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Recognising the huge growth in home and small office networking, Cisco Systems took the simple expedient of acquiring Linksys in 2003 to provide it with an entry into this lucrative marketplace. The WAG54G is the latest model to join an already strong range of ADSL routing products and claims ease of use as a high priority.

The chassis is well built with a distinctive design and cut-outs in the top surface allow you to neatly stack other Linksys products on top of each other. The tidy browser interface means initial set up won’t take long and we achieved Internet access in a few minutes. Wireless security is up with the best with both WEP modes supported and although not mentioned either on the Linksys web site or in the manual, WPA using shared keys or a RADIUS server is also on the menu. It’s a pity about wireless performance as the WAG54G delivered a lacklustre showing across all tests and was only kept off the bottom of most of the charts by Netgear and USR.

A big selling point of the WAG54G is the parental controls it claims to offer for controlling Internet access. You can create lists of PCs using either their IP or MAC addresses and apply schedules that determine when they are allowed to use the Internet. Web sites can be blocked by URL or a keyword but that’s as far as it goes as you can’t apply filters to the actual content within the web page. Furthermore, the router only provides entries for four URLs and six keywords which does limit the level of control you can exercise over users. Even so, you can also implement service blocks so, for example, by stopping HTTP and passing POP3 and SMTP traffic will allow access to email but not web browsing.

VPNs (virtual private networks) are supported and the router provides a pass-through mode which merely allows VPN traffic through the firewall but doesn’t actually provide encryption or authentication facilities. However, up to five IPSec tunnels between end devices are supported and although complex to set up Linksys gets a pat on the back for providing detailed documentation on VPNs and plenty of instructions for using the Windows client software.

Verdict

A simple router that’s quite easy to use although not the best value considering the average level of features. Things aren’t helped either by a poor showing in the wireless performance tests and limited parental controls for Internet access.

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