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Summary: Linksys WRV54G Wireless Review
Review: I brought this just recently 2 months ago and had no problem setting this up. I have 3 computers and 1 print server connect to it wirelessly using 802.11B & 802.11G network connections. I have not yet get a drop signal or disconnection. I just want to let you that this network device is not for beginners it takes some knowledge of VPN to set up or you have to do some research. Begginers should try Dlink or Microsofts network routers. Instructions I would say is a little skippy but the product works great.
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Summary: What happened to the Network Engineers in the world?
Review: I have read all the reviews here. I have also successfully set up numerous types and brands of VPNs where I work as a network engineer. As soon as I saw that my favorite home brand of networking devices came out with wireless g and vpn in one, I had to have it. I have at my house: Windows 2003 Server hard-wired, 2 WinXP Workstations, Playstation 2 with Wireless G Game adaptor (Linksys), and a Sony Clie UX50 w/built in Wireless B. First of all, all my LAN devices have had absolutely NO issues with connections, port forwarding, etc. The Wireless G and Wireless B successfully connect every time, even though if both are connected at the same time (a "flaw" with a mixed connection is that the protocol automatically drops to the lower 802.11b for all clients... but that's a global issue with Wireless G APs). Then, I have my VPN setup so that I can connect from my parent's house, work, and anywhere I choose to. Since I have tons of experience with VPN setups as well as tons of use with the Linksys/Cisco interfaces, this was a breeze for me. I don't know why there are such negative reviews on this product, it's by far the cheapest home/small business setup you can have. At the risk of sounding like a complete snob, if you are well versed in setting up VPN, then have no fear. If you have any reservations at all, you will want to read up on VPN in books or via Microsoft's articles.
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Summary: 0 Stars - Congratulations Cisco on Killing LinkSys.
Review: Seems like since Cisco bought Linksys, they halted development on all their products. And linksys products NEED development. Doesn't act as a VPN endpoint because they changed the software to require you KNOW the IP address of your traveling USER. As if dialup/hotel accounts ever give a random address out. (sic).That's annoying and I might have had a little patience if the damned basic router worked. It didn't. If you have a webserver and DNS on the inside of your network being accessed by the public with port forwarding (80 and 53), and your local clients try to access sites on that server by name, the DNS will give them the correct info (the external interface of the router), the router figures out they're on the inside of the network(even though they are asking for the external address), and of course it KNOWS they must want to access the router configuration page.... all the older linksys routers seem to perform this function correctly, and changing the type of forwarding (3 avail in this device) doesn't help. The G band performance bites compared to the weak performance of the wrt54g that I was trying to replace. This product is clearly defective and Cisco should recall every one and send us all coupons for beta testing their shoddy work. This is yet another example of a shoddy LinkSys product in recent times. I have had to tell my clients not to buy LinkSys without my express permission or I will not be able to guarantee the products will work no matter how much time we spend trying.
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Summary: Terrible Product - Terrible Tech Support
Review: This product claimed so many features that I knew I had to have it. Unfortunately it never lived up to the expectations. When compalining to Linksys tech support about the DNS services not working I was told to return the device and purchase another, as the device was obviously defective. The second device had the same problem. The issue is that the so-called DNS server is not opperational on the WRV54g.
One wonders if this device ever passed through a QA department - or if the quality assurance staff are as technically challenged as the tech support staff...I would not expect this low quality from any company in the Cisco group. The last contact that Linksys had with me was to use a different device (a device other than the WRV54g).
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Summary: Very Disappointed with this product
Review: I had high expectations of this device but was disappointed by the poor documentation and cumbersome configuration. After investing the time and effort to configure the device I found its most unfortunate flaw. When powered off this device reverts to factory default configuration, none of the myriad of settings are saved. Not only do you have to start from scratch but, a simple power outage could create a huge security risk to your network. When the power is restored anyone with basic knowledge of the linksys default settings could gain wireless access to your network and would easily have admistrative access on this router.
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Summary: Shame on Linksys
Review: Very disappointed with this product. The documentation is poor, making even the slightest config change requires a two minute reboot and their DNS feature is hosed. It acts as authoritative DNS for whatever domain it obtains from the ISP and then fails to resolve addresses for that domain. Example: router becomes router.ispname.com When trying to resolve mail.ispname.com the Router acts as authoritative DNS and does not relay that request so the request fails. I saw in the config where you can change the domain...but it doesn't work. This really hampers the usefulness of the DHCP feature, which again does not allow customization of DNS Servers. Add the poor VPN support, horrible docs and I've experienced occassional wireless outages that I never had with my 3 year old DLink and I have to say Linksys really blew it with this product. Is this what we can expect now that Cisco bought them?
