Linksys Sucks
I spent at least 5 hours today trying to get a wireless network working for someone with no success. The original issue was they had a computer at the opposite end of the house than the AP and wanted to be able to use it on their new broadband. The AP was an ACTIONTEC DSL/Router/Access Point without a removable antenna. The computer would see the AP but would only stay connected for about 30 seconds then disconnect since the signal was so bad. It ran pretty fast while it was connected so it seemed like it was JUST out of range.
The first thing we tried was a “Hi-Gain 6dBi Omni-Directional Wireless Antenna” ($30). This thing did absolutly nothing. I swear the rubber ducky antenna the card came with worked better. I was extremely unimpressed with this thing.
So after that failure we went online to look at what our solutions were. While browsing Linksys’s website, we came acrosss the WRE54G. The summary sounded like exactly what we needed. Just plug one of these somewhere in the middle of the house and we’re set – no wires or anything. So after spending about 20 minutes trying to get their horrible software to discover the device I was presented with an error telling me that the WRE54G was unable to assoceate with this AP in repeater mode. I dont remeber the exact error text but I remember it not even being correct english.
So I call up Linksys technical support, and before I am even able to say “Hi” I am forced to surrender my name, phone number, and e-mail address. I should also point out that the person I was talking to had a pretty strong accent, I highly doubt linksys’ technical support is in the USA. Basically after explaining the problem he tells me that this device will ONLY assoceate with the Linksys WRT54G router/wireless access point. I looked *very* carefully at the box which only said that it requires an “802.11b or 802.11g Wireless Network”. I guess Linksys figures that anyone who has a wireless network is going to have one of their products. The tech tells me that the WAP54G can also function as a repeater and supports any access point. Right when I was about to hang up he starts telling me that I can find answers to frequently asked questions from their website and then starts going into DETAIL on how to get there using my internet browser even after I told him at least 5 times that I’m set to go with all that. I think I ended up hanging up while he was still explaining it.
So we go back to the store (which took a very long time thanks to the football game just letting out) and extange the WRE54G for a WAP54G. We get back to their house, I configure the access point, and WHOOP! The access point works but shows no signs of wanting to communicate with the router. So I call up linksys technical support once again and after waiting on hold for a while someone answers. I explain the problem as detailed as possible, and after at least 5 minutes of going through all my perfect settings (although he didnt even ask to verify that I had correrctly set up the “Repeater” configuration) he says “well it looks like the AP isnt communicating with the router”. “Yes, that’s what I said 5 minutes ago!” I reply. We went back and forth with him telling me to check some worthless setting and then him admitteding “Yes, the AP isnt talking to the router” several times. Then he tells me that the only thing left we can do is reboot the computer. I was pretty pissed off at that point and I said something like “look man, you just told me that you agree the problem is something between the AP and the router, why on earth would rebooting my computer do anything?” Then he says something that confirms what I figured all along: “Well the sheet says that’s what I should try next, so let’s just do that”.
??!?!?!?!
So just to humor him I reboot the computer, and sure enough nothing works just like before. He tells me that all we can do now is start trying to disable WEP, plug the computer directly into the AP, and a few other uselesss things along those lines. I had to leave just then anyway so I asked him for a case number and hung up. So basically the whole thing could have gone slightly better.
So to summarize, and to make sure google picks this up…
- Wireless networking sucks
- Wireless networks suck
- 6dbi Antennas suck
- Linksys sucks
- WAP54G sucks
- WRE54G sucks
Update 2004-10-12: I was getting some grief over the title so I changed it from “Wireless Networking Sucks” to “Linksys Sucks”. I should really say that I like wireless networking alot…when it works. When it doesn’t work, however, it makes you want to jam a fork in your eye.
Categorized as Me, Me, Rants, Other, Stuff that sucks, Technology
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from the edge of the deep green blue sea » Blog Archive » Extending your wireless network, the hard way
[...] 20 minutes later, found this site with the following info: 1.Connect the expander on one of the ports on the router(ethernet connection) 2.Default IP of the expander(wre54g) is 192.168.1.240 3.Make sure that the expander is in the same segment on your router(192.168.1.x) 4.Access internet explorer and type 192.168.1.240 on the address. Username(blank) password(admin)-defualt 5.Once you access it, set it to Fixed IP address-IP address(192.168.1.240); Subnet Mask(255.255.255.0);Gateway(IP of your router) 6.Wireless settings should be the same as the settings on your router 7.And save it. Do a power cycle(turn off your expander, unplug the ethernet connection and turn it on again) 8. On the computer try to ping the IP of the expander. If you have replies then it means that the expnader is communacating wirelessly to the router [...]
perhaps you should consider that maybe actiontec sucks
Never, EVER, call tech support. They are basically looking at a better version of the FAQ on the website.
I have alot of trouble blaiming the ACTIONTEC, based on the way a wireless repeater, works, or at least *should* work, all it’s going to have two radios, one that listens and one that retransmits what it sees. It might not even be layer 2 for crying out loud. A linksys wireless repeater should work without any problem with any 802.11b/g network, as the box said.
Regarding tech support since this was a paid job at someone else’s house they wanted to make sure I went through every possible step to get it working before giving up, calling up tech support being one of them.
Are your walls made of lead ?
Domino’s sucks as well. But did you at least order some pizza while you were there? Or mabey move the access point into the middle of the house?
Domino’s does suck, but not nearly as much as Varlmos. We ate there tonight and I got a “mini” pizza. I’m sitting there eating the pizza and I’m thinking to myself that it seems awlfy plain, but I cant quite figure out what is wrong. Then I notice it’s missing tomato sauce! I start peeling off cheese and pepperoni and I find a VERY THIN LAYER of what APPEARS to be some sort of tomato product hidden underneigh a pepperoni. I have come to know that fake pizza is one of the worst things on this planet.
Oh, and we couldn’t move the AP because a comptuer was plugged into it.
This actually happened in my city; a man sat outside a BestBuy with a laptop with a wireless hookup; and stole over 1000 credit card numbers due to their inability to secure their data… I don’t trust wireless, and hence, I probably won’t use it.
Security isnt the issue here, I like wireless networking alot… when it works. I think that WPA is probabally going to be secure enough for quite a while, people should just not use WEP anymore.
And best buy really sucks.
AGREED! Funny i thought it was just me who had trouble with the linksys wireless. Especially they suck when trying to connect “G” wise. Horrible and scary and never want to touch their adapters ever again!
“WRE54G can not associate with this AP in repeater mode.” That’s the exact text I’ve been looking at for 4 hours now and I’m trying to comunicate with the recommended WRT54G with firmware version 2.04.4 (docs with the WRE54G Range Expander recommend 2.02.2 or above ). I have TWO of these range expanders and tried them separately from many different ranges with no change in the error!!! Now I’m dedicated to spending the rest of the night trying to fix this problem. The “Live Tech Support” number left me on computer hold all night while repeating that they would be with me in a few minutes or moments. All this equates to UNFORGIVABLE CONDUCT by LINKSYS!!! If anyone has any idea how to solve this problem PLEASE email me!!!
Hilarious. I found this by way of the “wre54g sucks” google search. Still can’t get the setup wizard to run to completion. It crashes midway through.
Yes Linksys does suck…dont even try to use the NSLU2 USB hard drive network share. Get a NAS box, or better yet, just share a drive off some Win box. The stupid thing will format your hard drive to some odd version of Linux, never again to be seen by Windows. Their tech support is a clueless bunch of turban headed Indians. To get to a “tech” you have to jump through hoops and answer stupid questions over and over from some dumb broad. NEVER AGAIN LINKSYS! I’m hanging a “no linksys” poster on the wall at work. I’m a sysadmin so I know people will ask me about it…so goes the ad campain linksys. Buh-bye
Man…I just got a Linksys WRK54G (stripped down version of the WRT54G) as a replacement for a shitty Netgear WGR614 (Netgear sucks !) router which kept dropping connections. I love the Linksys router, but the card (WPC54G) that came with it sucks ass. After crashing my system a number of times, spending about 2 hours on the phone with Bangalore or Madras, or whereeverthehell their Tech support sits in India, the dude tells me they will do “the needful thing” to satisfy their customers…hahaha my ass. I think he meant “the necessary things”. Anyway, after some troubleshooting I found out that the stupid Wireless NIC is incompatible with the Texas Instruments PCMCIA controller on my Compaq Evo N610C Laptop. Linksys sucks !!! I tried a Compaq WIFI card and 2 Netgear cards to connect to the router instead (because those cards didn’t crash my system).I connected to the Access Point but could not browse sh*t. Thank You Netgear & Linksys…and did I mention that wireless sucks ;-)
I feel ya all. Getting the reapeater mode error for the WRE54G whenever I try to get it up and running with the software. I think this is due to the router (WRT54G) operating in repeater mode too??? and there cannot be two access points in repeater mode. The expander is supposed to be in repeater mode, but I cannot figure out how to keep my router from being in repeater mode. Oh yeah, and by the way… linksys sux
Linksys sucks! I bought not one but two Wireless-G Range Expanders – ha, no mention on the box or in the documents that it works only with a Wap54G or WRT54g – woha so lets go buy one of them too, and guess what, after 7 hours of screwing around, let’s buy a Linksys WUSB11 Wireless Adapter just so we can keep this all in the family, and guess what? “can not associate with the AP in repeater mode” is all I can get. What the hell does that mean? Is “can not” a word? Is Linksys a company? … wow, I sure hope not for long. I guess if I don’t get a refund for all this useless junk – I’ll be supporting the continuation of this network hell.
Did I say Linksys sucks?
I just stumbled onto this site after getting the “WRE54G can not associate with this AP in repeater mode” error message. Well, I have a brand new Linksys WRT54GS access point ( which works like a dream), and I cannot get the damn devices to connect. This site help me with the simple mindset “Linksys sucks”.
I have a WRT54G which works great because it runs linux and not Linksys’ homebrew firmware that does a very good job at not routing packets, but that’s about it.
I dont know how/why, but changing the beacon setting from 100 to 50 on the WRT54G allowed it to connect to the WRE54G
Hello everyone,
My name is Punam Bin Laden and I am here to tell you that Linksys sucks.
got mine to work by upgrading the firmware from 1.0.6 to 1.0.9 then to 2.0.7. still couldn’t connect by using the setup wizard but used the autoconfig button and it connected. from there, i tunnelled into the web interface and changed my settings there. good luck.
wre54g can not associate with this AP in repeater mode is my error, i have done everything listed here firm ware upgrade, beacon interval, ect… linksys is a whore
I have two computers in the house, one on Windows XP, which is working fine through the Linksys set up, and the other is on Windows 98SE, which can access the Router, but not the Internet. I have tried everything, including speaking to those airheads in the Phillipines. Please, please help before I kill myself.
WOW!!!! I’m scared to take it out of the box!!!
Yes, I too feel the pain shared in these pages. What a waste of time. Why did they not make this thing compatible with all APs? That would be a winning product….
For those of you out there that want to give this a shot, it would seem as though the WRE54G will work with wlan equipment other that Linksys’s
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article90-page1.php
Not only did the WRE54G work great, but I added 2 more to the house to completely cover 6000+ square ft and a guest house. I hooked a guy up with a huge house and I am extremely pleased with the range extenders. I am working on making a nicer package to surround the guts, as the black and silver plastic does not cut it in a 5 mil+ house.
