THG bashes the WRT54G v5

[John]

http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2006/06/0...ys_wrt54g_v5_really_is_a_lousy_router/

It's not as bad as they make it out to be.

 

[spidey07]

5th rule of network.

"never believe what a PC site says about networking"

 

[T3C]

I work for an ISP who provides wireless internet access. Are authentication for that uses PPPoE. PPPoE does not work on v5 of these routers. I have spoken with linksys enginers 3 times now. Each time they acknowledge that it is a problem, and then tell me that they are currently not working on a firmware upgrade that will fix it. And that they have no plans of fixing it in the near future, but to keep checking back.
Needless to say I am sure you can guess my opinoin of these routers.

 

[GeekDrew]

I've set up quite a few Linksys WRT54G routers... most of them were the earlier models, and I had absolutely no difficulty with them. v5, however, has been a PITA. I've had difficulty with PPPoE, and with assigning it an internal IP of 10.x.x.x instead of its defaults.

 

[nweaver]

my v5 works fine...as a standalone AP. It kept connecting/disconnecting from the wireless bridge (ethernet connection) and so I swapped a customer my old netgear that works great for it.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: spidey07

LOL, Rule 5 is a Good Rule.

Unfortunately we have rules so that we have exception to the rules, and this article he one of them.

I Dislike THG, but the guy who wrote the v5 page (Tim Higgins) is the same guy that started and did the bulk of the work on www.practicallynetwork.com, eventually he sold it to Internet.com.

As for the Article, it is accurate the Linksys v5 Sux big time.

:sun:

 

[0roo0roo]

can't wait for more benchies of max simultenous connections for routers thats the important one for many people, not some theoretical max way beyond most connections speeds etc

 

[cmetz]

Linksys is trying to ratchet their entire product line downward in order to meet competitive pice points. The WRT54G is pretty much the lowest end box now, and that should give you a clue that it's not going to be interesting to a serious user. In order to get that box down to the price point it needs to be at (about $30 street), they had to reduce the cost of goods. A quick bit of research between Linksysinfo.org and Mouser's catalog says that in small quantities they could save about $5 COGS - in the volume Linksys does they could probably get massive discounts to start off with so we're probably really talking about $2.50 COGS savings. But that translates to a $25 MSRP savings. Which is pretty much the difference between the previous $50 price point and the new $30 price point. So the math says they had to cut, IMO.

All that said, it's a downright dishonest practice to build up a good reputation for a product (the WRT54G) and then slip a silent revision into the channel that is substantially a different product (completely different software), and has a substantially different level of quality. This should serve as a reminder to all that brand loyalty is foolish these days, because so many manufacturers will happily screw over their customers for a buck.

 

[JackMDS]

So the street price would be similar to the Belkin, and D-Link.

For short period of time Linksys would probably outsold (on this price level) D-Link and Belkin because of it name recognition. However if the unit is not as good as the others it would backfire and it would hurt sales at the upper end too.

The average user (unfortunately) does not know from Model this or model that, the "bad" v5 would result in the typical post ?Linksys Sux Do Not buy?.

Which is pity, since the WRT54 v1-v4 created a nice market for Linksys.

:sun:

 

[0roo0roo]

yea, i got a linksys wrt54gs 1.1 when it first came out for 70 ish. its only good because of the dd-wrt and other firmwares, the regular one got bogged by torrent. its still not perfect but still much better than default with ddrwrt+qos etc. sad their new products seem to be backsliding but i guesswe make up a small part of the market. i wonder how those 20 dollar wireless g airlink routers on sale at frys all the time compare

my next router will have to handle tons of simulteneous connections without bogging down. might not be a linksys this time oh well