Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys WRT55AG Dual-Band Wireless A+G Access Point + Cable/DSL Router with 4-Port 10/100 Switch

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

This product is rushed to the market but not yet ready for prime time.

Issues:
1) If you are using VPN to access your companies network - forget it, this product won't allow you to connect (will not pass IPSec-L2TP or PPTP traffic through)
2) WEP encryption doesn't work - yes, you can enable it but after 3 min you will loose connectivity with you wireless network. With WEP disabled connectivity will stay up.
3) MAC filtering doesn't work also - the router will reset back to default (Disabled) setting as soon as you submit changes to it.
4) Changing Internet Filters setting will reset this router to factory default.
5) Firewall is also not performing well.
6) Tech support is "dancing" and you won't give you any type of answer when they will come up with firmware upgrade - they won't allow you to talk to a supervisor also - USELESS.

On my scale from 1 to 5 this product gets 1.5.
RMA

I installed this product in my home-office network and didn't experience any problems. There are 3 computers in the network; 2 are wired to the router, and 1 is wireless. One machine is running Windows XP Pro, while the other two are running Windows 2000. The wireless computer uses the companion Linksys WMP55AG product. Before installing these products, I printed out the user manuals that came on the installation CDs, and followed the step-by-step instructions there, rather than using the installation wizard on the CD. MAC filtering works fine for me.

The higher the products are situated above floor level, the better they perform. The router is currently located about 8 feet above the floor, and the wireless PC is located about 3 feet above the floor in another building about 50 feet away. Signal strength is "good" (according to Linksys monitoring software).

I am using the 5GHz band (802.11a) to avoid interference with a 2.4GHz cordless telephone system, but unfortunately, that band does not have a mechanism to turn off SSID xmission.

Subsequent to the time when I first posted this review, I attempted to enable WEP. I observed the same problem other reviewers posted here: connectivity to the Net could be established successfully, but then would be lost after a few minutes. Perhaps the new WPA support will be implemented soon.

08/04/2003: With the advent of firmware upgrade v1.04, WEP problems appear fixed. However, I observed a 3.6x degradation with 64-bit WEP enabled on 802.11a. I would expect higher levels of degradation with higher levels of encryption. To their credit, Linksys admits that using WEP causes lower throughput.

I was so excited to get this that I paid extra to have it overnighted to me. What nobody told me is that this device doesn't send a signal more than thirty-five feet!!!!!! That's ridiculous. I called the company and they admitted that's the best the device will do -- 35 feet. I hate it. I had to buy a booster and boosters for every computer in the house, and even then the signal was really weak. I'm VERY disappointed. Buyer beware.

I purchased this router at the end of July 2003 and immediately upgraded the router's firmware to Linksys's latest offering v1.04. As an earlier reviewer recommended, I configured the router manually, avoiding the automatic setup.

I am using 802.11a with WEP (better than nothing since Linksys has not provided WPA support yet), MAC filtering and the router's built in DHCP server. Only one client attaches to the router. The router has been up and running for about a week and I have not encountered any of the problems mentioned in earlier posts.

My main complaints are with the router's current feature set:
- No ability to disable 802.11a SSID broadcasts (b/g SSID can be disabled)
- No ability to save the router's configuration to a file
- No ability to create/change/use a logon name to administer the router (you simply supply a password)
- Poor traffic monitoring features

But these are minor gripes. Overall, I am very happy with the WRT55AG.

I'm a network engineer and this thing is absolutely HORRIBLE!!
DHCP doesn't work well. I keep getting duplicate IPs on the network even when everything is set to use DHCP. It just doesn't handle DHCP requests well at all.
When I first got it, wireless G kept dropping out. I struggled w/ that for weeks. Now, I have to reset it almost 3 times a day because it just "stops working"... literally! Doesn't pass any traffic through it. I use VOIP and when talking on the phone, it just drops... quite EMBARRASING!!

Support???? Support seems like a bunch of unqualified people who only know the basics and they repeat them over and over... USELESS.

I've been a HUGE Linksys user/supporter for a while, this product ALONE has made me look elsewhere from now on. We have their Business wireless devices (another FLOP!), GB business switches (this isn't so bad), and home products from cable modems, wireless routers, etc etc. So, I've known and liked them... UNTIL THIS THING!

I selected the WRT55AG so that I could use a 2.4 Ghz cordless phone for meetings while connected to work through a VPN tunnel on the 5 Ghz "A" network. Based on my previous positive experience with a Linksys 802.11B Wireless DSL Router, I chose this product hoping for similar ease of use and reliability. I was very disappointed.

When I initially attempted to set up the device, I had to use Linksys' setup utility. The utility started and asked for some basic info but would never actually "save" the info provided, and would not proceed from step to step. The utility complained that it could not connect to the Internet. Considering that it failed to ask me for my PPPoE username and password before displaying this message, this seemed to be a logical outcome (Duh!). After abandoning the setup utility, I tried to set up the router through the web interface - no luck - an unending series of JavaScript errors that apparently prevented any data from being saved to the router (sound familiar?).