The secret: don’t use the wizard at all; simply power it on, connect using the ip address 192.168.1.240, configure as needed, save config, and then go. The WRT54G we used was on sale for 59 bucks and that rocks when it compares to the performance of my old 2WIRE DSL/Wireless/Router. Kinda of makes interoperability with other vendors a moot point. Especially since companies like D-link and Actiontec are typically the repeat offenders when it comes to interoperability. You get what you pay for! (I know, I have a stack of cheap wireless gear that is either total crap or gives marginal performance)
I am also looking for other uses for this unit as well, since the code is GPLed and it runs a webserver…..
Thanks for returning yours – I got the open box prices!
Seriously though, try my method and then get back to me.
“”WRE54G can not associate with this AP in repeater mode.” DOESN’T ANYONE HAVE AN ANSWER??
HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM:
Guys…I feel your pain. I did all of the above until I decided to upgrate the firmware of my WRT54G router to the latest version (3.01.3). Here is the link to the ftp web site that has an upgrade utility file that you can download:
ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/network/WRT54GV2_3.01.3_US_code.exe
If you want to visit the web page that has the file links, here is the link:
http://www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp?fwid=178
Once I downloaed and installed the firmware in the WRT54G, I had no trouble getting the WRE54G to link to the router.
Good luck to all!
It is true that you need to update your firmware. The problem I am getting now is: “You are connected to the access point, but the internet cannot be found.” Does anyone know how to resolve this?
Wireless networks suck for the following reasons:
-SLOW! I mean you can share a broadband connection but any file sharing will be seriously slow compared to a 100Mbps/sec ethernet network.
-Incompatibility Galore! Forget about standards! As different brands have secret firmware to keep your Linsucks router from talking with your Netgay NIC.
-Insecure! If you have a 100Mbps ethernet network, no one’s gonna be able to get in there with out pulling off a line splice and then there will we a moment of network disconnection. Put with a wireless connection, they can walk around a whole city and steal financial info, give you viruses, turn your computer into a spam sending server.
And Best Buy, I do not want a stupid wireless network! It’s not better! Stop marketing laptops to people who never leave their desk for computer use, and stop selling wireless gear for desktops as one could just pull an ethernet cable for 10 times faster networks………
OMG LinkSYS SUCKS!!!!
I too have had the experience of trying to use linksys equipment. I was configuring a RV042 for a client (VPN End-Point Router). I had one pc plugged into the Wan port (acting as the internet) and a pc and apple sitting inside of the lan. i struggled and struggled to get this computer on the WAN to connect to the computers on the LAN via the Windows VPN client. LinkSys claimed that this client is compatible with the RV042 and there is no other client software that they have for this model. Why the F*** NOT! so I work and work and can’t get it going… call tech support and they offer me the beta version of their firmware that will work using this other VPN client software. they said i would receive it via e-mail in 1 hour. 12 hours later! still nothing… called back… where is my firmware!? it will be there in 30 minutes, i’m sorry. 2 hours later… WHERE’S MY FIRMWARE… call back… oh, firmware
WHY DOES IT TAKE 24 HOURS TO SEND AN AUTOMATED E-MAIL!!! PLUS WHY DIDN’T THEY TELL ME THIS BEFORE!!! so 25 hours later i get the firmware… install the client and can make a connection to the vpn, but NO ACCESS TO ANY COMPUTERS!
so i call them back and ask why… the guy (okay this was the 5th person i had talked to and they ALL had thick accents….go globalization)… this guy says ooh, that won’t work for what you are doing….
SO after this i was livid… and now have opted to use net gear for the VPN
I HATE LINKSYS…
(oh and I have too had many problems with linksys wireless too! go apple airport for 802.11g
i liked your post about the wireless networking. I just finished talking to linksys and you were right on the money. I cracked up with he said to reboot my machine. Like my machine is causing the hardward router to F up. ‘well its what the sheet says to do.’ ah.. give me your job. i can do it better. WAP wont work? throw it out the window and linksys will send you another. postage prepaid! thats a deal!
I too have been getting nothing but the “wre54g can not associate with this AP in repeater mode” error.
I bought two of the repeaters last week (today is 14-May-05) and could not get them to associate with any of my Linksys routers…
Giving Linksys the benefit of the doubt I bought a brand new WRT54G router today (the other routers were running hacked firmware but should have worked anyway) – anyway both the router and extender were running the latest firmwares available for each.
The setup program always resulted in the “wre54g can not associate with this AP in repeater mode” error.
The manual setup, (going to the web address), seemed to take – but it still would not ever connect to the router… they were 10 feet away from each other and nothing… THe computers could “see” the wireless signal from the repeater but it had no link/connection to the router so nothing worked.
Tried it for hours like all of you figuring there has to be SOMETHING… I tried Autoconfig too, that didn’t work at all… There are 2 other unsecure wireless networks in the area, but it didn’t autoconfig to any of them… it just saw there with 1 blue and 1 orange LED…
Completely frinken useless.
It gets worse…
So I buy a Hawking Tech 54G wireless repeater… “Sets up in 1 minute… works with ANY router or access point”
First thing first… open the manual and there is a sloppy white sticker over a picture of an ethernet cable under the “whats included” section… The manual then says multiple times to use the included ethernet cable to connect to the PC, then insert the CD, and hit setup.
Not so bad, right? Last minute change to not include an ethernet cable that everyone has already… so I use my own and follow the directions… the setup program recognizes the repeater and then when I hit “next” I get a fatal error from hawking.exe trying to read from memory location #000000000 or whatever… reboot… try again… same problem.
Deep in the manual are instructions for manual setup… going to a webpage to setup… do that… again seems to take but completely useless… The network was found ONCE for 1 second at the room I was trying to extend to, and then dropped forever.
I also bought the high-gain 7db antennas from Linksys and an external antenna stand… all of it sucks… I can’t believe these companies are allowed to sell total POS stuff that doesn’t even work at all, let alone well.
Hey quit complaining. The WRE54G says straight on the right top corner of the box “Works With: WAP54G WRT54G WRT54GS” And other than that, crashing computers, dropping connectios, and angry users is usually the fualt of the computer/network owner. GET UPDATES! Service packs and patches are life savers. Whew im done!
O and BTW. The WRT54G/S have hacked firmwares which allow signal strngth to be boosted three or sometimes 4 fold.
For all you people that took up for Linksys, you are idiots!
For all you people that said Linksys sucks, you are correct!
Wired had it pegged, as the box does say it is only – compatible with Linksys products – which all suck!
So idiots, quit clogging up the board with crap that wastes our time.
Signed,
Cranky
I have burned up 2 linksys 3pin power cables im done with linksys http://romenoob.tripod.com/linksys.rmvb realplayer movie of my best times with linksys…. dont buy linksys 8 port model EFAH08W
I agree…LinkSys and their tech support sucks!!! Isn’t there any English speaking techs anymore? The only reason I bought a LinkSys WRK54G was based on a PC Computing “Best Buy” rating. I have two laptops that work great with the LinkSys wireless PC card. However, my Dell Optiplex with a LinkSys PCI card is my problem. It is located about 60 feet from the router. It constantly drops the connection. I have tried changing the frequencies on the router (from 1 through 11)to no avail. I only wish some intelligent LinkSys folks would read this Blog and help us ALL out!!! I am tempted to run a long RJ45 cable out the window and across the roof to my other PC. So much for wireless!
The other day my Netgear FR314 firewall router which had been running non-stop for several years suddenly died and said the firmware was corrupt. Reloading the firmware rendered the box completely unbootable and it just continually reset.
After asking around, people recommended a Netgear RT614 firewall router. I bought the router and quickly had it set up, though I was very disappointed in that it lacked a lot of features in my old router. The web interface would not work with Mozilla or Firefox… since I run Linux, IE is out of the question. It finally worked with Konqueror.
I run a small mail and web server and set up the appropriate port forwarding for several services. Within 15 minutes of use, the router locked up and I had to reset it. After another 15 minutes, it locked up again. After several more lockups I figured it was the ultimate firewall because it blocked all traffic and returned it to the dealer. I then replaced it with a Linksys RV042 and must say that so far I am very happy with it. I wanted something where I could configure true ACL rules and where the firewall wasn’t dumbed down to the average consumer.
So far it has been rock solid with no issues. It is faster than my old router, which also would crash every few days but unlike the new Netgear it at least had a watchdog and rebooted.
My only disappointment is that since it runs Linux I wish it could make better use of the features and provide QoS and traffic shaping support.
Under Windows XP, I can’t get the stupid WPC54G to work in WPA mode, only in WEP mode.
It gets even further, the stupid thing is not able to get an IP from the lynksys router either, I had to manually assign it one from the network connections TCP/IP area.
It used to work in WPA mode under windows 2000, although I was not able to get it to receive an IP from the router either. The laptop is within 1 meter of the router while doing this configuration!!!
The computers hooked up with cables to the router are able to get their IPs just fine.
This linksys wireless card is an utterly hideous pile of shite. I haven’t tried anything other than LICKTHIS so far, but my next router won’t be another LICKTHIS I tell ya that much…
weboWeb
For being a girl LINKSYS’ tech support talked to me as if I had no idea on how to even start a computer!
I get the same f-ing “wre54g can not associate with this AP in repeater mode” error… I’M SO GETTING A LAWYER! Haha!
By the way, disabling WEP does not work either to set up shit!
This may help…oh and why are the early posts dated 1969, just wondering if i am late to the party !
I bought this in an attempt to extend my wireless signal in my plaster filled house. It appears to work as expected, but the set up was very problematic. Do NOT follow the stated instructions unless you are not using WEP (and you should be!) and don’t call support. I called twice and got wrong answers both times. I ended up coming up with my own procedure after trying a bunch of things and researching on the web:
1) Turn off WEP on your router
2) Plug the WRE54G in the same room as your router
3) Hit autoconfig button
4) Browse to 192.168.1.240 and make sure the settings match your router
5) Change the WRE54G SSID to something DIFFERENT than your router
6) Turn on WEP on the WRE54G
7) Turn back on WEP on your router
I know it seems weird to give the range extender a different SSID, but then, you can connect to it specifically instead of your AP. I had the problem that my AP was borderline accessible and with the SSIDs the same, I could not tell to which I was connected.
Also, you can use the latest router firmware, but then, you are going to get a red light for the connection light. However, you can just ignore it, because (contrary to what Tech Support will tell you), you are still OK.
To confirm you are connected properly, browse to your router IP from a machine connected to the range extender.
I am sure that all lynksys products make great paper weights
but have very little use in the real world. I am now leaving to steal the biggest truck I can find with which i shall repeatedley run over my wireless gateway until it babbles complete shite just like the willy wonkers manning the lynkpiss tech support offices in the outer regions of pissmeoffville.
have a nice day yawl
LinkSys Still Sucks! I’ve got a WMP54G, and get the message, “You are connected to the access point, but the internet canot be found” on my windows 2K pro box. Tried everything. Total piece of junk. After reading these notes, I’m going to return this card as fast as possible and get something, anything else. Of course I can access other computers in my network, but cannot access anything on the internet. Called linksys and all they could say, in broken english was, “Well, since you can get to the router, then its not our problem” I’m taking it back. It is junk.
Not all linksys products sucks, it depends upon the configuration and how will you set it up! Proven that the cd that came with the device sometimes it’s not working but still in manual configuration you can solve the problem. You guys should be thankful for the Tech Support because they are trying their best just to help us fixing our devices. The only reason why sometimes the devices won’t work it’s because it’s either there’s a bug on the driver or firmware itself. And the compatibility issue of the device.
