Linksys by Cisco WRTP54G Wireless-G Broadband Router for Vonage Internet Phone Service

by Cisco

Product Details

Product Manual [1.12mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0009P657S
• Item model number: WRTP54G
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #3 in Electronics > Office Electronics > Telephones & Accessories > VoIP > Routers
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 13, 2005

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

All-in-one Internet-sharing Router, 4-port Switch, and 54 Mbps Wireless-G Access Point. Features 2 phone jacks to enable feature-rich Internet telephone service and advanced security: WPA and a powerful SPI firewall. The Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router is really four devices in one box. First, 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 11 Mbps) 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. The Router function lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection.

The fourth function is the phone adapter which enables high-quality feature-rich telephone service through your high-speed connection even while you're surfing the Internet. There are two standard telephone jacks, each operating independently -- like having two phone lines. With Vonage Service, you'll get low domestic and international phone rates, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Voicemail, Call Forwarding, Distinctive Ring, and lots of other available special phone features. Choose any free local dialing US area code, regardless of where you live. Add a virtual phone number in any area code, or even a US-wide toll-free number.

To protect your data and privacy, the Wireless-G Broadband Router can encode all wireless transmissions with up to 128-bit encryption, and supports both Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and the industrial-strength wireless security of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). The Router can serve as a DHCP Server, has a powerful SPI firewall to protect your PCs against intruders and most known Internet attacks, supports VPN pass-through, and can be configured to filter internal users' access to the Internet. Configuration is a snap with the web browser-based configuration utility.

With the Linksys 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, and turn that Internet connection into a high-quality, high-value telephone service!

Features

• Wireless connection with 802.11g or 802.11b standards
• Four 10/100 BaseT Ethernet Ports to share Internet Connection
• Two RJ11 voice ports for analog phones or fax machines with two independent telephone numbers
• Support QoS (Quality of Service) to ensure best quality voice
• Supports Access Control to block specific PC's on the newtork from gaining access to the Internet
• Supports SPI Firewall to limit the risk of intrusion attempts
• Web-based configuration through a built-in web server
• Supports auto-provisioning with provisioning servers for configuration and upgrades

Voice Features

• Supports Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
• Supports DTMF tone detection and generation
• Supports Voice Activity Detection (VAD) and Silence Suppression
• Supports Comfort Noise Generation (CNG)
• Supports Caller ID generation and detecting (FSK and DTMF )
• Supports Echo Cancellation (G.165 and G.168)
• Supports T.38 Fax Really including V.17, V.21, V.27ter and V.29 and FAX Pass-through (PCM)
• Supports multiple voice compression G.711, G.726, G.729, G.723.1

Also works with these products

• BEFCMU10 - Own your own Cable Modem and avoid paying monthly rent
• WPC54G - Connects your notebook computer to Wireless-G networks.
• WGA54G - Converts any Ethernet-equipped game console to Wireless-G networking.

Product Description

All-in-one Internet-sharing Router, 4-port Switch, and 54 Mbps Wireless-G Access Point. Features 2 phone jacks to enable feature-rich Internet telephone service and advanced security: WPA and a powerful SPI firewall.The Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router is really four devices in one box. First, 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. The Router function lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection. The fourth function is the phone adapter which enables high-quality feature-rich telephone service through your high-speed connection even while you're surfing the Internet. There are two standard telephone jacks, each operating independently -- like having two phone lines. With Vonage Service, you'll get low domestic and international phone rates, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Voicemail, Call Forwarding, Distinctive Ring, and lots of other available special phone features.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars STAY AWAY FROM THIS ROUTER!!!, July 17, 2005

By 

Network Techie (Sunnyside,NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Linksys by Cisco WRTP54G Wireless-G Broadband Router for Vonage Internet Phone Service (Personal Computers)

I don't write reviews on products very often. I'm more of a passive observer when it comes to on-line products. But my experience from this device has led me to (or should I say forced me to) write this review!!! I've been a network engineer for 5 years and I've also been a long time owner of the Linksys BEF11WS4 which proved to be a very worthwhile investment. I also setup Vonage service for my mom's home and for well over a year been totally satisfied. So when I saw this product, I thought to myself obviously why not get this as it combines the two very satisfying experience I've had. And so the nightmare begins.

