Buffalo Technology WHR-HP-G54 Wireless-G MIMO Performance Router and Access Point

i came across the whr-hp-g54 and its rave reviews while researching routers specifically well-matched for application as repeater, especially of public wifi nodes... i bought the wle-at-dacb high gain antenna to use with it, installed dd-wrt, increased the antenna power to 125mW and voila, i had five or six nodes grabbed off air and repeated to all 3 floors of my house.

months later i'm now using it to distribute a dsl connection, and still just as happy with it as the day it arrived.

A REALLY SOLID ROUTER. Probably The Best In Its Class.

Just works. I'm using router with cable modem. Signal is strong into all my house (100 m2). Don't loose connection. Easy installation. It allows dd-rt install (not tested by me yet). I recommend.

After trying Netgear's WGR624 and Linksys' WRT54g, this is the only router I've ever owned that has never required a manual reboot. Stock firmware, 9 months and counting.

I purchased this because of all the rave reviews on here. I had never set up a wireless before and it was quite simple.

The connection speed is fast and far-reaching! I have it sitting downstairs in the livingroom and I can take my laptop upstairs to my room and the signal is just as strong. It never drops out and I've never had to reboot it. I would highly recommend this wireless router.

Hardware is rockhard stable, put DD-WRT firmware on this router and you get a really sweet host of features only found in high dollar pro-equipment, Stateful packet inspection firewall, wireless bridging, out of the box dynamic DNS support, uPNP that _just works._

Take heed Buffalo, just make awesome hardware, let the open firmware people write and maintain the firmware/software...

All that being said, it's too bad buffalo isn't producing more of these, seems like high demand has pushed the price to twice what it was when I got my hands on this router last November, 07.

Okay, I purchased this router just before the supplier stopped selling it in November (more you can find on Buffalo's site).

The router was okay, the wireless used to die every few days... can not make connection... Could not figure out why...

Then one wise user suggested to replace the firmware (that voided my warranty for sure) with dd-wrt or Tomato. I decided to implement Tomato.

Now it works like a charm... The fault is with the software that buffalo supplied.

I have had trouble with routers losing connection in the past. Since I have frequent web meetings from home it was essential that I have a reliable connection to the web. After a lot of research and much consideration I bought this router. I haven't had a problem since.

It took some time to install but the main problem was getting through the comcast modem, once that was figured out, then no problem whatsoever.

I called the buffalo support, was on hold 10-15 minutes but he walked me through the steps and we determined that everything was fine on the router's end and then on to connecting through the comcast modem. Took some time, and had a friend come over to assist and once the "code" was broken it's been great.

I can say that at least when I called the Buffalo support number I did not get a man named "Sam" with an accent. Well, the guy had an accent but it was a Texas accent.

I do know that I will never purchase another Net Gear router!

The house is built with concrete block walls, yea. Had a Netgear RangeMax for awhile weak signal, contently moving it, it finally gave out. Picked up a G54 on eBay for about $100 with DD-WRD installed. Placed it in the same spot as the Netgear, connected right up with ADSL maybe 5 mins setup time.
The external antenna does not seem to make any difference. I did jack up the transmit power, in order to get a good to excellect signal throughout the house and in the yard. It comes with a wall mount which I am using.
Its hooked up UPS so it never looses power, have not had to reset it yet, the Netgear reset about once a week. I think the bad reviews are from people that are very computer savvy.

This is our first wireless router and after much research decided on the G54. I've had it about 7 months now and we have been very happy with our decision. I have it mounted about chest high at the end of the house on the first floor and have good coverage throughout the house, including through three walls downstairs and all of the upstairs through up to four walls. The connection in the far upstairs corner says 36Mb/s, but any difference is not noticeable browsing the internet. I have some computer skills but am no expert...I thought installation and connection with windows XP was pretty easy. There are 9 other networks running in my neighborhood but I haven't noticed any signs of interference. It's also been great running multiplayer games with the kids!