I just got done setting up a WPC54G PCMCIA card for a client on a notebook running Windows ME.
No repeater in this configuration.
It’s a wireless linksys router.
At first it said it could not associate with the access point. But I went into advanced settings in the TCP/IP protocol piece for that wireless adapter and set the default gateway to the IP address of the wireless router.
I also had to add the MAC address to the filter table as well as enter the WEP key in the WPC54G configuration tool.
Then I had to set the mode from Mixed to G-Only.
Ok, then I got it to connect to the router. But it does NOT see the internet. I am going to try something I saw in another forum to get that to work when I go see this client in a couple of days. The hint is below.
“Go IE/tools/internet options/connections/lan settings/uncheck all boxes.
go to lan connection in network places and be sure TCP/IP in properties is checked for obtain IP address automatically.
Go to network places and right click on local area connection and click on repair. System should reassign lan and and connect IE.”
Also – for those who have a belkin wireless router that keep getting dropped after a few minutes – I used to have a Belkin router – it’s a firmware problem and there isn’t an update available. What’s happening is that the firmware (not deliberately) is forcing your ISP to change your IP address extremely frequently (if you don’t believe me, record your IP address for your router before a failure. Then after a failure, check it again… see?)
Replace the Belkin router with a different brand name if you have this problem.
I have a customer with a large house and WRT54G router. Complained they couldn’t get wireless connections. I installed the Linksys longer antennas. I demonstrated to client I could connect wirelessly. Then a new computer was added. I told the client to make sure the antenna of the new desktop PC was oriented towards the router high gain antennas. Husband is away and the wife can’t figure this out.
Client complained lack of wireless coverage with their wrt54g router. I installed Linksys higain antennas (2). Stuff worked. A new wireless desktop PC was attached and didn’t work wirelessly – possible problem is secured wireless network that often out-of-town husband hasn’t sorted out yet, or the antenna is pointed away from the router. Haven’t gone back yet until client orients antenna of new PC towards router.
Thing is, I did alot of research about extending wireless networks with Linksys products before deciding on the simple solution of higain antennas (why don’t all wrt54g’s come with these?) I noted that linksys “residential grade” “range extenders” and “repeaters” leave the informed computer technician with questions on basic wireless security and compatibility with non-Linksys products. (basically, such don’t seem to offer security and are incompatible with non-Linksys wireless equiptment.)
So, I’m looking at Belkin’s new “Pre-N” wireless network gear that advertises 800% greater range (with MIMO) for future customers who have big homes with thick walls and out-buildings. I’ve been using Belkin wireless products on my humble shop network for a couple years and am very satisfied with performance and configurability. If you need corporate grade equipment, then you need to pay the price for the gear and training (eg., Cisco IOS gear and training, and monitoring constant vulnerabilities).
Good luck.
Cisco must be losing their ass on Linksys garbage, at least I hope so! NEVER has one of their routers worked with the Easy (not) install. The latest: WRT54GS stalls at a required PASSWORD entry, but of course admin or blanks or nothing else worked, so back to 192.168.1.1 (which is where I should have started). But now this MF router just won’t work wireless, or does really wierd things like give me one page and then goes dead. Works just fine ethernet. 4 hours wasted and 1 of them deciphering pidgeon English from India. Never again Loinksys.
Linksys sucks really bad.
Note: I ran into this same problem trying to use the VOIP router, the WRTP54GP. Linksys tech support confirms that this particular router is not supported. I have had my share of success and frustration with Linksys equipment (although, over time the quality seems to be declining and the frustration increasing). In general, when setting up their products, I find that I have to follow the instructions exactly (ok, that’s not too unreasonable is it :) ).
After two days trying (about 6 hours). I am thinking to give up. I think i will go with the old school way (rj45 cable). It is not working for me and i have the same message “can not associate with the AP in repeater mode” that everyone have i have search the web for about 1 hour to see a quick howto but nothing seem to work. i have found this tutorial i will give linksys last chance if it work i keep it if not i will ask for a refund.
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article90-page1.php
seems i’m a little late to the conversation, but let me start by saying: hilarious.
some of the comments made me laugh out loud.
i’m so glad i stumbled onto this site doing a google search on “WRE54G sucks”. i finally found some people with whom i can share my frustrations over all things Linksys.
let me start by saying, never call their customer support. i tried that once for a WPS54GU2 (wireless USB print server) and ended up hanging up on the poor technician, furious, after just 5 minutes of arguing with the guy over what he was going to do with my name and phone number. i never even got around to asking my question.
here’s a fun thing to try next time you’re going insane over a Linksys install: call up their technical support, and see how long you can keep them on the phone arguing over the name and phone number thing. the key is to waste as much of this person’s time as possible, arguing, preferably in circles, for ever and ever. make sure you don’t swear at them because then you just give them an excuse to hang up. but if you don’t ever get mad, i would imagine they’d just have to stay on with you indefinitely. then be sure to get their name for later reference when they try desperately to squirm off the phone after about an hour.
seriously though, i have 3 useless print servers if anyone’s interested. just kidding. they sort of work. well, 2 of them do.
as for the WRE54G, ahhh. the unit is like the bermuda triangle of wireless. i wrote an article about my adventures on my Techblog. In it, i chronicle the tens of hours wasted configuring the WRE54G with the WRT54G router.
Clients ask for Linksys products by name. They come to me saying stuff like, “i heard that Linksys is the best” and, “i only want linksys”. my experience tells me that: even if you had a mountain of linksys products, it would not guarantee you a compatible and functional wireless network.
some suggestions:
-Tim’s comment(#42) – make sure you’ve got 2 separate SSIDs
-Also, i think that the problem people are having with the message: “WRE54G can not associate with this AP in repeater mode” my have something to do with the fact that the WRT54G doesn’t come with WDS (bridging or layer-2) capability. So, i don’t see how linksys claims it will work with the WRE54G. actually, you might have a better shot at getting it working with a non-Linksys router that has WDS built in. i won’t get into it here, but there’s some more info in the article i mentioned earlier.
Here’s the fix (in a round about way)…
1. Before starting obtain the latest installer for the WRE54G. There are two versions of WRE54G. You must use the installer from Linksys’ website. Don’t use the CD that came with your product. Even if you have 1.0 version use the 2.0 installer/setup wizard.
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?childpagename=US%2FLayout&packedargs=c%3DL_Download_C2%26cid%3D1115417109974%26sku%3D1130267578138&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper
2. While you’re at Linksys’ website pick up the latest firmware also. There was nothing on my WRE54G to indicate what hardware revision so I downloaded the firmware for both 1.0 and 2.0 (it won’t let you update using the wrong one so you can just use the process of elimination).
3. Connect your computer (wireless adapter) to your existing wireless network. Also plug in the WRE54G at this point. If you have had previous failed attempts then you need to reset the WRE54G. Hold the reset button in (use a pin or paperclip) for at least 15 seconds. If you have successfully reset then the top light will turn RED.
4. Unzip and run the Setup.exe program you downloaded in step 1. The version should read 2.1.1.8 or higher (in bottom right corner of the setup screen). NOTE: I couldn’t get the program to work with my Addtran 802.11b PCMCIA adapter. It gave errors about “No wireless Network Card found.” I had a Linksys card in a desktop PC so I switched over to the desktop and tried (WMP54GS PCI Adapter) and the setup started successfully.
This is where things get really important.
5. The install will find your existing wireless settings (i.e. the SSID of your existing wireless network). Click YES to accept the settings.
6. The next step will search for any existing WRE54G’s . It should find your WRE54G. It will say something like LinksysBzr1234?? as the SSID. DON’T select it or go any further in the setup/wizard program!! Don’t close the Setup Wizard either. Instead, open a browser (I used Mozilla because IE did funny things with the Java and closing windows/popups).
7. Type this address in your Mozilla browser.
http://192.168.1.240
leave username blank & password is: admin
8. Verify your gateway is the IP address of your DHCP server/router. My gateway was 192.168.1.1
9. Enter your network’s SSID but DON’T apply the settings yet.
10. Click on the ENABLE dot. DON’T APPLY OR SAVE SETTINGS YET! MOST IMPORTANT STEP.
11. Now click the ‘Edit Security Settings’ button. Generate or paste your WEP key into the appropriate box. Click the ‘SAVE Settings’ button (the one within the WEP Key window. NOT the one behind it).
12. At this point you’re browser will likely time out. Reason is because it just reprogrammed the WRE54G. If it doesn’t time out, then click the “Save Settings” button on the main screen.
13. if everything goes correctly you should see two blue lights on the WRE54G. If not, then you messed up somewhere. If you get two blue lights then you should be able to refresh your wireless adapters’ discovery of existing wireless networks. I’m using the Linksys software vs. XP. You can identify the WRE54G by the MAC address (located on the back of the WRE54G). Attach to the WRE54G and you should be up and running.
Alternate method (abbreviated):
1). Manually assign an IP Address to the TCPIP settings of your wireless network card.
IP Address: 192.168.1.241
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.240
DNS Server: 192.168.1.240
2) Start at Step 7.
3) Once reprogramming of WRE54g is complete, change your IP settings back to “obtain Automatically.”
4) Reattach to your wireless network.
FINAL NOTE – UPDATE FIRMWARE:
If you can get to the router using a browser (again, Mozilla is what I use) click on the “Help” link at the top of the screen (to the right of the password link). Proceed with Update of the firmware. I updated the firware using my alternate method of manually assigning an IP address, then changing it back once the firmware completed.
Hear!! Hear!!
I keep getting access errors with my card, and ever so often, more often than not, it fails altogether to pick up a signal from the router. Their customer service is terrible! (They are very unhelpful and don’t know shit…!!!) God forbid you get fed up w them (easy to do) and demand to speak with a manager; they’ll put you on hold forever, probably hoping you’ll take that “too tricky problem” off their plate, hang up, and let them go back to scratching their asses, which, I’m sure they do all day..
I regret ever having bought anything from these sorry ass sob’s..
Finally I had enough of the WPC54G Ver 4 wireless card running under XP. Let me rephrase that: freezing my laptop.
This piece of shite would freeze every few minutes, requiring a hard reboot. Cause? Driver problems as reported by XP in the blue screen of death. But these LynkShit assholes would not acknowledge that, even though they acknowledged the XP warning when you install the driver which says it is not certified for XP (it was fine for 2000 though)
So, to hell with it, I got myself a Motorola wireless card and it works without any problems (using my already existing LinkShit router!!!)
It seems that LinkShit cannot create hardware to work with its own shite, so we should buy from other manufacturers instead if we already have LinkShit equipment???
Anyway, enough said other that I’ll never buy LinkShit again.
whn u get an error sayin ….
