Very powerful box for that kind of money (Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54GC)

Member Name: Dragonmen

Product:	Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54GC
Date:	06/03/05 (1541 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, It's running linux so you can configure it as you wish, Easy to setup

Disadvantages: Lockups from time to time, No high-configurable options like Cisco or MikroTik, Can't be used as a client in original firmware

WHAT DO YOU GET?
You'll get 200Mhz processing power (integrated broadcom solution) which should be of a great use since this box can be programmed to do almost anything if you are familiar with linux and crosstool compiler. 4MB Flash memory can be used for a new upgrades/option since this box gets upgraded almost all the time with new security and functionality.

LINUX BOX
This device is actually a small linux box. You can telnet to it and process linux commands. Since it's GPL'ed you can also download a full source and compile it for yourself. You wil need a mips cross-compiler for linux.

WHAT ABOUT VERSIONS?
As far as i know there's 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 versions. There's also "Afterburner" version (it should have GS in the name) that can allow 108Mbps. This Version have 54Mbps (theoretically), but you will get about 25Mbits in best case. You will want 2.0 version since it's having faster processor (200Mhz).

YOU CAN USE IT AS A CLIENT
Yes, you can, altrough this box is not meant to be the client (it's the router). You can, hovewer, use it as a client with 3rd part firmware like alchemy (http://www.sveasoft.com/).

WHY YOU SHOULD USE A ROUTER?
This router uses wired connection (WAN) to the network, so you can attach your Cable modem, for example, to the WAN port and other (63) wireless clients can use this for internet connection. If you have some wired clients you can connect up to 4 wired clients from this box directly. Other non-official firmwares allows packet routing between wired and wireless clients so you'll get wired switch, wireless access point and router in the same box.

WHAT ABOUT SIMPLE ROUTER?
This device is so cheap that you can use it as a wired router instead of buying (unnecessary) complicated wired router and have to buy different device once you decided to use wireless connections. You don't have much of a configuration for the security (like you have in MikroTik or Cisco's) but you will certanly get enough for the average user.

ANY TROUBLES?
You should keep it cool. In my case i used a big heatsink on the top of the box. This should prevent heat problems which manifest in a slow bandwidth or box lockups. In the case of lockups you need to restart the box by unplug the power. This happens from time to time.
If you "kill" the box by using different (non-working firmware) you should use TFTP (Trivial FTP client) to restore original firmware or (if you didn't set BOOT_WAIT) to use internal com ports (they are on the board but you'll need to provide connector) to access it.

Summary: