Yes, the Linksys WRT54G V5 Really Is a Lousy Router

[ofbarea]

Even in Tom's Networking you could read about it.

[Poppa_Meth]

Yep we have a WRT54GS V5 at work. It's only a few months old and it won't assign IP addresses correctly anymore. I have to set static IP to make it work. It locks up from time to time as well.
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http://home.comcast.net/~poppameth
http://poppameth.freeforums.org

[tgm4883]

put dd-wrt on it

I must add that it is correct that the V5 is a piece of crap, but if you already own one put dd-wrt on it. Then at least it will be a much better piece of crap and may actually function too
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Hunting, sure i'll go hunting. When is cow season?

[ofbarea]

Putting DD-WRT into a Linksys WRT54G V5 is a complicated process. So it is not something I would recomed a friend to do.

DD-WRT Wiki: Flash Your Version 5 WRT54G

[Poppa_Meth]

I'm not messing with it at this point. If it were mine I'd be tempted but since it belongs to the store, it's not my problem child to be spanking.
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http://home.comcast.net/~poppameth
http://poppameth.freeforums.org

[ofbarea]

FINALLY IT HAPPENED !!!

Now is is possible to flash DD-WRT or OpenWRT to a WRT54G/GS version 5.x/6.x without using a JTAG cable.

With this new process I will recomend my friend to upgrade his router to DD-WRT micro, V2.3 SP1 multilanguage.


Read more about it in here:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Vxworkskiller
http://www.bitsum.com/openwiking/owbase/ow.asp?WRT54G5%5FCFE

[Poppa_Meth]

Okay, I said the hell with it and flashed DD-WRT to our WRT54GSv5

Took about 10 minutes and went off without a hitch. Just have to configure a few things afterwards.
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http://home.comcast.net/~poppameth
http://poppameth.freeforums.org

[ofbarea]

I'm glad that it went smooth.

[SingSing]

[ofbarea]

Is for flashing the boot loader of the broadcom chipset. The loader for linux is diferent to the loader of VxWorks.

[US Guy]

Thanks for the great work, I have successully flashed my WRT54GS v5 to DD-WRT. Apart from the already mentioned memory size at 8MB instead of 16MB, I noticed that the WLAN light no longer lit up.
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It's time to kick some butts, and presto ( if you know what I mean )

[mujahid7ia]

Why did they stop using Linux in such a well-performing, popular product?
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Win With Me on Blingo!

[ofbarea]

I red that the WRT54G is a big seller. So Linksys decided to reduce the memory to earn more money.

I think Cisco uses VxWorks in some of their product, so migrating the Linksys WRT54G to this OS made sense to them.

Even that WRT54G/GS v5.x/v6.x could be upgraded to Linux, these products are not recomended as they have little memory.

The new product to totally avoid is the WRT54G v7.0. This router has little memory and it uses a different Chipset, therefore there is no way we could upload third party firmware to this one.

If you are in the hunt of a new router and you want a Linksys one, get the WRT54GL v1.x

If you can find an older WRT54GS v1.x to 3.x they are the best option because of the extra memory these units have, but these are very rare finds these days.

In summary any WRT54G/GL/GS v1.x to v4.0 will work fine.

You can recognize the version of the WRT54Gx unit even if they are in the original box, by looking at the first 4 digits of the serial number.

Toxic @ http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewt ... mp;t=10230

[gastorgrab]

[ofbarea]

[gastorgrab]

I was only considering buying the WRT54GL when i posted that. I wish i had waited more than 5 minutes before i flashed with DD-WRT. The learning curve for the Linksys firmware probably isn't as steep. This thing has hundreds of options!

This is my first wireless device.



The first thing that really screwed things up is that this thing has 3 MAC addresses. I originally went into the firmware and disabled the one that didn't match my card, in the MAC filtering page.

I'm only using it as AP right now till i figure out what i'm doing.
.

[kschang]

After several months of flawless operation, my WRT54G... V5, went cuckoo on me. I can get on only intermittently, any heavy usage (such as hitting the News Server with Grabit autodownloader) will cause the router to freeze up. Sometimes opening the web management interface brings up NOT the the menu, but the "upgrade firmware" screen. Weird, heh?

Did a full reset, then flashed it with latest firmware. Now it's working again. But it was not a pleasant experience.

[ofbarea]

[Ignis]

I have a Linksys WRT54GS and Ive never had any problems with it. It forwards ports, assigns IPs and even works wonderfully when Lanning to my xboxes. I never udpated the firmware either.

[kschang]

Lucky you.

BTW, the Linux version of WRT54G (i.e. the WRT54GL) which does easily accept updated firmware or even thirdparty firmware is on sale for $49.95

http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayitem.cfm/68327

[tgm4883]

If your in for a new router I must insist you check you check the ddwrt wiki. Sure the wrt54g was the first cheap router that allowed so many things with 3rd party firmware. But since then there are now many routers that allow the 3rd party ddwrt firmware. Some cheap with standard specs, others more expensive with beefed up ram and processors. I just bought a buffalo whr-54g (best buy $50) and it works better than the linksys wrt's I have. There is a higher powered whr-hp-54g that has a more sensitive antenna.

So if your looking for a good router that allows 3rd party firmware the linksys wrt54g isn't your only choice anymore.
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Hunting, sure i'll go hunting. When is cow season?

[ofbarea]

And if you get a buffalo, you flash it to DD-WRT, now is possible to go back to the original buffalo firmware:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=23591#23591

[Conquest10]

I don't have too much trouble with it. I occasionally get a dropped connection with wireless. I think its a Windows problem because I don't get a dropped connection with a Mac.
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His name was MackemX

What kind of a man are you? The guy is unconscious in a coma and you don't have the guts to kiss his girlfriend?

[ofbarea]

For the people using DD-WRT, please note that DD-WRT v23 SP2 has been released today.

http://www.dd-wrt.com