Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The WRT54GL is essentially a reissue of the original and classic WRT54G router that LinkSys started selling in 2003. It is bullet-proof reliable and simply the most upgradeable router you can buy. You can not only purchase high gain antennas to increase its range, but it has the widest number of open source firmware options of any wireless router. I purchased mine and then replaced the factory LinkSys firmware with open source DD-WRT, which allowed me to increase the power output on the antenna and offered other advanced features. My wireless router is now used by my iPhone, a wireless printer and wireless laptop, and is wire-connected to a PC and a Sony PS3. It works perfectly and its throughput is excellent. I never have to reboot this router, as I have had to do with newer LinkSys 802.11n models. And I personally like the classic and timeless industrial design of this router over the newer "Darth Vader" designs that LinkSys has put out. Obviously the big downside of this router is that it predates the newer 802.11n or "N-wireless" protocol. I'm a fairly tech-savvy user who always likes to get the latest and greatest in terms of equipment, but I've owned 802.11n routers and I always come back to this router because of its rock-solid reliability. What most people don't understand is that for most users, the true "bottleneck" of their wireless network is their connection to the Internet and not the speed of their wireless router. I use Comcast cable for my Internet connection, which is pretty fast (averaging about 8.5 mbps), but the LinkSys WRT54GL router can send and receive data at several times the speed of my Internet connection. That means that even if I had a newer 802.11n wireless router, or even plugged my devices into the network through a wired connection, they would not connect to the Internet any faster then they do through the WRT54GL because the WRT54GL's speed still exceeds the speed of my Internet connection. For me, the illusory benefits of 802.11n simply do not outweigh the proven reliability and expandability of the WRT54GL. ** UPDATE 05/22/2010 ** I have to add one caveat to my review above; having the newer 802.11n may have an additional benefit that I did not mention earlier. I recently moved to a crowded metropolitan area in a building with a lot of tenants. The result is that there are now 25 wireless points/routers within close range of my unit (operated by neighbors) that are sharing the frequency bands of my WRT54GL. The result is substantial interference and moderate to significant performance degradation. A lot of these are DSL customers who have wireless routers. I am seriously considering switching to 802.11n simply because it runs at a different frequency (5 GHZ) than 802.11g and is far less prevalent (at least today), which may result in a lot less interference and less performance degradation.