Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys WTR54GS Wireless G Travel Router with Speedbooster

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I'll be using this in hotels from now on; I used to carry a dlink di-614+ but with this I can share wireless hotspots as well. My only two reservations: 1) it gets very warm. 2) when using it to share a wireless connection, you can only use it to share an unsecure connection; i.e. it can't associate with a WEP or WAP access point.

Are you a road warrior? Do you travel to Europe? Do you want a box that's easy to plug into your network to add wireless when you're home? If so, this is the box for you!

I set up two profiles - one to set up the box as a router when I'm on the road and want to plug into a hotel network, and another to make it act like a switch when I want to plug it into my home router to provide a wireless extension to my network.

The first was easy - just follow the setup wizard. Or if you have other "smart" LinkSys products, just press the button. Caution: DO NOT press the button after you have set it up - it'll reset to default settings and then go hunting for another LinkSys device.

Setting it up as a switch is a bit more difficult, but LinkSys support provided a clear answer within 24 hours. To make it work like a switch or hub:

1. Find out the base IP address of your router by connecting to its admin page. It'll be something like 192.168.xx.1.

2. Connect to this router's web-based pages. Default IP is 192.168.16.1.

3. Set a static IP for this box to your router's address plus 1. For example, 192.168.xx.2.

4. Turn off DHCP on this box and click Save - you'll be disconnected.

5. Most Important: Now connect this box using the ETHERNET (not INTERNET) plug to your router.

Voila! You now have a wireless extension to your home network that will support multiple wireless connections.

Tip: As you set up the router, go to the Admin menu and save your profile. I have two separate ones saved on my laptop - one to turn the box back into a router for the road and a second to make it a switch at home.

I've been using this router all over the world on a daily basis for 9 months now -- and the last 6 months it's been used every day in Europe for a team of 3-4 people, with no problems whatsoever. So not only is this great for travel (with the 110-240 volt range, small size, etc.) but in my experience it works a lot better than other non travel modems for every day use.

We purchased this router for business use during travel. To access content inside the corporate firewall we use Nortel's VPN software - which works great with the D-link travel router. Unfortunately this Linksys router blocks the packets necessary for setting up the communicaiton (even after we manually opened the ports needed for communication). Calls to technical support resulted in suggestions to use DMZ and static IP on the connected PC's - both of which are unacceptable for shared secure access - and also not necessary with the D-link travel router or other Linksys routers. The code on this router is very dissapointing as was the support.

Linksys/Cisco just keeps making them better and better. This has now become my favorite internet travel companion. The size is perfect, it comes with a nice zippered travel pouch and the built-in power supply prevents cable-tangle. Set-up is about as easy as it can get; just plug it in and attach the hotel/office ethernet cable. One advanced feature which is really cool is that it can also connect to a WIRELESS network at the hotel and still operate as a router with it's own subnet. This allows everyone in your party to share what looks like a single connection to the hotel's ISP. Really nice for travel to Europe or other places where a connection is expensive. It supports international power so all you need overseas is just a simple connector, not a transformer.

This router has worked great for what I purchased it for - making wired connections in my hotel room into wireless ones. The range is more than enough for my needs, and I've never dropped a connection. I would recommend this device to anybody who travels and wants the added flexibility of knowing that there will be wireless in their hotel room or conference room, especially if multiple people will need to use the same internet connection.

Another feature of this unit is that it acts as a range extender for an existing wireless network. It can connect to a wireless network for the WAN and also put out a wireless LAN, making it great for home use. The only drawback to this entire unit, though, is that the wireless network being connected to on the WAN has to be open - no encryption. If you've got WEP or WPA on your home network (and you should), then this unit won't extend your range, since it must be an open network to extend it. You can still connect to this unit using the encryption method of your choice though - this doesn't affect the LAN side.

That said, this unit is great, especially given it's size and integrated power adapter - it just hangs from the plug and takes up little space. If they could fix the wireless WAN encryption thing, I'd give it 5 stars in a heartbeat!

I purchased this product a few months ago with the explicit intent of being able to have wireless access when in a hotel with only a hard-wired connection and have WPA2 security and an SPI firewall to better protect my system. It has worked flawlessly in this manner, and of course you are able to have more than one connection to it so you only pay for internet access for one computer (if you stay in a place that charges for access).

I have had zero problems with it, but I am very familiar with wireless configurations and security and have used Linksys & Cisco products for years. This is not a product just anyone can pull of out of the box and expect it to work immediately. It has a lot of features and a basic understanding of networking and a good understanding of wireless security is almost a must.

This product also allows you to connect to another wireless network and share/protect yourself behind it as well. However, I have not used this feature yet. When I do, I will come back and update this review.

Overall, I have been extremely satisfied with the product but being a techno person, I have a big advantage over a lot of people. I did review the documentation and that should help most people get this setup although it may not be the most secure. Again, that comes from having a good understanding of wireless security protocols, etc.

One final note - although it is a great feature that you can save the settings once you have configured it, I want to advise that the file does include the security key, MAC addresses, everything you set that one would need to then access your wireless router. It does not save the admin password to the file, but even so, you need to be sure to save the file in a protected place. Obviously it has to have this information, but I would have preferred for it to have been encrypted in some way rather than just use plain text. That being said, you definitely want to use a unique key - don't use your password or other type of personal information.

UPDATE: I have used the wireless feature now and what other reviewers state is accurate. The product works as expected, but the wireless you are connecting to cannot be encrypted.

Well I've only had this thing for a day... but I am already thoroughly impressed. It sets up just like any other Linksys router... of which I've set up 3 in the last month.

I am very impressed with the range. I bought this to keep in my laptop case because of its size and weight. The cloth case, as well as the flat ethernet cable are a nice touch.

The range is very good for what it is. I live in a fairly large house, and it provides access over the entire house. Granted, the connection strength falls to a couple bars out of 5, where the new wireless N router we have still has 5 out of 5 bars. Transfer rates drop dramatically from the usual 30 megabits per second to only a few at the range edges... but that is to be expected.

But it *does* provide coverage over the entire house... not something I was expecting for a product meant to be used in a hotel room. I am quite pleased with this purchase. This product could very easily be used as the main router in a small apartment... if the intention is to only run a wireless network used for internet access. And simply packed up when traveling. Gamers will likely want something beefier, but I'm quite fond of the internal antennas.

I also own and would recommend the WRT54GC for a small home network... and it costs about half the price.

I like the size. I like the retractable plug but the router signal strength is horrible. I am sitting less than six feet away from the router with clear line of site but the signal strength is only 38%. If I sit next to the router its only 55%. I would not recommend this router as the signal drops every 5 to 10 mins and the strength of signal is horrible.

Recently took my laptop and this travel router on vacation. I had occasion to use it as a wireless router with my laptop in wireless mode. There were also occasions where the lodging had wireless and then I used the router as a AP. In both cases, performance was what I expected.

My only complaint is that with the power supply built into the router, it ran quite warm if used for an extended period. However, there were no problems.