I've owned two of these routers.
The first was DOA and had to be returned. The cost was about $8 to ship back. The second one died six months later and needed to be returned to Buffalo. They insist that you must have a signature receipt when shipped so that cost another $12.
Now I have spent about $20 more than I should have for faulty products, not to mention the time lost trying to get them to work and return packing and shipping. To add insult to injury, Buffalo reserves the right to send refurbished units as replacements.

While the router does have a good signal and I understand that one may obtain better firmware, remember that other firmware will void your warranty, and if yours dies like mine, you would be SOL.

As mentioned in several reviews, the documentation is so very weak, it is almost worthless, and I've set up a quite a few routers.

I have to believe most of the reviews you see here are from those who liked the router after a few days or weeks and haven't had a chance to really evaluate it.

I moved up from a LinkSys WRT54GL to a Buffalo primarily due to the MIMO technology (translates to a broader Wifi signal). I stripped the fttactory firmware and got the Tomato Firmware. This was back in August. No looking back since.

I have 4 wireless PC's accessing this + 1 IP phone. This product ROCKS!!! The coverage is *MUCH* better than the Linksys and infinitely better than the junk from D-Link. I got it at Newegg for a decent price and I am very pleased with this.

I cant find any cons about this. Coupled with Tomato, I have not had to reboot this in months!

Superb range,stability and speed

I bought my first Buffalo to enable my son and daughter to go untethered and to prevent from having to drill holes and run wires in our new home. His laptop has a built in card and I purchased a Buffalo 125g antennae PCI card for the daughters PC. Very easy to set up and worked like a charm with no problems. My inlaws live next door 200ft away in an aluminum mobile home and we were able to get signal over there on the laptop. AWESOME!

Next stage came of trying out online gaming. 2 PS2s in two different rooms. Here I go again looking for several days at every review possible before deciding on how to make the kids' consoles internet enabled. We actually ran cables from their room to where the router was at to make sure it all worked. Check. Now what do we use that is wireless. Buffalo actually sells a device called an ethernet access point and I have seen other so called "gamer's wireless adapters" blah blah blah....don't waste your money. Just buy this router in the qty of however many access points you need and with the flip of the lil switch and some configuration, Shazam! Wireless network without drills or running wires. The only wires I had to deal with was from the PS2 to the router set as a bridge/repeater/access point which is installed on each of the kids entertainment centers with the included lil bracket. We also recently jacked in a Vonage Voip phone system in the daughters room on her repeater and then lit the whole house phone line system by plugging in the phone line in her unused phone jack with no problems. Awesome again!!

I did have to call tech support for something I was doing wrong during configuration of the repeater set up, but they were very nice and very intelligent and they spoke American Born English! Triple Awesome!

I have referred two families to this brand. Unfortunately, now a year later after I bought my setup, Buffalo is under litigation with a foreign company and all their products have pretty much skyrocketed in price if you are lucky to find any. The sad fact of this taking place is that the second family will inadvertantly have to buy a different brand. If you read the reviews, you will see that they are primarily throwing money down the drain from not buying the Buffalo brand. My sympathy to the Largents.

To conclude, either pay the 2 to 4 times these gougers are selling this for (originally $65 at stores) or be patient and wait until the litigation clears 8 months from now. It is worth the money and the wait for such an awesome product. Thanks Buffalo!

To be honest, I'd never heard of Buffalo before I bought this. A techy friend suggested the brand so I figured I'd give it a try. I have a cable modem hooked up to it (a D-Link)and it does a great job handling the 2 hardwired PC's and 1 wireless notebook that use it all the time. Easy to set up, easy to use. My kind of device!

I used to have Linksys WRT54G which is a piece of junk. Wireless connection drops almost every hour or so. I have updated the firmware but to no avail. I'm pretty sure this is Linksys common problem as many have faced it before. I bought this Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 and never look back. I have used it for 9 months for now and has not dropped even one connection. It is very stable and provide very good range.

