WRT54GL router for 35$ @ newegg (10$ mir)

[brianmanahan]

best price i have ever seen for this router. also the best router i have ever used.

50$ - 10$ mail-in rebate - 5$ instant rebate with code EMCXNWP54

 

[philipma1957]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124190 here is the link

 

[VirtualLarry]

also the best router i have ever used.

No offense, but if that's the best router you've ever used, then you don't get out much.

Only 10/100 ports, no N, no dual-channel, no USB, no gigabit. Unable to forward packets faster than about 20Mbit/sec (slow).

I personally don't see any redeeming features in a router that old, unless you have a slow connecction like DSL.

Granted, the price is good. But this is like a deal for a new retail Q6600 for under $100. Sure, great price, but it's pretty obsolete.

Btw, you forgot the obligatory "Yes, it runs DD-WRT".

Edit: If you want a solid dual-band N router, that runs Tomato and DD-WRT - the Cisco E2500 is $35 at the Cisco home store. (Edit: refurb. It can also handle an 83Mbit FIOS connection. GL can't.)

 

[Leros]

Yeah, this is a 10 year old router. You can get a decent modern router for the same price.

 

[Destiny]

No offense, but if that's the best router you've ever used, then you don't get out much.

Only 10/100 ports, no N, no dual-channel, no USB, no gigabit. Unable to forward packets faster than about 20Mbit/sec (slow).

I personally don't see any redeeming features in a router that old, unless you have a slow connecction like DSL.

Granted, the price is good. But this is like a deal for a new retail Q6600 for under $100. Sure, great price, but it's pretty obsolete.

Btw, you forgot the obligatory "Yes, it runs DD-WRT".

Edit: If you want a solid dual-band N router, that runs Tomato and DD-WRT - the Cisco E2500 is $35 at the Cisco home store. (Edit: refurb. It can also handle an 83Mbit FIOS connection. GL can't.)

I tested that router, and other Cisco, netgear, D-Link, Belkin Routers = NONE were as reliable as my WRT54GL... I kept going back to the WRT54GL and may not get a new one till it dies and I have to bury it in my back yard...

 

[Leros]

I tested that router, and other Cisco, netgear, D-Link, Belkin Routers = NONE were as reliable as my WRT54GL... I kept going back to the WRT54GL and may not get a new one till it dies and I have to bury it in my back yard...

My WRT54GL always locked up with a high load. I had to do things to limit the number of outgoing connections to 200. Any more and it would start locking up and I'd have to reset it.

I love my Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H. Now that thing is a beast. 128MB of RAM. Dual band. It reaches twice as far as my WRT54GL. And it comes with DD-WRT installed. Much better all around

 

[gft]

The best router I've ever had was a cheap pentium 3 tower from university surplus with pfSense on it.

 

[postmortemIA]

this router was for internet of < 10mbps

 

[notposting]

I still rock the WRT54GL. Have it running tomato and have a couple others connecting via OpenVPN so I can do remote WHS v1 backups. Rock solid and our internet is only 20-25 down so I don't worry about it capping anything.

(all the local stuff is on Gb switches anyway)

 

[you2]

All I can say is they produce a very good signal for wireless. Replaced a couple of 'modern' routers that had very weak signals with these.

 

[Piano Man]

Since I still have a WRT54Gv3 around, I can tell you a couple of things about this since its just a rebadge with less Ram and Flash. I have used stock firmware as well as DD-WRT, Tomato, and Tomato VPN.

You will never get close to 54mbit/s on the wireless. In fact the best I could ever do and this was under ideal conditions, was around 20mbit/s. Via LAN I could max out my 30mbit/s connection and system load would be at .78 out of 1, so if you have a 50mbit/s plan, this might limit you before that.

If you want to use VPN, the CPU on this thing can only handle 3mbit/s of OpenVPN encryption before it maxes out.

The Wireless range for their time was excellent, but by today's standards, nothing great.

The WRT54G(L,S) will go down as a legendary router, but its time has past. Get something else as they are very dated in hardware specs.

 

[Piano Man]

The best router I've ever had was a cheap pentium 3 tower from university surplus with pfSense on it.

I myself just got a pfsense box up and running using this:

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel...keywords=1007u

and this for the enclosure:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129185


It really makes me appreciate how weak the CPUs in consumer routers are. My Linksys could only handle 3mbit/s of OpenVPN encryption before maxing out, and this thing is chugging along at 32mbit/s of OpenVPN and its using 10% of total CPU load.

The amount of customization is incredible. I'm using the WRT54G as a WAP, but its Wireless speed is unacceptable. I'm gonna wait for one of the new AC routers to go on sale, and then I"ll snag one up.

 

[gloom111]

Might wanna look at this one if you're interested in getting a wireless N900 dual band with gigabit ports.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1

Currently on sale at amazon for $62.99 down from $180.00

According to smallnetbuilder, it has decent throughput and most of the features you can expect from a home router. It isn't AC, so the 5000 band is next to worthless more than 10 ft from the router as usual, but the 2.5 band is supposed to be solid.

 

[samboy]

I was looking for a cheap router for my mother in law and got:-

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1

I will flash the firmware as soon as I get it; seems that everyone who is happy with this router are using dd-wrt or other open source firmware. The one star reviews seem to be dominated by people using the Belkin firmare.

Seems like good value for $22 (it is N300 rated)

 

[nom2]

I have the Belkin N300 and it is a great router after you flash it!

 

[postmortemIA]

You will never get close to 54mbit/s on the wireless. In fact the best I could ever do and this was under ideal conditions, was around 20mbit/s. Via LAN I could max out my 30mbit/s connection and system load would be at .78 out of 1, so if you have a 50mbit/s plan, this might limit you before that.

It is marketing of 54Mbs term. It is not full duplex like Ethernet, so it really means 27 up, 27 down. Due to overhead, in reality you can't achieve more than 22MBs. And that is if you use only one device. Does not mean two devices can pull 22Mbps at the same time..

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Haven't found a reason to replace all the Netgear WNR2000 v2s that I have.
Picked them up for $4.99 a piece, slapped on DD-WRT and they've been working fine for the last few years.

 

[Elixer]

I myself just got a pfsense box up and running using this:

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel...keywords=1007u

and this for the enclosure:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129185


It really makes me appreciate how weak the CPUs in consumer routers are. My Linksys could only handle 3mbit/s of OpenVPN encryption before maxing out, and this thing is chugging along at 32mbit/s of OpenVPN and its using 10% of total CPU load.

The amount of customization is incredible. I'm using the WRT54G as a WAP, but its Wireless speed is unacceptable. I'm gonna wait for one of the new AC routers to go on sale, and then I"ll snag one up.

Heh, not bad... the problem I find going this route is it is too loud & uses much more power than a 'normal' router would use.
True, you put pretty much every other router to shame with this kind of setup, but you do pay a price for it...

WRT54G was great for its time, and if you don't need anything over 20Mbps, then it will still work out fine for you.