Linksys WRT54G v5

Posts: 4 · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:25 am Post subject: Linksys WRT54G v5

I bought not too long ago a new Linksys WRT54G router. This one is a v5 and I'm not too sure about its ability to do QoS. Yes the options are there, but I have doubts about the upload bandwith being reserved for the phone adapter as it should be, since that the people to who I talk to tell me that the sound is "broken".

Is anyone using this version of the router, and how's the experience? I must say I'm using another (than Vonage) VoIP provider for now, and planning to get rid of them because of their poor support. Vonage would be my best choice...

Thanks
Jacques

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 17, 2005 Posts: 7

laroucja wrote:

I bought not too long ago a new Linksys WRT54G router. This one is a v5 and I'm not too sure about its ability to do QoS. Yes the options are there, but I have doubts about the upload bandwith being reserved for the phone adapter as it should be, since that the people to who I talk to tell me that the sound is "broken".

Is anyone using this version of the router, and how's the experience? I must say I'm using another (than Vonage) VoIP provider for now, and planning to get rid of them because of their poor support. Vonage would be my best choice...

Thanks
Jacques

Sorry to hear you got a V5.
Go to this site - it can assist you with info on the V5.

My advice, scrap the V5 and get a V4 or lower.
You can put 3rd party firmware on it which runs better.
V5 you cannot change the firmware (except to a Linksys firmware).

http://www.linksysinfo.org/

Posts: 4 · Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:20 pm Post subject:

Your advice is probably the best - to scrap the da*n thing.
Tried to deal with this situation with the Linksys tech. support (thru Live Chat). I mentioned to them that the UpNP, Port Forwarding, and access restriction were not functional, and 2 reps in a row hanged up on me when they saw that there was no solution!

Since my first post, I did subscribed to Vonage, but had to change the router for a WRT54GP2, which wasn't really better. It seems finally that every new product from Linksys - since the V4 - is crap. Too bad...

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 17, 2005 Posts: 7

laroucja wrote:

Your advice is probably the best - to scrap the da*n thing.
Tried to deal with this situation with the Linksys tech. support (thru Live Chat). I mentioned to them that the UpNP, Port Forwarding, and access restriction were not functional, and 2 reps in a row hanged up on me when they saw that there was no solution!

Since my first post, I did subscribed to Vonage, but had to change the router for a WRT54GP2, which wasn't really better. It seems finally that every new product from Linksys - since the V4 - is crap. Too bad...

On that site I gave you, there's a schema to find out what version number of router is in side the box based on Serial number sticker on the outside of the box.

Scout around your area to all the major retailers... and see if you can source out a V4.0

Posts: 1123 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 1123

Also, check amazon.com too from time to time. I saw they had some version 4's available about a week ago.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 17, 2005 Posts: 7

Here's the link to the post....
Forum Post

And for reference:

CDF0 = WRT54G v1.0 / ADM6996L Chipset / 125Mhz CPU
CDF1 = WRT54G v1.0 / ADM6996L Chipset / 125Mhz CPU
CDF2 = WRT54G v1.1 / ADM6996L Chipset / 200Mhz CPU
CDF3 = WRT54G v1.1 / ADM6996L Chipset / 200Mhz CPU
CDF5 = WRT54G v2.0 / ADM6996L Chipset / 200Mhz CPU
CDF7 = WRT54G v2.2 / BCM5325EKQM Chipset / 200Mhz CPU
CDF8 = WRT54G v3.0 / BCM5325EKQM Chipset / 200Mhz CPU
CDF9 = WRT53G v3.1 / BCM5325EKQM Chipset / 200Mhz CPU
CDFA = WRT54G v4.0 / BCM5352E Chipset / 200Mhz CPU

CDFB = WRT54G v5.0 / BCM5352EKPB Chipset < the one to stay away from.

recommendations:

WRT54G v2.0-v4.0

WRT54GS v1.0-v4.0

Posts: 45 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 07, 2005 Posts: 45

My version 1.0 blew up a few weeks ago and I replaced it with a version 5...nothing but trouble.

My version 1 would run for days and days...now I have to reboot it every other day just to keep it stable.

As far as call quality goes there's been loss in quality.

However, I would say that you should pay very careful attention to how you setup the QOS and make sure that you are not losing data.

I found that the V5 does suffer from this problem more than the previous versions.

Cheers,

Darren

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 15, 2006 Posts: 4

darrenmc wrote:

My version 1.0 blew up a few weeks ago and I replaced it with a version 5...nothing but trouble.

My version 1 would run for days and days...now I have to reboot it every other day just to keep it stable.

As far as call quality goes there's been loss in quality.

However, I would say that you should pay very careful attention to how you setup the QOS and make sure that you are not losing data.

I found that the V5 does suffer from this problem more than the previous versions.

Can you provided examples of QoS setup.

I just purchase a v5 before checking the forums and now you have me worried. What should I look out for?

Thanks

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 17, 2005 Posts: 7

I got a customer of mine a v5.0 -- I received probably 3-6 emails a day saying " I rebooted the router to restore connectivity ".

I got it exchanged for a v2.2 and I haven't heard from them in 3 weeks.

Try calling Linksys and see if you can get your v5.0 RMA'ed to an older version.

Posts: 182 · Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:59 am Post subject:

My V5 isn't too bad, but I programmed it to give my Vonage adapter high QoS priority by MAC address. I think that that helps quite a lot.

Reliability has been good. It stays up for extended periods. I haven't rebooted it for a few weeks.

SSH connections I make that are port-forwarded through it drop occasionally, which is annoying, but I have a second IP that goes straight to my server so I just ssh there and then ssh to machines on the lan indirectly.