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

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Product Details

Product Manual [4.92mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00008WM9J
• Item model number: WRT55AG
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank

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  Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Networking Products > Access Points

• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 2, 2006

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer An Internet-Sharing Router and Switch, with Universal Wireless Access (A, B, and G).

The Dual-Band Wireless A+G Broadband Router is like four devices in one box! The Router function lets you securely share one high-speed Internet connection among your entire network, while the 4-port full duplex 10/100 Switch jump-starts your wired-Ethernet network. Connect four PCs directly, or daisy-chain out to more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need.

The Dual-Band Wireless A+G Broadband Router also contains two Wireless Access Points, supporting all three wireless networking specifications. The first Access Point uses the 2.4 GHz radio band, supporting both the popular and inexpensive Wireless-B (802.11b) standard at 11 Mbps, and the new, almost five times faster, Wireless-G (802.11g) at 54 Mbps. The second Access Point radio operates in the 5GHz band, and supports Wireless-A (802.11a) networking, also at 54 Mbps. Since the two radios operate in different bands, they can work simultaneously, blanketing your wireless zone with bandwidth.

To protect your data and privacy, the Dual-Band Wireless A+G Broadband Router can encrypt all wireless transmissions. The MAC Address filter lets you decide exactly who has access to your wireless network. The Router also serves as a DHCP Server, has NAT technology to protect against Internet intruders, DMZ capability, 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 Dual-Band Wireless A+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!

For more information on the differences between an Access Point and a Router with Access Point, see the following table:

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

The Dual-Band Wireless A+G Broadband Router is like four devices in one box! The Router function lets you securely share one high-speed Internet connection among your entire network, while the 4-port full duplex 10/100 Switch jump-starts your wired-Ethernet network. Connect four PCs directly, or daisy-chain out to more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need.The Dual-Band Wireless A+G Broadband Router also contains two Wireless Access Points, supporting all three wireless networking specifications. The first Access Point uses the 2.4 GHz radio band, supporting both the popular and inexpensive Wireless-B (802.11b) standard at 11 Mbps, and the new, almost five times faster, Wireless-G (draft 802.11g) at 54 Mbps. The second Access Point radio operates in the 5 GHz band, and supports Wireless-A (802.11a) networking, also at 54 Mbps. Since the two radios operate in different bands, they can work simultaneously, blanketing your wireless zone with bandwidth.To protect your data and privacy, the Dual-Band Wireless A+G Broadband Router can encrypt all wireless transmissions. The MAC Address filter lets you decide exactly who has access to your wireless network. The Router also serves as a DHCP Server, has NAT technology to protect against Internet intruders, DMZ capability, 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 Dual-Band Wireless A+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

66 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Warning - WRT55AG, May 8, 2003

By	"lvov_1" (Arlington Heights, IL United States) - See all my reviews

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

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dual-Band Wireless A+G Access Point + Router, June 22, 2003

By	S. Bursch (Sebastopol, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Firmware upgrade 1.04 fixes a lot of problems, July 30, 2003

By A Customer

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.