This, after 2 hours, brought me to my first contact with Linksys technical support. My hold time was short, perhaps 5 minutes, and I spoke to a first level support person who was quite obviously reading from a script. She had me re-flash the firmware (version 1.10 form their web site). Even though I had already done this I obliged. When this produced no improvement, she had me download another (new) utility from the Linksys web site that would automate the setup. This also failed to configure the router. After 15 minutes she provided me with a case number and a direct number for second level support.

Again, my hold time was less than 5 minutes and I was speaking to a very articulate and quite competent support person. He ran through a well-ordered series of troubleshooting steps that I did not perceive to be scripted (he adapted quickly and correctly when we continued to receive no joy. Aside from requesting that I re-flash (again), this experience was quite positive. We ended up using Fire Fox on my laptop to connect and configure the router - I had been trying to use Internet Explorer on my desktop. He indicated that there was a problem with my Java Virtual Machine in IE that had caused the issue. This turned out later to be incorrect - with the latest firmware installed (version 1.40 - more on this later) Internet Explorer worked fine from the desktop system.

Now that I could actually configure this beast I bid Tech support a grateful farewell and started setting up the nitty-gritty configuration details within the router. All was going well until I set WPA-PSK (TKIP) security on both the "A" and "G" channel. The router reboots itself after each configuration change so as to pick up the new setting. Once both channels were locked down to what I consider the absolute minimum security setting for a wireless home network the router would continually reboot and never recover. I had to "hard" reboot the router using the factory default push button on the back. This, of course, reset every setting I had successfully saved up to that point. I confirmed the endless reboot scenario a couple of times more before calling tech support back.

My third call connected me with another second level operative who also wanted me to re-flash the router (I refused). He had me verify normal behavior when both "A" and "G" networks were configured for 128 bit WEP. This worked but as soon and both networks were set to WPA-PSK the reboot problem returned. He put me on hold for a few minutes so he could confer with someone else. When he returned he indicated that the "latest firmware" would fix this issue. I commented that I had the latest firmware (version 1.10) available on their web site (and had already installed it 3 times). He responded that version 1.40 was a beta version that had not yet been released but that he would send it to me via email within 60 minutes. I hung up and waited - 90 minutes later (I can forgive that) it arrived and I re-flashed the router again. Lo and behold (almost) everything started to work. WPA-PSK no longer sent the router chasing its tail - I still have an issue with MAC address filtering not always working but I consider that a minor issue as it does not buy much in terms of security if a determined cracker tries to infiltrate your wireless network.

At this point I have a few days left before the "drop dead" date for returning the router to Staples (excellent prices and return policy). I haven't decided whether I'll keep it yet. What I have decided is that Linksys released this product under one of the two following scenarios:

1. They did not adequately test the version 1.10 firmware and did not detect the WPA-PSK issue before releasing the product. If this is the case it reveals a lack of sound software development, test and release processes.
2. They tested and found the issue and decided to release the product anyway. I hope this is not the case as this would be inexcusable.

I am also troubled by the fact that version 1.10 of the firmware is still (25 May 2005) the ONLY publicly available firmware revision - it is dated September of 2004. Version 1.40 appears nowhere on their support site. Why is it that a problem of this magnitude, especially one concerning the ability to properly secure the router, has still not been addressed with a publicly available update? I may keep this router but I would NOT recommend it to someone else. If you don't need 802.11a get a WRT54Gx instead. At least that way you can use the publicly available (free) independent firmware that adds additional features and is constantly updated.

We have a revision 2 with the absolute latest firmware. On the plus side the thing does work provided that you don't use ANY of the ethernet ports.

However, we have two computers plugged into the ethernet port and the router dies after maybe 3 hours of up-time due to overheating. If we put it into the refridgerator for about 10 minutes to cool it off, then we're good to go for another 3 hours.

What a complete waste.

I purchased this product when it first came out in late June 2003. I picked this router because of it's supposed SNMP support and it's dual band capability.

After receiving this unit I experienced all the problems with WEP as others have reported as well as the documented problem of the DHCP server in this unit failing to work after about 5 minutes. As with others here the WEP and DHCP problems were cured by the 1.04 firmware update.

The SNMP capability, again a key reason for selecting this product, is not really functional. The unit does respond with basic information (name and location, etc) but none of the metrics work. When I contacted support about this I was told that it would be fixed in an upcoming firmware upgrade. This was prior to the release of the 1.04 upgrade and now I cannot get any response about the timeframe of this upcoming release.

Lately the router has begun dropping the LAN connections, wired and wireless, on a intermittent basis. I have contacted support and their only recommendation was to upgrade to the 1.04 firmware which I have already done.

Since the router/switch is the heart of my home network and since the unit is unusable due to continual dropped connections, I am now forced to purchase a new router and am out the cost of this one.

I am never buying another Linksys product again. The Linksys support forums are full of people complaining about their routers, seems like pretty much all of them, disconnecting for no reason and they offer no help.

When it is working right, it is fast. It also seems to have good range. Unfortunately I have to reset it a lot because it either:

1) Stops talking to my computers
2) Stops talking to the cable modem

I never had these issues with my previous Netgear wireless router. Maybe there are some firmware upgrades that would help. I'm not sure...