Rating: 
Summary: Excellent wirelss router!
Review: I bought this router on Sept. 9, 2003 I had another linksys router that wasn't wireless. But since I had purchased a laptop computer, I wanted to go wireless. Once it was delivered to my house, I opened the box, and immediately got nervous because I didn't know if I would be able to install it, because I had two other computers wired to my old router that I had someone else install for me. I am not computer savy at all. But I opened the box, and followed the directions with the CD that Linksys supplied. Well, within minutes it was working. I had also purchased the notebook adapter Linksys WPC54G and went right over to the laptop and put in the adapter, and the CD that came with it, and again, within seconds it was installed and running. I am typing this review right now on my laptop completely wireless. I was amazed that I was able to install this myself with no help from anyone! I didn't even have to call Linksys customer service, because everything was so easy. I am a stay home mom with no computer knowledge, so if I can do this, anybody can! My laptop is a HP pavillion XF328 and both my desktop and laptop have windows XP. I would highly recomend this router to anyone, I also have three cordless phones in my house, and non of them interfere with this router.
Rating: 
Summary: major satellite tweaks needed
Review: It took me three days, to the tune of Neil Young's song "Piece Of Cr--!", to get this to work with the satellite hookup I was hired to connect this wireless network up to. There is not a word about satellite issues in either the user guide or the "knowledge" database at linksys.com, and first tech support person I spoke with kept me on the phone for an hour, then gave me a web site address to consult--that turned out to be the one I'd already found during a search of my own. The only way I got the thing working (this was with a DirecWay satellite):1. Connect the satellite USB to your PC;
2. Connect the PC to Port #1 of the router with an Ethernet cable;
3. Run the setup program several times until it agrees that you indeed have an Internet connection;
4. The user guide lists a web-based configuring tool for the router. It might take most of a morning, but try to make your browser go there: the link is correct, just super busy or messed up or something;
5. Turn off the dynamic thingie that assigns virtual IP addresses (note: my ISP assigns static IP addresses);
6. Under (I think) the Router tab, change it--contrary to the instructions--from Gateway to Router.
7. Exit, then run the Internet Connection Sharing program on your PC (instructions vary depending on OS).
8. Set up the client computers with whatever software and hardware you bought for wireless hookup, then run your pc's version of the Network Connection Wizard.
9. The host pc's browser wouldn't run properly when I followed the instructions to turn off the proxy server in Explorer; turn it back on once everything is installed and it should browse OK. This was far too much work to get something like this going. It works now, but only after three days of frustration and nonexistent support documentation and people. Also: satellites may sound cool, but unless you're up in the mountains somewhere, a cable or DSL will be faster (no delay waiting for a signal to bounce back from the satellite), cheaper, and easier to install.
Rating: 
Summary: Beta quality at best.
Review: Its hard to know which of the faults are the router's fault, and which are the card's, but since the card is also Linksys, they are most definitely at fault. To give credit where credit is due, the intallation is miraculously easy and quick. The configuration GUI is fantastic, but... When connected wired, the DNS is slow and uneven (keep getting host not found, keep having to retry). When connected wirelessly it works a little intermitently with the simplest configuration, but when you try to button it down by disabling SSID broadcast, or enabling WEP, forget about it. You might as well try to get water from a stone. This is beta quality at best. The standards are new, the product is new, and obviously Linksys hasn't worked the bugs out. If you can't live without 802.11g, and must have the nifty blue case with the cool antennas, then buy this product and be a paying beta tester for Linksys. Otherwise try another vendor, or better yet, wait for things to settle down. As for me, this is the fourth Linksys product I've had problems with (I had 2 hubs die, and the companion wireless card WPC11G is defective), and I'll never buy another Linksys product again.
Rating: 
Summary: Installation is impossible, works well after installed.
