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US Robotics USR8054 802.11g Wireless Turbo Router with 100 Mbps

US Robotics USR8054 802.11g Wireless Turbo Router with 100 Mbps

List Price:
Your Price: $67.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I give up!
Review: I've had this router for about a year now and have been plagued with stability problems the majority of the time.

The first couple of months after buying it were pretty much trouble free, if I remember correctly. After that, it's been going steadily downhill. At first there would be a period of several days of frequent spontaneous router reboots (sometimes every 5 to 15 mins). After this, I'd have several weeks (perhaps a month or two) of trouble free operation.

The past month or so, I've experienced disconnections at erratic intervals (sometimes I'll go several hours without a reboot/disconnection, other times I'll get disconnected every 15 mins). The only way I've found to break the chain is to:

1. Reboot the router from the setup screen.
2. Unplug the router and plug it back in again.
3. Turn off Wireless Radio for a period of time and then turn it back on again.

Some of these don't always work - sometimes manually rebooting or powering off/on the router doesn't clear up the problems. When the reboots finally stop I'm always left wondering what did the trick.

I've tried the different versions of the official firmware that's been released with little difference in the stability - I might go a week or two with few problems only to have several days of frequent disconnections (same firmware, no changes in settings).

The WPA Pre-shared key encryption works well (just choose an SSID that has 7 characters or less). Unfortunately, the same firmware that introduced WPA also introduced the dynamic channels feature. Dynamic channels is supposed to allow the router to search for channels with less noise/interference to broadcast on. Maybe it really does this, but my wireless network card (a US Robotics 5416) can't seem to pick up on the signal when the router is set to "dynamic" (I've tried using included utility and also SP2's native wireless support). That by itself isn't a big deal - just turn the option off on the router. The problem is that the option doesn't stay off! Every now and then the router spontaneously reboots with the dynamic option set to ON (even though the default is supposed to be OFF), and when it does I can't connect without running to the next room with an Ethernet connected computer to change the setting back on the router. I'm not sure if this has been fixed with the latest version of the firmware (1.64b34) - I recently upgraded to it but am still having connection problems (now also with my Ethernet connected computer).

The latest twists with this new firmware:

1. I'm having trouble accessing the web setup page for the router (only powering off/on the router fixes this).
2. I can't connect to the internet from my wireless comp even when I'm wirelessly connected to the router.

Anti-virus and trojan checks have come back clean.

I've even tried putting my computer in a DMZ and checking my firewall log to see if the disconnections could be due to attacks on the router, but I haven't noticed anything unusual.

While the newest firmware is supposed to allow speeds up to 125 Mbps (about 15.5 MB per sec) and my software tells me that I have a 125Mbps connection, I've never gotten transfer rates higher than 5Mbps (about 550 KB per sec) between locally networked computers (one wireless, one connected by Ethernet to the router). The distance between the router and my wireless computer is about 15 feet, with 2 walls and some furniture between them (despite this, I'm still getting an average of 82% signal strength). I'm not expecting anything close to 125Mbps, but 5 still seems kind of low to me. I haven't tried bringing my wireless computer into the same room as the router to see what the speed would be.

Anyhow, I give up on this router.
I would absolutely not recommend it.
I'm off to go shopping for a Linksys.

Number of disconnections while writing this review: at least 5


Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Poor product
Review: If you are looking into buying this AP/Router do yourself a favor and look into linksys or dlink (or even netgear). I bought this few months back and never could use it for more than an hour or so before the router dropping my connection. Then the only option is to reboot the router before my laptops can connect back to it. This problem is prominent when you have WEP enabled. I finally went back to using my old linksys 802.11b AP/Router and now use this one solely as a switch. If you are not planning to use WEP or WPA and do not mind occassional drop in connection then you may get away with this. But I would not suggest running AP without password to anyone.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Do not buy this router, no matter the price!
Review: The previous reviews have laid out many of the issues with this router, so I will try to succinctly tell you why I would never recommend this router.

Since I purchased this modem, I have experienced continuous disconnections. I have upgraded to the latest firmware and still see dozens of disconnections per day. The only way to stop this is to take the antennae of the unit.

Do yourselves a favour. Buy a LinkSys.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This Router Rocks
Review: This is a great router. Plug it in, turn it on, forget about it. It just works, and works fast. Great product, no problems, highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great product, great range
Review: This is the best router I've used yet. The range is great, works great with my older devices in 802.11b mode and 802.11g devices from other manufacturers. Never had to call tech supports so I can't comment on that, however I haven't needed to. The instructions are less than polished and you will benifit using setup wizard in the web administration. Never had any connection drops, but have solved them in other routers using a hard reset (usually involves unplugging router and holding reset for 30 seconds or so, then plugging back in and releasing the reset button).
Overall I think it's a great router, the only cons i can find are that there is no Static DHCP Server and the setup could be difficult for persons unfamiliar with how routers work.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Has potential... When will we see it???
Review: To give you some background, I picked up the USR8054 as an open box return at a local store. I felt I would test my luck and see how bad or good this router really is.

To give you fair warning, I'd like to think I'm pretty technically savvy. After resetting the router(previous buyer didn't clear his settings), the router quickly and easily detected my wan(cable modem) and my connected computer(via wired lan). Normally it's a good idea to configure your router via the wired lan before connecting via wifi, although this router does allow for the initial connection via wifi. (Caution: This router in it's default state does not require authentication to access the network, configure the WiFi security first to close out intruders.)

The interface I found easy to use but looks exactly like their website(IMHO cheesy to dupe their website). I left the initial network settings at default with the network being 192.168.123.X. Didn't bother using the wizard, reading the manual, or the integrated help. More or less the system was plug and play. If you are using xDSL, there are some other configurations you need to do, which I did not test.

Feature-wise, the router seems to have most(about 80-90%) features found on other routers. The features it did lack I found to be the ones I find the most important. Contrary to the description, WPA (WiFi Protected Access) is not supported as of the date of this review using firmware 1.21h(Always update your firmware to the latest available). WPA has been an interim security standard for quite some time and has been recognized by Microsoft, Netgear, and many others. USR states they are waiting for ratification of WPA... Ratification??? WPA has long been made a standard!!! The only thing pending ratification is 802.11i which is due out very soon.(802.11i will replace WPA as the security standard). For those wondering, WEP has been found to be highly insecure and thus WPA was released to address the security issues of WEP.

After testing the wired lan, I tested the WiFi portion using no encryption. I found performance and range to be exceptionally good.(Also mentioned and supported in professional reviews)

The firewall is decent and supports DMZ and port forwarding. No SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) which is probably why the router performs so well. No ability to filter based on keywords in the URL(Parental control).

If your primariy concern is security when using WiFi, I would seriously consider purchasing a different router. Otherwise, the router is fast and cheap.

The Breakdown

Pros
-Easy Setup (Remember I'm a techy)
-Slick black casing
-Inexpensive for a router offering 54Mbps+
-DMZ feature
-DHCP Lease time control

Cons
-No Static DHCP entries
-No WPA support
-No URL keyword filtering
-Interface needs attention to details.(ie. Post settings submission screen)

In my opinion, USR is still new to the networking arena and needs to mature. The router certainly fills basic needs but forgets some of the more advance features found in more popular routers. If anything, this router certainly doesn't stand out. If USR improves the firmware for this router, I'm sure it can be a much nicer router. Until then, I wouldn't recommend this router for anyone considering the lack of security and other fundamental features.

Routers I've worked with: Negear FR314(Wired), DLINK DI-604(Wired), Netgear MR814(Wireless), SMC 2804WBR(Wireless).


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