Cisco-Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54GC

by Cisco

Product Details

Product Manual [1.93mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0007MGG2M
• Item model number: WRT54GC
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (192 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,791 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 20, 2005

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The Linksys compact wireless-G broadband router is an all-in-one Internet-sharing router, four-port switch, and 54 Mbps wireless-G access point. Almost five times faster than 802.11b, it can also interoperate with any 802.11b device (at 11 Mbps).

The Linksys compact wireless-G broadband router is really three devices in one small box. There's the wireless access point, which lets you connect both screamingly fast wireless-G (802.11g at 54 Mbps) and wireless-B (802.11b at 11 Mbps) devices to yout network. There's also a built-in four-port full-duplex 10/100 switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices together. Connect four PCs directly, or attach more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need. Finally, the router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection.

Connect up to four wired PCs and share Internet, printers, digital music and pictures, document files, and multiplayer or online games.

Once your computers are connected to the router and the Internet, they can communicate with each other, too, sharing a printer, digital music, picture and document files, and multiplayer or online games. To protect your data and privacy, the wireless-G broadband router can encode all wireless transmissions with WEP or industrial-strength WPA personal encryption. The router can serve as a DHCP server, has a powerful SPI firewall to protect your PCs against intruders and most known Internet attacks, and supports VPN pass-through. Configuration is a snap with the Web browser-based configuration utility. And the tiny form factor fits any home or desktop. Features All-in-one Internet-sharing router, four-port switch, and wireless-G (802.11g) access point Shares a single Internet connection and other resources with Ethernet wired, wireless-G, and wireless-B devices Compact form fits anywhere--use the internal antenna, or add an optional external antenna for more range High security: Wi-Fi protected access (WPA/WPA2 personal), wireless MAC address filtering, powerful SPI firewall

See a comparison diagram of the different wireless technologies.

Wireless networks are rapidly becoming more popular and coming down in price. Since they don't require cables, you can use the devices anywhere in an office or home, even out on the patio. There's no need to roll out an Ethernet network cable to each room of a house; you can network anywhere -- without wires. Outside of the home, wireless networking is available in hotspots at coffee shops, businesses, airports -- great when you're on the road and need to get some work done. For convenience, wireless networking is the answer. What Wireless Standard is Right for Me? Now that you've decided to create a wireless network, the next step is to figure out which wireless standard to use. Basically, a standard is a set of specifications for a device. All devices that follow a specific standard share operating characteristics, such as the radio frequency used and maximum data transfer speed. For wireless networking, there are three standards to choose from at this time: 802.11b 802.11a 802.11g 802.11a/g To learn about the differences between the standards and select the right one for your network, click here for an easy-to-understand chart.

Product Description

Compact all-in-one Internet-sharing Router, 4-port Switch, and 54Mbps Wireless-G Access Point. Almost 5 times faster than 802.11b, but can also interoperate with any 802.11b device (at 11Mbps).The Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router is really three devices in one small box. There's the Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect both screaming fast Wireless-G (802.11g at 54Mbps) and Wireless-B (802.11b at 11Mbps) devices to the network. There's also a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices together. Connect four PCs directly, or attach more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need. Finally, the Router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection.Once your computers are connected to the Router and the Internet, they can communicate with each other too, sharing a printer, digital music, picture and document files, and multi-player or on-line games.To protect your data and privacy, the Wireless-G Broadband Router can encode all wireless transmissions with WEP or industrial-strength WPA Personal encryption. The Router can serve as a DHCP Server, has a powerful SPI firewall to protect your PCs against intruders and most known Internet attacks, and supports VPN pass-through. Configuration is a snap with the web browser-based configuration utility. And the tiny form factor fits any home or desktop.With the Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router at the center of your home or office network, you can share a high-speed Internet connection, files, printers, and multi-player games with the flexibility, speed, and security you need!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for Mac users too!, July 26, 2005

By 

Navarro L. Parker "Motion Graphics Dude" (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54GC (Personal Computers)

I was thinking of purchasing an Airport Express module, but purchased this instead. It has a lower price, similar size, and a built-in 4-port switch which won me over. It was easy to configure using Safari and it's built-in setup wizard (no software needs to be installed). I got a strong signal on my Powerbook (4 bars on the Airport signal).

