Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys WRT54GX4 Wireless-G Broadband Router with SRX400

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

I have had Linksys routers for years and have absolutely no trouble with them. With my cable broadband access I was using the latest Wireless-G router (WRT54GS) with an added Linksys speedbooster and getting EXCELLENT coverage throughout my home. All was happy. All was well.

Then came Verizon Fios. No doubt, Verizon Fios broadband is far superior to cable. The problem? They gave me a D-Link 624 wireless router. The range on this puppy was pitiful compared to my previous Linksys setup. Had I known this beforehand, I wouldn't have given away my WRT54GS Linksys-G router and speedbooster to my brother. But I did -- and I was stuck with the lousy D-Link that provided poor coverage throughout my home.

I needed something powerful that would provide the same strength and coverage (or better) of the Linksys WRT54GS plus the added speedbooster.

I read all the reviews of the WRT54GX4 SRS400 router. The reviews were mostly mixed as to how well this router actually worked. The main concern was that this was new technology, possibly rushed to market, and that there would probably be kinks involved. There was another issue with an AMAZON.COM reviewer that said he could not set up his wireless print server with this modem. Having a Linksys wireless-G print server (WPS54GU2) myself, I was concerned.

I decided to gamble $119 and bought this router.

First surprise! Right out of the box I had it running in under 10 minutes. A supplied CD walks you through each step with diagrams of how to hook up the router, followed by a step-by-step configuring tool that enables you to enter all the necessary settings. Mind you, I'm a little above a novice in setting these routers up simply because I know the settings that are required. Novices may have a bit of a learning curve, but I can't see it being any more difficult than setting up any other similar sort of router.

In short, the supplied CD does a great job of guiding you through hookup and configuring your settings. In 10 minutes, my Internet connection was up and running.

Now here's the amazing part....

This router does EXACTLY what it claims to do. My wireless signal DOUBLED in strength. I have a large multi-level home. In the farthest reaches of my home, signal strength went from 2 bars (LOW) to 4 bars (VERY GOOD) - just 1 bar below EXCELLENT. I can even take my laptop out on the deck and receive signal.

Hooking up the wireless print server (WPS54GU2) was a bit of a hassle. It always is, as it is the worst configurable product Linksys has ever put out. I did call Customer Service and with the help of an Indian woman who's English was barely understandable, I was finally able to get the wireless print server working.

So, there should be absolutely no fear that the WRT54GX4 router is not compatable with a Linksys print server.

Make no mistake about it -- this router is very powerful. The signal strength doubled over a standard Wireless-G router.

Now I am going to tell you something very interesting....

My laptop has a built-in 802.11B card. I'm not even using 802.11G technology on my laptop nor the recommended WPC54GX4 notebook adapter with SRS technology built-in.

So, if I am getting such an incredible improvement in signal with an older "B" technology, you can imagine how much better your results will be with the new technology.

I am extremely happy with this router. Hopefully, you will be too!

Don't buy this product if you have any desire to control Internet access. The firmware on this device is buggy and is on par with a first beta software from a new company. If you live in the Eastern time zone, you'll get a GMT-4 instead of the correct GMT-5 time displayed. Don't check Automatically Adjust for Daylight Savings time. It won't automatically adjust, it simply adds an hour making Eastern Time GMT-3 when it really should still be GMT-5. This is important if you want to restrict Internet Access to certain times during the day. But then again, this is another bug in the firmware - you can't properly control access times. The Allow feature is totally inoperative. The only thing you can do is to deny access, but controlling access is not easily accomplished. The unit continually access the time server. This is fine since it keeps time up to date (well, it keeps the incorrect time up to date). Unfortunately, it tends to reset the time to 1200am and holds it for a good half second until it displays the correct time. This creates havoc if you have 1200am set anywhere as denial of internet access. Because it would continually deny access. Frequent disconnects of wireles devices also occur.

On the positive side, it does have greater range and a cool looking case with three nifty antennas. That's about it.

Linksys has outsourced tech support to India. This is fine and as a result the tech support replys are extremely fast. The downside is the tech support does not have any information on the product, nor do they have a unit to play with. They sinply know only what Linksys tells them and it seems that there is no real communication between developers and tech support.
Bottom line - don't buy it until Linksys fixes the firmware.

