Cisco-Linksys WAP54G Wireless-G Access Point

Update October 10, 2010 I've used this WAP now for an extended period of time with generally no insurmountable problems. This is a replacement unit as the first one was returned to Linksys as faulty. When I was setting up the replacement I had to call Linksys to help me set up the WAP. It appears that the setup process can be fraught with problems. Yesterday I lost wireless access again and had to reset the WAP. Recalling the problems I had the first time, with the replacement WAP, I checked the notes I kept and also checked on line and discovered a lot of people are having problems with the setup of the WAP54G. In spite of all this I still had several hours of frustration in trying to get the laptop back in wireless operation. The installation disc never did work and I noticed one writer said to not use the disc; the following steps are a condensed summary of what I used to get back in wireless operation. The following steps finally did the job and got the laptop back in wireless operation. 1. Reset the WAP using a paperclip in the reset button on back, press the reset button down until the small green light on the front of the WAP goes out and then remove the power plug for at least 10 seconds. This should restore the WAP to the default factory settings. 2. Make sure your WAP is attached to the router directly, not through a switch. 3. Using a computer which is attached directly to the router, open a browser window and type in 192.168.1.245, this is the default IP for the WAP and should open the settings window. 4. Once the settings window is open I recommend leaving the IP in the static, default position at the above IP that worked much better for me. One thing to keep in mind is the necessity of saving any change before you go to the next window; if you don't any changes are lost. Go to security and click on reset security and it should rotate to a higher security setting as the default is no security. 5. Select a name for your wireless network so you can easily identify it when you use your laptop to search for a local signal. In my area I have around 7 wireless networks available so it really helps to be able to quickly recognize yours. 6. When you are done, having saved all of your changes, just close the window and you should be back in business. When I was going through my setup process I saved the IP address to my favorite places and let my computer remember the password so I could just click and be back on. 7. One very important thing before you close the window; record your passphrase as you will absolutely have to have it to access your secure wireless network. You are given the option of choosing a passphrase or letting one be automatically assigned. However you do it, record it in a safe place as you will have to have it to establish a connection to your network. 8. When you open your laptop, right click on your wireless connection icon and search for available networks. You will recognize the name you have given yours and select and click connect. A window will come up requiring a password and that's where you type in the passphrase you have setup for security. Your laptop should than connect to your WAP and you're in business again. Original review I have an Ethernet home network which is working perfectly. I decided to get a laptop and at first connected it to the network by an Ethernet cable. I had been told that in no time at all I would want to go wireless and that turned out to be true. I researched connection options as I wanted to add the wireless capability to the existing Ethernet network and found that something called a wireless access point existed. This seemed to be the right answer as I did not need another router. All of my network equipment was Linksys so I decided the Linksys WAP54G would be the best way to go. As usual, Amazon had as good a value as anyone on the equipment so I ordered it from Amazon. Once the WAP54G came in it set up and installed without any problems. I had read a lot of information about wireless security so I followed the Linksys instructions very carefully in selecting the highest level of encryption available for home use. This was not difficult to do but did require that one read the installation alternatives and proceed carefully. It is now in operation and has not given any problems. It has been interesting to note that there are 6 wireless networks in my area; three of them have no encryption at all, two of them have the lowest level of encryption, and only mine has the highest level. All that says to me is that they were not careful in setting up their security level when they installed the software. I guess the moral of this story is to carefully read and select the highest level of encryption if you don't want your network to be public.

If you need wireless access and don't need routing, then the WAP54G is a great answer. It installs in a snap, is very easy to configure (even wirelessly!), and so-far is rock-solid reliable. It provides good security with WEP/WPA and SSID can be disabled. The antennas are replaceable so you can get a pair of high-gain antennas and get a little more signal for very little scratch. Only catch is that I can't seem to get my Droid phone to do DNS lookups with Dynamic IP; all works great with static IP. Linksys chat tech support is awesome.

I have a wired home network but then the wife purchased a laptop pre-equipped with a wireless network adapter that I needed to accommodate. I didn't want to convert to a total wireless environment so a wireless access point was the way to go. After much research, I purchased this unit based upon the recommendations of other users and my own experience with Linksys products. Setup for the WAP54G took about 15 minutes total. The setup instructions were clearly written and illustrated. It has performed flawlessly and I can see no difference in speed with our wired connections. It's not the cheapest unit out there but I would highly recommend this unit to anyone needing a wireless access point.