This is a sleek looking router that has great range. It was easy to set up. I am using it with a media extender and streaming video with it and it works flawlessly.

Bought it 4 weeks ago and so far haven't had any major problems. We just have to reboot it once in a while, but nothing like my previous router, a Linksys WRT54G, which I had to reboot 10x a day.
We use both Mac and PC, the set up is very easy. Great product for a good price.

Pros:
* Much stronger signal than my Linksys 54GL
* Works with the DD-WRT firmware
* No overheating issues so far
* Reasonably priced
* 5+ Mbit/second BitTorrent downloads and this thing didn't get over 40% CPU use according to the DD-WRT firmware status page.

Cons:
* Documentation isn't great
* Default firmware is somewhat confusing

I set up two of these on two rooftops in East San Diego. We were seeing 20Mbits/sec sustained over a mile using a pair of these and 24dbi parabolic antennas. The Linksys didn't work at all in that scenario. (note: There aren't designed to work outdoors, we had enclosures)

The default DD-WRT power output is 28mW. I'm running it at 56mW with no problem so far. For residential installs I always use this router with DD-WRT. Commercial with fancy DMZ configurations this isn't quite there yet but it works great with IPCOP as the main router and the Buffalo acting as a wireless access point / standby backup router.

Best features for the open-source router firmware enthusiast:

- built in pre-amp on Rx and power amp on Tx. Note that it's not real MIMO as the name might lead you to believe, but the amps make it have "MIMO-like performance" (which I've found is true).

- high gain antenna

- so it has a better S/N ratio than the Linksys WRT54GL, which has been the defacto standard

- support for 'afterburner' protocol (ie. 125 Mbit/s)

- Widely supported by open source firmware, eg. OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, X-Wrt, etc. And those enable it to have the most wonderful features, eg:
- WMM for smooth VOIP calls using T-Mobile's UMA phones
- WDS for creating a set of cascaded routers blanketing a large area
- Adjusting the power output directly on the Atheros on-board chip
- WPA2 with AES (WPA2 more secure than WPA, AES encryption scheme faster than TKIP), plus the ability to support mixed modes so that older devices that don't support WPA2/AES can use WPA/TKIP)
- and so much more. If you don't know about the merits of open source router firmware, you should read up!

Challenges:

- DD-WRT, OpenWrt, X-Wrt, Tomato or other open source firmware needs to be flashed with TFTP - you can't do it with the web GUI. But it's easy. Just requires timing the transfer as you switch it on.

- Buffalo encrypts their firmware so if you screw it up and want to revert back to Buffalo firmware, you can't just upload it from the web gui of whatever firmware you've installed. You have to upload the decrypted version from DD-WRT's site, and then from there you can upload the latest Buffalo version from their website.

Note: because of the built-in power amp, you shouldn't just set the power output to jam out as much juice as it can. That will make the output signal distort and actually decrease the range. I found that the best S/N ratio is obtained at about 75 mW. (Default setting is 28 mW).

Bought this router to integrate with my existing 'draft-n' network to allow it to run as a Wireless Access Point.

Pros - Very well built, obviously a quality product.
Customer service was superb.
Works very well; fast. As advertised, a premium product.

Cons - Technical Manual needs work. Pictures don't match software, being multiplatform. Could be better written. Took a little too much time to set up.

I bought this Buffalo router to replace an old Linksys WRT54G, after reading reviews both on Amazon and other computing sites. Setup wasn't as clear as with the Linksys product, but was acceptable. The performance was very disappointing, however. I didn't get nearly as good a range, and my notebook frequently lost the signal from the Buffalo router, forcing me to connect again and again, often several times within a half hour period. My notebook is only one room away from the router. I've gone back to the old Linksys for now. This product may work for some, but not for me.

