Customer Reviews

Buffalo Technology Wireless-G High Power Router and Access Point with High Gain Antenna WHR-HP-G54

5 star:		(115)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Best features for the open-source router firmware enthusiast:

- built in pre-amp on Rx and power amp on Tx. Note that it's not real MIMO as the name might lead you to believe, but the amps make it have "MIMO-like performance" (which I've found is true).

- high gain antenna

- so it has a better S/N ratio than the Linksys WRT54GL, which has been the defacto standard

- support for 'afterburner' protocol (ie. 125 Mbit/s)

- Widely supported by open source firmware, eg. OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, X-Wrt, etc. And those enable it to have the most wonderful features, eg:
- WMM for smooth VOIP calls using T-Mobile's UMA phones
- WDS for creating a set of cascaded routers blanketing a large area
- Adjusting the power output directly on the Atheros on-board chip
- WPA2 with AES (WPA2 more secure than WPA, AES encryption scheme faster than TKIP), plus the ability to support mixed modes so that older devices that don't support WPA2/AES can use WPA/TKIP)
- and so much more. If you don't know about the merits of open source router firmware, you should read up!

Challenges:

- DD-WRT, OpenWrt, X-Wrt, Tomato or other open source firmware needs to be flashed with TFTP - you can't do it with the web GUI. But it's easy. Just requires timing the transfer as you switch it on.

- Buffalo encrypts their firmware so if you screw it up and want to revert back to Buffalo firmware, you can't just upload it from the web gui of whatever firmware you've installed. You have to upload the decrypted version from DD-WRT's site, and then from there you can upload the latest Buffalo version from their website.

Note: because of the built-in power amp, you shouldn't just set the power output to jam out as much juice as it can. That will make the output signal distort and actually decrease the range. I found that the best S/N ratio is obtained at about 75 mW. (Default setting is 28 mW).

After my trusty Netgear router died on me, I decided to "step up" and get a pre-N router. The experience was less than delightful.

Then I decided to give the Linksys WRT54GX4 a try. It was okay for a little while, but started dropping connections like crazy after a week or so.

Finally, after lots more research, I decided on the Buffalo and DD-WRT firmware. Talk about striking gold!

My connection hasn't dropped in weeks, and the throughput is considerably better than most WAP's and wireless routers I've used. I installed DD-WRT out of the box, so I can't really speak to the quality of the built-in firmware, but the hardware is excellent.

I've pushed the signal power to the mid 100's and overclocked the processor, with no obvious signs of overheating. So while this doesn't have the heatsink that the lower-priced version has, I haven't noticed any heat issues.

My only gripe is that the link lights for wired connections are above the ports in the back. That's great for a racked switch in a server room, but not so good for keeping an eye on things at home. Otherwise, I would have given this product a solid 5.

Due to security reasons, I wanted to update my 802.11b dlink network to the g network. After trying the every (and I mean every) 802.11g router on the market, I firmly decided on this Buffalo router and I couldn't be any happier! Linksys just wouldn't work with my Bellsouth DSL connection (even after trying PPOE settings), Netgear just did not perform adequately (range was very short and setting it up was a major ordeal). I would have been extremely satisfied with the Belkin routers (MIMO and not MIMO) since setting them up was a breeze and the easiest setup on the market today, but again range was an issue (I couldn't get past 50 feet in my house). The Buffalo router was everything I wanted, AND MORE! I must say this router is designed, in my opinion, for experts, but it can be used by people with a basic knowledge of networks and be up and running in 15 minutes. There are MANY advanced features in this router, including my favorite the INTRUSION DETECTOR. Hook this baby up and it records all of the different kind of attacks performed on your network. NAT and SPI firewall are included in this router to protect your network. I couldn't get the AOSS feature to work and seamlessly setup my network, even a call to the kindly tech support told me the AOSS feature was very finicky and was hard to get to work. This is not of really any significance, I just setup the network manually. Output power, wireless mode, framebursting, WEP, WPA, AES can all be set according to your preferences. This router can also be used as a repeater to expand your network! Just to let everyone know, this little router blew away all of the routers I tried in range and I can easily get a good signal 150 feet away (thru my house, walls, and across my yard to the neighbors house)! You can't go wrong with this router, trust me.

This is my third router in a little over a year. First was linksys, second was a 130 dollar netgear mimo... Both were completely dead within about six months, with problems starting within the first 2 weeks. The netgear was so bad I couldn't even use the wireless on my pc's because it wouldn't even broadcast the ssid most of the time - I finally junked that netgear because not even the wired ports were working anymore (because the wireless was so abysmal I was actually running an ethernet cord out the window upstairs to my computer). Netgear = Garbage.

Did some research and every single buffalo product got overall great customer feedback on amazon, cnet, newegg, you name it.

