Review on Linksys WRT54G Wireless G Router by Nicholas Dobson

If you purchase this product and are using a Mac, please discard the CD and go directly to online support on the Linksys website. I recently purchased a Linksys WRT54G router and am very happy with the router itself. I use Mac OSX and while I contemplated getting Apple's full Airport setup, the cost difference between the Airport and the latest Linksys left little to nothing no comparison to. (The airport was more than twice the size of the Linksys router.) HOWEVER, setting up my system and actually setting up the router for wireless use took over 3 hours and made me briefly reconsider my decision to give up the airport, and it is notoriously easy configuration. . In general, I'm computer savvy; I'm by no means an IT expert (sometimes required to set up a router), but I can install and manage most computer programs without much assistance. But when I opened the box, I found little more than a few flyers and instructions on how to run the included CD before plugging in the router. Too bad they don't mention anything about the CD not being usable with a Mac. (I didn't find out about this until I spoke to someone from tech support an hour later.) After playing around with the CD a bit, I went to the Linksys website to find support tips. I even downloaded the product's user manual - useless. The Linksys technical support site says nothing about setting up the router for use with a Mac. It's like they want to pretend Apple doesn't exist or something. But I finally found a way to get help through their website (thank goodness) where someone could give me proper instructions on how to set up the router so I could at least use it. I speak appropriately because it was enough to get the wireless network working but not nearly enough instructions for the correct setup which I could follow if someone just gave me some instructions in plain English. The router has MANY options to customize. but unfortunately I had no idea what that means. What this product really needs is the best documentation on configuring the router for DIFFERENT OPERATING SYSTEMS! and step-by-step explanations of all the different settings and what they mean. I don't mind if the instructions are on the web and not in the box, but please have some instructions *somewhere*. I give it 4 stars because the installation process was so pathetic. But the product itself is great. If you have a Mac, I don't think you should discount this product entirely. Once you set it up, it's great. And it's an EXTREMELY good price for what you get. Just allow a few hours for setup and invite computer-savvy friends first if you're prone to high blood pressure.