It works so much like expected or even more. It is very easy to step and they work up every step. The security pretty good. I really like it

I have a box full of routers and access points, all of which have started to flake out on me within the first few months of ownership. Linksys and Netgear have conditioned many people to think that it's normal for these devices to stop working and need to be power-cycled several times a month, or to regularly drop packets under high load.
Finally, I tried the Buffalo High Power router, and I couldn't be happier. Not only is it rock-solid, but its signal reaches every corner of my home easily.

Plus, the fact that it's based on Linux is a huge plus, as there are a number of open-source firmware replacements available that add lots of features to this already excellent piece of hardware.

I have a friend who does consulting work for libraries all over my state, and he too fell in love with the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54. Whenever a library had a faulty or unreliable wireless router/AP, he would set them up with a Buffalo, and their problems were solved.

All of the marketing hype in the world can't counter the fact that this router has weak signal strength. I bought this router when my Zyxel X-550 died, and I've gone from 80% signal strength down to 20%.

If your house is remotely large, or the router isn't near your computers, this router won't do the trick.

On the plus side, for computers near the router it seems to work reasonably well.

I panicked when I realized the included software was PC only, but quickly discovered the web interface for the router. After that, it was smooth sailing setting up the network for my G4, MacBook, HP laptop (wife's) and iPhone. The security settings are easy to find and set, and the strength of the signal is surprisingly strong. The router never drops connections, and I have been running it a few months without resetting it -two things I could not say about the D-Link I replaced. For the price, the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 router can't be beat.

Easiest setup is the top reason to buy. Been thru WRT54G and DLINK B router, every single time have to call their tech support to get it done. Setup on this one is a breeze. Just follow the CD-Rom instruction, and boom you are on the internet before you know it. I also noticed a bit faster internet speed with my entry level Verizon 768K DSL. Bought one for my cousin before switched mine as well, this is the best decision I made in years. Looks attractive too, with the 6dBi antenna it came with, notebook reception downstairs is decent too. All in all, in this day and age, it is long overdue for a user-friendly router like this. Every router should be like this, so even grandma can plug it in and enjoy wireless internet.

I know next to nothing about router technology, and have NEVER posted an online review of anything before. But my poor customer service experiences with buffalo have compelled me to alert other shoppers that the company's supposed 24/7 service is less than stellar: Almost every call I made was met with a 45 min-plus wait. In one of the very the few times I stuck around long enough to speak with a human, the service provider handling my problem very rudely lectured me about how I just needed to shut up and let him do his job when I tried to clarify my difficulties. After all the annoying waits, harangues, and tinkerings, this router performs slightly less well than my crappy old Linksys. I bought this router because of its "24/7" service and positive reviews on amazon, and I most definitely regret the purchase. If there's an outside chance you might need to speak with someone (polite, without waiting an hour) to help you with anything involving your router, I would strongly advise against buying the buffalo HP wireless G.

Linked up with my windows computer ok, but spent hours w/customer service to work with my mac laptop and had no luck. Just went out and got a apple router and both link ups were automatic, no issues.

Great product. Make sure you configure it to use AES if you want maximum security. I tested it as a firewall and it works great. Its a very good router. My bandwidth (on my desktop PC) actually increased since I switched from a wired firewall/router to this product.

Received my new Buffalo router today -- tried at least 7-8 times to get it up and running with our 2 new HP Pavilion notebooks -- no deal. I called '24/7' customer service/tech support and after being on hold for at least 25 mins and listening to elevator music, I gave up. Will try again tomorrow. Seems as if it would recognize wireless connections/modem/DSL/cable instantly, but it doesn't. I plugged my old Netgear router back in, reset it, and voila! We were back up and wireless in under a minute. Hopefully I will get through to someone at Buffalo Technologies tomorrow -- more later.

When I bought this router, I wasnt too sure about the Buffalo brand. I was so used to Netgear and Linksys. But what a hidden gem. After I set this router, I never had to touch it again. The connection was never dropped. I would be connected wirelessly through my computer and my Playstation 3, but there was never any lag. I recommend this router if you plan to connect wirelessly through your gaming system.

