Linksys WRT54G-TM T-Mobile Hotspot Home Wireless Router

This router was great at first, but after a few years of use it experienced intermittent failures and no firmware updates were available to fix the issue. It ended up in my parts bin and eventually was donated to thrift. There is literally no reason to use this router today, there are so many cheaper and better quality routers.

This router is (or was) a beast. In its prime, it was one of the best in the WRT54G line of routers. If you’re looking for something basic, or if all you need is support for a simple home network where you’ll be making use of devices that browse the web, do online banking or shopping, print documents, or even some light gaming, etc., this may still be an excellent budget option for getting your home online and WiFi-enabled.However, if you’re looking for something lightning fast… well, let’s be honest: this thing is starting to show its age. This is an /entry-level/ router. As another reviewer noted, it’s still decent as a basic network switch in a pinch (and might even see good use as a secondary hard-wired firewall, depending upon your needs) but its dated WiFi capabilities (it only supports 802.11a/b/g; no n/ac/what-have-you) and the fact that it only supports Fast Ethernet (10/100 Mbit/s == 12.5 MB/s, tops) serve to place this router a bit behind more modern models. Makers or tinkers might still find some interesting use-cases for it, but online content producers, those who regularly do their work from home, gamers who enjoy playing the latest AAA-titles, and the like, would be advised by this reviewer to look elsewhere. Still, the WRT54G-TM is worthy of a proper sendoff, so here is my take, after roughly ten years of ownership:Whereas the WRT54G v4.0 had 16 MiB of RAM and 4 MiB of flash memory (which, with the advent of version 5, was later halved to 8 MiB and 2 MiB, respectively), the WRT54GS v3.0 sat quite happily with /double/ those numbers: 32 MiB RAM and 8 MiB flash memory (which, with version 4, was /also/ later halved, to 16 and 4, respectively). This is why, if you frequent router forums at all, you’ll often come across WRT junkies saying things like, “The WRT54GS v3 was one of the best models in the WRT line that Linksys ever made (v4 if you’re talking about the regular *54G).”How does the WRT54G-TM compare to these models? It’s basically the same thing as the WRT54GS v3.0! The only difference is its distinctive T-Mobile branding, which makes it very easy to spot online and snag for (usually) a very reasonable price. Not every one who lists WRT54G/S routers on the popular auction site or the popular classifieds site knows or remembers to list hardware revision numbers, so unless you have a good view of the S/N in photos, it can sometimes be a toss-up as to what version you actually get. Not so with the WRT54G-TM. With these guys, you generally know what you’re getting into. They’re usually a pretty safe buy.I’ve personally worked with two of these over the course of the past several years. One was purchased roughly ten years ago as a replacement for my parents’ /awful/ WRK54G (not a typo — look it up — as of this writing, it currently has 2 stars on Amazon, and that for good reason: that /thing/ — I don’t call it a “router” — randomly decides to drop connections as if they were phone calls from a crazy ex, and seems to require regular power cycles to stay in a “healthy” state…). Another one was purchased for my own apartment. Both chugged away quite contentedly, until a few years ago when my parents decided to replace their WRT54G-TM with something newer, and I finally got around to replacing my own WRT54G-TM with something a bit speedier, both for gaming and for work. Throughout the entire duration of its service life, I’ve had absolutely zero complaints. Set-it-and-forget-it style configuration, along with quiet, continuous, and generally unceremonious operation is /exactly/ the kind of behavior you want from a router, and this router (coupled with the Tomato firmware) nailed it.I can’t speak to the quality of the stock firmware. In all honestly, I’ve never actually used it. Immediately after both units arrived in the mail, I flashed them with DD-WRT, and then used that firmware to flash Tomato onto them. What Tomato may have lacked in terms of customization and configuration options it more than made up for in the human-friendly and ease-of-use departments, so the fact that Tomato supported the *-TM was a big plus in my book. (Admittedly, this was one of the primary reasons why I selected this router in the first place.)For a basic home network, complete with a cheap ethernet-enabled duplex laser printer and a few game consoles, this thing still stacks up surprisingly well. LAN parties were pretty much a weekly occurrence at my last apartment, though due to the 10/100 Mbit/s Fast Ethernet limitation, having 4–5 people on at the same time pretty much pushed this router to its limits. Lag /is/ noticeable with that kind of traffic. (This is ultimately what finally prompted me to upgrade.) Whenever /major/ connectivity issues arose, it was almost always due to our ISP (we were on DSL at the time), and /not/ the router. (I strongly suspect this was poor QoS-ing on their part, because every time we started experiencing high latency, all we would have to do was ring them up on the phone, get a cryptic, “Hmm, yeah, that sounds odd; we’ll look into it, be sure to let us know if it doesn’t improve in the next day or so,” back as a response, and within /minutes/ of ending the call, the connection would be back to normal… like magic.) In any event, the router always handled what it could handle like a champ, and as a result of my experience with this one, I would not hesitate to buy one of these again if the specs were brought up to more modern standards. Which is why, when the time /did/ finally come for me to upgrade, I went with a WRT1900AC. But that’s another review for another time. :-)

I like Linksys products, they have always worked well for me and have proven to be durable and dependable. Setup is very easy and requires minimum effort to get it quickly up and running. Load the Setup CD, connect the router and basically you are done. However (there is always a 'However') to really take advantage of the many different and unique options this particular router offers requires some homework and effort, unless you are a skilled IT person, then it is easy. To use the various neat features this router offers in the realms of security you will need to become familiar with terms that may be less than familiar. The menu that you access thru 192.168.0.1 or whatever IP address Linksys uses as a default, is loaded with options that you probably won't be familiar with but that offer exceptional flexibility. It is difficult to explain, but if you are looking for a router that can be configured many different ways and has options to increase security that most other routers don't offer, then this is for you.

works good as a secondary subnet or switch, software is current, but was not able to use to replace our primary routers, which are not nearly as resistant to security attacks, so may have to buy a new one with better security features for that. currently using as a second firewall and as a local router to expand the wired switching capacity which it does well. Windows 10 initially was cranky communicating through double firewalls and sub-nets, but it has adapted itself over tine to accept this well enough that you don't notice anything. Updating our primary router software also helps keep out bad actors too. Would not keep up with Gigabit networks though. We don't need much speed here. Also works as wired network acess point or wireless repeater if you know how to work with DD-WRT the settings. More reliable than current crop of wireless repeaters, but takes more setup time to get there.

This product is the must have now that it is supported by DD-Wrt.The atrocious T-Mobile firmware is so HUGE and requres so much RAM that Linksys specially made these units with 32Megs of nvram and 8 megs of RAM. 200 meg proc. this is like getting a wrt54gs but with twice the memory and 4 times the storage. you can load full distributions of dd-wrt and even probably store some logs on these.It is a wrt router so theres no suprises there. if you are looking for a dd-wrt capable router this is the one to get.No t-mobles folly is a dd-wrt hackers fortune. picked mine up for less than i would have a wrt54gs. and i love it. my GS was crashing weekly with an old version of dd-wrt on it and i think the tcip connections were filling up the ram. now i dont have that problem.

These things are the old workhorses...Not the fastest but once you put DD-WRT on them they'll do everything you want and I totally wired in the house so WiFi is just for guests anyway so these meet all my needs...This latest one came already with a heatsink so I overclocked it in DD-WRT to 250Mhz and it's been running great since purchase...I have two others for backups.

Owned the non-wireless version of this modem for over 10 years. Dependable and reliable. Decided to get the wireless so I can use it to connect to my printer and netbooks. Works perfectly and haven't had a complaint yet.

Everything was like described. Works like it was intended to