Polly, pull the plug again
Written: Dec 05 '07
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Installation: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
|
Pros: easy to setup, works great when it does work
Cons: locks up VERY frequently, no firmware updates in three years
The Bottom Line: No firmware updates, needs to be power cycled all the time -- if Linksys doesn't care about this product neither should you.
|
|
|
| kurt_g's Full Review: Linksys WAP55AG 802.11a/b/g Wireless Access Point |
Polly, put the Linksys on
Polly, put the Linksys on
Polly, put the Linksys on
We'll have Wireless-G.
Suki, check the access point
Suki, check the access point
Suki, check the access point
We all have none.
Polly, pull the plug again
Polly, pull the plug again
Polly, pull the plug again
We'll have Wireless-G.
That somewhat fractured nursery rhyme is a rather succinct version of my experience with the Linksys WAP55AG Wireless Access Point.
I have had Linksys wireless routers in my home until I moved to a Cisco network. I've seen them at work; a lot of my clients start off their networks running a Linksys. They're easy to get -- you can send someone off to Staples or Wal-Mart and get instant gratification. They're inexpensive.
When the powers that be at our office decided that they wanted wireless, I suggested a Cisco wireless AP. Instead, we got the Linksys WAP55AG. Because, I was told, it was significantly less than the price of a Cisco access point, and Linksys was a division of Cisco. So that should be just about as good, right?
The WAP55AG supports three standards: the widely-used 802.11b standard at 11 Mbps at the 2.4 gHz frequency, the 802.11g standard at 54 Mbps at the same 2.4 gHz frequency, and the 802.11a standard offering the same 54 Mbps at 5 gHz. You can leave your network open for convenience, or employ WEP encryption. You can also use RADIUS to authenticate your users. You can also filter by MAC address, locking down your network to only authorized laptops.
Setting up the Linksys WAP55AP is about as easy as it gets. Linksys does include a CD that will make setup a breeze. I didn't use this; I simply plugged it in, pointed a browser at its default URL, which is http://192.168.1.245. Setting up WEP (Wireless Encryption Protocol) was a breeze. Linksys includes a passphrase WEP key generator in the web-based administration utility. Little things like that are great. People are more likely to use security if it's easier to implement. Within a few minutes, we were up and running. After inputting the wireless keys into a few laptops, we were ready to go.
And it ran quite smoothly -- for a while. Speeds were great; the maximum speed (54 Mbps, as most modern laptops have built-in 802.11g adapters) no matter where we were in the office. Like the little girl with the curl in the center of her forehead, when the Linksys WAP55AG was good, it was very very good. But when it was bad...it was horrid.
Then, at times, the access point would simply lock up. It wouldn't provide wireless access, it couldn't be administered through the browser, it wouldn't even answer pings. As if it wasn't even there.
Power cycling (that's tech-speak for 'turn it off and back on again') solved the issue...but within a few days, much like a teenager, the WAP55AG would get moody and sullen again, sulking and refusing to come out and play with the other machines on the subnet. The uptime periods became shorter and shorter, and the power cycling went on and on.
Our office has twenty people in it, with maybe six or seven people with laptops, not all of whom are in the office at the same time. So it wasn't like we were asking this access point to handle a hundred connections at once, or even ten.
Our access point came with the version 1.0 firmware. Specifically, the version v1.07.01, which was released in March 2004. We'd bought the AP in 2005 and started having issues in 2006. No problem, I thought. I'll try a firmware update. Going to the Linksys web site, I discovered that the firmware we had was the latest version. Even today, if you go there, you will discover that the latest 1.0 version of the firmware is 1.07.01, released in March 2004.
There is a version 2.0 of the firmware, but Linksys's web site warned that it 'may not be compatible with your unit'. Having worked in tech support myself, I know that when companies say that, they usually mean it, and installing the wrong firmware on an access point may well give you a nice, blue-on-black paperweight. The WAP55AG firmware for 2.0 was last updated in January 2005. I was surprised to see that Linksys had so little interest in supporting their products after purchase.
I was also surprised because I had seen, and had myself, good experiences with Linksys wireless routers. Those, after all, not only need to handle wireless access but routing, all in one unit. I guess their firmware developers must all be in the router division.
Now there are those who will point out that Linksys focuses on home systems, not business. This is true. But it's also true that if small businesses without technical staff want wireless, they're going to buy what they see when they leaf through the Staples catalog or go to a business supply store. What are they going to see there? Stuff like this.
And I am not unreasonable. I realize that these devices are designed to be easy to use and set up by non-technical personnel. I know that they have to design a product where power cycling cures virtually all ills -- and to be fair, they succeeded in that.
I could forgive the need for occasionally power cycling the unit. I could even forgive the lack of firmware updates, IF the existing firmware did the job. But it doesn't. Power cycling the access point is basically a daily procedure around here now -- sometimes more than once in a day. If a product's reliability make Windows ME look like a paragon of stability, that's just not acceptable.
I'm personally surprised that Cisco puts its name on these things. I am very surprised at how little effort they're putting into products that are only two years old. Considering the size of the home market plus the non-technically-skilled small business market, this is not a worthwhile purchase unless you really enjoy pulling the plug.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 50
Driver Availability: Other
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
kurt_g
|
|
Location: Brick, NJ
Reviews written: 116
Trusted by: 38 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.