Linksys WRT54G v5... Not good...

This is just to document my experience in the last 48 hours with Linksys new WRT54G v5 wireless router/access point.

  1. It's hard to tell from the box whether you are getting v5 or a v4 router. Google is you haven't heard about the difference (v5 is on a new platform is at firmware release 1.0.0 out of the box).
  2. It was rough from the start with the v5 router. I have had several WRT54G's and was really surprised. Updated firmware to the latest
1.0.4, still bad.
  1. Problems: - SIS enabled/disabled setting keeps creeping back to enabled - Router set for "mixed" network, WEP, all connections from "B" devices fail. Tried two Apple airport equiped Macs and one other "B" device. - Router kept losing it's IP. Reboot/power cycle required. - Firmware 1.0.0 had obvious bugs... Wireless Security... WEP... screen shows a blank instead of "WEP"
  2. I don't think this is Apple Macintosh related (Tried a non-apple device with same results).
  3. Unplug the v5 and substitute a v2.2 WRT54G has none of these problems.
  4. Based on this experience, I cannot recommend the WRT54G v5. I was able to find a couple of v4's at other retailers.

-- Sally

Reply to
Sally Shears
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It's a feature, not a bug. SIS (Secure Easy Setup) gets reset to enabled if you make any manual changes to the SSID and WPA key. This is allegedly to insure synchronization between the configuring SIS client. I'm not really sure if this is an intentional feature or an accidental side effect.

Huh? I have a customer that bought a WRT54G v5 router. I used my Orinoco Silver card (802.11b WEP64) for testing it. No problems.

That's the browser. The HTML is suppose to expire the page to insure that you're reading pages from the router instead of from the browser cache. Some pages (not all) seem to have expire times of zero, which never expires. You'll have to flush your browser cache to see the new page or set the browser temporarily to load new pages every time.

Well, I can add a few more bugs with V5 (1.00.4 firmware)

- Remote management on port 8080 often fails to work.

- I'm getting slow uploads with streaming media. UDP performance sucks.

- Selecting "Optimize Gaming Applications" slows downloads to a crawl even when there are no games being run.

- VoIP with Vonage and Skype are jittery, which is not a problem with my WRT54Gv1.1 on the same DSL line.

Also a bunch of others that I haven't bothered to verify. Treat these as possibles as I'm not sure they're for real:

- Passes only one IPSec VPN tunnel.

- PMTU discovery is acting weird. I've hit some black holes that I suspect should have been avoided. I'm guessing it's ignoring ICMP packet fragmentation bits.

- https remote admin offers a certificate which appears to be trashed. There's more but I'm too lazy to list. Just about everything I tried with this router has gone awry. Salvaging this mess is going to be a long uphill battle for Linksys.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

It sounds like the New Coke/Coke Classic fiasco. The big difference is that they still sell New Coke as "Coke II" in some markets where it does very well. I can't see the WRT54G V5 ever doing that...

Reply to
Derek Broughton

WRT54G v5.0 has a serial number which starts with: CDFB

WRT54GL (L=Linux) is the same as WRT54G v4.0 - but is currently more expensive than the WRT54G

Also, make sure that you have the latest firmware: version 1.00.4 from Dec 9, 2005

Reply to
danr_18

A) The serial numbers ARE on the outside of the box. B) I see Jeff Lieberman already had comments regarding the 1.00.3 firmware.

Reply to
danr_18

How interesting... I am about to setup my wireless network at home, and was thinking to go for the Linksys WAG54GX2 (with WMP54GX on the other end).

Do you have any experience with this modem/router and PCI card and, if yes, could you please give an opinion on them?

Thank you for your time

Reply to
Motorcyclesaur

Some more trials and tribulations with the WRT54G v5 from DSLReports:

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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Those are totally different from the WRT54G v5. Please do not assume that because the product number and packaging are similar, that the electronics, chipset, firmware, and bugs are similar. The vendors recycle model numbers for several reasons. The big one is that it doesn't constitute creating an "obsolete product" thus preventing their dealers from returning the older models for credit. As far as the bookkeepers are concerned, it's exactly the same product, even though the guts are radically different.

No personal experience. Sorry.

Please note that the WAG54GX2 is an ADSL, all-in-one, wireless router. I don't like these and prefer to purchase the DSL modem, router, and wireless access point in seperate packages, even if it's more expensive. The versatility in locating the wireless, the reduction in visible cabling, and the ability to upgrade in stages, is worth the added cost. I've covered this a few dozen times which should appear in the archives.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I finally decided to go for it, as the modem/router configuration is in my view the best suitable solution for my needs, and I am happy so far (well,

24 hours is not enough to say, time will really tell how good and reliable it is).

Thank you for your time and explanation.

Reply to
Motorcyclesaur

Jeff, thanks for this and all your comments. I'll investigate further.

I don't follow you on this one at all. What I saw was a changing page from the router's web-based admin interface; the page showed that the router had lost it's ip (showed IP=0.0.0.0). No matter on this end; I've returned the v5 units.

Thanks for the additional details. Sounds like we agree about the wrt54g v5.

-- Sally

Reply to
Sally Shears

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