Rating: 
Summary: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY............................
Review: Hi, I bought the WRT54G (linksys wireless - g router) and the WGA54G (this game adapter), together. The router was straight forward to setup, no matter what they say you always have to set something up, it won't just plug in and work. For the Router I had to HTTP into it's settings and change connection type to PPOE and type in my user id and password so my router can log me in automatically. Now the GAME ADAPTER I ALMOST SENT BACK. You must also set this up on your pc first. plug into your nic card in pc. then use cd to go into setup, that's not the problem. The problem that I had was when I plugged it into my PS2 it would not connect. The reason was since I was using a wired connection to my network adapter on my ps2, my network settings on the ps2 were set to type in user id and password. What happens is since I already had that set in my router (as I explained above) I was trying to actually log in twice by having the same setting in my ps2. So I had to go in and remove the user name and pass, save it to my memory card and it worked. It took me 3 hours altogether to get it going. But it is well worth it, it works great! Just remember to take your username and password in your ps2, if your connecting to a router like myself that already has that info in it's setting.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally got it working
Review: I wrote the paragraph after this one (my initial review of this product) before I tried an experiment. The experiment: On a hunch, I downgraded my firmware on the wrt54g router to 1.42.2. from 1.42.3. It worked. The wireless connection works and I now have online, wireless ps2 gaming. Apparently, nobody at Linksys tested the wga54g with a Linksys wrt54g version 1.1 router having the latest (version 1.42.3) firmware. Shame on Linksys if that's the case. 5 stars for the performance, but I'm taking away 2 stars because of the difficult time I had getting it to work. Now, for the old paragraph from my initial reviewI just went through my second unit. Both times, everything's fine with a direct connection to the router. Unfortunately, the Wireless-G light does not go on, and there's not internet connection, w/out a direct connection to the router, which makes the device useless. Tech support could not help. My router and wga54g settings are correct. Lot's of similar complaints here, but I'm not sure if there are this many defective units out there. It's possible that a fix exists, but Linksys technical support is clueless. So, it's either the problem is either an abundance of defective units, or a shortage of good tech support.
Rating:
Summary: Works, but it can be glitchy...
Review: I read all of the reviews posted here before I purchased the Wireless-G Game Adapter, and like someone wrote earlier, it's much easier to config if you DON'T plug it directly into your PC's NET card; if you do so, chances are your computer won't even see it. Instead, plug it into your hub/router; from there, it's a snap. Just put in the CD, and follow the wizard's instructions. When I connected the device into the net adapter of my PS2, it set up easily - just remember the IP address you're given. However, lagtime and disconnections are frequent. It CAN be frustrating...I don't know if it's the distance (my PC is in my 2nd floor back BR, and the PS2 is in the front of my basement), or what, but this is a common occurance. If anyone knows a solution, I'm open to suggestion...
Rating:
Summary: An additional tip for those having trouble
Review: I wrote a review earlier. I have noticed some people still having trouble. Some of this trouble may occur when people trying using the web-based utility. Basically, you can set up everything correctly and the main page of the web-based utility will still say that the wireless adapter is "not connected". What's happening? While the web-based utility is running the ethernet port of the wga54g is connected to the ethernet port of your pc. If, as suggested by Linksys, you manually select an ip address for the wga54g on the network (as opposed to allowing the router to assign an address using DHCP), the wireless address for you wga54g will share its internet address with the ethernet port of the wga54g, resulting in a conflict. Because of this conflict,the web-based utility will report that the wireless adapter is not attached to the network. If you disconnect the wga54g's ethernet port, however, the web-based utility will not function, as it seems to require a wired link to the network. My advice. Follow Linksys's advice about manually assigning an ip address. Don't worry about the "Not connected" status reported by the web-based utility. If, according to the web-based utility, the wga54g sees the network, you are probably in decent shape. Disconnect the wga54g's ethernet port from the pc, connect the wga54g to the network port of your gaming system, configure the gaming system, and test to see if all works. Hint: To eliminate range concerns, it's handy to move the gaming system into the same room as the pc while you are configuring everything
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible Product, Worse Support
Review: Wow! What can I say about this product? History:
I've been using Linksys products since 1998, and have had nothing but great experiences. I've referred many folks to spend the extra money on a Linksys, as it was the "Cadallic of home networking gear." To my shock and surprise, I can unfortunately say this no longer. I purchased the WGA54G adapter, along side with a Linksys wireless broadband router. From the start, this piece of junk looked like trouble. The packaging and instructions were poor. I plugged it in, and after 5 minutes, the unit becomes uncomfortably warm. Plus, there's this faint "hissing" noise it makes when fully powered on. After an hour of repeat attempts, I eventually get the unit to "see" my broadband router, which is only 20 feet away. It connects fine, transmits data, and then at a COMPLETELY random period of time, the unit disconnects from the basestation, and is unable to transmit data, connect to the Internet, grab an IP address, nothing. (Non)Resolution:
After much frustration, I call Linksys 24x7 "technical support." It reaches an outsourced call center in a foreign country. After two hours, here are my new impressions of Linksys new customer support: •They speak very poor English
•They have very basic/poor product knowledge.
