Home > Consumer Reviews > Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router

This was very easy to set up. It took about 5 minutes total to set up the router and have a wireless connection to my desktop. I have an excellent reception to my desktop that sits about 30 feet away in another room. Also, I have my desktop and laptop (both running vista), xbox 360, and ps3 connected to it wirelessly. the xbox 360 NAT is open and the ps3 NAT is type 2. I'm not sure what that stuff means technically, but in normal person terms it means that I can connect to others with no problems. The back of the router has 4 10/100 ethernet connections on it as well if you want a wired connection.

The design of this router is really excellent. The antennas are built into the router and the dimensions of it are really small and thin! This gives you more flexibility of where the router can be placed.

Streaming recorded TV, music, and pictures from my desktop to xbox (using media center) work well for both being connected wireless with no reduction in picture quality.

With the release of the new Xbox 360 dashboard I am able to stream HD video from Netflix wirelessly through my 360 with this router. The wait time for video to start is short and the picture quality of HD shows like Heroes and 30 Rock is great.

*Update* I have had the 20" 2.66ghz iMac since May 08 and connecting it to my linksys was as simple as selecting the network and typing in my password. The router has been up and running several months now with no resets or connection issues. This is a very stable router that requires little to no maintenance. Now my connections to this router are a laptop with Vista every now and then, Mac with OS X 10.5, ps3, 360, and 2 iPhones. There are no problems when 2 or more devices are using the connection. I am connected to a 6mbps cable connection.

Recently I got the new unibody MacBook and an eyeTV hybrid 2009 model. I use it to record TV (mainly the HD shows sent via QAM from comcast) on my iMac. I want to stream a HD show like The Office from my iMac to my macbook that is connected my my 46" samsung (lnt-4665), but I have found that "g" is not fast enough to stream a show recorded in HD. It is fast enough to stream a show recorded in SD, so I need an "N" router if I want to stream wirelessly.

I have to say that I have come to like the WRT54G2 a lot.

Works very well with my PC, my fiancé's Mac, a Playstation3, a wired multiuse printer/fax/copier and the standard cable modem RCN provided.

Configuration was quick and easy and I had no problems in that regard.

My only complain with this product is the fact that the DHCP server has problems after a while. If you leave a PC/device on for too much time, it will "lose" it's IP address and there is no way around the issue other than rebooting / power cycling router and affected devices. It doesn't happen too often so it's not a major issue, but I would have appreciated the linksys forums to be more supportive of my post on this issue - as they really have not been.

So 5 stars for product design, features and ease of use
- 1 star for DHCP server flaw
- 1 star for poor product support
= 3 stars

I had an original WRT54G that I bricked screwing around with the firmware. I needed another router right away, so I picked the WRT54G2 up at my local BB for $50. I was going to spend a lot more for an "N" router, but figured it wasn't worth it for my modest DSL/home network. I had the WRT54G2 up and running within 10 minutes. No problems. No drama. I was concerned about the internal antenna, but I still get a full signal even in my basement. It seems to work very well, and looks much better in my office than the original WRT54G.

I am still just stunned. Here I was, all prepared for a painful afternoon of geekese and error messages and unexplained no-connectivity, like the last time I had to do this...ordering out for pizza and a late night and probably some booze to ease the pain...and twenty minutes later, I'm on my laptop. (Fifteen minutes of that was fighting with the laptop.) You insert a CD, it walks you through four easy steps, generates the needed keys, and you're done. So now I have to stay sober and cook dinner, but it's a small price to pay. The wifi signal is strong, the router design is sleek and unobtrusive (a minimum of horrible sleep-disturbing blinking green lights, my personal pet peeve), the price was absolutely right. We'll see how I feel a month from now, but at the moment I'm on a non-techie high....

A good friend of my just set up his pc in a new apartment. He wanted to wirelessly network his pc with that of his roomate and an Xbox 360. As a long time owner of a Linksys WRT54g router that I've never had a problem with, I reccommended this one to him. Since I was doing the setup, I wanted to work with something I was familiar with. We were not dissappointed. To setup the router to his roomates pc in the living and to configure a Linksys WUSB54GC Compact Wireless-G USB Adapter to his pc and setup the 128 bit WEP encryption took all of 30 mins. Everything connected on the 1st attempt. Connection range to router about 80 ft away, thru 2 walls was at max strength at a constant 54Mbs . If I ever need to get another router, this is the one that it will be. Linksys makes a great product.