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| Review: Linksys WRT54GL Wireless Router |
Review of the Linksys WRT54GL Wireless G Broadband Router. A 54Mbps wireless dual antenna, 4 port router, with firewall,dmz and nat.
What's in the box
- Router
- Power supply
- Ethernet cable
- CD-ROM
Getting Started
The router is in a standard linksys stackable case, the same as the most of their home networking kit. The feet are designed so it can be stood horizontally on vertically, though does not support wall mounting. As with most linksys wireless kit, the antenna have RP-TNC connectors, rather than the more common rp-sma connectors. This means that there are fewer antenna available if you want to replace the standard antenna, however linksys does have some reasonably priced 7db replacementsThe router comes with all the standard features you'd expect - a firewall, NAT, 4 ethernet LAN ports, 1 ethernet WAN port, portforwarding and DMZ, support for DDNS, a built in DHCP server, and VPN passthrough. One nice feature is the ability to adjust the default MTU size, which is useful for broadband connections which don't support an MTU of 1500.
The router doesn't come with a quick install guide, but instead wants you to use the install wizard and documentation off the CD, though you can just plug in and connect to the router on http://192.168.1.1/ as normal and use the built in web admin interface.
Given the number of unsecured wireless networks there are, many wireless manufacturers are adding "One Touch" setup buttons to their wireless kit, to automatically setup and configure a secure wireless network, on both the router and clients. Of course it requires the clients to support it, which most at the moment don't, as many wireless networks seems to be used by a mix of laptops with old wireless cards (or built in wifi) and desktops with newer pci or usb wireless dongles. Until everything supports the "One Touch" setup, its usefulness seems limited.
As with most wireless kit, the initial wireless settings have encryption turned off - which might reduce the problems for consumers getting connecting, but seems to go counter to trying to have fewer insecure wireless networks about.
The Web admin offers a few advanced wireless settings, yet for a router with detachable antenna, fails to offer an adjustable transmit power, or, as with some older linksys wireless kit, a choice as to which of the two antenna to use, which is a must if you upgrade to a larger antenna.
The most suprising "feature" however was that the router consumed 19W at the power plug, which was more than I was expecting, given my other linksys AP only consumes 12W. I'm assuming this is down to the fast 200Mhz processor inside this router, needed to cope with the demands of a 54Mbit wireless network and encryption.
Performance
As this is just a standard 802.11g wireless router, the range and speed cannot compete with the high speed and extended range wireless kit on the market, however compared to other wireless G kit, including single antenna wireless routers, the range was disappointing, with the transmit power a few db down on the rest of the field. When close to the router, the file transfer speeds were what I'd expect for a G router (22-24Mbps) but the speed dropped quickly as you moved away.Conclusion
As a standard 802.11g wireless router, it is does not stand out from the crowd, with decidedly lacklustre performance, however, it does have one huge redeeming feature, support for easily upgrading the firmware to an open source alternative, which adds a large number of features and configuration options, not found on the default linksys router. Although there are cheaper routers available that also support open source firmwares, the simplicity of upgrading the firmware on this linksys WRT54GL router, make it a good option if you have never tinkered with a router's firmware before. However, for normal home or business users who intend to run with the default firmware, there is little to recommend this router for.