“You are connected to the access point, but the internet cannot be found.”
all u hav to do is change the channel in the router setup page …. i think u can call up linksys tech support , am sure thy wil help u out in this ..
ok ppl u guys think linksys tech support sucks??? do u know the number of absolute moronic ignorant customers a linksys tech gets???
for ppl who dont know the difference between a router and a modem – please dont call
for ppl who want security but dont know what the hell that is – please get someone to install the router for you
for ppl who havent heard the term “router”, think they’re absolute techy assholes and think they can get a person from a country 5000 miles away on the fone with a dumb
moron who’s as blind as a bat to configure an entire network – please think again…
AND WHEN U SPEND MONEY TO BUY A BLOODY ROUTER OR SOMETHING, LEARN THE NAME – 50% OF THE PPL THINK IT’S LINK-SKI !!! they cant even twist their
tongue enough to say linksys…
when you set a router password, REMEMBER THE F*KING PASSWORD or dont change it from the default… if u forget the password(which is likely since 80% of linksys
customers seem to remember ONLY which of their boyfriends hooked up with which of their sisters when they were oooooohh soo high) then naturally the only way would be
to reset the f*kin thing and reconfigure it… so remember the password or, since ur brains wld be crammed with worthless junk, go the simple way – write it down…
if u have a low signal on a wireless then dont blame the router – it’s cos of a simple thing called interference – it’s plain physics – change the channel, change the ssid and try
reconnecting and BOOM – it will and should work… now i’m sure if a person goes by what i say – they’ll try a single channel and if tht doesnt work then they’d start whining
and cursing linksys – if one channel doesnt work, try another – there’s a reason why the IEEE has configured 11 channels on the 802.11 wireless protocol… stupid
dumbasses
half the customers havent heard of a router – when asked the model number of the router, they’d go “the model number of the whaaa–???” so linksys tech’s haveta be
content with calling the modem a white box and the router a black box assuming that those are the colours…
DAVE932 – if wireless sucks so much, then dont use it… ppl who need mobility will…
ELRAN – want to know why a linksys tech needs ur name and phone number? it’s not to stalk you, it’s cos cisco maintains a record of their dumbass customers for future
reference – i guess to figure out how many of them actually have heard the term “router”… also a future tech cld find out what mode the router is configured in, cos genius
customers that you guys are, wouldnt know jack about it…
ERIC – the reason why they ask u for ur details before u can say hi, it’s cos that’s the way cisco wants it… and tht’s also why they give u the url of the knowledgebase… do
u think a customer gives a rat’s ass about ur details? nope, it’s cos cisco gives a rats ass (and i dont know why)
and as for range expanders, check out the knowledge base – a range expander would cut the speed exact by half and tht’s why it’s never recommended to have more than a
single range expander… if u need lots of coverage then go in for access points… everything is documented ppl… each and everything is… before u jump and buy a product
check out it’s techincal specs and other junk in the kowledgebase – kb.linksys.com and THEN go n play around…
when u get an error – “”connected to AP but internet cannot be found”", it could either be cos u rocket scientists entered the wrong encryption keys, or ur piece of junk
computer does not resolve dns properly – assign static dns’s – 4.2.2.2/3 or 38.9.213.2 // 38.9.212.2 – all this is based on the assumption that the router is configured… if it
aint, then just configure the router
“”WRE54G can not associate with this AP in repeater mode.” – this means either the firmware or the base router is not compatible – CHECK THE KnowledgeBase PPL… it’s
created for a purpose… cisco’s not mad to create one for fun…
if u want a wpa encryption on win xp, upgrade to SP 2
WeboWeb – as for WPA in win2k, Microsoft has not yet released a WPA client for Windows 2000, u’d haveta get a 3rd party client… it doesnt matter how near the router u
are… it just doesnt… when u play around with wireless security, ALWAYS MAKE SURE UR USING A COMPUTER HARDWIRED TO THE ROUTER else u’d be calling up
linksys tech support again…
if u get a wrt54g v5, always upgrade the firmware… ALWAYS
ANA – here’s how brainy some college girls are – when asked the model number of the router, they go “model number of the whaa–?”… so the tech goes and says – look for
a black box, there’ll be a label on it, please read whats on the label, and the brainy college goes – pentium 4 ht – can you blame them??? so tht’s why techs treat you with
the affection of a parent whose toddler just said calculus…
please please please ppl learn basic windows stuff to tackle extreme problems like unzipping and copying… tech’s spend half their time “helping” dumbasses download and
extract files…
#54 – they dont know sh*t??? look at it this way – if you knew sh*t why the hell r u callin in??? dude… there’s interferece… change the channel… change the ssid… look for
updated versions of firmwares or device drivers on http://www.linksys.com/download – CHECK THE KNOWLEDGEBASE
#55. Ex LinkShit user – each and every hardware company registers for the logo by paying microsoft a pot of money – linksys didn’t and tht’s why u get that windows hasnt
passed the logo test thingy – a thousand linksys cards are installed everyday… u think all 1000 of them have the same issue? think again… it might be some incompatiblity
of the card driver with ur OS – download and update the drivers – CHECK THE KNOWLEDGEBASE
when asked to type in an ip address on the computer, some customers actually TYPE THE NUMBERS ON THE F*KIN PHONE imagine the crap technicians haveta go thru
in order to make a living
why is bill gates’s company doing so well? cos 94% of his workforce are non americans…!!!
soooo to sum up ppl, before u start cribbing and whining about poor tech support, try n help urselves first… remember that the ppl who attend ur calls wld be all engineers or
computer grads – and u of all ppl call them pathetic… man o man – as the old saying goes – LOOK WHO’S TALKIN..!
peace…
ok ppl u guys think linksys tech support sucks??? do u know the number of absolute moronic ignorant customers a linksys tech gets???
for ppl who dont know the difference between a router and a modem – please dont call
for ppl who want security but dont know what the hell that is – please get someone to install the router for you
for ppl who havent heard the term “router”, think they’re absolute techy assholes and think they can get a person from a country 5000 miles away on the fone with a dumb moron who’s as blind as a bat to configure an entire network – please think again…
AND WHEN U SPEND MONEY TO BUY A BLOODY ROUTER OR SOMETHING, LEARN THE NAME – 50% OF THE PPL THINK IT’S LINK-SKI !!! they cant even twist their tongue enough to say linksys…
when you set a router password, REMEMBER THE F*KING PASSWORD or dont change it from the default… if u forget the password(which is likely since 80% of linksys customers seem to remember ONLY which of their boyfriends hooked up with which of their sisters when they were oooooohh soo high) then naturally the only way would be to reset the f*kin thing and reconfigure it… so remember the password or, since ur brains wld be crammed with worthless junk, go the simple way – write it down…
if u have a low signal on a wireless then dont blame the router – it’s cos of a simple thing called interference – it’s plain physics – change the channel, change the ssid and try reconnecting and BOOM – it will and should work… now i’m sure if a person goes by what i say – they’ll try a single channel and if tht doesnt work then they’d start whining and cursing linksys – if one channel doesnt work, try another – there’s a reason why the IEEE has configured 11 channels on the 802.11 wireless protocol… stupid dumbasses
half the customers havent heard of a router – when asked the model number of the router, they’d go “the model number of the whaaa–???” so linksys tech’s haveta be content with calling the modem a white box and the router a black box assuming that those are the colours…
DAVE932 – if wireless sucks so much, then dont use it… ppl who need mobility will…
ELRAN – want to know why a linksys tech needs ur name and phone number? it’s not to stalk you, it’s cos cisco maintains a record of their dumbass customers for future reference – i guess to figure out how many of them actually have heard the term “router”… also a future tech cld find out what mode the router is configured in, cos genius customers that you guys are, wouldnt know jack about it…
ERIC – the reason why they ask u for ur details before u can say hi, it’s cos that’s the way cisco wants it… and tht’s also why they give u the url of the knowledgebase… do u think a customer gives a rat’s ass about ur details? nope, it’s cos cisco gives a rats ass (and i dont know why)
and as for range expanders, check out the knowledge base – a range expander would cut the speed exact by half and tht’s why it’s never recommended to have more than a single range expander… if u need lots of coverage then go in for access points… everything is documented ppl… each and everything is… before u jump and buy a product check out it’s techincal specs and other junk in the kowledgebase – kb.linksys.com and THEN go n play around…
when u get an error – “”connected to AP but internet cannot be found”", it could either be cos u rocket scientists entered the wrong encryption keys, or ur piece of junk computer does not resolve dns properly – assign static dns’s – 4.2.2.2/3 or 38.9.213.2 // 38.9.212.2 – all this is based on the assumption that the router is configured… if it aint, then just configure the router
“”WRE54G can not associate with this AP in repeater mode.” – this means either the firmware or the base router is not compatible – CHECK THE KnowledgeBase PPL… it’s created for a purpose… cisco’s not mad to create one for fun…
if u want a wpa encryption on win xp, upgrade to SP 2
WeboWeb – as for WPA in win2k, Microsoft has not yet released a WPA client for Windows 2000, u’d haveta get a 3rd party client… it doesnt matter how near the router u are… it just doesnt… when u play around with wireless security, ALWAYS MAKE SURE UR USING A COMPUTER HARDWIRED TO THE ROUTER else u’d be calling up linksys tech support again…
if u get a wrt54g v5, always upgrade the firmware… ALWAYS
ANA – here’s how brainy some college girls are – when asked the model number of the router, they go “model number of the whaa–?”… so the tech goes and says – look for a black box, there’ll be a label on it, please read whats on the label, and the brainy college goes – pentium 4 ht – can you blame them??? so tht’s why techs treat you with the affection of a parent whose toddler just said calculus…
please please please ppl learn basic windows stuff to tackle extreme problems like unzipping and copying… tech’s spend half their time “helping” dumbasses download and extract files…
#54 – they dont know sh*t??? look at it this way – if you knew sh*t why the hell r u callin in??? dude… there’s interferece… change the channel… change the ssid… look for updated versions of firmwares or device drivers on http://www.linksys.com/download – CHECK THE KNOWLEDGEBASE
#55. Ex LinkShit user – each and every hardware company registers for the logo by paying microsoft a pot of money – linksys didn’t and tht’s why u get that windows hasnt passed the logo test thingy – a thousand linksys cards are installed everyday… u think all 1000 of them have the same issue? think again… it might be some incompatiblity of the card driver with ur OS – download and update the drivers – CHECK THE KNOWLEDGEBASE
when asked to type in an ip address on the computer, some customers actually TYPE THE NUMBERS ON THE F*KIN PHONE imagine the crap technicians haveta go thru in order to make a living… why is bill gates’s company doing so well? cos 94% of his workforce are non americans…!!!
soooo to sum up ppl, before u start cribbing and whining about poor tech support, try n help urselves first… remember that the ppl who attend ur calls wld be all engineers or computer grads – and u of all ppl call them pathetic… man o man – as the old saying goes – LOOK WHO’S TALKIN..!
peace…
Hi techman. Thanks for the information, it is good to hear that at least one technician knows what they are talking about. You sir are an example to us all.
How many times have I heard this same conversation from a jumped up technician, that they know best because they have the badge and I am automatically in the wrong for even questioning their godlike status? Too many times!
What comes out of your mouth is probably going to be ignored by users because of your attitude, not because it is right or wrong. Learn from this feedback, work with the users and you will go far, otherwise you’ll get more of this thread. Repeat after me; POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE!!!
well look at it this way netgear…
customers are ignorant, they never listen to the technician, they think the tech is doing nothing, they think the tech knows nothing, and they end up getting pissed and cry and crib and even CURSE the technician, like you c in this beautiful website – do u think technicians are not humans? u think they’re devoid of frustration? do you think they have to sit back and take up every ounce of crap piled up on them by ignoramii who get frustrated at the tech cos THEY’re doing something wrong? believe me, i dont care if customers ignore what i’ve written, cos it wont make a difference…
more than 70% of customers’ frustration is caused due to their ignorance and their incapability to undertsand what the problem is… does a good carpenter blame his tools? i dont think so..! if a customer’s issue is not resolved then there’s a specific reason as to it, the customer doesnt understand jack about computers or networking, and ends up ranting and cursing linksys and the technicians… do you think that’s justified on the technicians’ part, netgear?
– peace..!