•When I asked for technical help from a level 2 technician, I experienced hostility
•I told them that I needed WEP privacy. They advised against this, as there are "problems" with WEP on the unit. Not acceptable-I'm not opening up my home network to the rest of the world.
•They insisted that my router was working, when I told them five various times it was still not working. Conclusion: Junk
In conclusion, Linksys poorly designed a cheap product, and they only back it up with terrible customer support. I left this with an absolute customer experience. Until the folks at Cisco (who own Linksys) catch up with these problems, BE CAREFUL!! So what to do? Some say try another vendor. What do I do? Funny enough, someone gave me a second Linksys WRT54G router. I added the Sveasoft firmware hack to boost output to 84mW, and then threw it into "client" mode, and WEP encryption works (no WAP yet). It's worked flawlessly. If you'd have to pay for this, you'd end up saving money over the WGA54G purchase, and see dependable results.
Rating:
Summary: works just fine
Review: We connected 4 xboxes using these wireless devices and they worked great. We played 2 different games using only one network segment even though the wga45g supports 11 segments. My only con, it's a little expensive.
Rating:
Summary: Buy it for playing online games, not for the ease of setup
Review: I should first point out that I recommend Linksys products to other people. I bought the WRT54G and WGA54G at the same time, in order to use them together. Setting up and configuring the router was easy, as I had a BEFSX41, until getting the wireless router. According to Linksys, the only difference between the two (other than the obvious wireless LAN) is that you cannot turn off the firewall in the WRT54G. (There seems to be a firewall enable/disable on the web based utility, so I'm not sure what they were trying to tell me.) Back to the game adapter. This thing cost me at least 1.5 days of heartache. True, if you follow the quick start directions by connecting the game adapter (GA) directly to the computer, and using the setup CD, you won't have many problems (although I found that I had to assign an IP address to my PC manually, instead of using DHCP for this to work reliably). The real problem comes into play when you want to use the web based utility. If your first thought was that you could use the web based utility wirelessly, think again. Linksys says it should work. It doesn't. After spending 65 minutes talking to a support person, he finally got so upset with me (even though I was doing my best to keep cool about it, and do everything he asked), that he had me connect it to my PS2 and connect wirelessly to an online game, he said problem solved, even though I couldn't use the web based utility wirelessly. He was unwilling to go any further. What I did learn was what someone else already said. If you want to use the web based utility, you have to be connected with a wired connection. My best luck was connecting directly to the PC, as before, and then typing the IP address of the GA into your browser. You can then set everything up you wish. I was even connected to the internet wirelessly after everything was set up correctly, through the GA (after I switched my PC back to DHCP). Once that is done, disconnect it, and connect up your gaming console, and you should be ready to go. I would hope that Linksys will come out with a firmware upgrade that will make the interface more reliable. The problem with connecting it wired to the router is as stated below, that you will have an IP conflict, because you have the same IP address registered as a wired IP and a wireless IP (Windoze XP kept pointing this out to me, and I finally realized why). Unless the GA disconnects from the router wirelessly, it will be a pain to set up this way. I would still recommend this product, as it works perfectly, once set up, however, here are a few tips to remember. 1. Don't use online chat with Linksys while trying to set up this game adapter if you are using the computer you are using to chat, as the computer you are trying to set the game adapter up with. Reason: You will most likely get disconnected because you are fooling with IP addresses, and you can't reconnect to the same person. 2. Set up your router and game adapter to be "Wireless-G only" if you don't have any Wireless-B devices, because your W-G connection will be faster.
Rating:
Summary: works on PS2 fine but Xbox problems no ip
Review: I found that connecting it to the PS2 and playing online is extremly fast with no lag time. When I connected it to my Xbox and tried connecting it to XBCONNECT it won't allow me to host or join. The reason being is because when I check the IP Settings on the Xbox it says 0.0.0.0 a broadcast. When I use a cat 5 cable I get the locally assigned 192.168.1.104 from my linksys wireless-g router. It assigns it fine with PS2 though which is the strange part. Well, since I can't get an IP it is useless trying to use any FTP program for the "changed" xbox hint hint. I need an IP to FTP. I am not sure what the problem is at this point.
Rating:
Summary: Bewildered
Review: I plugged this unit into my PC as in the directions and tried several times, but it couldn't find it. I also tried plugging it into my router and it still couldn't find it as one other person had success with. While plugged into the back of the router is the only time the 'g' light shines. I also tried the online utility and I tried entering "admin" as instructed several times and it went nowhere? So I thought what the heck, I'll just plug it into the Xbox and see if it works. The 'g' light won't light even though it's only about 7 feet away, however, it seems to work on some level. I played Project Gothem racing and Mechassault with no problems. According to the "ScreenSavers", you don't need 'G' speed anyway to run this stuff. My complaint is these directions and utilities seem to be useless and I followed the directions to a tee!
Rating:
Summary: Skipping and dragging
Review: Set my adapter up with no problems. The problems come in when your playing online. I have NCAA 2004 and it is a terrible connection. By the way, I have a high speed cable connection so there is no excuse. Every 4 to 5 seconds it locks up and freezes. That is no good when your in the middle of a timing pattern over the middle. Not worth the money to me. I will just buy a router and run wires again.
|
