This is going to sound like a terrible plug. I know it.
I’ve been having some issues with my D-Link DI-624 router. In particular, now that I’m using WPA, my Powerbook will suddenly lose connectivity even though the signal is full. It’s frustrating. Disconnecting and reconnecting restores connectivity for varying amounts of time.
I’ve always had good experiences with Linksys routers. However, because of that record, they tend to cost more than the competition. The WRT54G has been hovering steadily at $40, while the WRT54GS is sticking at $60. I was beginning to give the WRT54G some serious thought (particularly because of the ability to use alternative firmware). However, that ability has been lost in the latest revision of the product.
I looked at their MIMO offerings, but I can’t justify $132.99. That’s when I stumbled upon the WRT54GC compact wireless G router. I’ve read that it runs on Linux, making it theoretically hackable, but I can’t confirm and the source code hasn’t been released.
Perhaps the neatest thing about this router is its size. It barely has enough space on one of its edges for four LAN ethernet ports, a WAN port, and a plug for the power adapter. I finally bought it as an impulse buy because it dropped in price to $30. It’s a good thing networking equipment isn’t placed next to the candy at the checkout in grocery stores.
Update: Apparently Amazon has stopped offering the WRT54GC through their warehouse. You can still get it through their affiliates, but the price is now $55. Buy.com currently has it for $30 with a $10 Mail-in-Rebate. Best Buy has it for $30 after a $30 Main-in-Rebate and it comes with a $10 Gift Card (making the effective price $20). I personally don’t want to deal with rebates, so I avoided that offer.
Update 2: It’s back at Amazon again for $30 with no rebates.
I have a lot to be thankful for this year and I’m glad that I’ll be able to celebrate that with my family today.
I hope all of you are in good health and have much to celebrate. Don’t forget to save room for some pie!
Ever since Woot sent me a Motorola WA840G by mistake, it’s been augmenting my parent’s wired network as a wireless access point. It’s been working great for their needs (connecting my old Pismo via its Airport card).
When I got home today for a Thanksgiving stay, I decided I’d update the firmware on all their network devices. The old Linksys router’s firmware hasn’t been updated in quite a while. That’s fine because the thing is rock solid. The Motorola access point had a new version with many new features, so I updated it.
Other than having to configure everything again, it all looked good. That is until my brother told me that my old Powerbook couldn’t connect. I tried turning the card off and on again and restarting. No dice. I decided to turn everything off and then on again. Of course, that’s when Charter decided to have some issues.
Regardless of those issues, I should still have been able to connect to the access point with the old Powerbook. I couldn’t. I thought maybe I had turned off 802.11b compatibility (the Pismo has regular Airport while my current Powerbook has Airport Express). Visiting the WA840G’s configuration page showed that it was set for “compatibility” but the other options were “performance”, “LRS”, and “802.11b only”. I’ll be damned if I could figure out what “LRS” stood for, but it afforded extra compatibility for 802.11b clients according the description.
Once that was set as the operating mode, the Pismo connected to the access point perfectly. I really wish this was explained better in Motorola’s documentation, but it’s worth noting for those having problems, even if I don’t know why it works.
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