Rock-solid, never rebooted and makes up for my badly behaved and now broken Linksys WAG54G

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #143067 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: GM 3COM
• Model: 3CRWE554G72T-UK
• Released on: 2005-06-02
• Dimensions: .94" h x 8.66" w x 5.32" l, 1.32 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
The 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Cable/DSL Router is a high-speed, affordable, and easy-to-use small office solution that enables up to 253 (128 wireless) users to securely share a single cable or DSL Internet connection. Wireless LAN users can connect at speeds up to 54 Mbps and at distances up to 100 meters (328 feet) - almost five times the speed of 11b wireless speeds. And the wireless router is backward-compatible with 11b wireless clients, preserving existing wireless network investments. And because it is Wi-Fi certified, the router works with other Wi-Fi compatible equipment.The 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Cable/DSL Router includes multiple IP routing and security features - IP routing (RIP 1 and 2), static routing, URL or keyword filtering, and allow/deny access control lists - in an economical package. 256-bit WPA and 40/64-bit WEP encryption protect the privacy of 11g and 11b wireless transmissions. An intuitive web interface and simple setup wizards simplify setup and use.The wireless 11g router is designed for small but growing offices, branch offices, and home offices. The award-winning OfficeConnect family provides a broad range of small-office products, including LAN switches and hubs, access points, routers, firewalls, PC cards and network adapters.

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Customer Reviews

Fantastic
A freind of mine brought the ADSL version of and couldnt stop singing its praises. I got a new laptop and wanted 54mbps wireless and deciced to take the plunge with this.

It is amazing, Im not quite sure why "ancient_rarities" said it needs to be rebooted daily. I have never had to reboot this device ONCE. Its solid. Stable. works pretty much out the box

I can also say I have never had a problem with the wireless. I live in a flat and its in a room furthest away from the carpark, 2 stories up. I can sit down in a car with my laptop (through about 4 - 5 walls and the floors) and surf the internet quite happily, it is a little slow but it works.

The port fowarding features on it are brilliant and just work. I do alot of FTP transfers from servers I manage and I had trouble with my previous router, now it just works.

3com do some fantastic products, the place where I work is peiced together with 3com kit (including wireless) and there all quality products. Just like this one. Good job 3com!

Great for home use, but don't use WPA
I've been using one of these for the past 5 years. It's a great little box - just ensure you use WEP security instead of WPA. Great for home use - I have two PC's and a Wii connected - and is secure enough for home use.

It has a firewall, router (I'm on 8mbps and it does fine), is a hub, has all the usual security and configuration settings, and is nice and simple to set up. I used the drivers for Win2000 and XP. I've had the wireless work fine between buildings and floors; it has a good range and signal strength on it.

But don't use WPA! Using WEP is not as secure, but if you use WPA you get the following behaviour: you need to reboot once a day otherwise you'll lose your web connection; wireless signal strength drops to 60% if it's not line-of-sight to your wireless adapter. I tried connecting to it in the next room, 6 feet away through a plasterboard wall - 60% signal strength. I get 38% for 12 feet away through a single brick wall.

Using WEP is okay at home. You can hide the SSID, use keys to encrypt the connection, do MAC address filtering and change the default access password, so you can lock it down as much as you need to.

Does the job
I live in semidetached house - old house with thick brick walls. I found no problems when using the router for nearly a year.