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

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

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.

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.

I was so excited to get this that I paid extra to have it overnighted to me. What nobody told me is that this device doesn't send a signal more than thirty-five feet!!!!!! That's ridiculous. I called the company and they admitted that's the best the device will do -- 35 feet. I hate it. I had to buy a booster and boosters for every computer in the house, and even then the signal was really weak. I'm VERY disappointed. Buyer beware.

I'm a network engineer and this thing is absolutely HORRIBLE!!
DHCP doesn't work well. I keep getting duplicate IPs on the network even when everything is set to use DHCP. It just doesn't handle DHCP requests well at all.
When I first got it, wireless G kept dropping out. I struggled w/ that for weeks. Now, I have to reset it almost 3 times a day because it just "stops working"... literally! Doesn't pass any traffic through it. I use VOIP and when talking on the phone, it just drops... quite EMBARRASING!!

Support???? Support seems like a bunch of unqualified people who only know the basics and they repeat them over and over... USELESS.

I've been a HUGE Linksys user/supporter for a while, this product ALONE has made me look elsewhere from now on. We have their Business wireless devices (another FLOP!), GB business switches (this isn't so bad), and home products from cable modems, wireless routers, etc etc. So, I've known and liked them... UNTIL THIS THING!