Recently had a Linksys WRT54G (v1.0) fail, so went to the closest store and
purchased a replacement. My bad for not reading the press, as I brought home a
v5 version.
With the latest available firmware, v1.00.6, I've discovered that the router
doesn't properly support (of all things) traceroute - the first link returned in
the trace is the destination address.
Here's a sample of what happens:
Trace
www.linksys.com (66.161.11.20)
1 66.161.11.20 1ms 0ms 0ms TTL: 0 (webgod.linksys.com ok)
This is a UDP based trace, and it never proceeds past the above. A Windows
generated (ICMP based) trace yields similar results:
Tracing route to webgod.linksys.com [66.161.11.20]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms 1 ms <1 ms webgod.linksys.com [66.161.11.20]
2 ...
.... although it does continue to completion.
I started out attempting to resolve this with Linksys's "live chat" tech
support, and was unsuccessful (although with all due credit to the tech
involved, he recognized that there was a problem that would need to be elevated
to level 2 support and gave me a phone number and case ID for that purpose).
However, I've now been through three telephone calls without resolution of the
problem. Even though I give the case ID, I have to explain the entire situation
to whoever answers the phone again - and I don't think I've actually spoken to a
senior tech yet (and I've now got three different case ID's). Oddly enough, the
techs keep asking "why do you want to use traceroute?" - which shouldn't be an
issue, I'd think.
I've now been told that I will be emailed a new firmware update that will take
care of the problem. Since I'm already running the current release, I can only
guess that I'll be getting either a prerelease version, or that I'm going to get
to beta test.
It leaves me wondering though - if they can't get something as simple as
traceroute to work properly with the new revision, what else may be broken?
Linksys was some pretty good stuff before Cisco took over - it's a shame that
they're crippling a good product. It's somewhat reminiscent of when 3Com took
over US Robotics and nearly ruined the brand reputation before spinning it back
off to a separate operating unit, although they've never quite recovered to the
outstanding level of support they provided previously.
So - does anyone reading this have experience with the WRT54GL version? I've
read that it's based on the WRT54G V4, which seems to be less flaky according to
what I've read, and was wondering if anyone has any experience they'd be willing
to share (positive or negative). Specifically, does traceroute work properly?
In the meantime, I'd recommend avoiding the WRT54G V5 at least until the bugs
are fixed.
--
NewsGuy.Com 30Gb $9.95 Carry Forward and On Demand Bandwidth
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