I just had a bad experience from the Linksys WRT54Gv5 that I got as a present from my wife. After a few months of operation, it suddenly went nuts.
After an hour of operation, it would suddenly disconnect from the internet. It would not let me surf websites, check my email, or anything else that I usually do that requires me to be connected. Firware updates turned out not to be the solution either. As the warranty from the store we bought it was only 6 months and the router is on its 9th, I’m stuck with a broken product.
Needing a wireless router now that I have a laptop (which travels around the house whenever I’m home), I went to the shop to find a replacement. Upon careful consideration, I arrived at getting one with a brand name familiar to me when I was working in Japan.
The Buffalo AirStation WHR-G54S has been getting mostly good reviews around the internet, which is what made me decide on getting it. Another consideration is that it uses the same Broadcom chipset as the WRT54Gv4, and it also has the same on-board memory — which means the firmware can be replaced by the open versions available on the internet like Tomato and DD-WRT.
Just like my old router, this device is easy to setup. In less than an hour I was on to the net, the router secured and hidden. Coverage has been great, I can roam around at home with the notebook in tow, without the signal getting cut.
However, the similarities end there. Physically, the AirStation can be installed on its side, with the included bracket making sure that it doesn’t tip over and fall on the table. It has this white color that is a stark contrast to the Linksys’ blue and black. This also has one antenna, compared to the Linksys’ two, which means in DD-WRT the option to assign one antenna as transmit only and another as receive only is of no use. One thing more worth noting is that the AirStation doesn’t get as hot as the Linksys.
Overall, I’m 90% satisfied with the AirStation. The remaining 10% is a big IF — if this performs well within a year’s time, then I can truly say that this is an excellent product.
By the way, I bought it for only Php2500!