U.S. Robotics Wireless MAXg Router (USR5461) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I would actually rate it closer to 4.5 stars. The range is comparable to the Linksys WRT54G v5 that it replaced so don't be discouraged by the single antenna on the USR5461.
The router software interface is simple and pretty straight forward. I don't think the options are laid out as nicely as with Linksys and D-Link, but it still works well. The HTML code is a bit sloppy because it doesn't render as well in Firefox as it does in Internet Explorer. The interface is still usable with FF though.
The print server is VERY easy to setup and works perfectly with our Brother HL-1440 laser printer. Once the router detects the printer, it creates a network printer address (which you get by logging in), which you just enter in the Add Printer Wizard in Windows. You'll need to install drivers for your printer, but no drivers or special configuration is needed to connect to the print server.
Transferring files wirelessly using normal 54mbps mode is decently fast. I transferred about 700MB of files wirelessly in about 10 minutes from a computer downstairs to my laptop upstairs. Both computers use 11g wireless cards made by different companies: Shuttle PN18 and D-Link DWL-G650.
The DHCP server doesn't let me manually associate IP addresses to MAC addresses, but that isn't a big issue. My old D-Link 713p let me do that, which made port forwarding a lot easier.
My biggest complaint is that Bittorrent will slow http traffic to a crawl when it's connecting to peers and seeds. This doesn't happen all the time, and once the torrent is going, everything works smoothly and quickly.
Also, the firmware is open source, but the router itself does not have enough memory to hold any of the current opensource firmwares like OpenWRT or DD-WRT. The processor that the router uses is supposed to be compatible though. Maybe someone will come up with something once the router becomes more popular.

Click Here to see more reviews about: U.S. Robotics Wireless MAXg Router (USR5461)

Click here for more information about U.S. Robotics Wireless MAXg Router (USR5461)