ActionTec DOES suck. Try setting up port forwarding to run various servers on different machines. You can do it, but if you try to test it by browsing to your own domain the ActionTec intercepts the request and gives you the modem admin page. I also had trouble even getting it to save port forwarding settings. I would add one a setting to the list, click Save and Restart, the modem restarts, and the setting would be gone. Craptastic.
Solution: get a used Cisco678 for $25 and replace the SuctionTec. First go to the Qwest website and download the proper firmware for a CAT or DMT connection. They have clear, concise instructions for flashing it to the Cisco using Hyperterm.
http://www.qwest.com/dsl/customerservice/win678dmt.html
You don’t have to be a Qwest customer [and I don't work for them, in fact they suck too, but they did this one thing right.] Once I found the download site I had my Cisco updated and working in 20 minutes, and the SuctionTec is on its way to EBay.
Yes!!!!! Linksys (the company) does suck!!! While their equipment may work well, the customer support is total shit. I WILL NEVER BUY FROM THEM AGAIN!!
ryan – read postings #56 and #58 and THEN decide what sucks – the customer support or the customer himself.
and what is the issue that makes you think that customer service sucks?
Guys
I’m not sure whats the purpose of this website. if it is for venting out anger then its justifyied. but remember The purpose of tech support or any customer support is to help customer especially the needy ones(Who cannot differentiate white boxes from routers) Cisco is ofcourse the best brand in routers and swiches. but talking about wireless it is basic physics. The technology itself is pretty screwed. if there is interference in the enviournment nobody in this world can get the device to work. its like trying to use a mobile after you install a Jammer. no point blamming the tech support guy trying to help the cheated customer. I’m sure if you understand the technology as a custoemr you will stop expecting the device to do miracles.
Suggestion
learn more about the device that you have and avoid contacting tech support b’coz they probably have access to the same info as you do.
Read the manaul and visit the official website of the company for info and troubleshooting steps
Normally tech support is located in India or philipines or some cheap city and the techician in these countries do not work in the same place for more than a year.
!!!
WPC54G stands for Wireless Piece of Crap w/ 54 reasons for you to throw it away to a Garbage can.
Did any of you ever wonder why they call it “Network Engineering?”
If you don’t know what your doing, don’t do it. Pay someone competent to do it for you.
End of rant. My wireless network is fantastic, I’ve been installing them for years without any hitches. Linksys products are perfectly fine, some are worse than others, and the firmwares often leave a lot to be desired, however, they are good product.
65. unknown: ha ha ha ha!
You nailed it right there.
Even though I’m no longer a WPC54G user, it’s still lying around taking valuable space in my home, space that could be better used by a cigarette butt, used handkerchief, etc etc…
Any of you fine folks care to purchase it from me???
It rocks!!! I guarantee it will work for at least 5 seconds after 50 reboots and 50 hours of fun!
say it like it is, the don… ppl spend money on buying routers without even knowing what they’re for..! they screw up their networks on their own and blame the router AND the tech support… the main challenge faced by tech support ppl is making customers download and unzip files… such ppl expect to design and setup a network… HELP!!!
Year later I repeated the same mistake of buying the damned WRE54G. The device is totally useless now as it was a year ago. I got exact same response from tech support word for word. I wish I read this post before loosing $100. Linux sucks!
Here are the steps on how to configure the WRE54G to the router
1.Connect the expander on one of the ports on the router(ethernet connection)
2.Default IP of the expander(wre54g) is 192.168.1.240
3.Make sure that the expander is in the same segment on your router(192.168.1.x)
4.Access internet explorer and type 192.168.1.240 on the address. Username(blank) password(admin)-defualt
5.Once you access it, set it to Fixed IP address-IP address(192.168.1.240); Subnet Mask(255.255.255.0);Gateway(IP of your router)
6.Wireless settings should be the same as the settings on your router
7.And save it. Do a power cycle(turn off your expander, unplug the ethernet connection and turn it on again)
8. On the computer try to ping the IP of the expander. If you have replies then it means that the expnader is communacating wirelessly to the router
SIMPLE!!!!!! YOu just dont know how to configure it
don’t u guys think that the problem might not be with the device but with the user? how can the techsupport help you if you are not doing what they ask u to do? you are lying to urself… admit it! if you properly configured it.. it should work!
Let me relate my experiences too. All you Linksys techs and employees, listen up: Theres a pattern here and a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong history of nasty complaints about both your products and your services. Quite frankly, they both SUCK, bad, REAL bad !!! I’ve been fighting with my new Linksys router and card for two solid days and I give up !!!! Forget it. This thing is, in no uncertain terms, a F***ING PIECE OF S**T, and I’m going to return it for a refund. My friends tell me to buy Net-Gear or maybe D-Link. All you Linksys techs and employees go look for new jobs. You should all be deeply ashamed of your selves for putting such a defective untested unproven product in the marketplace. You are ripping people off left and right and your managers should be incarcerated for fraud.
Linksys WAP54G also sucks item, i live in indonesia and it is very hard to have support from linksys, now i understand why the networking people in indonesia hates linksys. I am using linksys WRT54G asa a router and access point, using WAP54G as a repeater. For a short period the WAP54G sucks hangs, the indicator not blinking. I have to disconnect the adaptor plug and connect it again. How sucks this stupid stuff. I think i don’t want to buy any linksys brand anymore.
I’m sorry you’ve had so much trouble with Lynksys. I just installed the booster. First thing I did was update the firmware on my Lynksys router. Then I asked their tech support for the correct booster to match my router, then asked how to install the booster correctly. They took me through all the steps with the software and it recognized the network immediately. I’m happy with their products and their performance. Thank you.
Linksys …
No one on Tech support speaks english.. everything takes 75% longer than your average American Tech support because of the language barriers. Hold time.. well.. you all know about that. No one gets away under 25 mins. Wait… checking my clock.. it has been 52 mins. waiting for C.S. to replace the network card adapter I bought 5 mos. ago. Linksys can bite me. Never ever recommend linksys to ANYONE. Everything they do is outsourced. I’m not saying thats a bad thing.. but when it’s at the time and expense of your linksys customers.. really really bad business.
And guess what.. they could give a rats ass about us.. the ones that keep them in business. “so sorry for the inconvenience” in broken english is what you get. In other words.. too friggin’ bad.. deal with cause I need to get my $5.00 and hour here in Pakistan and Malasyia!
Corporate linksys will never see, hear or respond to any complaints to them. Anyone have any resources in the media? I bet every person on this board would cram into the studio to tell thier linksys story.
Sorry, but we are all in the same boat..
Worst customer service than I have ever experienced in 45 years of being in business. The worst.
I think linksys sucks, I really do but the support,I can consider them as good because it’s hard to support over the phone. Everyone in here hates linksys and I do also but ppl don’e hate the support. Imagin you as a doctor and I say you sucks. having a profession and education cannot be judge by anyone. Look at the mirror before you do something. All of us in here have their own career, do want to called sucks on your own job, I think not.
I’m in a really weird situation here. I’m hospitalized and the hospital (an orthopedic rehabilitation center, actually) has a wireless connection using a Linksys wireless router (don’t know which one). No one here has any technical savvy whatsoever and I can’t even get to the router. My laptop has a Linksys WPC54GS wireless adapter.
I know the hospital has a Linksys router from the SSID, which is “linksys”. And all security is disabled.
My connection is strong enough and sometimes works perfectly (since I’m posting this message). But most of the time it gets into one of two states: “You are connected to the access point, but the Internet cannot be found”, or a state where the adapter control says I’m connected to the Internet but I can’t ping anything — not even the router!
If the problem is purely with the router, I’m probably sunk. But if there’s anything I can do from the laptop end, that would be great.
I’ll emphasize that the baffling thing here is the inconsistent behavior — perfect functioning some of the time, no functioning at all at others, even though signal strength is almost certainly not the issue.
I have a Linksys WRT54GC and a Linksys Wireless-G USB Network Adapter with Speedbooster (WUSB54GS) on the other computer. I have to re-establish the connection every time I want to use it. It is actually easier for me to connect to my neighbors wireless network (a different house) than two rooms down – in my house. WTF Linsys?
Linksys does suck. They have horrible customer service.
I paid over $200 for a Linksys WVC200 internet camera. This is a color camera and any green foliage appears pink. PINK! Linksys Tech Support won’t return my emails or calls about it since I complained back in June. You can bet if I had a Canon, Nikon or Kodak camera that made trees, bushes and lawns look pink I would have no problem getting a refund.
Also, Linksys’ Sololink DDNS services has been down for over a month.
Plenty of people on the Linksys forums are having both of these problems – it’s not just me – but Linksys won’t come clean and continue to blame the user.
I Believe the some of the Technical Support from Linksys has a strong accent. But on technical assistance, you can count on them. I have a Linksys device and just following them correctly, it worked. They thank me for being patient.
Its 5 am, i have been tring to set up a Linksys network for the last 8 hours, not only am i extremly upset, but tired, fustrated, and i have the sudden urge to grab a tech support guy by the throat and get him to work on this setup himself. If linksys wants to stay in buisness i think they should do something about there not working “Secure Easy Setup” feature, and they should work on getting the router and adapters to work. The FAQ’s are crap, not to mention there websites is full of repeated and usless information.
Hello,
I have a WRT54G and a WAP54G. I have a cable Internet connection :-).
I have extended my network wirelessly to a neighbours house. Both devices have external Cantenna’s attached. Each cantenna is pointed at the other “LOS”.
WRT54G runs in “Gateway mode” and the WAP54g runs in repeater mode. Works great , the neighbours can download at speeds up to 500/k sec.
I had to do a little homework to make this work. So to all the “babies” that would rather blame linksys than themselves. RTFM!
Why didn’t you publish my comments? What ever happened to free speech?
Get a life Doug W, some of us have to sleep.
Linksys sucks. I’m throwing out two routers today, one cheap, one high end.
Goodbye Linksys.
linksys sucks!!!!!!!!!
No luck with linksys products or support
I just got off the phone with Linksys, my god this is the worst company ever. After 45 minutes with two different impossible to understand support people reading from scripts, I finally got my number to put into their RMA website. This one was a no-brainer – ie the product was a dead switch – a single power light and no other link lights at all. Endless questions about my OS, ISP, router, etc. – no you idiots, its DEAD! Couldn’t get them to break from the script and actually LISTEN to what the problem was.
To add insult to injury, the RMA site was down. Six hours later, still down. I called to talk to a customer service rep, he suggested I bring up the website. I informed him it was down. He put me on hold, came back, and suggested I bring up the website. Again, on hold. He finally came back and told me yes, the website was indeed down, I should try tomorrow.
So after burning an hour of my billable time to try and RMA this for a customer, I went out and bought a DLink for them, and ate the lost hour. I will NEVER recommend Linksys again, as this was the worst experience I have ever had with any company’s RMA process. Be warned, just because Cisco owns them doesn’t mean their products or their support are any good.
Hey Eric, I filled in the sum of 7 and 9 as 16 and then wrote a long response to
Paul Abrahams Says:
October 26th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
But somehow between the time I started the response and finished it your question must have changed and my response was thrown away. You ought to at least give the responders a second chance to reconsider their answer.
By the way there is only one o in prove.
I agree with ALL of the postings that Linksys is the worst company EVER!!! If you feel like letting them know it directly, here are the email addresses to the CEO of Linksys, and the CEO of Cisco (which owns Linksys).
I emailed them letting them know how much they sucked and got a prompt reply from someone named Tony (Anthony), who must have something to do with their executive team or sucky customer service escalation. Tony’s direct phone number is also below if you want to call and tell him his company SUCKS!
