- 802.11b/g 54 Mbps
- 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Port x 4
- Open Source DD-WRT Base
Massive Improvement
09/01/2011
This review is from: Linksys WRT54GL 802.11b/g Wireless Broadband Router up to 54 Mbps/ Compatible with Open Source DD-WRT (not pre-load)
Pros:
Immensely easy to flash a third party firmware. Just grab the right .bin file, upload over an ethernet cable, and reboot. Seems faster than my old WRT54G that it replaces, although it might be the firmware doing that. Runs Tomato like a champ.
Uses half as much electricity as a WRT54G (23W vs. 12W), so my UPS should last a little longer now.
I couldn't believe it, but I think my WRT54G with DD-WRT was a bottleneck on my network. I did speed tests before swapping the routers, and then after. I was getting 8 Mbps down and 0.6 Mbps up before (DOCSIS 2.0 modem), and now I can get 20 Mbps down and 3.7 Mbps up! I had to swap them once more just to be sure. I'm not sure if this is the hardware or the different firmwares, but it is a very welcome change!
Signal strength penetrates through walls effectively enough. Very easy to setup the router as a repeater in Tomato. Excellent QoS tweaking and bandwidth monitoring in Tomato too. Antennas detach.
Cons:
At this price point, a USB port for doing NAS would be nice. I'm nitpicking, though.
Overall Review:
I'd recommend Tomato instead of DD-WRT for the GLs. They operate much faster, and Tomato seems to be more frequently updated than DD-WRT.
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- Erik W.
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Verified Owner
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Owned For:
1 day to 1 week
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