Creating a Home Network
The Top Five Reasons WRT54GL is the Best Router
- It has both Wireless Access Point (802.11g at 54Mbps and 802.11b at 11Mbps) and a 4 port Ethernet full-duplex 10/100 switch for your wired devices.
- Since WRT54GL's firmware is open source (Linux based), there are a lot of third party firmware projects, which can turn your cheap home router into something as powerful as commercial devices.
- Linksys WRT54GL is relatively cheap - you won't go broke trying to build your home network, and it packs a lot of features for that price.
- It is very stable, and it's 200 MHz processor is powerful enough for most home networks - as many happy users can testify.
- WRT54GL's neat design and low power consumption is a huge improvement over using a regular PC for routing.
Buy a WRT54GL from Amazon
If you don't believe me when I say it's the best router, just read the reviews!
Linksys by Cisco WRT54GL Wireless-G Broadband Router (Compatible with Linux)
Amazon Price: $59.99 (as of 02/09/2010)
There are several reasons why this router is so well rated. It's stable and powerful, you can greatly enhance it using third party firmware, and it's pretty cheap, too.
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Custom firmware for WRT54GL
Default firmware that you get on your router works pretty well, but there's a problem with peer-to-peer programs because they use a lot of connections. The maximum connections number in default firmware is set pretty low and cannot be changed. Pretty much any third party firmware lets you change it. I highly recommend Tomato firmware - or, if you want something extremely simple, try Tarifa. If you need more information, see router firmware reviews.
1
Tomato
Highly recommended firmware which takes QoS configuration to the next level. When it comes to setting up traffic priorities, Tomato can do almost anything. Great and easy-to-use web interface. Includes a bandwidth monitor that generates pretty charts.1 point
2
Thibor's HyperWRT
Firmware which is based on the original one from Linksys. Adds many new features. Basically, an upgrade from the original one.1 point
3
DD-WRT
Popular firmware that is based on OpenWRT kernel rather than Linksys software. Has many features, especially useful for wireless users. From my experience, it's QoS doesn't work that well though.1 point
4
OpenWRT
A firmware meant for advanced users, which has a great QoS implementation. It used to have only a command shell, but now some people created X-WRT, a web interface project for OpenWRT.0 points
5
Tarifa
The world's largest development and download repository of Open Source code and applications0 points
Comments
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Reply
- Maureen Maureen Oct 16, 2009 @ 4:48 pm
- All I want to do is set up a wired connection from my HP to my Dell laptop. Just one router? What type of security and what else do I need. I think I know from reading all of this but am pretty much a newbie at this and DO NOT want to spend a fortune and/or mess up. Thanks for any help.
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Reply
- poddys poddys Mar 19, 2008 @ 7:47 am
- Chadrew, Yes it's possible to network multiple computers through the router, you just need to right click on the folders (My Documents?) that you want to share, activate the sharing opton and then you should see the other computer on your network.
It's not quite that easy, you need to go into the network options and set up sharing first, but it's really very simple.
There are plenty of places to find a lot of detailed info if you go into Google and search.
Hope you get it set up ok.
John, nice lens. This is a great router and available at a good price too.
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Reply
- Chadrew Chadrew Mar 9, 2008 @ 10:47 pm
- Hello John,
Yes, it's definitely possible (although I haven't tried it with a wireless connection personally) and no additional hardware is needed. Just make sure you enable File Sharing on both computers. If you run into any trouble, linksysinfo.org forums are quite helpful.
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Reply
- John John Mar 9, 2008 @ 10:26 pm
- I've gotten a 'G' wireless router myself, with four ports for ethernet and a wifi. My desktop's ethernetted in one of the ports, and my laptop's using the WiFi, both no problem on the internet.
Is it possible to network the desktop and laptop through this hardware to access each other, or is more equipment necessary?
What does the web say about WRT54GL
- Linksys WRT54G/GL/GS/GX - DD-WRT Wiki
- The WRT54G(S) v4-v6 and WRT54GL v1.x have a BCM3302 v0.8 processor instead of a BCM3303 v0.7 with previous models. WRT54GL v1.1 is stable when overclocked at 250MHz, with no extra cooling. Your mileage may vary. ...
- Router problems Linksys WRT54GL - Sonos Forums
- My desktop computer is connected to the fritzbox through a linksys router (wrt54gl) - the router itself is wired to the Fritzbox. I am able to connect to the internet through my desktop (and linksys router), but I am not alble to ...
- Lego Router (WRT54GL) « Luke's Weblog
- As I looked around my room, I noticed the five Linksys WRT54GL routers I had bought from Amazon.com when they were on sale. Of course I immediately thought, ?I wonder if that would fit nicely in a Lego case??. ...
- Ben.geek.nz » Linksys WRT54GL Router
- The price of the Linksys WRT54GL (the 'L' suffix stands for 'Linux', meaning these particular models support custom firmware), was so good that I figured I couldn't go wrong at least trying it. I grabbed the router and uploaded a copy ...
by Chadrew
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