Product Description

The WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router puts you onboard for the newest wireless networking standard. Wireless-G is 54Mbps wireless networking that's almost five times as fast as the widely deployed Wireless-B (802.11b) products found in homes & businesses. They can interoperate with existing 802.11b equipment, making them more flexible thanother networks. The built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 connects 4 PCs directly and lets you daisy-chain out to more hubs and switches for as big a network as you need. To protect your data and privacy, the Wireless-G Broadband Router can encode all wireless transmissions using 128-bit WEP encryption. The powerful Stateful Packet Inspection firewall will defend against most Internet attacks.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7368 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Linksys
• Model: WRT54GC
• Dimensions: 1.20 pounds

Features

• All-in-one Internet-sharing Router, 4-port Switch, and Wireless-G (802.11g) Access Point
• Shares a single Internet connection and other resources with Ethernet wired and Wireless-G and B devices
• Compact form factor fits in anywhere
• High security: Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA/WPA2 Personal), wireless MAC address filtering, powerful SPI firewall
• Compatible with Windows 98SE, Me, 2000, or XP

From the Manufacturer
The Linksys compact wireless-G broadband router is an all-in-one Internet-sharing router, four-port switch, and 54 Mbps wireless-G access point. Almost five times faster than 802.11b, it can also interoperate with any 802.11b device (at 11 Mbps).

The Linksys compact wireless-G broadband router is really three devices in one small box. There's the wireless access point, which lets you connect both screamingly fast wireless-G (802.11g at 54 Mbps) and wireless-B (802.11b at 11 Mbps) devices to yout network. There's also a built-in four-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. Finally, the router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection.

Connect up to four wired PCs and share Internet, printers, digital music and pictures, document files, and multiplayer or online games.

Once your computers are connected to the router and the Internet, they can communicate with each other, too, sharing a printer, digital music, picture and document files, and multiplayer or online games. To protect your data and privacy, the wireless-G broadband router can encode all wireless transmissions with WEP or industrial-strength WPA personal encryption. The router can serve as a DHCP server, has a powerful SPI firewall to protect your PCs against intruders and most known Internet attacks, and supports VPN pass-through. Configuration is a snap with the Web browser-based configuration utility. And the tiny form factor fits any home or desktop. Features All-in-one Internet-sharing router, four-port switch, and wireless-G (802.11g) access point Shares a single Internet connection and other resources with Ethernet wired, wireless-G, and wireless-B devices Compact form fits anywhere--use the internal antenna, or add an optional external antenna for more range High security: Wi-Fi protected access (WPA/WPA2 personal), wireless MAC address filtering, powerful SPI firewall

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.

Customer Reviews

Two broken
I bought two of these. The first one bricked after a firmware update failed. Another one bricked after normal use about 2 months after the first one died.

good coverage with a good price
the CD-based setup didn't work because it couldn't find out my connection maybe because it needs dialing, soI had to configure it myself but other than that everything was OK, maybe it's not that fast but till now it's stable.

Don't buy this!
Having used many Linksys products for many years I have to say that this router is really crappy. Can't handle many wireless and wired connections at the same time and then freezes so you have to unplug and replug the power connector: Really annoying. It happens all the time. Save your many and frustations. Go buy another product, like the WRT54G (the non compact version) which has two antennas by the way.