***I am providing multiple email addresses to the CEO’s – not sure which one it is so it is best to send it to ALL of them if you want to be heard.***
Victor Tsao (Linksys CEO): vtsao@linksys.com; victor.tsao@linksys.com; victor@linksys.com
John Chambers (Cisco CEO): jchambers@cisco.com; john.chambers@cisco.com
Anthony Carocha / Tony Carocha: acarocha@cisco.com Direct Phone: 949-856-8175
I just want to add my hatred to the Linksys customer support system. I spent 1.5 hrs on hold only to be told to call back tomorrow. I will not buy another Liksys device and will actively disuade all of my friends and contacts to do the same. They suck so terribly hard. It’s pathetic.
I’ve given up on Linksys. Tech Support is in India so there are cultural and linguistic issues but that is nothing compared to the overall apathy at Linksys. Support takes weeks to respond and when they do it is some worthless scripted tidbit that you’ve already tried out of desperation. You can not speak to anyone at customer service. Their corporate number goes to voicemail without so much as a greeting.
Folks, you need to complain to the BBB and your local retailers.
techman is totally right . last week I had to talk to aperson that claim that the router was not working ok , or that I was not doing things ok.
when we did the ipconfig , the only message that he was getting was media disconnected , in a hardwire computer that run w2000 , this basically means that a wire is either disconnected, or the wire is broken
since he did not want to buy a new wire , he blamed me.
come on
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hate Linksys to. After trying 2 wired routers from linksys that didn’t work, I went with D-Link and low and behold I haven’t lost my Internet connection ONCE. Linksys tech support is also a joke, that is unless you speak Indian then maybe at least then you could understand them.
YES! I really do NOT like Linksys, and their technical support pretty much suuuucks, too.
Linksys sucks a fat nut.
I just called both my ISP (Internet Service Provider) and the fucking Linksys “Tech Support” and I just keep getting tossed back and forth between the two. Same Indians with heavy accents, same “I’m very sorry ma’am, but call ______” — fill in the blank with either “Bellsouth” or “Linksys”
It’s been three fucking hours and all I ask each time I call is “Please please help me connect the three wires so that my laptop can get on the internet.”
I’m sick of typing “ipconfig” in the “black window” and my e-mail, phone number, and case number are NOT going to let me play World of Warcraft on my laptop downstairs. Some dumbass of a technician came out here, fucked everything up by unplugging all my beautiful wires from their PERFECT setup in order to make it so that ONLY my shitty desktop computer can connect to the internet. What the fuck am I going to do with that, surf Myspace and masturbate inbetween each page loading like I used to do with the 56K?
FUCK. YOU. LINKSYS.
MY LAPTOP WON’T CONNECT.
HELP ME PUT THE WIRES IN RIGHT THE PLACE.
LEARN TO SPEAK ENGLISH.
GOD F#$%#$&^%
well i’ve seen lots more rantings happening here hehe…
i guess most of the problems occuring here is due to american customers unable to understand accents from other countries. it’s not due to the fact that they don’t understand it, ignorant rednecks that they are, they just dont care enough to pay attention to the caller…
i use linksys products myself and havent faced a single problem yet. as techgrl says, the issue lies with the customer who’s got some kind of a preconcieved notion that his router’s bad and that tech support is trying to brainwash him into believing that its working…
guys don’t lie to yourselves. if you perform steps exactly as the technicians instruct you to then both of you wld end the call at peace with the world. but, nope that’s not how things work with you rocket scientists… just read the posts by people in this very site – 95% of the people who support linksys understand networking and have no problem with the support. those who claim that linksys sucks, know jack, yes JACK about networking and computers… networking’s a complicated field… add wireless to that and you’re in for a lot of fun… so before you take the easy way out and blame the company and the support, try and understand what goes on in those “boxes with the chopsticks sticking out of them” without taking everything for granted…
-peace..!
I just bought a Linksys Wirless print server at Comp USA. My problem started when I got a firmware error message when trying to install the unit. Comp USA would not honor their return policy, because they now claim all of the New Jersey stores are closing, and they are just not honoring anything at all. Next I tried to call Linksys for help and to get an RMA number. I had to wait on the phone for over an hour before I got someone to talk to. To add insult to injury, after taking all sorts of info from me, they just gave me another number to call for an RMA number. At this point in time I have spent a total of three days working to resolve this issue and I still have a effective product on my hands. I am sorry that I bought any Linksys products. Also, the unit I bought was supposed to be brand new, however there were ball point pen marks on the reset area of the product, suggesting that Linksys may have just repackaged a deffective product and shipped it out to stores again.
Go here and do what he says:
http://www.internetsharinghelp.com/content/view/29840/98/
It works!
Hello everyone,
I undestand the pains that you’re going thru with linksys devices. FYI,,I’ve been configuring linnksys routers, wireless cards, wireless printservers, NAS(nslu2, efg250), cable gateways(wcg200) and they all seems to work fine with me. I believe that some devices do have limitations or we can also call them BUGS that is why they are constatly posting the newer firmwares from their download site. Another issue why others said that linksys sucks is that some buys a router but don’t even know what a router will do. I tell you guys, before you will blame someone, read first
the manuals or userguides.
Regards,.,.,.,…
Wow! It’s scary how close Eric’s experience as well as everyone else’s here mirrored my own … including the calls to Linksys “India”!
After 3 hours of hair pulling, I found a way to connect. I ended up using the “WRE54G_V2 user guide Rev NC.pdf” user guide that came on the Setup CD and chose the “Connection to a Wired Network for Setup” option. After initially failing on my first attempt, I realized with some embarrassment that I had enabled MAC Filtering for the DLink DI-524.
So, I added its MAC to the appropriate field, applied the changes to the DLink and restarted the Linksys Expander. To my relief, after walking through the setup wizard one more time, I finally saw the “Congratulations” window. I then followed the instructions in the “Moving the Range Expander” section of the user guide (hooray, no more RED light!!) and refreshed my wireless network connections on the computer. Finally, I got a connection and signal strength had improved from “Poor” to “Excellent” !!
Some last points:
1. Make sure that the IP address you select is within the DHCP range of your router. My DLink’s upper range was 192.168.0.199 which wouldn’t work with the Linksys’ default 192.168.1.240 value.
2. The Linksys IP needs to reflect the router’s IP assignment. So, in the case of its default value of 192.168.1.240, this needed to be changed to 192.168.0.103 in my case (to work with the DLink’s settings).
3. To repeat the most important point (in my case anyway), make sure to add the MAC value for your Linksys to the router’s wireless MAC filtering section if you’ve already enabled that as a feature for your other wireless devices which connect to the same router.
Good luck to anyone else who runs down this same road …!!
Ok, here it is gentlemen. I just got one of these poopoo expanders, (THAT DOES NOT HAVE AN ETHERNET CONNECTION) and i have the answer.
follow this and you will connect:
1) Turn off WEP on your router
2) Plug the WRE54G in the same room as your router
3) Hit autoconfig button
4) Browse to 192.168.1.240 and make sure the settings match your router
5) Change the WRE54G (or expander’s) SSID to something DIFFERENT than your router
6) Turn on WEP on the WRE54G with the same key you are going to use for your router
7) Turn back on WEP on your router with that same key
8) connect back to your router not the expander it will have the original SSID that u just changed for the expander you will notice you have internet connectivity but cannot reach the expanders IP
9) now connect to the expanders SSID and you will notice you do not have internet connectivity
10) unplug the expander from the wall and plug it back in
11) connect back to the expanders SSID you will now notice it is functioning and you have internet connectivity
12) test it by connecting to your gateway (or your main router) 192.168.1.1
i just spent my whole evening figuring this out because i called crappy tech support that knows nothing i might add. all they sound like is the helpdesk i sit next to all day long. “REBOOT”
signed:
your personal Engineer
After having a WRT54G turn into a “Brick” I contacted customer and tech. support. These people all had heavy accents and basically wouldn’t listen to me about the problem. Instead they made me spend hours testing the unit. They then allowed me to send it back for replacement. Now get this, they sent me back the SAME unit! With non-compatible firmware and no WIFI capability! Needles to say I was pissed. I contacted the president of the company. Here’s his info:
Phone: (949) 823-3000
Fax: (949) 823-1100
Address: 121 Theory Drive
Irvine, CA 92617
President Charles H. (Charlie) Giancarlo
sounds like you are a moron
the stuff works fine
Kind of a late post, but I’ve been pretty frustrated with their hardware as well. Contrary to what techman says about the people on this site, I’ve got quite a bit of experience and 2 degrees in this field. I don’t have any problem setting up the routers or access points that they provide, but I’ve spent countless hours dealin with access points that suddenly decide that they need to go into “secure easy setup” mode without invitation. Meaning, suddenly the SSID and WPA key are changing every couple minutes. That would be ok, if all our wireless NICS were linksys and had secure easy setup, but none of them are, and I need a static configuration on the access points. I finally went to a different hardware model, and after a small power outage the router will not longer function. Meaning, the power light doesn’t come on, although the other three lights do. No matter which port I connect to, the computer says the cable is disconnected, and I get no link light. No, it’s not the cable. No, it’s not the computer. I’ve made both work successfully with different routers without any problem. No, resetting the router doesn’t fix anything. It won’t even reset. I personally think it’s bricked. As for the SES issue, I’m not looking forward to my call to India.
Just fired this off to their PR department!
————————————————–
Last night my Linksys print server died. I contacted you customer support staff and spent 1 1/2 hours on the phone “testing” the issue. Your team decided that the print server needed to be replaced, gave me the case number of 070517-014341 and said to call 1-800-546-5797. All of this was from a support staff person who barely spoke broken english.
After I hung up I called and waited on hold for 30 minutes before getting a human, that human said no such record existed. I called yet again and waited 30 more minutes to find that the customer service department had closed and I was transferred to tech support who said I had to call by at 8 am today. I asked them what time zone they were in and you would have thought I asked them to split the atom!
So today I called and was on hold for 40 minutes without no one every picking up the phone. (seem you’re in mountain time and I’m in eastern. wished some one would have mentioned that last night!) So I called back and waited another 30 minutes to find out I either have to give you a credit card number or pay to have the defective part shipped back.
Guess what, I install wireless routers and print servers all the time in small businesses and in homes, guess who isn’t going to get installed by me anymore! I’m NEVER using a Linksys anything again and I’m going to suggest to anyone who will listen that they don’t either.
Shitty products, plus hours of waiting, plus lousy service = money for your competition!
Have to run, I have to post this story on every Internet bulletin board I can find!
You guys suck!
David
this entire page reads like a bunch of consumers complaining about consumer grade hardware & service.
if you want reliability you will have to pay for it
btw, linksys is the best option available for consumer grade wireless equipment, bar-none. i’ve used belkin, d-link, netgear, and the firmware on each of these all has some annoyance or flat out bug. linksys is the way to go.
linksys most definitely does suck. their software is horrible, and the wre54g repeater i just bought stopped working after 5 minutes and is now down for the count. and it’s less than 3 feet from the AP. i wouldn’t have bought it based on past linksys experiences, but it’s the only thing the store had.
hello again!
people you cannot blame linksys for all your mistakes …
know your network , know your hardware and software
pay attention to sligt differences between range extender and acces point
they are two different devices !!!!!!!!!!! indeed
take some time read owners manuals
do not rush to plugg everything as you fell , follow the instructions
and most important thing if you call tech support do not argue with the technician , because he or she is there to help you
and could be me !
today I had a call of a very nice gentleman that did not have wireless internet , when we did an ipconfig in his wireless laptop he got a 169 not valid ip , so I suggested that maybe we could wire the laptop to the router to verify if we got wired connection , and guess what …
the router was not plugged to the modem , so he could never get a valid ip in that way , we wired the router to the modem ,and he got the same invalid ip
so I sugest to wire the laptop to the modem and he did not have internet acess
please
verify those steps before calling :)
have a nice day
I’m one of the Linksys tech support reps, we can cnclude that British are more
intelligent than Americans(but not all). Peace..
