Cheap; Secure; Small; Not ugly; Works well; Relatively easy to configure
Disadvantages:
warm; No matter how easy they make it networking still complicated .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
It was after reading a great many reviews that I finally plumped for the Linksys WAG354-G ADSL Home Gateway to wirelessly connect two PC's (one laptop and one Desktop) to each other and to my broadband internet connection. My only reason for choosing it was that it seemed to receive LESS bad reviews than its main competitors in the home networking market, Belkin, Netgear et alia. But the fact that every single router I looked at, including this one, came replete with plenty of negative reviews gave me fair notice that this was not going to be a walk in the park. And so it proved.
Let's start with some basic principles as networking can be an incredibly complex subject to someone with only a basic knowledge of IT. The idea behind this device is to simplify the process of networking (i.e linking) PCs to each other and the internet. This simple looking plastic box (it reminds me of a smoke alarm and is about the same size but with more lights and rather nice silver finish!) contains all the essential elements to do this: a broadband (called ADSL) modem which will connect to the internet; and a router and a switch which in the very simplest of terms, makes sure that the computer that sends data requesting something gets the correct answer back - a bit like a postman delivering mail to your address and not your neighbours by mistake. All this for £65.18 from Amazon. The Gateway is future proofed to an extent in that it will support the new high speed broadband standard (ADSL2) but there's no support for the very new wireless N standard that will increase transfer speeds from the current 54Mbps (megabits per second) to over 200Mbps.
On delivery, you'll find the device has been well packed and comes complete with an AC/DC adaptor, a network cable, a phone cable, an ADSL micro filter, a quick start guide and a set-up CD.
Setting up the Gateway is done by contacting it from a PC and in the first instance this must be done via the network cable. You must therefore have a network port available on one of your PCs. This should not be a problem for those with new computers as they are a standard feature on every motherboard these days, but those with older PCs should be aware. My Windows 2000 desktop PC was built in 2000 and had no such port. My Windows XP laptop (see my review of the Dell Inspiron 1300) did, so this was the PC that I used for configuration.
To proceed, in addition to the contents of the box you will require a nearby phone socket. Connect the micro filter to the phone socket, and connect the included phone cable to the appropriate socket on the micro filter and in turn, to the correct socket on the Gateway. Use the network cable to connect the Gateway to your PC. Attach the power cables and you are ready to go. None of this should present any problems as there are perfectly good descriptions in the quick start guide and the Gateway itself is clearly labelled. The micro filter is essential as it separates the signal required for your telephone calls from the signal required for broadband. Without it you would have all sorts of interference and connection issues.
Switch the PC on and you are ready to configure the Gateway. This involves, again in the very simplest of terms, telling the Gateway how you connect to the internet and the type of security you want to set up. If I were you, pop the included CD into the drive and run the configuration utility. It takes away most of the pain by asking pertinent questions and then automatically configures the Gateway for you, mostly.
Manual configuration of the Gateway is done via your normal web browser (internet Explorer 5.0 and Netscape 6.0 and above are supported). Open this and type the Gateway's IP address (as explained in the quick start guide) into the address bar, then enter the user name and password in the form that appears. By default these are both: admin. You will then be presented with the Gateway's configuration screen, which to all intents and purposes, looks like a web site.
Looking at this is where things can get very daunting for the beginner. The world of networking is a world of abbreviations and complex words like: encapsulation and subnet masks. Take some solace that it's only the brightest of geeks that actually understand all of this and I'll be absolutely frank: I'm not that bright so most of it is beyond me. The quick start guide does a good job of explaining most of what you need to know and the full user guide, which is on the CD and available from the Linksys website goes much further in defining everything. I cannot say this strongly enough, if you're not already familiar with networking then it is imperative that you thoroughly absorb these. Only in this way will you discover what is relevant to your network and what is not.
By doing this, within 30 minutes, my laptop was happily talking to the Gateway and making a stable and secure connection to the internet. Security is of paramount importance for a wireless network as it is potentially possible for anyone within the wireless range of the Gateway to A: Access your internet connection and B: Access the Gateway's configuration screens. Happily, the issue of security is well covered in the full user guide (appendix B) so make yourself familiar with it and be sure to at least:
Change the SSID from the default: linksys. Change the Gateways default user name and password from admin to something else. Switch off SSID broadcast. Set up at least 128 bit WEP security - preferably WPA if you can. Permit only the MAC addresses of the PCs in your network to access. Ensure the inbuilt Firewall is on.
