WRT54G V8 problems

Question

Ok folks ready for a story here?! First I have been fighting with this router for two months now, and as the Message subject hints I am not happy. I have three computers I want to share the internet with and so far I am at my wits end with this router!
I started with my wife's custom built desktop (wired) system because it runs Windows XP SP 2 and installed the EasyLink Home Network CD first just like it says on the package the WRT54G came in. Now that should be simple right? Nope! The setup runs I install the router into the LAN and the software tells me that there is NO router installed after I followed the guide to install it when the software told me too. So I unhook the router and connect the cable modem back up to it. I unistall the software and reset everything back to the orginal settings. I start a do over on the install and the software tells my the router is hooked up and working fine....which would be great except the only thing hooked to the NIC card is the Cable Modem?! Confused I uninstall the software once more change all the settings in the system back again and try this all over once more from scratch, barring reformatting the computer itself. I jump on this website and start reading a ton of posts that tells me nothing about this problem, other then to update the firmware of the router itself which as you can guess would be nice if the thing was actually hooked up and working. I refresh the custom built computer once more and start the install of the easy link software I go through the hook up and for the thrid time connect the router. NOW the software tells me that the router I have is not supported by this software and to use the software that came with my router originally. HUH?
Then it gets stranger!!! For giggles I jump on our sons Acer Laptop which is why we bought a wireless router in the first place. The Acer runs Windows Vista basic and is a week older then the router we bought I try the software in that and it too tells me the software isn't the original to the router that I bought. We wipe all the software from the Vista laptop and set it back up with a connection to our neighbors network once more, and I shelf the EasyLink software all together! This is where it gets strange though....I read some more of the posts on this very website and I begin to wonder if I have been had! It seems a lot of people have problems with this router and Linksys does very little to fix them. For about a week I read all I can stand to know and WRT54G routers and I really wish my D Link DI 604 wasn't stuffed in a storage room somewhere. Then it hits me.... The D Link can be set up direct using Internet Explorer...So I wonder! I head to my nine year old Windows ME, HP 8754 system I connect the Router to the Cable modem and then to the HP and open IE 6. I type in the 192.168.1.1 and in a few seconds Ba Da Bing I hit paydirt all the settings are at my control finally I start tossing all that I learned about the router at it and within a few minutes and a couple of set backs I have internet on my HP, after I shutting the wireless connection off.
Excited I race to the custom built Windows XP machine hook in the NIC card and guess what...NOTHING. I reassigned the IP addy of the NIC that I used when it was hooked up to the D Link (as I had done during the set up of my HP) and pinged the router and the HP from it but every ping to the internet failed big time! I go back to the router and the HP and start over again. I come across that article on the MTU settings I and a ping format that helps me set up a manual setting for MTU I try changing that setting and sure enough I have internet at the Windows XP machine. BUT it is slow very very slow. So slow it takes twenty minutes to download a 5 megabyte file on the Windows XP system! I restart the wireless side of the router then the fun begins all over!
Vista it seems has its own mind and it doesn’t play well with other OS’s. First it kicks the Windows XP machine out telling me that there is another machine on the LAN that has the IP Addy I gave to the custom built machine leaving it disconnected. I change the setting on the Windows XP and then the router assigning it a new addy 192.168.1.105. everything is back to “normal” slow web speed as normal and with the router installed the XP machine takes six minutes to open a webpage such as Yahoo, if you can consider that normal. Then Vista strikes again this time on the only computer I can control the router with the HP 8754. I hammer on the settings and quickly change the HP to 192.168.1.106 then set up the router to follow suite. BUT again I start finding problems after a few days the the Vista changes its IP addy over and over again, and finally I set the XP and ME machines to 192.168.1.108 and 192.168.1.109. I find that the Windows ME machine is even very slow at downloading and the speed webpages open at is sluggish at best. I have since tried static IP settings with little success and even turning off all the security systems of the router helps very little, and yet the only computer in the house that can control the WRT54G version 8 is my Hewlitt Packard. Perhaps I should just give up and buy a different router!
(Mod note: Edited for guideline compliance. Thank you.)
Message Edited by Vince_02 on 04-22-2008 07:33 AM

Answer 1

Also I have found that various settings in windows that you would never locate all of them can have strange effects on a computer especially when you are trying to network multiple OS's. go to http://networkmagic.com Download the free 7 day trial put it on a jump drive or burn it too a disc. install it on every computer. When I had troubles with Vista and XP on the same network this like instantly fixed all the problems I was having. Needless to say I purchased the program after it did fix it, but only cause I liked the net2go feature that allows me too host a server page for my fellow coworkers, so they can access the files I have to resolve technical issues.
Vista Ultimate 32 Bit
AMD 64 X2 6400+ Black Edition
4BG RAM
1.18 Terabytes Of Hard Drive Space
Acer 22inch Widescreen LCD
Nvidia 8600 GT PCI E 512 DDR3
WRT54G Router
Netgear Gigabit Switch
Motorola 2210 Modem