I've had problems from wireless dropouts to the router freezing to the phone port not working. I have no idea who made this but it sure doesn't seem like it has the Linksys quality that I've been used to. Thats where I learned that if you want support for this hardware you have to call Vonage, not Linksys. I don't know how Linksys/Cisco got their name on this thing but it doesn't seem like it is from them. Neither is the quality on par with Linksys nor is the support provided by them. I've tried upgrading the firmware (this is sometimes done for you automatically by Vonage), I've upgraded the driver on my laptop's wireless card, tried dozens of different configurations through the web interface. NOTHING!!! Still get wireless dropouts, router freezes, and headaches to top it off.

If you are bent on buying this device please do some research on the web about it. You will find a plethora of information on it from a few websites and you will see my frustration in many others. I kept the router as it seems like Vonage is pushing it very hard from a marketing standpoint so maybe a real fix will be coming soon. But I decided to buy the WRT54G model which from the first few minutes of setting it up I can tell that this is a true quality product from Linksys. One thing I noticed right away is that the WRT54G operates a lot cooler than the WRTP54G. And ofcourse its been solid in its performance so far. If you decide to buy this, good luck, you'll need it.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars As bad as others say it is...., September 6, 2005

By 

Joseph S. Wood (Andover, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Linksys by Cisco WRTP54G Wireless-G Broadband Router for Vonage Internet Phone Service (Personal Computers)

This review isn't intended to forge new ground so much as it is intended to reinforce other reviews.

I too am a big fan of Linksys products in general, and the WRT54G (NOT the WRTP54G) in particular (please note that I mention both the WRT54G and the WRTP54G below - they are very different products). However, I am extremely disappointed in the WRTP54G/Vonage combination. Why?

(1) The phone portion of the router - due to issues with Vonage, the router, the router's firmware (which was rev'd to the latest release), or some combination of the three - is very problematic. My phone frequently (essentially every day) would stop working (no dial tone and/or others cannot hear my voice and/or I cannot hear them), and the best solution I've come up with is to install a timer on the outlet to reboot the router every night. This solved most of the problems, but not all of them - and it's insane to need to reboot the thing daily to get it to work.

(2) The router software isn't up to par with the latest WRT54G releases, and it doesn't seem to work consistently in terms of port forwarding. As a result (and due to (3) below), I'm using my WRT54G (my good Linksys product) as the router and the WRTP54G as just a network device to attach to the phone line.

(3) I bought the WRTP54G and seemed to get decent initial results with Vonage, but, once my home phone number was switched (i.e., my local phone company service was disconnected) and I started using it full time, people I called could not - ever - hear me. After hours on the phone (fortunately, I have a cell plan with essentially unlimited minutes, as I couldn't call from my home phone) - and I do mean hours (I think it was four hours altogether) - I was finally told to put another router between the incoming connection and the WRTP54G. I doubt that the typically user who buys a WRTP54G would tend to have another router handy and be proficient at setting up the two to work together, so I don't think this was a good general solution, although it seems to have fixed the problem, most of the time.

Of course, by the time all the problems showed up - i.e., once my local service was disconnected - it was too late to return the product.

I think Linksys/Cisco should be ashamed to have their name on this product. Since others - including co-workers - are very happy with Vonage, and since, when my setup works, I am happy with the actual service and pricing, I can only assume that the WRTP54G is the primary source of my problems, although, as mentioned elsewhere, you'd best hope Vonage works for you, as dealing with their customer service was, on each occasion I used it, a nightmare for me.

