As adverticed the router indeed is 3 in 1, it acts as a wireless access point (Wireless G and B) which can be encoded with 128bit WEP and also supports WPA. It acts as a wired router with 4 switched 10/100 auto sensing ethernet ports providing users with both the option for quality wireless and quality wired networking in their home. Finaly it also allows you to share a high speed connection such as DSL or Cable amongst the network without the need for a computer to be switched on.
[Features]
- Wireless data rates up to 54Mbps (11Mbs when using Wireless-B) - Wi-Fi Protected Access™ (WPA) - Wireless MAC adress filtering enabling you to only allow certain wireless devices to connect to your network making it more secure - SPI Firewall (Stateful Packet Inspection) protects your network against the most known internet attacks. - Access restrictions allowing you to limit the times the internet is available to certain devices on the network. - Port Forwarding and Port Triggering aswell as UPnP
[ My Experience ]
I bought one of these routers 3 months ago to replace a faulty Netgear (RP614) router which had issues with port forwarding. I got the WRT54G router up and running in no time however I had an issue where the connection would drop about 3 times per day, I searched for an answer and had no such luck so switched back to my Netgear router, I recently tryed to sort this again and found out the problem was my English router was using firmware that was for the American version of this router -.-
[ Router Installation ]
The router comes with easy to follow instructions which could be followed by most average computer users, it allowed me to get the router setup in a short time.
A CD was also included which allowed you to make use of the SecureEasySetup feature of the router which allows you to setup a computer or laptop to connect wirelessly and securely with WPA encryption without having to customizing advanced options in the routers web panel.
[ Web Controll Panel ]
In order to configure the router the web panel must be used, the default address for this is 192.168.1.1, in this web panel you can control most aspects of both your wireless and wired networks such as port forwarding or your wireless security settings
[ Wireless Capabilitys ]
I have not gotten chance to test the limits of the wireless signal but the signal does reach all around my house with a good strength, enchanced antennas can also be bought from various places to replace your current ones to possibly extend its wireless range, more hardcore users may want to look into custom firmware which allows them to overclock the router.
[ Conclusion ]
I recommend the product to people if you are looking for a cheap router that will not overheat and fail often, however ensure you do not update it with american firmware unless you have an american model or you may also experience connection drops :) When on their main site ensure at the top left of the screen you change the country from United States to your own or the country you bought the router from.
Custom firmware is available for v1-v6 of this router, however the v5-6 custom firmware has limited features at this moment in time. The custom firmware adds Linux as the routers OS to allow users to run their own linux scripts which can be used for simple tasks like pinging sites occasionaly to keep an ADSL connection alive
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Hi there. You need to write in much more detail to attain the higher ratings. Take a look at my 3Com Office Connect router review to see what you should be aiming for! Cheers, James
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