I bought this to provide access from my 3rd floor to a WRT54G router that moved from our 2nd floor to 1st floor when we switched from DSL to Comcast cable. Installation took a little longer than I expected, but total was less than an hour to get it all set up. Once installed, there have been no problems at all. Like all Linksys products I've used, it just keeps working perfectly. The WAP54G provides a strong, excellent signal, very good on 3rd floor, and also good on 1st floor in our kitchen. One point to note: the download speed has been a little lower, like 6MB on the WAP54G repeater, instead of 12MB on the WRT54G router connection; upload speed seems the same on both. In other words, no visible difference (at 6MB download, our browsing life is pretty sweet!). Quick summary of steps to install; I followed what "my sources" said to do, instructions at these two links: [...] [...] 1. BEFORE hooking up the new WAP54G: Start with login to the WRT54G router ([...] is typical IP address) to get the wireless MAC address (use the one under Status/Wireless, NOT the under Status/Router). Also get the wireless channel number and SSID (name of your wireless router). After you have the MAC address, wireless channel number, and SSID: 2. I disconnected my laptop from the wireless network. 3. I reset the router (plug it in to power, hold down the reset button in back with pencil point, and watch until Act light on front flickers and then goes out), then unplug the power. 4. Now from your favorite web browser on your PC/Laptop navigate to [...] 5. On the PC/laptop, open network connections for LAN and config TCP/IP to a specific IP address: 192.168.1.240 / 255.255.255.0. No DNS or gateway settings need to be set at this time. 6. Plug in cable between PC/laptop ethernet connection (RJ45 jack, the usual one for network connecting) and the port on the back of the WAP54G. 7. Plug in power to the WAP54G.....wait until lights come on, Power, Act, Link. 8. Navigate laptop browser to [...] and you'll get a linksys login screen...leave the User Name blank, and enter "admin" as password. 9. At this point, you are configuring the WAP54G with the wireless MAC address, channel number, and SSID saved from the WRT54G router in step 1. 10. On the main page of the Web interface, change the channel number to the same one the WRT54G uses (5 in our case). As with all chgs, click save and continue. 11. Click "AP Mode", select the "Wireless Repeater" radio button, and enter the WRT54G's wireless MAC address (from step 1). 12. Click "Password" and change the default password (I changed to same as used for WRT54G router). After save/continue, use the new password to get back to the admin interface in browser. 13. Finally, click "Basic Setup" and change the SSID (I used a different name from WRT54G router, adding a "2" to end of name, so that we could decide manually which to connect to from various points in our home. You may want to use the same name as router--supposed to be seamless--but I preferred unambiguous knowledge of which one used). 14. If you use only MAC filtering for security (which I do, enough for our little home network), you are finished as MAC filtering is automatically "inherited" from the WRT54G. If you use WAP/WEP security, follow the rest of the instructions from the links above. 15. Finally, disconnect the cable between PC/laptop and WAP54G. And reset your network connection (step 5) for LAN, config TCP/IP, back to DHCP or whatever you were using.

I have to admit, some of the reviews made me think twice about purchasing this WAP and the WPC54G card. However, I had absolutely no problems and I'm not an IT professional. I have WEP, MAC filtering and I'm configured to not broadcast an SSID. As far as I can tell this is a secure system. Range is not a problem. No matter where I am in my 2 story house I get a signal at 60% strength or better, and I'm mostly above 80%. I know that does not sound too good, but I can't tell the difference between 100% and 60% based on the performance. I use the wireless mostly for web browsing on the laptop. All in all this is working great for me.

I believe that the piece of equipment is good and does what it is supposed to. At least it has for two months. The equipment could probably rate 4 stars but tech support doesn't even rate 1. I consider tech support to be a BIG reason for buying a particular type of computer equipment. Linksys support is EXTREMELY BAD. If you aren't a full blown systems specialist or VERY experienced amateur computer person then you will need to know someone who is if you try to configure this equipment as a wireless bridge. I talked to Linksys three times and they were absolutely no help at all. They had no clue. They had me send the machine back to Amazon once and get a replacement because they couldn't get it to work. When I finally had a friend assist me, I realized that they weren't telling me the right way to do it so the piece didn't need to be returned in the first place. To make a difficult situation worse, the only people available to help are in another country where English is a second language. The English skills of two out of three support people were barely recognizable as such. When you need help discussing something and you don't even know the proper words for the problem it doesn't help at all if the people you are talking to are unintelligible. I tried to get connected to someone in America but they couldn't make it happen. I will buy other brands of equipment in the future.

I plugged this WAP54G into my existing home network, slapped the Linksys PCMCIA card into my laptop, and I was up and running in unsecure mode immediately. I then had no problem enabling MAC address filter, 128-bit WEP, and the SSID Change for security. It was a piece of cake. I flashed the firmware to the latest version and have had no issues. I consistently link up at 36 Mbps to 54 Mbps. The thing screams. I can't tell the difference between file transfers across my 100 Mbit home network and file transfers across this wireless network. The speed and range are fantastic. I read the other reviews and I am surprised that this is the same product being reviewed. I have been in the I/T industry for almost 10 years and I researched wireless security for a year before buying -- and this product is fantastic.

I bought one of these as a present to myself, it was the christmas present from HELL! First, I am an IT professional with 20 yeas of experience so I know what I am doing. The one I ordered from Amazon worked great for about 20 hours, then quit receiving wireless traffic until it was powered off and back on. This seems to be a known problem from all the reviews and forum posts I have read since buying this product. LINKSYS technical support was just awful, the foreign techs didn't know anything about the product or networking. I had several two just hang up on me, the tech support experience was enough by itself to not buy this product. This is becoming a major problem with a lot of companies that offshore their tech support to India. After seven calls with tech support, they finally gave me an approval for an RMA. I had the RMA replacement shipped to me keeping the original one until I recieved it ( had to put it on my charge card and the price they wanted for it was $20 over the going rate). When I got the second unit, it was worse than the first. It would only support connection speeds of 12-14 Mbps and had tremendous trasmission errors. Tested it for three days against the original purchase, neither was worth my time and trouble. I shipped them both back and probably won't buy linksys products anymore. I used to buy all linksys stuff but after this experience it is time to look at other companies. I've had a Belkin wireless router configured as an access point for several days now and have not had any issues with it. It was cheaper, had more functions, and is capable of 802.11n. Save your money, read more bad reviews on this product here and chose wisely. I still have at least four or five more calls I am anticipating to get credited properly and I am out shipping costs for the returns and several hours each I day I had the product.