[TelstraClear] Linksys WRT54GC

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broonie27

57 posts

Master Geek

# 32477 17-Apr-2009 14:59

I've read the sticky above regarding the best wireless routers but there is no mention of the Linksys WRT54GC
(http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=345815). Is this any good? I'm on TLC cable using a SB5101 BTW.

Belsamber

22 posts

Geek

# 207606 17-Apr-2009 15:20

I had an earlier version for a few years - no real problems with it until one day it just stopped working. This is not a knock BTW, I'm fine with a couple of years of service on a piece of cheap consumer electronics...

Ragnor

8033 posts

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# 207700 17-Apr-2009 23:13

That model only has 1 MB of flash and 4 MB of ram which makes it rubbish for installing custom third party firmware on. In my opinion the various custom firmware's available DD-WRT, OpenWRT, Tomato etc improve the WRT series routers by about 1000% over the default linksys firmware.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series

broonie27

57 posts

Master Geek

# 207723 18-Apr-2009 08:00

So stick with the G or GL models then?

Ragnor

8033 posts

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# 207785 18-Apr-2009 14:07

Depends if you are comfortable updating the firmware on the device and playing around with settings. Do you want something you can play around with and get more features and a better end result or do you just want something that works with minimal effort?

Note: A large range of wireless routers use the same family of Broadcom chipset for the controller so you can look at more than just Linksys models. Tomato and DD-WRT v24 work on a Asus WLG520GU (http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=361718) for example.

Check the Tomato and DD-WRT sites for a full list of supported devices.

Tomato Firmware: http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato
DD-WRT: http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php

broonie27

57 posts

Master Geek

# 207926 19-Apr-2009 14:07

Ragnor: Depends if you are comfortable updating the firmware on the device and playing around with settings. Do you want something you can play around with and get more features and a better end result or do you just want something that works with minimal effort?

Note: A large range of wireless routers use the same family of Broadcom chipset for the controller so you can look at more than just Linksys models. Tomato and DD-WRT v24 work on a Asus WLG520GU (http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=361718) for example.

Check the Tomato and DD-WRT sites for a full list of supported devices.

Tomato Firmware: http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato
DD-WRT: http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php

I work in IT so i'm pretty comfortable with chaning the firmware on the device. However whatever modem/router I buy will just be for home internet browsing and some large file downloads. It won't be very heavily used really. I guess I need to know what the DD-WRT firmware gives me that the standard one doesn't?

Ragnor

8033 posts

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# 207938 19-Apr-2009 15:57

There are a whole bunch of things the custom firmware improves over the factory one, I would say the top 3 would be:

1) Improved admin UI
2) Decent bandwidth monitoring / tracking / graphs etc
3) Better QoS settings

Check out the screenshots and video on this page for the Tomato firmware and compare to say the user guide pdf for the WRT54GC from this page

broonie27

57 posts

Master Geek

# 208130 20-Apr-2009 13:17

Ragnor: There are a whole bunch of things the custom firmware improves over the factory one, I would say the top 3 would be:

1) Improved admin UI
2) Decent bandwidth monitoring / tracking / graphs etc
3) Better QoS settings

Check out the screenshots and video on this page for the Tomato firmware and compare to say the user guide pdf for the WRT54GC from this page

Reading through the sticky above regarding the best TLC routers there is a comment stating that V5 and above of the WRT54G does not work properly. Do you know if this also applies for the WRT54G2 ( http://ascent/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=364642 ) which i presume is basically version 8 of the WRT54G?

Also, do you know if all this version/revision stuff only pertinent to the WRT54G or to the G and GL models?

Ragnor

8033 posts

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# 208154 20-Apr-2009 14:24

Tomato has only been verified/tested on those models listed under the "Routers that are known to work with Tomato" section on the tomato page.

DD-WRT has a much larger list of supported/tested devices, you could check here:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices

There are two different versions of the Tomato firmware for the devices it supports (different chipsets) and there are many different versions of DD-WRT for the large amount of devices (chipsets) it supports.

In my opinion a lot of the newer models/revisions are actually worse than the earlier models they've had their ram and flash cut back to reduce costs and I guess increase profits per unit.

I think right now the Asus WL-520GU is very good value (~$90 from Ascent), the default firmware isn't too bad and you could always try Tomato, DD-WRT or Open WRT on it later on if you felt like it. The 520GU does seem to be supported by the main three third party firmares (no USB in Tomato though).

One thing you didn't mention... Do you need/want 802.11n (145Mbit) wireless or are you fine with 802.11g (54Mbit) and 802.11b support? Do any of computers/laptops wireless cards support 802.11n?

broonie27

57 posts

Master Geek

# 208353 21-Apr-2009 13:45

Ragnor: Tomato has only been verified/tested on those models listed under the "Routers that are known to work with Tomato" section on the tomato page.

DD-WRT has a much larger list of supported/tested devices, you could check here:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices

There are two different versions of the Tomato firmware for the devices it supports (different chipsets) and there are many different versions of DD-WRT for the large amount of devices (chipsets) it supports.

In my opinion a lot of the newer models/revisions are actually worse than the earlier models they've had their ram and flash cut back to reduce costs and I guess increase profits per unit.

I think right now the Asus WL-520GU is very good value (~$90 from Ascent), the default firmware isn't too bad and you could always try Tomato, DD-WRT or Open WRT on it later on if you felt like it. The 520GU does seem to be supported by the main three third party firmares (no USB in Tomato though).

One thing you didn't mention... Do you need/want 802.11n (145Mbit) wireless or are you fine with 802.11g (54Mbit) and 802.11b support? Do any of computers/laptops wireless cards support 802.11n?

I'm more confused than ever now - it seems what I really need is a device that no longer exists. Can you comment on the WRT54GL?

To answer your questions, 802.11g is enough for me really as i'm pretty sure my laptops's wi-fi card is only b/g anyway.

Ragnor

8033 posts

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# 208452 21-Apr-2009 22:38

I've been running Tomato firmware on a WRT54GL at home with no problems for well over a year and I'm very happy with it. Loads of people have been using that model with that Tomato firmware for ages so it's a fairly safe bet imo.

broonie27

57 posts

Master Geek

# 212397 5-May-2009 09:43

Just confirming here. Does the Linksys WRT54GL work on TLC PDQ, ADSL and Cable networks or only some/one of them?

rscole86

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Lifetime subscriber

# 212409 5-May-2009 10:17

That will depend on your modem and set up. Remembering that it is only a router, and there is no modem built in.
I am using mine with a draytek modem, and works fine.

broonie27

57 posts

Master Geek

# 212476 5-May-2009 12:52

rscole86: That will depend on your modem and set up. Remembering that it is only a router, and there is no modem built in.

I am using mine with a draytek modem, and works fine.

I'm using the stock TLC SB5101 device.

Ragnor

8033 posts

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# 212532 5-May-2009 14:52

Was a post about using Cable with a WRT54GL back here:
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=44&TopicId=28921