The New King of Wireless Routers

Author's Rating:

Pros: Performance, Price, Aesthetics, Standard Features, DD-WRT compatibility, Two Year Warranty

Cons: Reboot time with Buffalo firmware seems longer than most.

The Bottom Line: 
Excellent price, excellent features, amazing range, DD-WRT compatibility. Looks like Linksys has some serious competition in the standard router market - they've definitely lost my business....for now.

Author's Review
11/24/10 Update

Finally had to replace.  WAN performance started to run like a turtle.  Tried flashing to various other versions of DD-WRT, but found the same results every time.  Replaced with a DD-WRT loaded WRT54GL.  Still think the WHR-HP-G54 is an excellent router, but it is outdated now, of course, since everyone wants 802.11n.
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5/6/10 Update
And it is still running great.  Going on four years, now. Still using DD-WRT firmware.  Apparently, Buffalo is going to start selling some of their routers with DD-WRT already installed.  The WHR-HP-G54 truly became another Linksys WRT54G, and did it even better than the WRT54G.  Way to go, Buffalo!
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7/25/09 Update

Still using the same WHR-HP-G54 as reviewed three years ago.  Over the course of those three years, I have only rebooted the router 4 times.  This is a stable, excellent performing router and I still highly recommend it to anyone.
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After running a FR1104-G router 24x7 for three and a half years, I had to begin the search for a new router when the former decided to brick itself. Knowing the retail standard these days is the Linksys WRT54G, I immediately began to search out why and wondered if it still is. Glad I did my homework.

Since the version 5 Linksys chopped down the RAM and removed Linux, the hackability has been greatly reduced. In a slick marketing scheme, they now sell the WRT54GL which is nothing more than a version 4 WRT54G - and they sell them for seventy bucks or so. I knew I could do better. I started digging on the web and found many people were very pleased with the performance of the Buffalo Air WHR-HP-G54. I know why, now.

I bought mine for $52, shipped. The box is anything but second-rate; everything well packaged. Came with a nice antenna, power supply with a longer than average cord, CAT5 cable, and CD's with drivers for the Buffalo Wireless NIC and a quick-start utility.

The router itself is very appealing. It has a very slick look, for all you who care about aesthetics, and the front has only power, wireless, DIAG and bridge LEDs. The LED's for the WAN and LAN port are on the back, right next to the applicable port. I found this a welcome change. From a distance, I can see if the Wireless is communicating - the LED flashes. I normally do not care about the wired ports, so leave the lights on the back to keep things simple.

The quick start function worked great on my Cox broadband connection. Turn the router on with the cable modem plugged into the WAN port, and the router configures itself. The quick start utility then will step you through setting up the wireless, admin password, and wireless security, similar to the quick start for the WRT54G. Overall, neither is any better than the other.

If you are like me, you didn't bother with the quick start utility, but, instead, went right into the administrator web tool to see just what the router can do. Take a look at the pdf user manual and you will see that this is a fantastic device, capable of any and every form of wireless security, any type of firewalling you would ever need, and, my personal favorite, better than average control of the built in DHCP server. IP reservations, exclusions, and total control of the actual IP subnet are a welcome change.

The web GUI itself is, of course, different from the other brands, but a router is a router - just get used to the location of the tabs and you'll find everything just fine. One minor annoyance only seen during configuration: it seems like this router needs to restart more than the Linksys or Asante when a change is made; and the restart time is definitely longer than my Asante and is also longer than the WRT54G version 5. Just my opinion; I have not tested every other router on the market, so this may be more the norm because my former Asante reboot time was very fast.

Performance is where this router shines. The "HP" portion of the model number is because there is an amplifier in the circuitry which actually increases the signal strength. I'm no electrician, but it works. At the default setting, you can walk a hundred yards down the street, with my router in the basement, and still get a (weak) signal. And the wireless card I was using is NOT the Buffalo Air model designed to mate the best with this router (it is the Intel 9215ABG). Since the router is not using any of the special SRX, RangeBooster, or other type of speed boosting technology which requires a wireless NIC to match, the performance gain from the signal amplifier can be enjoyed by practically any wireless NIC out there.

For all you tinkerers out there, you will be pleased to know that this router is based on the same chip as the hackable Linksys routers - the Broadcom BCM5352. So, yes, you can load Sveasoft (not sure why you would want to) and DD-WRT. Loading DD-WRT V23 sp2 was as easy as the instructions say; the only thing that stumped me for about five minutes was the fact that my laptop hardwire NIC needed to be connected to a switch and then to a LAN port on the router to actually get the process to work right (duh). Anyway, with DD-WRT installed, this router essentially is a WRT54G (v4) or GL with an inline signal amplifier to provide better coverage. So, don't waste your money on a WRT54GL when you can get the WHR-HP-G54. Trust me - you won't be disappointed either. One last tip - don't forget to change the boardflags setting if you load DD-WRT. Read the forums at DD-WRT.com. You'll see what I mean.