Things I like:
You can use dif firmware if you so choose. I haven't, but it's a nice option.
Tech support in the US.
I now get good to great signal in every corner of my 3 story house, which I've never seen before (especially with my pda whose wireless antenna has bad range)
This is the first router where I have seen absolutely no decrease in my speed (wired). I work for my ISP and advertised speed for my svc is 6 megs down... My old routers were slowing down the connection WIRED on average 500 kbps to 1500 kbps. This router has me running at a solid 6900 kbps wired (same speed it runs without the router), and the wireless tests around 4800kbps... Of course wireless with anything will run slower, but on all my machines I don't see drastic speed losses the way I did through my old routers.

I use the wireless usb adapter and it works amazing with it. I also like their wireless utility. It seems very stable - It's fast, clean, not resource hogging, and doesn't crash all the time like linksys'. The usb wireless card also picks up more networks with better signal than the 2 previous cards we were using (linksys usb and asus pci cards)

The user configuration interface is not all that pretty, but I don't care - the only thing that I care about is if it works well and this router works great. I wish when you configured it it wouldn't have to reboot EVERY time because the reboots take 30 seconds to a min and a half, but that's just a price I'm willing to pay for something that works.

--- just an update ---
I have now had this router for over a year and it still works like a champ.

- I had forgotten to note in my original review firmware is a little tricky to update If you don't know what you're doing. You actually have to download it to your computer, unzip it, and upload it through the router's webpage. If you're not all that computer savvy call tech support and they should talk you through it. I can't really comment on their support though I've never had to call - as I said still runs like a champ. Never need to reboot it or anything. If my cable internet service goes down or the power goes out, the router always recognizes when the connection is available and always resyncs to my modem immediately - believe me when I say there are MANY routers that don't do that.

----- ALSO -----
For anyone who is new to router shopping, make sure that if you do use a cordless phone, it does not say "2.4GHz" on it. If you do have a 2.4GHz cordless phone I can pretty much guarantee you will have severe problems with wireless internet, some routers will have more difficulty than others, but 2.4GHz cordless phones basically use the same frequencies as your wireless router and WILL disrupt your connection. Just a tip.

This is a great wireless access point with strong performance and many good features. I have installed many access points, including those from Linksys and Cisco. I liked the price of the Linksys units, but they lacked the professional setup and administration features of the Cisco models(ignoring the fact that Cisco now owns Linksys). This Buffalo unit combines the best of both: good price and professional features. Among the nice features, there are three that I have found to be very helpful:

1) This unit can be used as a repeater with other units of the same type. This allows you to extend your wireless network into those dark corners of your house or business.

2) This access point works great as a bridge unit when combined with the Buffalo Ethernet Converter. I have used these to link buildings with directional antenna. When used in this mode, this router has a physical switch that dumbs down the unit, turning off the WAN NAT routing and DHCP server, so you don't have to go through a bunch of setup screens.

3) When combining two or more Buffalo units, they have a push button setup feature that configures all of the security settings. This saves a lot of time.

As a final comment, no, I don't work for Buffalo or in any way sell or support their products, except as an end user. I am an engineer, and I appreciate well designed products that make my life easier.

Tom

Well, in my particular scenario I am measuring a 30% throughput increase in my wireless with this unit over the D-link 624.

My office is 60ft and several walls away from the unit, and I am getting 16Mbps in actual throughput. I get 20Mbps when closer to the unit.
Note, these are actual data throughput and not theoretical measures as you usually get.

The signal strength is -70 to -60dBm with noise of -95 to -90 dBm using an Atheros mini pci client card.

Next, I will try DD-WRT on this unit and see how things improve.

I bought this router knowing I was immediately going to flash it with the free DD-WRT firmware. It's built in high powered (that what the HP stands for) signal amplifier can be adjusted quite generously with DD-WRT for unbelievable range, making it the absolute best solution for anyone.

While not as simple to flash with third party firmware as other routers, it still only took seconds to do with no special jtag or other cables needed.

From the DD-WRT Wiki:
*********************
Out-of-the-box: First-time-flashing for 'store-bought' Buffalo models
The web interface on a Buffalo-router cannot be used the very first time to convert the Buffalo router from factory firmware to DD-WRT.

It is very easy though to bypass this on most models (see specific models below for exceptions):

1.Google 'tftp2.exe', and download a copy from a website.
2.From the DD-WRT website, download dd-wrt.v24_std_generic.bin from the v2.4 SP1 folder, or the latest release.
3.Plug your ethernet cable (not wireless!) into a LAN port on the Buffalo.
4.Your IP address auto-assigned is usually 192.168.11.2, but you must manually set it to flash this time only.
5.Assign the IP of 192.168.11.2 to your network adapter. In most Microsoft Windows this is Start, Control Panel, Network Connections, find the LAN connection and right-click, find TCPIP and click Properties, and set the IP to 192.168.11.2 and the Subnet to 255.255.255.0. Do not change any other settings!
6.Open TFTP2.EXE. Put in 192.168.11.1 for the Server, and select the .bin firmware image from step 2.
7.Unplug the Buffalo. Get your mouse ready to click on the Upgrade button in TFTP2.
8.Plug in the Buffalo. The diag light with all the other lights may come on very quickly and go out. A few seconds later when the diag light blinks, immediately press the Upgrade button in TFTP2.
The diag light flashes for awhile, the router restarts, and you are done! Don't forget now to change your LAN TCPIP back to DHCP (Automatic).


