Please discuss: WRT54GL vs WHR-HP-G125

IceBurner · November 2007

My current Netgear WGR-614v5 has died. Sunday it was working, come Monday it loses the WAN connection and can't seem to remember the names of attached devices whenever 2 or more wired and/or wireless devices connect to it at the same time.

I'm interested in a robust wireless router with a lot of access control, including the ability to block torrent traffic. These models seem to come most recommended as wireless routers for the home or home office and should fit the bill:

WRT54GL is made by Linksys, currently about $50-60 Product page at Linksys website
WHR-HP-G125 is made by Buffalo, currently about $45 Product page at Buffalo Website
(You need to click "close" at the bottom of the notice to view the Buffalo model's specs)

With nearly identical features, the ability to flash both with the same custom firmware that provides the feature set of a several-thousand dollar router, and plenty of people who swear up and down by both, I'm looking for something beyond the utterly insignifigant difference in price to differentiate between the two, perhaps things I may not ever really know without having owned the devices for myself.

Any input?

urahonky · November 2007

Honestly I'm a much larger Linksys fan than I am Buffalo, so I'd recommend getting the Linksys one.

Daedalus · November 2007

I've got the Buffalo since the start of the semester, and it's been working perfectly for me since I flashed it with DDWRT. Not even a hiccup. (I bought the WHR-G125 model; the HR version wasn't avaliable at the time). The non-HR version can't connect an external antenna, and the Linksys can, but I'm pretty sure that the HR version has the appropriate jack.

Oh, and the Buffalo one is a little tricky to flash. No chance of bricking, of course, but you need to get the timing right and use a special FTP command, whereas for the Linksys one you just send the new firmware through the old firmware's web interface. I felt that saving $20 was worth the temporary pain in the ass, myself.

Barrakketh · November 2007

The Buffalo router should have an amplifier like the WHR-HP-G54 (a quick search on Google appears to confirm this), which is usually indicated by the -HP- in their products. That would be a pretty significant difference, especially if you plan on using 3rd party firmware.

My experience with the WHR-HP-G54 (which I still use) is that it is a very stable router, and also has the above mentioned amplifier. As such it has very good range, and if you're using 3rd party firmware (I have Tomato on mine) you can extend it even further. I have another PC at the other end of the house (70' or so away from the router) with a few walls in the way, and was able to increase the signal the adapter was reporting from 32-40% to the 65-71% range. The clients near the router didn't see any noticeable improvements. For what it is worth, I changed the power output from 10mW (default) to 28mW.

Tomato can definitely filter BitTorrent access, and I imagine that DD-WRT can as well.

DrFrylock · November 2007

Don't know anything about the Buffalo router but I DD-WRTed my WRT54GL in about five minutes and it runs fine. Absolutely painless to do it.

IceBurner · November 2007

I wound up ordering the Linksys as:

I needed to choose quickly.
The price difference was negilgable
The default Linksys firmware looked like it would be adequate even before modding
Wireless range is not a concern and never has been for me
A friend bought that Linksys model as has been satisfied (though they did say "go for the Buffalo one if it does the same for less")

I definitely wouldn't have ordered yet if it had not been an urgent matter for me. I'm still interested in learning whether it really was the best overall choice, simply the easier of the two, or if they're truly equal.

Penny Arcade

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Please discuss: WRT54GL vs WHR-HP-G125

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