I’m a Linksys tech-support person as well.
I have to say you are all a bunch of cry-babies.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with our products, what’s wrong is in your heads people!
Learn to read a manual instead of pretending to be spoon-fed every step of the way!!!
I have a D-link router. I am not getting a strong signal in my daughter’s room which is at the other end of the house. I just ordered a Linksys WRE54G Wireless-G Range Expander. I thought I had a Linksys router but I have a D-link. Will the Linksys Expander work with the D-Link Router?
I have a D-link router. I am not getting a strong signal in my daughter’s room which is at the other end of the house. I just ordered a Linksys WRE54G Wireless-G Range Expander. I thought I had a Linksys router but I have a D-link. Will the Linksys Expander work with the D-Link Router?
My point exactly, Greta, thanks for standing up in the crowd…
So you thought you had a Linksys router did you?
Well…
How about your car? Is it a Toyota or a Rolls Royce? Are you sure?
I am sitting in my living room with 5 linksys routers trying to get connected to the internet. How can any linksys (or belkin or d-link) engineer for that matter live with themselves bringing out such shit products. Are these kids on crack or something?
The damn think connects and within 5 mins needs to be restarted. Mark my works if I ever meet anyone who works for any of these companies, they better know some martial arts.
Interesting web site. Entertaining. I just got off the phone with tech support before
typing ‘LinkSys sucks” into Google. Found this page.
I’m considered an outcast by Linksys – I run Linux. I’ve used LinkSys routers for several
years with Linux and never had a problem. When I first tried this I was told by Linksys that
the routers work just fine with Linux.
I purchases a new WRT54G router a few weeks ago. Plugged it in and everything worked
fine. I could connect to the router via Firefox just fine.
Two days ago – no network connectivity – 4 link lights and internet light solid – no other signs
of life. Power off. Wait. Power on – 5 solid LEDs – no network. I have verified that my cable
modem is working fine – as I write this connected directly to it.
I call Linksys tech support. After collecting my information I explain the problem. For me,
the 5 solid lights on power up is a “sign”. The tech tells me to go to my Internet Explorer
browser and connect to the router. I went to Firefox and could not connect to the
router 192.168.1.1. Even though I was very clear I was running Linux the tech seemed
confused and asked me to go to my Windows Start menu…I responded that I’m on Linux.
She responded that LinkSys does not support Linux and that I should go and get a Windows computer and call Linksys tech support.
She was clearly following a script and became confused when I strayed off the standard
script. I tried to explain that I had used Firefox to configure the Router days earlier and
now I could not connect at all.
If you Linksys techs feel the customer is stupid – then if 5 solid LEDs and NO activity
on power cycle do not indicate a problem with my router (that has worked for weeks) then I
would have to argue that some Linksys techies are more stupid that us customers.
If the techies have engineering degrees (like I do) then I would not expect them to seem
confused when I am explaining the use of a browser to connect to the router. Linux…
does not compute…error…
I’m sure there are some good techs. The behavior I describe clearly indicates a defective
product. To be asked to get a Windows computer to continue…
To be fair, I’ve run LinkSys for years and this is the first problem I’ve had with a router.
David
ok maybe the tech representative was confused , probably there were more troubleshooting steps to do instead of asking to get a windows based computer …
but just for you to know techs provide windows or mac support ,
the router are compatible with linux
but there is not live assistance for linux, as far as I know
Again if you use firefox you should be abel to enter the user interface and reconfigure the router if needed or verify what was wrong
greetings to everyone
have a nice day
If your an end-user with a clue calling clueless tech support. I’ve assumed you’ve already RTFM’d, upgraded your firmware and hit the vendors KB and googled for a solution to your problem.
If this is you I’ve compiled a list of things you should not do… you should already know the drill:
1. Never claim to be running an operating system that most people don’t have. For example if you run Linux tell them you run windows. If you have a problem with email and you use elm say your using outlook. When they ask you to do something just go along with them.
2. Spout as much techno-babble as possible.
3. Continually ask to speak to someone who is not clueless in the nicest possible way. Hint at this from the very beginning of your conversation in a way that does not insult the person your talking to.
The idea is to get escalation from the non-clueless drone who picks up the phone in the shortest amount of time possible without being hung up on or getting into a pissing match with someone who couldn’t help you even if they wanted to.
Hi David,
Well I guess you got an incompetant support engineer. The fact remains that Linksys support is restricted to Windows systems – Macs and Linux OS’s aren’t supported by tech support per se – they SHOULD work with Linux though. I’m using a WRT54GL on a RHEL 4 system – works like a breeze!
I bought the WRT54G which broke 5 weeks after I bought it. I was on the phone with customer service for 3hrs before I quit, threw it in the trash and bought a D-Link for $20 less which works great.
not sure if anyone will get to this post or not, but i 100% agree that Linksys sucks. i bought the wrt350n and not only did it take 3 support calls and 11 hours to get it working, but they kept blaming my ISP for the problem, but i could get online with no issues when i bypassed the router. never again will i buy another linksys product. i wish i found this before i left for the store to buy the wrt350n piece of crap.
Here’s another beaut: I spent 45 minutes in on-line chat with a Linksys rep. (I’ve been trying to uninstall some Linksys software). They promised me a “registry cleanup program” via email in 24 – 48 hours. Seven days later I got back into the on-line chat to ask why I hadn’t received anything. They couldn’t immediately tell me.
After asking for my email address the rep told me that they can’t mail to accounts in hotmail and gmail domains (where my addresses are located) because their emails bounce back. I was instructed to create a Yahoo account so that they could email me their fix!
How impressive is that??!!
I agree I don’t care for linksys at all either, I have gone through 3 of the wrt54g. It seems once you configure it, it’s great, but if you ever move and say change from cable/dsl or dsl/cable, then it will never work again. But I have also found that if you can exchange it then it will be fine, I guess it’s a “disposable” router?
Don’t blame the device!! Don’t make common statements like “Linksys Suck” for the reason that YOU don’t know how to configure it. Linksys devices works just great for me! I just Love Linksys. I don’t have problems with them but I do have problems with computer users making sickening generic declarations due to their total lack of basic troubleshooting skills. And oh yah, their Tech Supports? Sure they did have that accent but that doesn’t matter!!!!!!! They are the most courteous and polite, helpful and well-mannered people I’ve encountered over the phone all these years.
I will not purchase another linksys product. They have been promising a vista driver for the wmb54g for over a year. I don’t get it, companies spend alot of money to attract customers and then chase them away because of stupid stuff. go figure
will these bad raps about tech support do me a favor?
DO THE LOCOMOTION…PLEASE?
Everybody’s doin’ a brand new dance now
(C’mon baby do the loco-motion)
I know you’ll get to like it
If you give it a chance now
(C’mon baby do the loco-motion)
My little baby sister can do it with ease
It’s easier than learning your a b c’s
So come on, come on
Do the loco-motion with me
There’s never been a dance that’s so easy to do
It even makes you happy
When you’re feeling blue
So come on come on do the loco-motion with me
You gotta swing your hips now
Come on, come on
Do the loco-motion with me
Yeah
Come on, come on
Do the loco-motion with me
You gotta swing your hips now
>[00:00:00] Hi, my name is Ma Rowena (11827). How may I help you?
>[00:01:03] Jim: Okay, I’m not too sure how to explain this situation… to put it lightly, melted cheese is all over my router.
>[00:01:17] Ma Rowena (11827): Okay.
>[00:01:38] Jim: Now, It seemed to function quite well untill the dog realized this…
>[00:02:04] Ma Rowena (11827): Yes?
>[00:02:19] Jim: Now my router seems to be partially consumed.
>[00:02:34] Jim: How does my warrenty respond to this?
>[00:02:59] Ma Rowena (11827): What do you mean partially consumed?
>[00:03:23] Jim: My dog ate my router… most of it that is.
>[00:03:45] Ma Rowena (11827): I see.
>[00:04:20] Ma Rowena (11827): Can you hold on for 5 minutes? I’ll just verify this one with my Immediate Superior.
>[00:04:51] Jim: It also smells very bad. I am in doubt of its functionality.
>[00:05:53] Jim: Also, can I get some information on what effects this may have on my dog?
>[00:06:25] Ma Rowena (11827): I’m sorry, but what do you mean?
>[00:08:05] Jim: My router was covered in melted cheese for reasons I do not care to tell. My dog saw this and decided that she likes cheese. The plastic router that the cheese covered did not seem to bother her and the has eaten a great deal of the router. I believe she was very hungry.
>[00:09:08] Ma Rowena (11827): I see.
>[00:09:38] Ma Rowena (11827): But unfortunately, in that case, the device is no longer covered by the warranty.
>[00:10:16] Jim: Hm… what if I ate the router instead of the dog. Would it be covered then?
>[00:10:39] Ma Rowena (11827): Still not covered. Since it is not the router that fails to work.
>[00:12:17] Jim: What if my dog dies? Don’t you show any remorse?
>[00:12:53] Ma Rowena (11827): I’m sorry Jim, but it is no longer the fault of our device.
>[00:14:34] Jim: Why not? I believe your device should be eatable! People should have the right to eat their routers.
>[00:15:38] Jim: I’m sure D-Link is designing a router that you can eat. How do you expect to compete with that?
>[00:15:41] Ma Rowena (11827): What do you mean? Of course the router is not edible. The router is not a food, it is a networking device.
>[00:16:56] Jim: Why is that not listed on the box? Or in the instruction manual even.
>[00:17:23] Jim: Why is it not printed on the router in bold red letters “Do not eat!”
>[00:17:48] Ma Rowena (11827): Of course you cannot eat the router.
>[00:18:05] Jim: Dogs don’t know that…
>[00:18:20] Jim: Especially when it is covered in cheese.
>[00:18:20] Ma Rowena (11827): But you know that. Can the dog read that?
>[00:18:42] Ma Rowena (11827): It is already not our fault why it is covered by cheese.
>[00:19:22] Jim: What about blind people? If I was a starving blind person and found a “network device” covered in cheese I would be tempted…
>[00:20:04] Ma Rowena (11827): Do you that a thing as hard as that is a food?
>[00:20:48] Jim: I’m not a very good cook, I can make jello that’s harder than that.
>[00:21:42] Ma Rowena (11827): I’m sorry Jim, but I already inform you, it is not our router that fails, that is why it is not covered by the warranty. You should watch your dog then.
>[00:22:43] Ma Rowena (11827): Do you have other Linksys device I can assist you with?
>[00:23:07] Jim: What else do you guys make?
>[00:23:37] Ma Rowena (11827): We do networking devices.
>[00:23:46] Jim: Phones?
>[00:24:40] Ma Rowena (11827): May I know if you have any other concern with a Linksys device?
>[00:26:11] Jim: Let me look around my house.
>[00:26:34] Ma Rowena (11827): Okay.
>[00:27:08] Jim: Would my dog now be considered a Linksys device?
