I’ve got one. I was actually using it until just a few years ago (when my Internet connection surpassed its ability to route traffic). They are, as the article says, indestructible, reliable, and with replacement firmware offer enterprise-grade features. I don’t think I’d buy one new now (100Mbit really isn’t sufficient for the modern LAN and the minuscule flash is actually too small for recent editions of custom firmwares), but it was a solid choice until fairly recently.
It’s a class of product that’s unfortunately rare and difficult to find: the consumer good with industrial durability and (modulo a bit of tweaking) features.
I still own 3 working WRT54GLs and a friend has something like 5?
I was planning to switch to a small group of Ubiquiti units at long last, because after seeing good reviews, a sysadmin whom I respect recommended them unprompted.
I replaced my WRT54GL with a Buffalo WZR-600DHP, which I’ve been very happy with; but I’ve only been using it for a year or so, and the real test is if it chugs through another decade without complaint.
I’ve gotten very good reviews of Ubiquiti’s products from friends and colleagues, but they would be massive overkill for my home network (with at most a half-dozen clients and a small apartment to cover with wifi).
It’s a class of product that’s unfortunately rare and difficult to find: the consumer good with industrial durability and (modulo a bit of tweaking) features.
That’s so true. IMHO, the WRT54G was almost the high point of such products - there are spiritual successors, like the WRT1900 series, but they’ve struggled with poor quality drivers and/or not-properly-open drivers. Some vendors seem to think that supporting DD-WRT with a binary blob wireless driver is acceptable - it’s almost as if they’re capitalising on the goodwill of the WRT54G by proclaiming “open source firmware” when it isn’t.
Still, open source support for the WRT1900 series is progressing (I use solid OpenWRT support as the benchmark, rather than DD-WRT which is happy with binary blob drivers).
I’ve got one. I was actually using it until just a few years ago (when my Internet connection surpassed its ability to route traffic). They are, as the article says, indestructible, reliable, and with replacement firmware offer enterprise-grade features. I don’t think I’d buy one new now (100Mbit really isn’t sufficient for the modern LAN and the minuscule flash is actually too small for recent editions of custom firmwares), but it was a solid choice until fairly recently.
It’s a class of product that’s unfortunately rare and difficult to find: the consumer good with industrial durability and (modulo a bit of tweaking) features.
I use Ubiquiti stuff for the reason that it feels very solid and is also infinitely hackable, and easily too.
Does anyone else have suggestions for viable WRT54G replacements?
Thirding Ubiquiti. My new UAP-AC-LITE arrived and I am excited to try it out!
I still own 3 working WRT54GLs and a friend has something like 5?
I was planning to switch to a small group of Ubiquiti units at long last, because after seeing good reviews, a sysadmin whom I respect recommended them unprompted.
The EdgeRouter lite 3 port is pretty sweet, especially if you’re into Ubiquiti stuff already.
I replaced my WRT54GL with a Buffalo WZR-600DHP, which I’ve been very happy with; but I’ve only been using it for a year or so, and the real test is if it chugs through another decade without complaint.
I’ve gotten very good reviews of Ubiquiti’s products from friends and colleagues, but they would be massive overkill for my home network (with at most a half-dozen clients and a small apartment to cover with wifi).
Their Lite routers are not so expensive - about $90 on Amazon.
That’s so true. IMHO, the WRT54G was almost the high point of such products - there are spiritual successors, like the WRT1900 series, but they’ve struggled with poor quality drivers and/or not-properly-open drivers. Some vendors seem to think that supporting DD-WRT with a binary blob wireless driver is acceptable - it’s almost as if they’re capitalising on the goodwill of the WRT54G by proclaiming “open source firmware” when it isn’t.
Still, open source support for the WRT1900 series is progressing (I use solid OpenWRT support as the benchmark, rather than DD-WRT which is happy with binary blob drivers).
Just wait until people discover the Ubiquity stuff!