Linksys WAG54G & WAP54G - constant failures of wireless and ethernet
Man these things are shoddy. In fact, pretty much all Linksys kit I’ve used in the past two or three years has failed. I’ve had 3 wireless access points just stop working. Hard resets and reconfigures can bring them to life for increasingly short periods before they fail again. Eventually the damn things just won’t reset anymore and are fit for nothing but the bin. We still have a WAP54G wireless access point in our office. It has a mind of its own, and will for no apparent reason just drop the wireless for a few minutes at a time. No doubt this thing too will shortly find its way to the bin.
The WAG54G is a (now discontinued) wireless adsl modem router. These things are totally unreliable too. The wireless part does the same as the WAP54G access points, and also the ethernet ports are highly prone to failure. Again I’ve seen this with 3 separate units. We bought one for our office that lasted about a month. We got a replacement and the ethernet died on that so we gave it away (wireless was still working at the time). Yesterday I visited a client site to diagnose an ADSL problem and found yet another malfunctioning WAG54G. This one was blatantly refusing to connect to the ISP. One hard reset later and it started connecting, but then it stopped again. One more reset was all it took to kill the ethernet ports. I threw it out and replaced it with a Belkin router.
Belkin kit is exceptionally good in my experience, particularly the access points. Don’t even think about buying any Linksys crap.
A friend of mine has a Linksys USB wireless adapter. Surprise surprise, that’s flakey too. The software is awful and the signal is pitiful - absolute rubbish.
They replaced the WAG54G with the WAG54GS, which looks completely different, but sucks just the same. The three I bought all came without the optional antenna so wireless was awful. They also pick up interference from just about everything - so much so that one of them had to placed at a certain angle in a certain place before it would work at all.
I used to trust Linksys, but believe me, the stuff they sell now is just crap. Don’t be fooled by the Cisco branding on the box either - this kit bears no resemblance to any Cisco stuff I’ve experienced.
If you want good quality, economical network gear that’s easy to configure, buy Belkin. If you want rock steady reliability and features, buy Draytek.
Couldn’t agree more. Just having to bin a WAP54G because of network drops and reset issues. I recommend steering well clear of this kit in the future. I certainly will be.
You’re absolutely right, Im dying to get a new router and torture the wag54g.
Wireless Devices are very sensitive to the enviroment that they are situated. I have used Linksys Wireless kit for years and never had half the problems compared to Netgear and Belkin.
It depends on a lot of factors when it comes to wireless, If you had of tweaked a few settings or moved the Access Point/Router to a different place or even upgraded the firmware there is a good chance the device would have worked fine.
Thanks for your comment. Obviously I tried everything before binning the kit. 12 years of managing networks and network equipment teaches one an awful lot when it comes to troubleshooting problems. These Linksys products were certainly sub-standard and most definitely dead.
I have had no issues as described with Linksys kit over the past 4 or 5 years. I manage the IT for a small number of companies and a scout camp site. The gear at the scout camp site performs flawlessley with big aerials attached and also with the kit being positioned in environmentally harsh conditions. I have had one WAP54G fail and one WAG54G fail (complete loss of power in both cases) using the 3yr manufacturer warranty both were replaced within a week FOC, with the causes almost certainly a power spike or surge.
As for Belkin and Netgear kit…..well BT won’t even talk to you about ADSL connection issues if you tell them you are using a Belkin router! They tell you to go find another brand and then phone them back. Netgear fairly stable but not as good as the linksys kit.
Maybe you are experiencing the capacitor problem described here:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=749140
It can be fixed with a little of work by following this tutorial:
http://gavinbenda.com.au/2007/05/27/wag54g-v2-capacitor-replacement/
it’s not very hard, and it worked for me
The source of the problem seems to be that those capacitor go bad with excess heat.
When I started having internet problems recently I found this website very helpful, especially as it was Google hit 2 when I searched for “WAG54G problems”. I think my WAG had ethernet port problems and this site stopped me wasting hours trying to sort out a 4 year old dying router and I just bought another.
I’d actually found the Linksys fine and my replacement is Linksys too, WAG160N. I think the software is fine and installation on the new one is much easier. The router is on 24/7, so I don’t think 4years is too bad for an £80 router?
I am most disappointed with Linksys Wireless Router WAG54G.
I bought one four years ago and from new the wireless didn’t work, unless the ethernet was connected as well. Wireless on its own was constantly giving limited connectivity.
I could get no sense out of Linksys help and in the end gave up after two years and bought a new WG54GS which worked out of the box. I am still angry that it cost me £80 which was down the drain.
The new one worked for about 12 months before its wirless signal caused windows to crash on two networked computers. We went back to to ethernet again. After 9 months my son discovers the wirelss is working again as he opened his mobile phone. We reset the wireless and after 2 weeks of flaky wirelss we are back to Limited connectivity again.
Quite frankly I am appalled by this incredible unreliability. If it was a car I would have been stranded several times per year.
I expect a wireless router to deliver faultless performance year in year out for ten years.
Is this too much to ask. My 37 year old car is working just fine. It takes unleaded and I pay no road tax on it.
When will we get a bullet proof wireless router instead of varialble signal strength for no reason and random limited connectivity events and also ages in aquiring IP address before failure. I do not have time or cash to waste on this stuff.
How come the hard wire ethernet, seemingly bullet proof cannot be replicated in wireless.
What is the view on the ethernet systems that use house mains wiring. Are they OK.
I cannot keep on buying Linksys wireless routers.
Peter,
Just don’t buy Linksys. There are plenty of alternatives.
I’m currently using a Netgear DG834G. It’s been plugged in for about a year, and other than power cuts I have not had to reset it. The wireless works perfectly. The modem works perfectly. The wired ethernet works perfectly. The interface is simple yet powerful. And, the unit is one of the best looking modem routers out there.
I think it cost all of about £40. Have a look on www.ebuyer.co.uk.
Cheers,
David