>[00:27:32] Jim: Is it going to start brodcasting wifi signals?
>[00:27:53] Ma Rowena (11827): I think you can answer your own question.
>[00:28:24] Jim: So what your saying is I can walk my dog and surf the web with my PSP at the same time?
>[00:29:16] Ma Rowena (11827): I’m sorry, but is there any other Linksys device there that you have concerns with?
>[00:29:23] Jim: I have another question.
>[00:29:41] Ma Rowena (11827): Go ahead.
>[00:30:49] Jim: If my router was defective and my dog ate it (but it still remained in the same condition) and I brought my dog to you. Would you service it?
>[00:31:45] Ma Rowena (11827): No. We need the device itself.
>[00:32:22] Jim: But that’s the same as sending the device in a box.
>[00:33:08] Ma Rowena (11827): But your dog is not our product.
>[00:34:31] Jim: What if a Linksys employee ate it? Would it be your product then?
>[00:35:16] Ma Rowena O. Cabungcal: No.
>[00:36:16] Ma Rowena O. Cabungcal: I think Jim, that you don’t have any other technical concern with a Linksys device.
>[00:37:27] Ma Rowena O. Cabungcal: If you have no further questions, feel free to exit this Chat Session.
>[00:38:30] Jim: Fine… half eaten routers covered in cheese sell for a lot on ebay.
>[00:39:34] Jim: I’m naming my next dog Linksys.
>[00:39:46] Ma Rowena O. Cabungcal: If you have no further technical questions, this session will expire after 5 minutes. Thank you for your cooperation!
>[00:40:55] Jim: This made me really hungry…
>[00:41:45] Jim: I guess I’ll take my dog to the vet. I’m sure he will be more understanding.
>[00:42:12] Jim: Goodbye.
>[00:42:37] ***** Jim Has Disconnected
>[00:42:47] ***** Ma Rowena O. Cabungcal Has Disconnected
Please go through this you fuc***americans and decide your IQ level,fuc**** americans replying on france and british money and got them by begging from them.
I too have had the experience with Linksys. The router I had always had piss poor performance, dropped connections etc. and it stopped working altogether one day after the warrenty expired and Linksys wanted more money to tell me how to fix it, I reconfigured the whole thing from scratch weeks ago and got it working now it just died and they want more cash……their tech support could not keep up with me and went threw the re-start your system etc. stuff mentioned above….truly frustrating. I bought D-Link and wireless has never been better or faster. Linksys sucks!
Ha Ha Ha…..I really pitty the people who feel that linksys sucks….I feel that the Linksys tech support is the best in the world….Only because you dont know to work with these dam products that does not mean that Linksys or Indian techs sucks…They also might be feeling the same for US as well….
linksys home/office routers suck.
First of all I’m not a noob, I perfectly know how to configure routers…..
- I had a BEFSX41, it worked fine for a year or so, then it dropped the connection/resets every 30 sec.. it was not a firmware problem. I dumped it in the trashcan.
- I have a BEFSR81, worked for some time, then the WAN PORT died. Can only use it as a switch.
-The same happened with BEFW11S4 wireless B router, the WAN PORT died. Now it only works as an Access Point.
- I still have an old BEFSR41 that is still working fine, but i’m pretty sure it’ll soon die.
All things considered, Linksys sucks period.
OK heres the problem. Two words CONSUMER GRADE. Consumer grade = sucks
People want cheap, easy and good. Networks arent meant to be easy and cheap=crap. Consumers demand cheap and they get crap and whine.
If you want something good spend the $600 and buy a Cisco. Otherwise deal with the fact you bought mass produced consumer grade cheap crap that may work but wont work like a $600 Cisco
I think Linksys is the best of the crap but its all crap
I purchased a WRVS4400N about a year ago. It is considered a business product so I thought it would be more reliable. So I set it up with wep 64 and it has run great until last week. I have setup hundreds of wireless products in the last few years, so I seen just about every different kind there is. About 2 weeks ago I built a laptop with wireless N. Since wireless N is not standardized yet, I tried to connect to the linksys router and it worked great, but in G mode. After reading several web pages with similar results, the answer was no security. Now N works great. That leaves mac address control. So, I turn off security, and try to setup mac address control. This is when you run into trouble with vista. Linksys, routers are the worst for mac address control. You have to be connected to the network before their Wireless Client List button works. Great, I have to go and find every mac address on every PC and enter them in manually. What a pain in the ass. Now all the PCs are up and running. The only problem is my Linksys wireless G print server. This works with security or nothing. There is no mac address control selection in the print server. You think Linksys would make two of their units more compatible with each other. NOT. In the end, I added the wireless print server, by loading a utility on a xp machine to tell me the mac address of the print server, so I could enter it in the router. Then you have to set up the printer, and enter the mac address of the print server under a fixed ip address, but you have to use the printer name as the server name, under the router add fixed mac address, ip address, and name. Again a pain. After over two hours to get this to work, I though there must be a better way. So I look up the router and read about the new firmware differences. One of the new features was to do with mac address control, so I flashed the unit to the latest version. MY HUGE mistake was not downloading the original version first. Now the router craps out every 24 hours. I have to hold the reset button in for 30 seconds to get it to work again. Guess what, there goes all the mac addresses you entered. The router worked great, for 365 days, never had any issues, until I flashed it. Now for a week, I have been reseting it every day. So I called tech support, and asked them to email me the starter firmware and they said they could not do it. See the problem when you ship your techsupport offshore? You cant even trust them to send you a flash, they are not qualified to email you a firmware update, so they tell you that someone from the head office will call in the next day or two to go over the issue. I wont go into the phone support call, as that was about 2 hrs long, and I knew 10x what the guy on the phone did.
You know lastly, they dont put the serial # of the unit on the web log in area. How stupid. You have to go pickup the unit and read #2 font pitch sized writing in order to talk to the useless tech support person at linksys. I tried looking up issues with this router in google, and found that thousands of people have similar results. After the flash, the unit does not connect after 24 hours. Go figure. Linksys would rather send you a replacement unit for RMA, than put the flash up that could resolve at least some issues.
Linksys does suck. Never again.
I have had ENOUGH OF THIS.
Tonight I come home…my Linksys wireless router had decided today was a good day to die. Fine. I go to Bestbuy…buy a linksys WAP54G…86 dollars later…I’m on the phone…Why am I on the phone? Because the piece of shit I bought does not FUCKING work the way it says it should. I proceed to call tech support…and…I get hung up on…not once…not twice…not three times…but 4 FUCKING TIMES. 5TH time…I finally get someone on the fucking phone…a fucking Indian douche bag who knows a little bit less than the God Damned fuckers on my help desk at work…who come from the same fucking place. So then…this piece of shit cocksucker proceeds to try and read from the script with me…all he is trained to do like the fucking monkey he is. 2 hours of my life wasted…and I am told “I can not connect to the internet” this way. Obviously he was mistaken…as you can see. This is HORSESHIT. WHY THE FUCK DO I PAY AMERICAN DOLLARS for my product and get treated to subhuman support like this. FUCK YOU LINKSYS.
Moral of the story is…I had to figure it out for myself…because God help me should my so called support be of any help whatsoever…which they WERE NOT. This is what happens when you pay foreigners the equivalent of 200 dollars a month…which in their country equates to riches…the game is up. Stop exploiting these people and stop fucking Americans over at the same time. We do not pay Indian prices for our goods…so we should not be treated to this level of disservice.
wELLz,
HoPe tHat eVeryOne actually knOws wHat tHey aRe PoSting!
i WoULd stiLL say,
bEin’ a tEch suPpoRt rEp iS rEaLLy a Nice jOb.
i oWeiz LoVe to bE a LinksyS tEch.
i tHank ALL the cUstomers wHo knoWs hOw to FolloW iNstRuctions and kNows wHat tHey’re dOing!
ciAo!
Yes. I agree their tech support sucks. I baught a router a couple of years ago and wasconsistently having problems with the piece of Sh*&! I finally gave them one more chance to redeem themselves and called tech support. They wanted more money to help trouble shoot. They said they could not help me. I hung up the phone threw that router in the garbage and got a netgear router and love it. I had to call Netgears tech support. When I did they asked me one question…. How can I help you?
Linksys — I owned a linksys wireless . . . it stopped working when I had to replace my modem. I tried everything. I thought maybe the router was toast, so I purchased another one. I finally gave up 4 hours later, bought a belkin and installed it within 5 minutes. I had my laptop and Nintendo Wii both hooked up and ready to go in this time period.
I WILL NEVER AGAIN PURCHASE A LINKSYS ROUTER. Any other brand but linksys.
Wow,…10 years later and still getting responses.
The Linksys tech wanted me to pay 40 bucks for support because he said my “free” one year tech support was expired, according to the serial number.
I didnt have the router for a year.
I asked him, what if this product sat on a shelf for a year? He couldnt answer and just kept repeating the same shit over and over. F’in Philippiano tool.
I called my OLD DSL provider and they helped me out for free. ( They REALLY kick ass). Id rather give them the money than Linksys.
Thats the last Linksys product for me.
The people that said Linksy sucks are spot on, I have been fighting with this equipment for over 6 years. I show up on a job and want to charge double if the equip is Linksys.
Total Junk.
Simple, go to this link to dig explainations. http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/support
Click Live Chat. You will have all your answers there.
Note they will ask for the Serial Number, make suer you have them.
i just bought a linksysby cisco and omg what a nightmare i have been trying to get it to work for over five hours and now i gave up” the thing is a real joke it says unplug the wire from your pc then plug there’s into your PC and then plug in one end of the wire to the linksys and then the plug outlet. well the first time it recognized the router but then it had no Internet I tried ree booting and reading garbel in there little book witch nothing made any sense meanwhile my wife is yelling because her end isn’t working because I had to unplug it to hook this nightmare junk up’ I bought two wireless link system adapters for us to hook up other PC’s and spent a total of 167 dollars in witch i am taking back to wall mart hous of junk tomorrow for a full refund I think china makes this garbage to drive us all nuts for blowing Nagasaki up I really do and this is there way of messing with our minds night everyone”
Ok first of all the Access Point could be moved to a different location in the house VIA CAT-5 and hard wire the Desktop its plugged into. Then move the Access point to a better suited location in the house. Action WTF? that brand does fucking really suck. While all you who complain that Linksys sucks you couldnt be further from the truth. Linksys is the Highest End in the home consumer and small business market. Further more, Linksys is Cisco’s Low-end Product suited to the consumer market. Might I add Cisco is the leader in the worlds Routing/switches/Bridge market you know those peices of hardware that make all the cute webpages load on your computer Yeah 85% of those are Routed and run by Cisco products. I will admit this WRE54g is perplexing. But since this is a supposed novice piece of hardware etc. It doesnt carry its own CLI with advanced settings. I am trying to set it up for someone using a 2wire wap and I have gone through all the possible steps and then when everything says it should work it doesn’t.
I found this page by typing “I f-ing hate linksys” (spelled out ‘f-ing”). I’ve had equally bad experiences with wireless and wired routers by linksys.
I know this for certain… I’ve gotten one of these Linksys adapters, their cheapest one “with speedboost”… and figured that it may just be my router that’s having trouble. So, I got a new router from them and a new adapter, their best adapter available at my store… let me tell you. 70 dollars down the drain on an adapter that had the same quality signal as their cheap one. 40 extra dollars and the addition is NOTHING so far.
Never in your life buy a Linksys wireless router. 6 months of my life was wasted because of this inferior product.