It offers WEP, WPA, and WPA2 security. Plus you can define specific times of day the WiFi is active as well as specific computers which can access your network (handy when you are at work and want to make sure no one is piggybacking your WiFi signal). I also connected my PS2 and Vonage VoIP module and everything works flawlessly. I'm a typical Mac user who is used to easy setup and good looking equipment and I'm pleasantly surprised at this Linysys product!

47 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Early Review of WRT54GC - Nothing Notable to Say, February 28, 2005

By 

Robert Salita "Software Developer" (CHI PAR PHX SYD PDX CLD NKC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54GC (Personal Computers)

I simply can't think of anything notable to say. The WRT54GC looks and works as advertised. I had no problem installing. There is nothing noteworthy about its performance. Haven't found any bugs. Internal antenna seems to have same wireless range as my full-size SMC Barricade router which has an external antenna. Power adapter is external, smallish and does 110-240v.

I recommend it for road warriors who need a wireless router with a builtin 4 port hub. Linksys will soon release a travel router with an internal power adapter and 1 LAN port. Apple has the similar Apple Express router which has a builtin USB print server port but zero LAN ports. It's great for wireless only purposes. I have the Apple, I can highly recommend it too.

I hope Linksys releases source code as they have done with the rest of their WRT54 product line. That way the geniuses can hack more features into it. (...)
Update: 22 August 2005 - There are no hacker projects that enhance this unit. Source code has never been released. I continue to be satisfied with this unit but would prefer an open source router. Be sure to check out the Linksys WTR54GS which is a wireless router with one ethernet port and no wall wart. Perfect for travelers with VoIP boxes.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars for preformance, 2 for installation -I'll tell you how in really install this puppy, January 31, 2006

By 

Calvinbob "Kevin" (Rexburg, ID USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54GC (Personal Computers)

After I finally got the thing working after 6 hours of tech support with Linksys, 3 hours with my ISP, and 2 hours with Microsoft, I am please with the product's performance. I'll tell you now don't waste your time with all the tech supports. Here are a few "words to the wise" on getting this thing to work, mainly because from the other reviews of this product, there seems to be a lot of unhappy people. But after a few tricks, I was able to get everything running from square one in about 20mins.

A CUSTOMER CREATED INSTALLATION GUIDE
1. Use the wizard and all to get the router set up for the home network (don't be lazy and use your wireless card to setup the router, use a LAN cable and you can save yourself the heartache later if you mess up the firmware update.)
2. Go to the Linksys website and download and install the latest firmware.
3. go to Linksys website and click to Support > Technical support > Easy connect > Router's initial setup. This will run a program called "Netset." Follow the instructions - If you want an encrypted wireless network, NOW through Netset is the easiest time to do it. Follow all the instructions.
4. With Netset, you will have the option of creating a network disk. Don't try and set up each computer separately; you'll always mess something up doing it manually, get a USD drive, or floppy and make a network disk, this will help make sure every computer is on the same workgroup and there will be no communication problems (for example all your computers can connect to the internet, but they can't "see" each other on the network for file sharing or printing).
5. with the firmware updated, network configured, all options set, and computers configured. Turn all the computers, router and Cable/DSL modem off, wait 20 sec. and then turn modem on, then router, then computers. And your network should be working flawlessly. If not, redo steps 3-5, and double check to make sure all the drivers for your wireless network adapters on all the computers are up to date. Also sometimes after a day or so, something fishy will start acting up on the network. Just run "NetSet" one more time and you should have all the bugs worked out. This happened to me once but I haven't had to reconfigure anything since.

NOTE TO BUYER: If you want to extend your range with the external antenna don't waste your money on an official Linksys "better then generic" antenna, go to RadioShack or Amazon and buy the $19 antenna for wireless-G routers, it connects perfectly to your WRT54GC. As far as the distance without the antenna, it is quite remarkable for an internal; I got good range even without the external.

There have been a few people complain about a router that is "dead" the next day. Ah, the wonderful world of mass production. It is true that every now and then you get a dud, that's life now with the fast paced world of technology. Just send it back and get a new one, there is nothing wrong with the correctly built router.
All in all I have no complaints after the hair-pulling installation.