Linksys Wireless-G ADSL Modem Router w/4-Port Switch

- you need to set up a few details to allow the PS2 to pass through the router (do a google for help)

For the wireless laptop:
- just make sure you do the obvious and turn the laptop radio transmitter ON. I didn't, which is why I spent 1 hour scratching my head. Doh!

For the wired laptop:
- this worked immediately. BUT - I use this laptop for work, which requires a VPN connection. The VPN ONLY WORKS IF THE FIREWALL IS DISABLED ! No amount of VPN passthrough stuff would allow the VPN connection to be made with the firewall enabled. Its a pain, but I can live with turning firewall on or off.

Other bits and pieces:
- Webcam works very well on wired laptop, or when the wireless laptop is 'wired'. But doing webcam on wireless means the video slows right down.

- PS2 multiplayer games are a dream.

- The gizmo is much smaller than I expected, and the green lights look really techy, and cool.

- I managed to drop the router on the floor (well, I moved the laptop which was wired and it dragged the router off the table). And the router still works. :-)

- The online settings are easy to get to, and relatively clear. You might want to do a google to really understand what they all mean.

- The router keeps my BT Broadband connection alive, by sending a blip every 60s (user configurable). This is soooo much better than having to regularly log back into BT Broadband. Means I can leave the PCs running, and email drops in as it arrives, or MSN contacts tell me when they want to chat. This works well with things like Skype.

- The "manual" is pathetic - just a folded leaflet. MANUFACTURERS TAKE NOTE: THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH! UNACCEPTABLE!

A life transformer.

All in all, top of the pops!

In my case, I have the unit at a fixed IP address on BT Business Broadband, but there's also provision in the firmware for using DynDNS - so you effectively get a fixed IP address even if you're on a normal (low cost!) DHCP connection.

I set mine up as a NAT router, so my wifes and sons PCs could go onto the Internet directly. Meanwhile, i've set it to forward all the common ports (for things like smtp, http, https, ipp, etc) to my Linux machine, so my Linux box is also my mail and web server to the Internet at large.

After setting the network name, the unit does help generate some random WPA encryption passwords to use on each of your client PCs to scramble all traffic from snoopers. You can also specify specific MAC addresses (unique to every single Ethernet type comms device worldwide) and allow no-one in but those you list.

The WAG54G stays on 24/7/365, redials automatically if there is any ADSL service failure, and generally just sits there and does it's job. The signal carries to all four corners of my garden and on all three floors of my house. The service performance we get is indistinguishable from those on LANs we have at work and (in our sons case) at University.

My wife and son use IPP (Internet Printing Protocol - port 631) to use the HP deskjet printer on my Linux server as their own local printer from their Windows XP machines - through the router.

Around 4 friends have also bought this device, and I'm yet to find anyone I know personally (or on newsgroups) who has anything else but good words to say about it. It's just how Wireless networking should really be - setup once, use whenever, but otherwise forget!