Yesterday in the mail I received my brand new Linksys WRT54GL. I bought one after going through a whole boatload of crap with Wireless N.
Before continuing, my suggestion to anyone that reads this is to buy a WRT54GL now before they’re taken off the market. It’s 60 bucks very well spent and it you wait too long, you won’t be able to buy one new any longer.
Here’s what makes the 54GL great:
1. High profile chassis
The 54GL has the exact same design as the WRT54G introduced way back in 2002. Absolutely nothing about the chassis has changed in 8 years because it was done right the first time. Even if you have all five ports connected (one WAN, four LAN), the most heat you’ll feel on touch of the top of the chassis will be slightly warm – but never hot. Why? Because the profile is high with a nice large vent on the top. Heat escapes very easily and this greatly contributes to the 54G and 54GL’s reliability.
2. Replaceable antennas
Both antennas are large and easy to replace with better ones if need be. You most likely wouldn’t have to, but if you did there are plenty of options on eBay for greater-range options, and the installation is tool-less. Screw out, screw in, done.
3. Stupidly easy admin interface
A problem many wi-fi routers have is that their admin interfaces are difficult to use. The 54GL’s admin UI is the essence of simplicity. Summed up: Everything you need and nothing you don’t.
4. Solid wired performance
An unfortunate trend with many wi-fi routers is that the wired performance is just plain awful. Sure, the box may say 10/100M, but in practical use you’d swear it doesn’t do over 2M. The 54GL on the other hand has outstanding performance when connected via wire. It acts as you would expect 10/100 to act.
If using a gigabit LAN and don’t want to degrade to 100M (and I wouldn’t blame you), I’d still recommend buying a 54GL anyway even if you have to “piggy-back” it off your 1000M router. The solid G reliability and expansion options of the 54GL are more than worth it.
5. Seriously hackable
With the 54G and 54GL, you have several options to hack the firmware to your liking. There’s the famous DD-WRT, Tomato and OpenWrt. Any one of these gives you lots of great options for tweaking your 54GL in ways other wi-fi routers simply cannot do.
Important note: As is the case whenever you hack firmware, if you bust your 54GL in the process, the warranty obviously won’t cover that.
6. Rock-solid reliable
There are 54G routers out there from late-2002/early-2003 that are still in operation today, eight years later. The 54GL was introduced in 2005 and is more or less just a revision update/reissue of the 54G, so it has the same reliability the 54G has.
Buying a Linksys WRT54GL is a no-brainer purchase, and that’s the reason I bought one. I consider it one of the last of the great wi-fi G routers to exist. Yes, it has a very old-school looking chassis along with it’s old-school admin UI, but it’s the definition of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
The fact of the matter is that nobody truly cares what a router looks like as long as it works. Does your router make a fashion statement? I didn’t think so.
Get your WRT54GL before they stop making them, else you’ll have to suffer with that new “spaceship” design Linksys is using – and it’s awful. Not for the way it looks, but because of the low profile that cuts reliability because they run hotter.
Linksys WRT54G and GL owners
Do you own one? How long has yours been running?
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I've had mine for three years now. Rock solid. Much better than the old Netgear I was using.
I've also had my WRT54G for 4-5 years, and recently went with dd-wrt firmware for the last 2 years. The Linksys firmware was good, but of course any 3rd party firmware is better. I might buy an extra one so I can do some client/bridge/repeating features to eliminate more wires. The only complaint I have is that my family has 2 Xbox's running at one time and occasionally the router 'crashes' and we have to power cylce it. Maybe dd-wrt is to blame? Anyway…minor complaints.
My ver 5 of the 54G running for past 5yrs. Supports 4 wired stations and 2 wireless laptops in Workgroup. Never failed or even whimpered. Recently picked up a yard sale ver 6 (mint condx in orig box) for $1.00. I plan to run them for another 5yrs.
Running Tomato for about 2 years now on my WRT54GL.
I have 2 of linksys WRTs, both works fine, using the newer one now. The older one, had for years, maybe '04 or '05, just having it for spare. Was going to sell it, but, now you found its great overall, going to keep it now. Never use any other type. Linksys never gave me problems, even though, dropped it several times, still works.
I've had a WRT54GL for a few years now running it with DD-WRT. Rock solid, extremely reliable, never had an issue with it. Best consumer-class router I've worked with.
Sounds great! I'll look for one today! Now…tell how easy it's going to be to set it up with my ATT 2Wire modem?
Just plug it in, so eazy I have a WRT54 that I used on 2wire, worked fine,
Hint: be sure to check/change network name, change logon name (admin) and password.
I had mine hacked after a power outage, (went back to factory setting I think) is such a common router that lots of people know the factory admin password and someone was able to turn off the security and use my download for a few days before I noticed.
I changed the network name from Linksys to Virus_Vault_Folder. haven't had anyone try to hack it since LOL
Ours has a date code of 07/2006 — been running fine! Cable company staff tend to blame the router for mishaps, but never has it been at fault. Must admit that we did need to change the address to prevent conflicts, but I blame software design folks for that one. When an outage does occur, we simply power cycle the machine and all is well, which is much quicker than a call to the cable company.
Have a Linksys WRT54G for at least 5+ years, can't find a receipt or manufacturing date on the unit. Works great, no issues with Linksys firmware. Have not dabbled with open source firmware, read a bit and it seems complicated. Any opinions on best firmwear for WRT54G?? Also would be interested to know what issues Rich has had with Wireless N, as I am thinking of geting a wireless N router (3 newer laptops have wireless N) with gigabit ports for our 2 desktops.
Mine has been runnign for 5 years + without one single issue. So far it has been the most reliable tech equip I've had