I am an experienced software engineer who develops network management software as well as firewall software. I am very familiar with networking. And I've had problems with this product. Perhaps I got a bad one, perhaps my ISP causes some of the problems, and perhaps I've managed to set things up poorly. However, I think it's more likely that the WRTP54G is a poorly implemented product (if it were my setup or my ISP, I suspect it would never work, as opposed to working if rebooted daily). Regardless, it is certainly true that Vonage customer service - while staffed with friendly workers - is not capable of solving complex problems that cannot be fixed by rebooting the router or pushing a new firmware release.

I think it would be advisable - and cheaper - to get a network adapter that plugs into your existing home network. While those aren't perfect either, at least you won't be paying for a product you can't use completely.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No firmware support from manufacturer. Read terms & conditions, July 4, 2005

By 

Richard Collette (Connecticut USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Linksys by Cisco WRTP54G Wireless-G Broadband Router for Vonage Internet Phone Service (Personal Computers)

Let me preface the discussion with the fact that I was a network administrator for about 8 years and continuing experience with networking products since transitioning to application development.

The following are my experiences with attempting to get the Linksys WRTP54G router to function. I originally purchased it at Best Buy because the rebate program seemed to make it almost a no brainer with the rebates totalling more than the cost of the device.

After opening the box:

I read the agreement. An item to note is the nearly $40 cancelation fee that is charged by Vonage unless you send the router back to Vonage.

I read the rebate requirements, which state A WIRELESS router must be sent in, whereas Best Buy stated that any router could be sent in.

I read the manual cover to cover before attempting anything.

I used the installation software to configure the router, however, the internet could never be reached at the end of the configuration process when using the configuration software.

After a lot of trial and error attempting to manually configure the router using the built in administrative web pages, I realized that I could not use the administrative pages unless the router was disconnected from the internet. Every time I connected the WAN/Internet port, I would receive an "internal communication error" message when trying to access the administrative pages. This occurred with both a wired and wireless client. I also disabled all firewalls to eliminate all potential points of conflict. Once I got that error on the router, I would have to restart the router to get it to work with the internet again.

When trying to configure the wi-fi portion, I was not able to configure the router to disable SSID broadcasting and have a client (a Linksys WPC54GS) connect. Whenever the SSID broadcast on the router was disabled, the link lights on both the router and the wireless adapter card would flash extremely rapidly. It seemed as though some sort of flood was occurring. A wired connection would not work at this point either.

I called Linksys support. I spoke to an initial call taker, was transferred to a supervisor and was then supposed to get an expert. Instead I sat on hold for an hour. All this on my cell phone since my "land line" was supposed to be implemented by this device.

I browsed the internet some and saw that some people had been provided updated firware revisions. I was running on 1.00.18 and it appeared that there might be versions as high as 1.00.29, yet there were no firmware updates available for device on the linksys web site. Currious.

I decided I would give Linksys a call again and give them one more chance to resolve the issue. This time, the wait times were shorter but was stil transferred up to a third person. Rather than try to go through a long resolution on a marginal cell phone connection to India, listening to the echo of my voice, I simply asked if there was an updated firmware version I could try to resolve my problem. The tech said that if there was, it could only be provided by Vonage. I explained that I was concerned by the fact that they did not provide firmware for the device that they manufacture and he said. "It would be easiest to exchange the device for a new one since it is only two days old and should function out of the box."

Experience has taught me to never purchase equipment where you are unable to obtain firmware from the original manufacturer. Linksys/Cisco have been in business for a long time, I trust that I will be able to get firmware for some time to come. Vonage is a completely new company, if they go away, support for the device goes away. With two companies, it is too easy for the customer to be caught in the middle of finger pointing when there is a problem.

My personal opinion is that this device was an endeavor poorly executed by both companies. Either the manufacturer should provide all support for the device, or both companies should provide equal support (ie. firmware obtainable from either company). The product, from my perspective, was also brought to market before it had been adequately tested. All considered, I have no confidence in this product and I am returning both of my wireless products and will research my options more carefully.

I am a longtime owner of a Linksys BEFSR41 router that has met my needs well for the past 4 years or so (it's been so long I can't recall when I specifically started using it). This isn't a case of any prior dissatisfaction with Linksys.