Hot! Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G 802.11g Router $59 AR+tax OD

[lundog22]

Been trying to find this router for less a good price.

Office Depot suppose to have Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G 802.11g Router for $79.99 AR starting today.
But if you go to Officedepot Linksys link ~~~~~

It is only $79.99 online. Item # 634992

Add the 2 $10 mail in rebate = around $59.99+tax!

You can get download the rebate online also.

Oh BTW you might save even more by PM with Staples and apply a $15 off $75 coupon

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

I'm going to be needing one of these. Thanks.

btw: make sure you set it to delivery, as if you choose instore the price jumps to $99.

 

[rasputinj]

Good find, for a great Wireless router. The Linksys tend to cost a little more, but are rock solid IMHO.

 

[Antoneo]

Hrmm, any reason to choose this over the Netgear WGT624 802.11g router?

 

[Childs]

Perhaps I'm going blind but where are the rebates?

 

[elanarchist]

http://rebateimages.teg-online.com/88504.jpg

http://rebateimages.teg-online.com/88402.jpg

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: Antoneo
Hrmm, any reason to choose this over the Netgear WGT624 802.11g router?

Yes several huge reasons. Linksys released the source code for their firmware and now several groups are modding the source code to do things that it would normally take $1000+ routers to do. I really want to get one of these. The features I most want are:
Bandwidth shaping (download full speed and give priority to web port 80 or VOIP or games or whatever, no complaints about slow web speed, no dropped packets in whatever app you like. PLUS, if you have ADSL or other async connections that slow way down if you upload, use this to limit your bandwidth and maintain almost full simultaneous up/down stream).
DHCP static IP by MAC. This assigns IP address on DHCP by mac if you want. So this will be ideal for the computer I sometimes use as a server. Instead of manually assigning IP, it picks up the mac and always gives this computer the same address, and the port forwarding never needs changing.
Another popular feature is the ability to change power of the transmitter for wireless.

Here's a quote about more features and stuff from one of the versions of this firmware:

Sveasoft firmware for the Linksys WRT54G includes these new features:

Web Interface

Setup
Default gateway for LAN ports

Advanced Routing
OSPF Routing

Wireless
Power mode selection
Antenna selection
Client mode (Ethernet bridging)
Client mode gateway
WDS peer-to-peer mesh networking

Applications & Gaming
Modified to forward to any IP address

Administration
Bandwidth Management
Boot Wait
Cron
DHCP with static MAC->IP assignments
DNS Masq
Firewall control
NAS
NTP Client
PPP
PPTP VPN server
Resetbutton daemon
SSHD with public key or password login
Shorewall firewall
Syslog with remote logging
Telnet
Tftp

Diagnostics
Command Shell replaces ping and traceroute

Status
Wireless signal strength for client,AP,WDS

Internal Modifications
Added approximately 20 iptables filters
- include P2P, connection tracking
Added Quality of Service (for bandwidth mgmt)
Rewrote networking code for better stability
Added wireless connections daemon for client mode and WDS
Upgraded PPPD to 2.4.2
Added Roaring Penguin PPPoE module (testing)
Added PPPD Radius module (testing)
Added PPTP client and server
Various bug fixes to Linksys codebase
Busybox upgrades and command additions

Coming Features
Simplified web interface
Peer-to-peer bandwidth mgmt (Kazaa, Gnutella, Bit Torrent, etc)
Bandwidth usage statistics
Remote montioring and statistics
DNS local caching
Integrated Shorewall firewall
Integrated OSPF and BGP routing

See sveasoft for more information.

Now this is all with existing space in the firmware. They JUST found a way to cut 1 meg from the linksys firmware (they had some whacked version of openssl that takes up like 1.5 megs and way more than it needs to). Think of everything they could add with another meg of firmware space!

Right now sveasoft public version for d/l is a bit older, but the newer ones are still basically in a beta stage.

There's at least one other project called Wi-Fi or something like that.

Oh also, if you are really into wireless look into the WRT54GS which has some sorta speedbooster tech in it. The modded firmware is also compatible with that. The GS is about $100 though, so not really worth it unless you are into heavy wireless transfers.

 

[lundog22]

Yeah I was thinking of the GS myself but couldn't really justify needed to buy all new Speedboost adaptors for my home network to take advantage of that. And I don't do huge file transfer at all. I am sure the next 802.11 upgrade will be even better then current Speedboost and Super G. And the two aren't even cross compatible.

The GS also give you parental controls...(extra service fee).

 

[Devistater]

Note that the GS gives you some speed advantage even with standard G hardware. I dont know the details, you can check linksys site.

 

[Devistater]

Better get it while its hot. This appears to be a price mistake online since the advertisement says:

$79.99 After Rebates thru Apr 3
99.99 - 10.00 Linksys Mail-In Rebate - 10.00 Office Depot Mail-In Rebate = 79.99 #634992

I'm guessing they saw the $79 price and just put it in directly. I'm betting online price goes up to $99 soon so the after rebate price is $79.

 

[durin]

The GS model also has 2x the flash and ram of this model for all the potential hackers out there.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: durin
The GS model also has 2x the flash and ram of this model for all the potential hackers out there.