Review: I wrote this to help out others who bought it. As soon as you run the install disk, the program crashes (cannot get onto internet) so the install disk appears worthless. Don't give up, look for an icon that says the manual. It is almost hidden. Open the document and print it on a color (highly recommended) printer. Guess what, they didn't provide a manual on paper and the electronic manual is behind an obscure button. Basically, you can talk to the box using internet explorer without an internet connection. But you need to know the address. So you have to go into DOS, and ping it. It will return an address. Then you go into your internet explorer and type that address (something like 168.169.200.55) and you are in the menu of the box. Then you tell the box what type of internet connection you have (POPeP, POPxx, xxxx, xxx etc (I forgot)), supply your password and user name if you provider requires it, Then it should work as a wired router. So how do you know if Verizon is using POPep or another internet connection? You have to call support. Wireless is easy if you don't use passwords. Of course, that is dangerous. I suggest you first get the connection to work reliably without passwords before worrying about it. I recommend passwords. More pitfalls. If you use password, it provides you with 2 levels of encryption. Use the simplier smaller one because your wireless PC card cannot handle the complex one. Then it ask you for a key phrase, supply something - this is not your password. Then 4 keys are generated on four lines. Write down the key for the first line -- this is your password even though it is not named as such. I haven't tried the other lines, maybe they are passwords also. On your wireless card, when you log on, it ask you for a password, supply what I said in the last paragraph. If you get fustrated, shut everything down and power up in the sequence suggest in the manual. Some of the software/hardware changes requires a reboot -- even though the software didn't ask you to. Is this complicated enough? I have 2 doctor degrees, make my living as something like a technical writer, built my own computer from chips, can program in C, Fortran, Pascal, machine language, and I still couldn't figure it out. I don't have network experience. You may need to call support and have someone guide you through - like I did. Make sure you buy from a place with a liberal refund policy.
Rating:
Summary: VPN Users Beware
Review: This isn't a bad router but if you are planning to use it to access via VPN (to access an account at work for example) using a wireless card you are out of luck (for now). There is a known issue with this router it seems. It wil not work with a wireless card to access your VPN network (hard-wire WILL work). I opened a ticket with Linksys tech support but I don't have a fix yet.
Rating:
Summary: Works great - easy to set up
Review: I've been very happy with it so far - done a firmware update without a hitch. Easy setup
Rating:
Summary: Works as advertised...
Review: Not a geek but needed to lose my dial up connection. No cable connection in my computer rooms and I didn't want to drill holes in the walls so I put the WRT54G next to the cable modem and cable (TV) receiver with the kitchen tv. Installed a WMP54G PCI adapter card in both computers and spent the day futzing. Once I realized I had bad cables going to the modem and that I had to put the splitter before the tv receiver, things went well. Had to call tech support 2-3 times...got through within 10 minutes. Techs had thick accents but I listened closely and they solved my problems in just a few minutes. Speed is wonderful, stability is great. Helps to read instructions carefully before attempting install...the CD's for the adapter cards are for Win ME and 2K, NOT XP. My XP pro did most of the install and configuration once I left it alone. Nice set up. Very satisfied overall and I learned a great deal about networking as I worked through my problems.
Rating:
Summary: WRT54G
Review: I just purchased this router from circuit city last week. It was very easy to hok up. I can use it for my hp 5455 an my presario 2570. Both interfaced by wireless means without any problems. I can be 150 feet away in my house and still get a 54 mbps connection. Very good product 5 stars!
Rating:
Summary: "Press the reset key for 60 seconds, then power on"
Review: Set-up is easy. I got it connected to Comcast broadband cable in 5 minutes. Novices will want to spend some time in the Settings sections, as there are several variables such as Hidden SSID and WEP which should be set. Operation with 1-4 computers is usually fine, except the desktop occasionally gets a Not Available message, even when there are no other computers online. Operation at 802.11g is fine with a LinkSys card. Several 802.11b non-LinkSys PC cards also connected fine. LinkSys support is better than average. Answer time less than 15 minutes and an English-as-a-first-language speaker who was a pleasure to work with when the little Diag light came on. The long and the short of the solution, which has six steps, is "Press the reset key for 60 seconds, then power on". Unfortunately, even with the latest ROM software download, the wireless router fails about once a week and requires the six-step reset. My spouse cannot cope with the complexities, and I'm not pleased that the software cannot handle the modest traffic it gets. So, you pays your money and takes your chances...If I had [$$$] (with PC card) to spend again, I'd look eleswhere first.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: Bought the router and access point along with a wireless g pcmcia card by linksys, and have had absolutely no problems. Set up was extremely simple. I didn't even need the software that came with the router. I am running a total of four computers off the router: two wired PC's running XP, a wireless laptop running XP, and a mac running OS 9.2. Only thing I recomend is to be sure to turn on WEP because it is not automatically turned on and is an important security feature.
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