This router is fantastic. I was using a DLink DI-624 which has always received great reviews for it's speed. When I changed out that router for this new Linksys WRT54GX4, my wireless throughput quadrupled! I can now stream MPG files recorded in High Definition wireless without studdering and lags. One feature that was on my Dlink that the linksys doesn't have is the ability to assign specific IP addresses based on the clients MAC address. With Linksys, if you want to make sure the client always gets the same address, you will have to configure the client for static IP. That is a bummer. Fantastic throughput speeds. No hype with this router.

My router came with Cat 5 ports and not the phone line port.

Edit: After about a month of solid use, my router will no longer allow stable wireless connections. Clients drop after about 10 minutes or so and then sometimes re-establish. What is weird is I always show Excellent signal strength on my clients. Linksys tech support is as helpful as asking a 5 month old baby for help. My dog offers more support than they do!

Although the router does have significantly better range than the WRT54G, it is INCOMPATIBLE with the Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter (as of firmware 1.00.10).

I've also experienced nothing but trouble when using the WPC54GX4 (the notebook adapter designed specifically to work with this router). It drops connections about every 2 minutes.

Linksys tech support is horrible, as usual, so if you buy this router, just be prepared to wait for Linksys to finally publish updated firmware before you can expect it to work like you think it should.

Also note that in both cases Linksys support claims "this is the first we've heard of it", yet forum postings on LinksysInfo.org and dslreports.com both have posting of people having the same problems, all of whom claim to have talked to tech support.

I got the SRX400 as a possible replacement for my Belkin Pre-N (basically a Linksys SRX (aka SRX100)). With my SRX cards, everything worked great with slight performance increases (possibly due to a new compression option). With my Broadcom-based internal WiFi in my laptop, I had nothing but problems. After first I thought it was the AP, since I didn't have these problems with the Pre-N. However, I found updated Broadcom drivers, and ever since then it FLIES with this new AP. I'm very impressed. If you currently have a SRX or Pre-N AP, then the SRX400 is not a huge upgrade, unless you plan on upgrading all of your clients to SRX400 (which from what I can tell, the WPC54GX4 is not available yet). If you have a "normal" 802.11g AP, however, this thing will blow your AP away!

Unlike SRX100/SRX200, this AP is capable of a 240Mbps connection, more than double their 180Mbps speed!