Bought this router last year, mostly above average performance. Like a reboot every few days, and occassional connection drop / recovery automatically.

Since Ive flashed dd-wrt v23 on it. It has been stable as a rock. I havent rebooted it in 2 weeks now ! rock solid performance since. The hardware is excellent. Add dd-wrt to the mix and you have everything you could possibly need.

not to mention the price.

Just in time for Fantasy Football. I can now sit in the recliner and monitor all my players on my laptop while watching games on TV. Before, I ran back and forth between the "computer room" and the living room...drove my wife crazy. I did notice with this unit, that once I set up a firewall and access code, that things slowed down a bit on the laptop, compared to no protection. I live on a dead end road on the lake, not sure anyone would try to steal the signal or hack into my system, but better safe than sorry. The instructions are sketchy and written for computer geeks, but they have a number to call. I didn't have to, as any questions I had I was able to find answers to by
Google-ing the subject matter. I have the unit mounted on top of my PC monitor straight up (it can lay horizontally)...figure this gives me added height for the antenna and it will also stay cooler. I should have written the review right after installing, because I don't remember the step by step, it just kind of fell together. If I can pull it off, anyone can. Works like a charm. Gotta go, time for kickoff :-)

This thing is very powerful, I have 60% signal outside at 250ft from my living room (where is installed) using only 25% of xmit power.

Current firmware isn't stable enouhg for 24/7 operation, you need to restart it about each 2nd day, you can solve this upgrading the firmware to DD-WRT or OpenWRT (linux based firmware) for rock solid stability, and extra features.

I purchased this router based on these reviews as related to ease of setup and dependability of the unit and I have not been disappointed . I am pretty much a novice at this type of equipment , but the setup was simple and the wireless is great. I would highly recommend this router to those of you who are looking to go wireless.

I bought this router to extend my wireless network. The best router ever in my life experience. I used many brands like Belkin, D-Link and Linksys. never got wireless range this far. I 'm still using my Belkin N1 router modem by wires. I can't get this range by using it (it cost me $230) but I bought the WHR-HP-G54 from amazon for $58 and it's better alot than any router I have. My house built of bricks and now I can use the wireless network after I installed WHR-HP-G54.

for the setup, you can use the CD for easy and fast setup. for Advanced users they'll need to enter the router by using their browser. The Buffalo software in the router isn't the best and the easiest. I didn't like it that much but it's not that bad. You can use the DD-WRT firmware to improve the performance and better look software but I don't recommened it.

Save your money and buy buffalo WHR-HP-G54. you'll not ever regret.

I am not technically savvy. This was easy to install to connect wireless from my PC to my laptop. I have DSL and it took me less than 10 minutes to get it set up. I have a great connection and no issues.

this product is the worst product I ever purchased. I bought this product and had nothing but problems. I called tech support who was niothing but rude to me who told me that the router was defective and to return it. I returned this router and decided to try again so I purchased the same router again and had the same problems all over again. I would not reccommend this product to anyone.

Set up was very straightforward. Yes, you have to insert a CD to do so, but it is clear and took 15 minutes. Great reception as long as doors are open. It works much better if the signal does not have to go around corners and heavy doors - when that occurs the signal drops to weak, and can sometimes drop out. We've found that moving the router to the hallway (1 less corner) improves the signal.

The directions to setup this router are horrible for DSL users with PPPOE. I have tried numerous times to contact Buffalo to work through the issues, but cannot reach the support staff. I have sat on hold for over 50 minutes at a given time with no luck in getting through.

I would strongly discourage purchasing this router. I am going to repackage and send back to Amazon.

