, after about a month, I'm very pleased with the Linksys. Setup was easy and within 10 minutes I had it fully configured. DDNS functions work well with my DynDNS account. My NetGear router had this functionality as well but it didn't update reliably. The LinkSys has worked perfectly. Firewall, NAT, DMZ, DHCP were all very straight-forward.
On the wireless side, I already had a LinkSys 802.11g access point. The two devices complement each other perfectly. I positioned them so they provide great coverage on all levels of my house, my garage and in my yard.
This was a great value for the price.
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This is a great product, April 2, 2008
By user (Llano, Tx United States)
I had a little trouble connecting it and getting the other computer to work, but once I did it has been working great ever since.
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Linksys WRT54GL, March 31, 2008
By user
This is one G router to consider if you want to upgrade to third-party firmware. I received mine and upgraded it about a month ago to DD-WRT. Has been rock solid and a great upgrade over the Linksys B router I have been using since 2002. Because of the relibility of my old B router and the fact that the additional memory on this one allowed firmware upgrades, I decided to stick with Linksys.
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OK, but instruction for non-standard scenarios are lacking, March 29, 2008
By user
The router does work fine, eventually, but the documentation for a Mac is sorely lacking.
I was upgrading from an older Linksys router (BEFW11S4), and documentation for that scenario was also non-existent. I was expecting more of a plug-and-play behavior.
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Worked out of the box!, March 27, 2008
By user (Show Me State)
I initially tried a Net*gear router and had to return it because it would not work without a broadband connection, and we only have dial up where we live in the country. I had called Linksys and they said theirs would work without broadband. You see, all I wanted to do was allow my laptop to access my desktop's printer wirelessly. I hooked up the Linksys router to my desktop and loaded the software effortlessly. And my laptop quickly connected to the router's wirelessly. But I still couldn't find the printer. So I installed the printer's drivers (it's an old HP laserjet) onto the laptop and all by itself, it found the printer and works great since. This router is a lot heavier than the Net*gear so I know it is better made. Also, if we ever do get broadband in our area, I am confident this would be easy to set up. I even set up the encryption and it works easily. And I had no prior networking experience, besides reading the instruction manual for both routers thoroughly. I would recommend researching file and print sharing on the Net if you need to set that up on your computer. Also, I should qualify my computer experience since I have worked with them for twenty five years, just no networking experience.
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Very nice., March 27, 2008
By user
Does exactly what it is supposed to. Using the WRT54GL I have networked two wired computers and a laptop.
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Another Good Linksys Router, March 17, 2008
By user (Pennsylvannia)
Overall this seems to be a very good router. I set it up with the enclosed CD and everything worked well without a hitch. I plugged in all my network components and the built in switch quickly recognized the devices and assigned IP address via DHCP.
It has many features including:
*Access Restrictions which allow you to set up to ten policies which allow you to block services by Web address or by URL, and you can block individual services.
*Port forwarding capabilities which I have use for Remote Desktop Assistance.
*Port triggering, DMZ and QoS functions.
*Firmware upgrades can be performed within the router.
*Firewall protection.
*Wireless supports WPA-2 and TKIP/EAS algorithms
There was one item though that I had an issue with, however. When I hooked up my cable modem, the Linksys pulled the WAN information ok. But later, when I switched to phone service with my cable provider and the technician installed their router, the Linksys would not initially pull the WAN information. Even clicking the release and renew buttons didn't work. After about 5 to 10 minutes it pulled the information. A friend of mine also had this problem with the Linksys model WRT54G. In his case, he cannot set the modem to standby; otherwise, he needs to unplug and plug in the router. There seems to be, in some cases, a delay in pulling this information from a cable modem. I'm not sure what's going on here. But once it found the WAN info, everything was fine.
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Happily running Tomato..., March 15, 2008
By user (Baltimore, MD USA)
As other reviewers have stated, this is the router you'll want if you're looking to run 3rd party firmware on a Linksys WRT54G. I'm not sure why anyone would by this version to use the original firmware, but I'm very pleased with how it runs using Tomato. Please note that the regular WRT54G router will NOT run most 3rd party firmwares since Linksys has since lowered the amount of built-in RAM on the standard version.
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2 strikes, i'm done, March 11, 2008
By user
Bought 2 of these last week and try to setup the first one successful.However, it will not do any good but just drops the connection every damn 3 minutes.Getting really frustrated,try out the second one which bought for a friend,and the result was amazing worse,setup feature seems fairly easy and got it done within 10 minutes.But again the ugly thing will not connect to the internet EVEN it says there is a connection at all time and no dropping occurs.I'm a bit broke with 2 trikes from Linksys which i've chosen them over other brands for years
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Fantastic Router, March 11, 2008
By user
Previously I've been using an old westell modem/router sent to me by our ISP. The Westell would drop connection very frequently and it was driving me mad, so I decided to invest a little research into a new router. I found this Linksys router had a popular positive rating and great reviews so I purchased it.