Misc. Notes: The procedure above is necessary the first time flashing from the factory Buffalo firmware to DD-WRT firmware, because, normally, most companies let you upload firmware directly from the user interface. Buffalo, unfortunately, encrypts their firmware, meaning their routers from the Web interface will accept only their encrypted firmware.

The first time you flash, the TFTP method can be used to bypass the 'encrypted' firmware requirement. Afterwards, the router firmware can be changed through the Web interface normally.

All the Broadcom routers normally enter a special mode in the first few seconds after power is applied that allows a TFTP transfer to directly program the flash ROM with new firmware. So what you do is get everything ready to go. 1. power up the router, and then 2. send the router the new firmware, quickly.

WHR-G54S, WHR-HP-G54, WZR-HP-G54 Specifics
Once you flash to DD-WRT on the Buffalo WHR-G54S/WHR-HP-G54/WZR-RS-G54 and you want to flash back to the Buffalo firmware, look in the downloads section of [...] in the "buffalo factory revert" folder for unencrypted firmware that will load from the DD-WRT GUI. The WHR-HP-G54 image is the German version. Download the English version from Buffalo's site. Flash the German version and use that to flash the English version.
A hidden LED behind the front panel may blink on older models. It slightly lights up the bridge icon. This LED is not used in the Buffalo firmware, but in DD-WRT it will flash on for 2 seconds, then off for 2 seconds.
WARNING: One person reports: I had problems using the mini version of DD-WRT v23SP2 on my WHR-G54S. When using the (standard, full) generic version, everything worked fine.

I just received this router today. I ordered it with Amazon 1 day express shipping to these back woods. Arrived on schedule! Kul.

I have had two routers, one for the main house with the cable modem (Motorola, bought at Amazon) and one for the cabin where I live. A 100 foot cable from Radio Shack connects across the creek. The main router is/was a Linksys with phone ports for CallVantage service. Callvantage cut me off due to lack of E911 service here. Immediately after cancelling the VOIP service the router started crashing and re-setting it's name, etc.

After frantically searching for something to replace the Linksys (already have a netgear, tired of re-booting that thing) I discovered this Buffalo.

An excellent feature which is not mentioned is that one can set it to be a wireless bridge; you set a switch and it receives wifi, transmitting it over the ethernet cables. A dedicated box which does this costs more than this router. The radio signal is indeed much stronger than the Linksys WRT; I can receive it in the cabin on my iBook and Tivo. The Mac Mini will not take as it has no external antenna. I have an extended antenna coming tomorrow. It does do 802.11b as well as G, by the way. This is not mentioned anywhere. Your PDA units do B, not G.

One oddity is that the DC input has no label for what voltage is required. Be careful here, as it is 5 volt, not 12 volt like everyone else. The supplied DC converter lists its' output, the box does not list the required input. I consider this a defective design as leaving old DC converters in place and putting the new electronic piece in is my usual practice. Luckily I checked the supplied converter first.

There is no printed documentation included, just two windows install disks.
One of these disks has the manual in a sub-directory as a PDF. There I learned that the router sits at address 192.168.11.1 and the admin login stuff.

It did come online automatically and grab an address from the cable modem. If you require PPOE you'll have to configure it to get online.

I subtract a star for the unlabeled 5 volt input and documentation.

This is a great product with a few problems that once fixed make this a great deal and for the price a bargin,

1. first update firmware you cannont set up router without doing this
2. In the companies white papers it states that a 2.4 Ghz phone will not cause interference it does if a remote computer is attemptimg to connect to the router while the land line is in use. Settig a static channel on the router instead of letting the router auto scan for a channel fixes this problem.
3. FAST WELL BUILT GREAT TECH SUPPORT
A good purchase

This router is absolutely spectacular. I installed the DD-WRT firmware on it as soon as I got it out of the box, and I am immensely pleased with it's performance. My last router was a Netgear FWG114P 802.11g Wireless Firewall with USB Print Server (which, as you can see, is nearly twice the price) and the difference is like night and day.

For those only interested in wireless signal performance, this item is for you. After installing the DD-WRT firmware and increasing the signal broadcast strength to 70, I can get connect to my wireless network anywhere in my 2000 sq ft house and backyard with a full 5 bars of strength. Using my previous NETGEAR router, connection strength was spotty at best. I also noticed a great improvement in even my wired connections; I went from downloading at about 600k/sec on my old router to downloading at 1.4mb/sec on the Buffalo.

For those with advanced technical knowledge and the desire to get more out of their router than just a shared IP, then look no further. With the DD-WRT firmware installed, you can do pretty much anything you can think of with this router: Access Point, Bridge, Ad Hoc, Port Forwarding, VPN, overclocking, limiting internet access times per individual PC, etc.

In summary, if you are in need of a new router, BUY THIS. You will not be disappointed.