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Summary: Had major issues trying to use this router
Review: I currently have a WRT54G wireless 54G router and wanted to upgrade to the WRV54g for the VPN feature. The minute I plugged in the WRV54G I had problems. I have a WPC54G Wireless PC card, a WET54G Wireless Bridge, and a WMA11B Wireless media adapter (all Linksys products) that all work great with my WRT54G router. The only client I could get to work with the WRV54G was my wireless pc card. I never was able to figure out why. since every client had the exact same configuration when working with my WRT54G. I also had an issue with my FTP server. When an outside machine would connect, the router would lose internet access and then would have to be rebooted. I was never able to get the VPN working either. The directions are very confusing and there are too many variables that can cause an issue and it is very hard to troubleshoot. My recommendation is to stick to the WRT54G wireless router until Linksys gets some updated firmware to fix these problems.
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Summary: Poor VPN Support
Review: I upgrade a customer to this device to add the wireless capability. The were using a Linksys BEFVP41 successfully with SSH Sentinel VPN Client software. I am unable to connect with SSH Sentinel and am told by Linksys support that it does not support the SSH Sentinel software, yet, to keep checking their web site for update firmware. This is aweful that they replace a product and remove functionality.
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Summary: Mixed results, but overall a decent product
Review: I use the Linksys WRV54G in conjunction with the Linksys WPC54G notebook adapter as well as on a traditional RJ45 wired "ethernet" lan. As a router, the WRV54G seems to serve its purpose quite well. This is my second Linksys router, and I expected after my first experience with the Linksys BEFSR41 to have some initial difficulty in setting up the router, but I knew that as soon as I had all the initial setup "bugs" fixed it would work flawlessly. I was not disappointed on either account. Linksys is an excellent company, and from what I have heard their other routers with embedded Linux work just fine. I have had trouble with this one however, primarily with obtaining a stable wireless connection. I have never had much luck with wifi networks in the first place, probably because my place of residence is heavily laden with devices that can cause interference with 802.11b and 802.11g networks. I have yet to try establishing a VPN connection with the router, and from reading the other reviews I have decided not to try. I purchased the router primarily for its built-in firewall, because, although I run one of the best consumer-level software firewalls available (Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm) on every computer on my lan, I am very paranoid when it comes to network security. The router's firewall seems to work fairly well, as every test I have thrown at it it has passed. My advice, if you are willing to spend the money on this router, invest instead in a cheap low-end computer and any Linksys 802.11g access point. Install in the computer 2 NICs and install Smoothwall Express (www.smoothwall.org). Your results should be much better, and Smoothwall is free.
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Summary: The positive reviews are a little misleading.....
Review: I have had this product and already reviewed it. What gets me is the people who say "don't listen to those negative reviews..." but they never set up the VPN side of this router. If all you want is a router/firewall that is wireless and allows you to browse the Net then Linksys has other models that are much cheaper and do pretty much the exact same job. My negative comments are on the VPN side of things, which is why I purchased this product to begin with and it is why it is priced higher than a regular Linksys router. Yes... you do get more logging information than the cheaper ones... but most home networks do not care a bit about logs to begin with. You could have purchased a Linksys WRT54G much cheaper and had the exact same functionality(minus the enhanced logging features). The positive reviewers' "deceptive advertising" really "burns me up". And so far... in searching newsgroups and all over the net, only one person has claimed to have gotten the VPN working. He posted it on here and made the remark "where have all the network engineers gone?" Well... Mr. Network Engineer... how about posting exactly how you configured the router and the client and send it off to Linksys support... because they do not seem to know how to either. I have read where people have gotten it to work with another VPN router but not with a VPN client and I have had clients working with both Netgear and other Linksys VPN routers just fine. Let me say I have nothing against Linksys... I am now using a lower end VPN router from them and I gave it a great review (see www.epinions.com). It worked best out of three VPN routers I tried for using a VPN client with and I am happy with it. So my comments cannot be construed as being some sort of a Linksys basher... it is just this particular product did not do what it was advertised to do even when I went to Linksys for support.
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