Doesn't mean much now, but all of this is explained well in the full user guide and all of this will make the job of any potential hacker as difficult as possible which is, at the end of the day, all you can hope to achieve. No network is 100% secure, but someone trying to access your network will balance the effort with the potential gain and for most home networks, the mammoth effort involved in getting access to your network if you've taken the above steps is just not worth the returns.
Thus, with a secure, stable connection set up to my laptop, I went to bed promising to connect the desktop PC to the network in the morning.
As I already mentioned, there was no inbuilt networking capability for my desktop so to give it wireless access I purchased and installed a Linksys WMP54G PCI card (which I will review separately).
At this point I need to regale you with a spot of geography. I live in a medium sized two bedroom flat in a refurbished Victorian town house. The Gateway was originally positioned in the lounge, 2 meters from where I normally work on my laptop. The desktop PC is in one of the bedrooms adjacent to the lounge and was about 7 meters from the Gateway, with one fairly substantial wall between them. Not huge figures and nowhere near the maximum range of the Gateway's signal which, as it operates on the 2.4GHz frequency is anywhere between 90 - 600 meters (approx) in perfect conditions. Imagine my astonishment then, when after installing the PCI card in my desktop PC - it could detect no signal at all from the Gateway!
The only solution was to move the location of the Gateway into the bedroom and it sits 6 inches from the desktop PC which now receives an "Excellent" signal. The Gateway can sit anywhere in that bedroom and the PCI card will still pick it up but leave that room and the signal is a goner. As I can still work on my laptop in the lounge which receives a "Very Good" to "Excellent" signal regardless of the location of the Gateway, the issue must be with the PCI card. It's not like my walls are lead lined or anything - never-the-less, wireless isn't magic and all manner of factors can affect the signal.
This however, was to be the least of my problems.
The desktop PC now had a perfect, secure and stable connection to the Gateway but I now discovered that the laptop, for reasons that took me 14 hours (that's right folks - 14 hours) to work out, kept dropping it's connection for no apparent reason. It would just lose the signal from the Gateway and then proved all but impossible to re-establish the connection. When it did re-connect, it could last anything from 30 seconds to 10 minutes before dropping again and we had to start re-connecting all over again.
God alone knows how a computer novice would have coped with this, and I suspect it would have ended up in a call to Linksys customer support or being smashed under my size 10s if it hadn't been for an error message I happened to see in the Wireless Network Connection dialogue box. By this time I had installed up-dated drivers for my laptop's Wifi, upgraded the firmware on the Gateway, and spent more time tinkering with settings in Wireless Network Connection Properties than is healthy for any sane individual and was at the end of my tether. The error message that caught my eye indicated that my laptop was unable to reacquire an IP address from the Gateway which I knew from the Gateway's configuration was being obtained automatically. I Googled my way through a few web sites and discovered that sometimes wireless networks can have problems in this regard and the solution was to fix the IP address of both the laptop and the desktop. Luckily for me and my sanity this solved the problem and I was able to press on with setting up the network between my laptop and my desktop which went without a hitch.
So - connecting one PC to the Gateway was a piece of cake - more than one and you might run into some problems. There's so much that can be at fault in a network it takes a great deal of time, perseverance and reading to pinpoint the problem and there's just no way on earth every conceivable issue can be covered by even the best user guide so I point no fingers at Linksys. However, I can only warn the beginner that networks are complicated, and if something goes wrong, you might be spending a great deal of time learning about things you never ever wanted to!
That said, I a very happy camper now. A quick trip to the Broadband Speed Test at adslguide.org.uk showed my 2Mb connection is working at full speed and a port probe (ooerr missus) courtesy of grc.com demonstrated that the firewall is working wonderfully. So, for all my efforts it's all working great and there only remains the question of durability and long-term stability. I've decided that I'll update this review in 6 months to let the reader know how it's holding up.
Overall, at this early stage I'm impressed with the WAG354G. The necessary documentation is very good and the Gateway itself seems robust enough to cope with what I'll be doing with it. It runs quite warm so I'll be keeping an eye on that but it is in a well ventilated position so don't anticipate any problems. It is complicated, but this package tries it's hardest to make things as simple as possible for the home user, which is all I can ask for - just don't assume it's going to be easy. I don't see how any other manufacturer would be able to simplify or improve on this product at this stage, as long as networks remain complicated things, networking will necessarily be complicated too. If you're in the market for a ADSL Router for your home then I reckon you could do a hell of a lot worse - the majority of reviews I've read for this ADSL Router will tell you it works, and for me, that's borne out.
More details
Range of extra features / functions
Excellent
Design
Good
Manufacturer Support
Good
Instruction manual
Very useful
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
very helpful
very helpful
helpful
helpful
