[TriLUG] Linksys Wireless Access Points

[Jeff Groves]

On Mon, Jul 26, 2004 at 07:55:02AM -0700, Joseph Mack NA3T wrote:

>> I've pretty much had it with LinkSys WAP11s. I've had 3, they need power
>> cycling about every day to unhang them and then they die permanently.
>> 
>> How much money to you have to spend for a SOHO style WAP that will stay up
>> for months, years?
>  
>
What version LinkSys WAP11s have you got?  I've got two original version WAP11s that have been running fine for two years now.  Are yours the WAP/Router combination?  If so, you need to get the latest firmware upgrade for the things.  The router part of Linksys boxes is subject to getting locked-up on a regular basis otherwise -- apparently there is some type of exploit available to script-kiddies out on the net that will lock-up Linksys routers in a heart-beat unless you have the latest firmware installed.

Back on the subject of the plain WAP11 without any router capability, make sure that you have the latest firmware version for that as well.  On my original version WAP11s, the latest (although old) version of the firmware is Ver 1.4i1

Finally, although the WAP11s that I have are working fine, the WPC11 v1 and v2.5 PC Cards from Linksys are true garbage.  When I got my new Dell laptop from work with built-in Dell TrueMobile 1400 Dual Band WLAN Mini-PCI card, I was able to triple the distance that I could get acceptable signal strength compared to the crummy Linksys PC Cards.

Thanks,
Jeff G.