I studied the following Linksys products: WRT300N Wireless-N Broadband Router paired with the WUSB300N Wireless-N USB Network Adapter; and the WRT54GX4 Wireless-G Broadband Router with SRX400 paired with the Wireless-G USB Network Adapter with SRX400 (WUSB54GX4). Review of available customer/owner remarks on Amazon as well as elsewhere revealed a fairly consistent story: unless you have a no-kidding firm requirement for 11n, don't bother with the WRT300N, or bother with replacing an SRX400 11g router thinking you are upgrading. There has been a fair amount of disappointment concerning signal strength comparing the SRX400 11g router to the WRT300N 11n router. The SRX400 wins at least for now. According to multiple independent sources, the signal strength of the 11n router is much less than the SRX400 11g. I have to agree. Furthermore, the SRX400 11g is a very stable, mature product that is well understood and there exists a deep experience base which could be a useful resource. Although the SRX400 signaling mode is a proprietary protocol, the Linksys 11g SRX400 also supports open standards such as plain vanilla 11g and 11b as well. Because SRX400 is a proprietary protocol, I also purchased the Linksys WUSB54GX4 SRX400 wireless client to avoid possibly spending a lot of integration and test time, i.e., hassle, on getting the link up. I also wanted to take advantage of the Linksys SRX400 signaling protocol because it offers excellent range and uses an adaptive transmit/receive algorithm to attain optimal signal strength. For straight-forward applications such SOHO and consumer requirements, the 11g SRX400 model is recommended. My previous WAP was a Microsoft 11g unit (no longer sold) the MN-700. The driving concerns in replacing it were: (1) poor signal strength, (2) no support for WPA2, and (3) no firmware updates (important for security and stability). The Linksys 11g SRX400 answers those needs. Using the MN-700, the rated speed between a given PC and the MN-700 WAP was about 15 to 20 Mbps with signal strength typically 40 to 50 percent but there were excursions to 20 per cent or less, to include some recent experience with dropped connections. With the Linksys 11g SRX400, it's 240 Mbps with signal strength hard over to 100 per cent at all times. Given the market presence of the Linksys 11g SRX400, it would be pretty easy to add a range extender or upgraded antennas to get to a better signal. However I do not need to do that in my situation, carrying the wireless signal through a number of internal walls without problems. I have to say that the Linksys 11g SRX400 is rock solid. It achieved very high throughput while running WPA2 AES encryption. Also it allowed a full length WPA2 PSK which some WAPs don't allow. In my opinion it is good to care about using WPA2, AES, and a full length PSK when your personal information is being broadcast over a radio. Of course my external internet connection isn't 240 Mbps (I wish) but the Linksys 11g SRX400 answered every concern I had. Furthermore, it was very easy to set up. I'm very thorough (and OK I will admit to persnickety) in reviewing and optimizing set up parameters in such devices, especially in terms of stability, performance, security, and reliability. I was pleasantly surprised that all set up and configuration was accomplished very quickly. If I had been in a hurry and not taken the time to really study it, I could have had the Linksys SRX400 router up and running A-OK in at most 5 to 10 minutes including interruptions. Of course, I pretty much know what I'm doing in detail, but even a novice with some technical knowledge could easily follow the manual and walk through the process without frustration and end up with good results. I'm likely broadcasting an 11g signal all the way to the end of the block or maybe even further. A couple notes on features: the SRX400 11g logging options I rate excellent. There's a lot of visibility if you want it. It would be nice if the WAP/firewall would email those logs to somewhere for review. I would like to see capabilities to finely tune and closely monitor its internal firewall, for example, to be able to define policy rules by service and to make exceptions for specific external static IPs. However it does support setting up a DMZ or even opening ports if that is needed for games and so forth but in my case I would not recommend it as that creates security and integrity issues. I security-scanned the WAP/firewall from an external location and it passed those tests with flying colors (although periodic rescans are recommended to ensure something hasn't changed). I have not tested whether an enterprise-type VPN connection will work through it; for example, using an IPSec VPN, although its firewall set up allows for IPSec pass-through as well as other VPN modes so I anticipate it would work. Another metric is that I noticed it is quite fast in terms of throughput using its router mode from a directly-connected (wired connection) system to the internet. While I can offer no specific test results, I estimate it is at least 25 per cent faster than the MN-700. Set up of its internet interface was very straightforward. You can readily set up the SRX400 11g WAP/router/firewall in a DHCP or static IP configuration. I updated its firmware from the Linksys web site without any problems (this is important to ensure bug fixes are incorporated). Finally, the SRX400 11g WAP/router/firewall is making my most demanding customer happy, the one who is on my 1 minute response list, i.e., my wife. She just wants to use her system to accomplish things she is trying to do (what a thought) vice understanding how it all works from an engineering perspective. All in all, the SRX400 11g router together with the WUSB54GX4 SRX400 wireless client is a very solid combination which has had no complaints from a demanding customer who tolerates very little computer-type foolishness. Bottom line: the Linksys 11g SRX400 router and the WUSB54GX4 SRX400 wireless client met my expectations and those are not low. They are performing excellently in a set and forget mode.

IT is not compatible with Linksys Range Expander WRE54G. Though you might not need Range Expander ANYMORE!! Keep reading..

I used to have Linksys Router with SpeedBooster WRT54GS in the second flood, and Linksys Range Expander WRE54G in the basement, and my desktop with Linksys PCI Adapter with SpeedBooster WMP54GS next to the Range Expander. They work great. Although it shows on my desktop that connection is 54 Mbps, it was surely less.

