Linksys loses my business: WRT54GX4 sucks

For Christmas 2006 I purchased a Linksys WRT54GX4 for my dad to replace his older D-Link router that had started having problems.

I got the WRT54GX4 from Amazon for around $80, which is about what I expect to pay for a wireless router.

The router ran fine for a while and then my dad started having issues with his internet (which turned out to be related to his ISP and not to the router). During troubleshooting of the issue, I noticed that his firmware was out of date on the router, so I told him to update it.

Sadly the router update failed and left the router in a "bricked" state. Fine, we figured. My dad got Linksys to send him out a new one and shipped, at his cost, the failed one back.

Fast forward to Sunday, 30 December 2007. I was having problems with the wireless connection to his router. I again checked his firmware and noticed that it was out of date. Again I attempted to update the firmware (and yes I made sure it was the right firmware for the right router) and AGAIN this new router failed to update and ended up bricked.

Linksys wanted to charge us for return shipping of the unit to them, but I told them no way...after sitting on hold while the customer support person tried to reach a supervisor, I looked at my dad and said "this is nuts, I have a plane to catch, let's just get a D-Link".

Which is exactly what I did. I got him a new D-Link DIR-625 "N" class wireless router. Same router that a few friends of mine and I have. It works great.

Needless to say that for making a security product that proved to be unable to accept firmware updates, Linksys has been crossed off my list of vendors to use.

That's right. Because of this, I will no longer be buying Linksys products. Period.

A router is a security device and as such should be kept up to date with the latest vulnerability and bug fixes. A router that cannot be updated is not secure. Period.

The WRT54GX4 is a crappy router and should not be purchased. If you have one, get rid of it with a better product from a better vendor.

Goodbye Linksys, you will not be missed.

Comments

[Systems admin and PC and mac support]

Overall Linksys has much better products than their competitors. I am sorry you had a bad experience. I have installed this very same product and various other models similar to it many, many times with zero issues. As a systems admin, network admin for a company in Silicon Valley I have been doing installs and break fix and desktop support for years and years.

I have installed many different types of routers for individuals and at the corporate level, whether working as an individual contractor or being paid by a company. Every single time a company or individual contact me to support their Netgear, D-Link, or other brand, I cringe, and then happily take the job.

I have corporate offices contacting me sometimes, to setup or fix their networks when their own IT people can’t fix it and they would have some mid level Netgear that is locking up because someone is port sniffing, or a D-link is overheating or just shutting down because it can’t handle the amount of packets going through it. Mind you these companies should be utilizing a more “robust” firewall.

I was visiting someone for a couple of weeks in Texas over the Christmas break.
They had a D-link before and kept having some Geek Squad tech from Best Buy coming back out to keep fixing it, when all that was wrong with it was that it was locking up and dropping the wireless portion of the network intermittently.

The interface needed to be upgraded via a flash update and that bricked the system. So this supposed tech never replaced the D-link and this person was left wide open to the entire planet for almost an entire year. We went to several places and the person making the purchase asked for a router and almost every kid or person suggested something other than Linksys and could not explain why. Until I jumped in and said we will take the Linksys, the same model as you described. No issues and these people have allot of traffic coming through it for Home business purposes. IMHO, Linksys is the way to go; I will always suggest it and no other brand.

[Alexander Scoble]

Sorry, but we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Linksys has known about this problem for at least six months with this product.

I've never run across a product that bricked when doing a normal firmware upgrade like this, never mind the same product doing it twice.

This is unacceptable in a product. Period. End of story.

The WRT54GX4 is crap and should be avoided at all costs. Particularly since the D-Link DIR-625 is an N-Class product with all the bells and whistles one would ever need and is stable to boot.

This isn't the first time I've had problems with Linksys gear either. I used to own one of their crappy WRT54G routers and that had all kinds of stability problems, particularly when used with BitTorrents and such.

As for businesses, they should be using Netscreens if they have more than 10 people anyhow.

[Greg Hughes]

I'm curious is you were plugged into a physical ethernet port on the Linksys when you flashed it? Many people flash via the wireless connection and brick the routers. I am one of the DIR-625 owners. I like it, but I wish I could do better/more workable traffic shaping so my roomate's music downloads wouldn't kill my VOIP connection. The DLINK firmware just doesn't quite cut it for that purpose. But overall I am very happy with it.

greg

[Greg Hughes]

Wait - Netscreens? GAH!!! NO!! Heh.

That's another post for another time. :)

greg

[Alexander Scoble]

Yes, we were plugged into physical ethernet port on the Linksys.

And yes, I'm aware that you are one of the DIR-625 owners...you were one of the ones of which I was speaking. I should really add a link to your review of the router in my original post.

I've had no problems with Netscreens when I've used them...well other than them changing how they did the VPNs.

I think that most smaller shops cannot afford Cisco PIX firewalls, although their VPN software is clearly superior as has been covered in your blog and here as well.

[windows web servers]

I love my Linksys router. If you upgrade to DDWRT firmware, it will run a version of Linux with added security and will NEVER have to be rest. Seems like an issue with the firmware you were using. I have upgraded several LInksys routers and never had problems putting the DDWRT firmware on them. You should check into it if you are still wondering what went wrong.

[David Silva]

I own the same model and it works fine including firmware upgrade...very unfortunate but I believe that Linksys really is great and more stable than most other home wireless routers...d link used to suck but their reputation is much better. I haven't used them in a while..so maybe they are better...but your experience is not the norm. I have recommended and used the WRT54 models for the last 4-5 yrs with no issue.

I am an IT person and place a good load on my equipment and i have been happy!!!

[Navtej Kohli]

I also use a linksys router but never faced any problems with it. Though sometimes, the internet used to stop working by itself and I had to restart the router. Other than that it works perfectly well for me.