I rarely write reviews but I had to express my happiness with this unit. If you're shopping for a wireless router this is the best in it's price range if not in any price range. I bought a cheaper Belkin for my PS3 and I had it for one day. The Belkin's connection status showed a 60%-66% on the PS3 and would only exchange information for about half a second out of every minute. I set my Buffalo up with the highest level of security encription without having extensive computer knowledge in about half an hour. It shows a constant 100% connection status at all times and never drops the connection. I've had experiences with other brands like Linksys that were constantly dropping the connection and needed to be reset. Not so here. I don't even know where the reset button is and that's a good thing. If everybody with a wireless router had bought this guy they'd have one less thing to bitch about. Bravo Buffalo.

After dealing for far too long with intermittent dropouts and required resets of my old Netgear 634U (horrible product) I purchased this router from Amazon 3 weeks ago and it has been rock solid since the day of install. I would have rebooted the Netgear about 5 times by now.

I'm not exactly a wiz when it comes to installing new hardware, but after a long battle with this router, I finally got it to work! Now, it performs well.

I used the Buffalo to extend my exhisting wireless network and eliminate "dead spots" at the far reaches of my home. I had never heard of Buffalo before my search on Amazon for an access point router. With all the positive reviews, I thought I would give it a go. As with all products these days, the manual was on the CD instead of a printed reference. Just a simple "quick start" card would have saved me a lot of time and aggravation with the setup but in the end everything worked out okay.

This router is a fantastic buy. Twice I've deployed it in environments where several other routers failed to maintain stable connections, and twice it's come through for me in a big way.


Also, if you're into the 3rd party firmware products (OpenWRT, DD-WRT, etc.) This router is definitely for you. It's easy to load using the built-in TFTP server and is extremely stable and fast; I haven't "bricked" one yet! It has a decent amount of NVRAM for loading extra packages, so you can definitely get a lot of bang for your buck as well.

All in all a great buy and highly recommended.

So far so good. No connection drop after it's up and running for 3 weeks. User interface is OK, but I like the Netgear's better.

Signal is good but if I set the signal signal strength to 75%, my roommate will have problem connecting to it in the living room. (We live in a standard 2 bedroom... so you can imagine the distance.)

The router has 3 running mode : 11b 11G and superG. I don't have a MIMO wireless adapter on my desktop or laptop, so a bit pity that I can't use the superG mode. I should have bought a cheaper version with only 11b & 11G.

I am not a techie, but I am usually reasonably competent at figuring out and setting up my computers, including installing two wireless routers (another brand) previously. The Buffalo router worked fine with cables, but it wouldn't recognize my notebook, and I never got it to. The written instruction directed me to load the CD and follow the directions. At the end of the installation program, it informed me that no connection was made, but didn't say what to do to correct the problem. When I loaded the manual (which came on a separate CD) it directed me to a program that is apparently run through the Buffalo web page, but since I couldn't connect, I couldn't access the link. I spent a total of more than an hour on hold with what purports to be Buffalo's customer service; since no one ever answered the call, I don't know that there is any. I bought this in part because of the design; it has a sturdy feel (which is notably absent from other routers) and a bracket to fasten it to the wall (which is a plus if you have cats). It may work fine with a matching adapter, but if your adapter is another brand, I'd buy something else. I'm sending this one back.

I bought this product to work with a Logitech squeezebox. The squeezebox is connected to my stereo amplifier and plays .mp3 music files sent to it wirelessly by the Buffalo access point. The music frequently skips or stops completely. Rebuffering occurs frequently as the squeezebox is gathering data from the access point. During this period, the music will stop. The distance from access point to squeezebox is about 35 feet. This shouldn't be a range problem for a wireless device. Buffalo Techs have not solved the problem .

This is a very very very good product! and it's even better now it's ten dollars cheaper than when i bought it.

Since I bought this router, I've had no dropped connections and absolutely no problems getting a signal through-out my house with my laptop. I love it!

I am currently using this as an access point to supplement my wired network. I wanted a wireless option for when I work from home with my laptop. It was very easy to set up and install and it works great. I highly recommend this product.