A very cute router for the feminine side in you (if you are male)

Author's Rating:

Pros: Its very small and compact. Its very solid and stable. Its stackable.

Cons: No external antenna...affects range. Lights very close together - hard to distinguish between them.

The Bottom Line: 
Its a great product as long as you expect to use the wireless within a close range of the product. There really isn't much heat generated at all.

Author's Review
After failing to have a Hawking router (HWR54G: see my review of it) work as my main router I decided to give this one a try when seeing it was on sale for $20 after rebate at Staples and reading a lot of positive reviews on it.

The first thing I noticed about this unit is that it is SMALL, VERY SMALL. It is a about 3.5 inches deep, 3.5 inches wide and 1 inch tall. I was very impressed.

The next thing I noticed is that its a wireless router without an antenna. A) I don't know many wireless routers without an antenna and B) an antenna would really help this product in terms of extending wireless range. Without the antenna the range is actually very good, but an antenna can only improve it some more.

For the most part I only use the wireless within 10-25 feet of the router, so I really don't have many complaints.
The wireless is very stable, and easily configured.
I am by no means a techie when it comes to wireless. I got into the wireless game very late.
Also consider the fact that I'm in a suburban area, on a street devoid of people in their late-teens/early-20's, so I really dont care to setup all the wireless security features...I'm just too lazy. Some people here complain it is missing this and that, but I really can't say much. Alls I know is that this router has 64bit and 128bit WEP security, which is enough for me assuming I ever feel the need to set it up. Considering my house stinks for wireless, the signal will never reach far enough to the rest of my street for me to worry about unauthorized access, so I will probably never set up the security on the router.

The setup page is very nice. However I would like to note that everything is controlled through the top menu bar. I was very accustomed to a wireless setup page where everything was controlled through a menu bar on the left of the screen. So when I saw text in a gray bar on the left part of the linksys setup screen I was clicking everywhere for 5 minutes trying to figure out how to use the setup. I finally figured out that this gray bar is for show, listing off text designating different horizontal areas of the setup page and everything is controlled through the top bar.

One thing I don't like are the lights. They are VERY, and I mean VERY, close together. There are 7 lights, 4 for each of the wired LAN ports, one for the wireless, one for the WLAN, and one for the power. The 4 LAN ports are right next to one another, spaced probably 5mm apart. I have one computer plugged into port 1, and it looks like all 4 ports are lit up while using the computer in the dark. Quite annoying. The other three lights, WLAN, wireless and power and on all the time, so I know they are of course lit.

Some other notes...
The unit comes with a stand which is built into the side of the unit. A quick twist releases it and allows you to stand it up.
The antenna port is hidden away in a flip compartment. Just push it in to reveal the antenna port. I read that any hi-gain antenna will do, so I will look into buying one of those.
I really haven't experienced much heat with the unit. The unit has been on for quite some time and it only feels mildly warm.


If you plan to use the wireless, without an extra antenna, within close range of the unit then you will really enjoy this product as it is quite small and very portable. I wouldnt recommend using this much outside of 50 feet, line of sight.