Linksys WRT54GX

Pros: Pretty and small silver box

Cons: Everything in life

Summary: Okay, maybe I will think more of it in a day or two but.....

Bought this thing after reading CNET reviews. Editors thought well of it so I went ahead, (They must have been in LaLa land!) Being in a rural area, I have to order online.

It arrived and since we were also switching to a wireless printer, we waited about 10 days to do the setup. It was DOA! Called Linksys, they said ship it back and they would send another.

2nd one arrived on 6/19. It was to replace the old WRT54G. We are completely wireless - desktop, 2 laptops, and printer/scanner/copier plus we rely solely on a VOIP phone. I am not a techie but I am not a computer illiterate having designed and set up our old system and the additions to it.

Started to install this "thing" at about 9:30PM on 6/21. The WRT54G had been a snap taking less than 30 minutes including fiddling cords around.

It was a nightmare! 9 1/2 hours later and on the phone with the Linksys tech support for 8 (EIGHT) HOURS straight, it sort of maybe works.

Set up is NOT simple - it is utterly horrendous. We downloaded the firmware updates and put in the CD - nada, it froze. After and hour of fiddling about, I got on the phone with the techs. I know believe I have spoken to each and ever person in Linksys' technical support. Each and everyone tried something different ut everyone of them insisted on repeating the exact same things that the one(s) before them had done - no matter what was in the case notes or what I said. I typed 192.168.1.1 and 4 other variations about 81 times. I typed IPconfig 104 times and ping(space)192.168.1.1 around 92 times.

THIS IS NOT USER FIRENDLY. DO NOT BUY THIS UNLESS YOU ARE A SERIOUS PROGRAMMER!

The laptops pickup the signal although the response is slower....

The desktop still can not catch and hold the signal although it has a Linksys adapter.

We'll see how the VOIP phone works off it. I can't tell right now as the 8 1/2 hour batteries in the phone (which were fully charged when I started) went DEAD right at the end of the last conversation with the Linksys tech people.

I was going to give the old WRT54G to someone (it works fine - I had just wanted more range and faster speeds.) Now I don't think so - this new router is not 1/10th what it was supposed to be.

At my hourly rates as a lawyer, Linksys owes me $2400 +.