Before you buy the popular Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router, read this first.<\/p>\n
I bought my first wireless router, a v1.0 Linksys WRT54G<\/a>, around 3 1\/2 years ago. At least I think that’s about right… the fact that it’s a v1.0, the original with the 20 LEDs on the front panel, means I’ve had it for a while. In early ’04, I switched<\/a> to a Sveasoft firmware – this was before they began selling subscriptions for GPL’d software (but that’s another rant). It was a great little router on the Linksys firmware, and only improved when I put the custom firmware on it. <\/p>\n Unfortunately, when I returned from Vacation in early July, I found it had died. Brick City. Shrug<\/em>… after 3+ years (and with boosted power output), it happens. I wasted no time riding down to the local Circuit City (closest retail outlet for such things) and buying a new WRT54G. What I didn’t know at the time was that in late 2005, Linksys released V5 of the router, which eliminated the Linux operating system in favor of a proprietary VxWorks firmware. This in turn allowed them to halve the Flash RAM and RAM to 2MB and 8MB, respectively. Until very recently, this router couldn’t run third party firmware. This problem has been solved, but the reduced memory limits the firmware to “micro” versions of the various 3rd party offerings.<\/p>\n When I got it home, I configured the Linksys firmware, and decided to give it a go for a little while before flashing a 3rd party firmware. At this point I still didn’t know I had a crippled router. Everything seemed fine at first, but after a couple of weeks, the wireless stopped working one day. I power cycled it, and everything returned to normal. I made a mental note to put OpenWRT<\/a> on it, but didn’t have the time, and let it slide. A week later, the wired network stopped working, and then the web interface would disappear. Each time a power cycle would resume normal operation, but I was getting tired of the problems.<\/p>\n Of course, by the time I got around to trying to upgrade it, and learned what having a V5 really means, the 30 day return period had lapsed. I also learned that Linksys now offers the WRT54GL<\/a>, and the L stands for Linux. It is essentially the WRT54G V4, running the Linksys Linux firmware, and with the original memory amounts. It’s targeted at people who want to hack the box, run 3rd party firmware, etc. Very Cool… except that I’m stuck with a craptacular V5.<\/p>\n