Dont forget, the upcoming version of the sveasoft firmware free's up 1 meg of flash. Those linux crazies can put an entire router on a floppy just think of what they can do with 1 meg

 

[tc17]

Just so you know, Sveasoft is now charging a yearly fee for his linux open source firmware. If I had known this ahead of time I would not have purchased this router as it lacks features compared to other brands. Its one of those deals where they sucker you in for free software then decide to charge you for it later.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: tc17
Just so you know, Sveasoft is now charging a yearly fee for his linux open source firmware. If I had known this ahead of time I would not have purchased this router as it lacks features compared to other brands. Its one of those deals where they sucker you in for free software then decide to charge you for it later.

I was wondering when someone would bring this up. Ok first off, there ARE other alternatives to sveasoft. As I mentioned a few posts back, Wi-Fi Box is one. It has a number of similar features, and from what I understand is actualy easier to use. Here's a link too if you want, he also links to some other modded versions:
http://h.vu.wifi-box.net/wrt54g/

Second, the reason why sveasoft did the pay thing. He had been sending out unstable releases to other people to test, and telling them not to release it. Well they did release it. He did not want to give out the messy source code from the unstable releases, only the stable ones. So a bunch of people started yelling at him that the leaks must have the source code included cause of the GPL liscense. There was several giant flame discussions both on his own forums and elsewhere about supposed GPL violations. He decided he was fed up with the leaking and the people asking for support on a unstable test, so he started charging a nominal fee of $20 to get in on the test releases. HOWEVER, you can still get the stable releases WITH the source code for stable releases as well, FREE no charge at:
ftp://ftp.sveasoft.com/pub
The last stable release as far as I know includes everything on the feature list I mentioned in an earlier post. BTW, from what I recall he also said that if you want to pay the fee for the unstable release and release it to everyone you can do so as long as you take on the support of that release thats now "yours" since you are releasing the code. So if you REALLY REALLY want to take a chance at unstable test releases that might blow your router, you can always go that route.

As for suckering you in with free software, what he used to offer for free STILL IS free. Only the testing releases aren't free anymore, and they were never supposed to be public anyway. And you have alternatives if you dont like his releases. And by itself the linksys is a fairly good deal anyway, its just ultra hot with this open source firmware.

 

[OctaneZ]

Another option is OpenWRT, which is using a minimilistic kernel, and then allows yuo to add packages depending on what you want the linksys to do for you.

edit:
corrected

 

[terminalmind]

Thanks.
I just price matched this with Staples since I already had a $15 off coupon.
Total cost wth tax $69.27 - $10 rebate =$59.27

 

[tye]

Is this router more stable than the others (USR, Dlink, Netgear, etc.)? I keep on reading posts by various users of wireless routers that they need to reset their modems a bunch. Any word on this one?

tks,

Ty

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: tye
Is this router more stable than the others (USR, Dlink, Netgear, etc.)? I keep on reading posts by various users of wireless routers that they need to reset their modems a bunch. Any word on this one? tks, Ty

Reset modems? Modem resets dont generally have much to do with routers, if its a router problem the router needs to be reset, not the modem. I havn't read anything about the WRT54G needing to be reset often. If there WAS a stability problem, I would guess changing firmware would fix it

For me personally, I like to reset my router (which isn't YET a wrt54g) and modem once a month or so, but that's just personal preference, nothing that I HAVE to do.

 

[Fallen Kell]

I bit... my old .11b router just stopped working (its 3 years old), so its time to get a new one...

 

[tye]

Originally posted by: Devistater

Originally posted by: tye
Is this router more stable than the others (USR, Dlink, Netgear, etc.)? I keep on reading posts by various users of wireless routers that they need to reset their modems a bunch. Any word on this one? tks, Ty

Reset modems? Modem resets dont generally have much to do with routers, if its a router problem the router needs to be reset, not the modem. I havn't read anything about the WRT54G needing to be reset often. If there WAS a stability problem, I would guess changing firmware would fix it

For me personally, I like to reset my router (which isn't YET a wrt54g) and modem once a month or so, but that's just personal preference, nothing that I HAVE to do.

Doh, my bad. I meant router. People seem to complain quite a bit about about losing connection and thus the need to reset their router. This is for any of the various brands. Tks!

 

[Devistater]

I'm surprised the deal is still on. Maybe not enough people are ordering to trigger thier panic alert

 

[GeminiZi]

Can someone please reply ASAP... I'm trying to get on this deal. Been looking for a wireless router for 3 weeks now, but no one has really confirm that Linksys WRT54G is an awesome router. My choices were the D-Link Di-624, Netgear WGT624, and the Linksys router. I need something to get me over 100 bucks so i can use my 20 off 100 coupon. I was thinking about getting a PCI adapter since I need one anyway. Should I also get the Linksys WMP54G PCI adapter or the WUSB54G USB network adapter? I heard bad reviews about the WUSB54G, and that it doesn't support WPA. I need a PCI adapter recommendation also to add onto this deal. Thanks guys.

Will the rebates also apply to the PCI adapter since it does not list it?

 

[Kipper]

Linksys owns all other brands in this price range. That is ALL you need to know.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Mine was delivered yesterday (3/30)

 

[sinucus]

I saw the links for the rebates but I don't understand the second one. The Office Depot mail-in rebate is simple enough. I did a google search and found a linksys mail-in, but it also requires an original UPC code. Here is the Linksys rebate that I found at amazon. Can someone shed a little light on this for me?

Thank you,
sinucus