Anyway, I bought the WRT54GX4, and I could not get it to work with WRE54G. I can ping the WRE54G from WRT54GX4, but they just wud not work. Anyway I called Linksys, and it turns out they are NOT compatible! I got mad, what a bad deal. But wait a sec. I removed the Range Expander, then had to turn off the WRT54GX4 then the modem, then turns the modem and WRT54GX4 back on. Turned on my computer in the basement, and I got 36 Mbps!!
I surfed the net, and tried to download some stuff.. My connection now is FASTER than it was with the range Expander and WRT54GS!!

So to sum it, WRT54GX4 replaced WRT54GS working together with WRE54G and gave better connection. I dont need WRE54G anymore with all its trouble!! (Although WRE54G started working well lately with the latest firmware).

now if WRT54GX4 wud work with WRE54G, I must say I wud get incredible connection, but sadly they dont.. thats why only 4 stars.

I did not feel comfortable buying WRT300N, cuz on the website they say it will only give 12X speed than standard Wireless-G if both ends are Wireless-N. Other than that, im guessing it wud not? And comparably, WRT54GX4 gives 10X faster regardless. And all the Wireless-N devices now are in fact draft-N cuz 802.11n standard is not fully approved yet (some changes might come into place).

so far im happy with my purchase, though its only my first day.
I will update this review if anything comes up.
(if ur wondering why I bought WRT54GX4 in the first place, its becuz im moving, and im gonna leave my old network in this house and take WRT54GX4 to the new house)..

>>>>>>>> UPDATE AFTER ONE WEEK <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
The 36 Mbps from before dropped to 5.5 Mbps, surfing webpages now is just a little slower than b4 (using WRT54GS with WRE54G), However downloading speed of files online did NOT change.

>>>>>>>> UPDATE AFTER Three WEEKs <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
now downloading speed dropped to the half! (hopefully it stays that way)

Update: After using this for a while, I noticed that the router keeps dropping the laptop wireless connection for no reason. I tried the latest firmware upates and all of the tech support recommended tweaks to the settings. I tried changing to new channels, disabling certain features, just about everything you can imagine. Nothing worked to keep this router from dropping the connection. It seems that when Cisco technology merged with Linksys technolgy, new bugs were introduced. I am getting rid of this one and going back to the classic blue WRT54GL. Reliability is most important.

I replaced a SMC Barracade router because I wanted to extend my wireless range to 120 feet. First I tried the WRT54G with a Range Extender. Tech support could not get this to work. Next I tried the SRX400 router. Its range was not good enough. Finally, I hard wired the WRT54G as an access point to the SRX400. This worked.

The SMC signal reached 50', the Linksys WRT54G reached 75' and the SRX400 (WRT54GX4) reached 85'. These are real world numbers with walls, cordless phones, etc. The SRX400 pc card (WPC54GX4 PC)did not improve the signal to any significant degree. My wireless B laptop nearly matched the SRX400 pc card performance in terms of range.

I did not measure throughput, since that is not a major concern of mine. My measure was simply the adequacy of internet access.

I am not a techie, but I do maintain my 5 computer network and can follow reasonably well written directions. All my computers run Windows XP, are virus free and are relatively new installs. I have to say that I was unable to install any of the Linksys products by following the written or CD instructions. Installing the Linksys 4port USB print server froze two different computers. Other products just did not work after following the directions.

The saving grace of Linksys was their technical support. I talked to about 10 different reps over a two day period and they ranged from adequate to excellent. With the exception of the Linksys Range Extender (WRE54G), tech support was able to get every product to work. After the first 2 calls, they gave out a more direct phone number where the wait was very reasonable ( just 1-3 minutes). The call centers were in India and the Philippines, but the english ranged from OK to excellent.

I have been wanting to get one of these to replace the Linksys WRT54G router I have (or had) installed. I just purchased one of these and installed it today on my home WAN. The installation went flawlessly.

I downloaded the latest firmware update (1.0.15) and easily upgraded the router to that level. I just inserted my network and wireless security settings (I run WPA wireless security) into the router. I could not have been more pleased with the results.

Before installing this router, I could only get 1-2 bar signal strength to my system located in one of my upstairs bedrooms and 1-5 mb/sec throughput. Now I regularly get 4-5 bar signal strength and 24-48 mb/sec speed. What a difference!!

I highly recommend this router. It is not only as good as all the Linksys routers I have owned for the past few years but much better.