My beloved Linksys WRT54G (version 1.0) wireless router gave up the ghost this past week (I think because of a power issue). I attempted to debrick it, but no dice.

I went out to Wally World (Wal-Mart) and picked up the latest model without doing too much research. Mistake. Version 5 is piece of junk! It keeps dropping my SSH connections every few minutes and sometimes completely freezes up and I have to unplug and re-plug to fix it. Apparently, version 5 of the WRT54G contains vxWorks firmware instead of the Linux firmware found on older models.

The solution is to buy the Linux enthusiast’s version of the router, the WRT54GL, at a premium cost: ~$10 more. I can’t work with version 5, so I’ve ordered a WRT54GL and it should be here today or tomorrow.

Linksys: Did you really save that much more money by switching to vxWorks (+ less RAM)? What has this move cost you in terms of reputation and support costs on such a piece of junk?

UPDATE 04/05/06:I got the WRT54GL, and as expected, it ROCKS! I swiftly voided my warranty by putting DD-WRT on it. If you decide to do this, read the DD-WRT documentation carefully.