I am very happy with the router but was not aware prior to purchase that it is only a router, it is not a dsl modem/router in one, so I had to find a router less modem as well (luckily I had one laying around)
It supports many security features for wireless:
WPA Personal
WPA Enterprise
WPA2 Personal
WPA2 Enterprise
RADIUS
WEP
and one thing I enjoyed was the firewall.
The firewall is very simple, it is either on or off and you set the ports you would like allowed through the port forwarding settings. (my old westell firewall had to be programmed with specific rules) so I really enjoy not having to deal with that anymore.
There is also a built in feature to use keyword settings to block websites from passing through the router if you don't want any specific computer or all computers on your network to visit certain sites.
And of course as many have already stated, this router is compatible with third party firmware so you can flash it with hacked firmware upgrading the quality of the router. Although tempted, I have not tried this yet as I do not wish to brick it.
I am one who believes that technology is far over priced, from digital cameras, routers, computers. Look anywhere and the prices are ridiculous and unreasonable (and amazingly people feed that inflation by paying for it) but I found this particular investment to be worth it! It saves me many headaches and has not given me any troubles so far.
I give this product 5/5 for quality, features, versatility and ease of use.
Now let's just hope it doesn't betray me after this review ;)
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Works fine, March 9, 2008
By user (Pristina, Kosovo)
Very nice router, plugged in flashed with Tomato 1.17 so i have tons of options and until now everything works fine
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Marvellous! (but it could have an ADSL modem buit-in!), March 9, 2008
By user (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil)
I bought one of these along with three MSI PC60G (Ralink 61). Right now I'm using it with the tomato firmware, but even the standard one was fine. One of the clients is in a room outside the house (there are two thick walls and a kitchen between the router and the PC), another is directly upstairs (again, an old, thick floor) and the third is still waiting for the assembly. The signal is surprisingly good (even with the linksys firmware, but better with tomato set to 42mW), though I had to keep trying channels until I found one that didn't suffer from intermitent noise outside the house (probably coming from a neighbor using a 2.4GHz telephone). The QOS with tomato is great, too. The router keeps cool even here in Rio de Janeiro!
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Unreliable piece of garbage, March 7, 2008
By user
The speed/throughput is very good, when it works. However, the wireless will simply stop working at random intervals. I've tried both Tomato and the Linksys firmware, neither made a difference. Power cycling or resetting via the reset button may fix the wireless issue, or may reset the router back to factory defaults.
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Nice wireless router!, March 7, 2008
By user (Boston, MA United States)
it's my second wireless router and it seems to be working fine.
better than my last netgear router.
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Rock Solid Wireless Router - Highly Recommend!, March 6, 2008
By user (Bethlehem, NH USA)
I haven't lost a connection in six weeks - I think that says it all. But, if you want more, read on:
I haven't had to reboot this router once. That's right - I can't believe it myself - I've become so used to constant rebooting on my old routers (Netgear). Security setup took five minutes after the router arrived in the mail and it's been rock solid ever since.
I'm a fan for life and I'll tell you why. I've used Netgear for years and have been generally pleased but router rebooting was normally once or twice a week at least. And, then I bought the WGT 624 (v3) model by Netgear and it was one thing after another: my VoIP conversations frequently cut out and hung up; I constantly lost connections; I had to reboot the model up to a dozen times every day in order for my laptops to re-establish a connection. No matter what I did only a reboot would fix the issue - I tried everything. I even bought a new identical Netgear router in case my last one had just gone bad over the 18 months - hey it could happen, I suppose and their cheap anyway.
But, with the new Netgear I experienced the exact same behavior. And, I don't have time for this. Ba bye Netgear - Hello Linksys WRT54GL!
I'm still using the included router OS but have tried the Linux version (dd-wrt) on a friend's identical router. I'll switch sometime when I have time or if the included OS ever gives me any trouble. But, so far so good. I did experiment with my friend's dd-wrt software and it was very impressive - well done folks. If your a geek like me and have too much free time, do check this out and give it a whirl - the install seems very straight-forward.
Anyway, I couldn't be more pleased with this router - no more rebooting!!!
Well done Linksys!! And, I'm thrilled that the company has the foresight to open up some products to the opensource community - Good Karma.
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the real deal, March 2, 2008
By user
As a few people have already confirmed this is the 16 MB memory model that you can put custom firmware on. I can't say much about the original Linksys firmware because it only "lasted" about an hour until I uploaded dd-wrt. The router has been running perfectly fine ever since, I couldn't be happier with it. If you know what dd-wrt is this is the device you're looking for!
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Wrong choice, February 29, 2008
By user
I bought this after reading all of the great reviews. I had the WRT54G which got fried by a lightning strike in the yard and this seemed like a great replacement. It was easy to install and get running.
The problem I had was that it just wouldn't sustain the connection. I'd work on my laptop for 5 minutes or so and it would drop the connection. I could reconnect in a few seconds but it was just such a hassle, so I returned it.
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