Linksys AT&T CallVantage Wireless - G VoIP Router with 2 Phone Ports WRT54GP 2A-AT
By: Linksys Average Rating: 2.5 Total Reviews: 26
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by: mommyofchristopher On: 2007-09-23
Every time I come to my computer, I have no connection. I called att and they said it was my computer, but when I talked to other people in my area, they said they had the same problem. I would not recommend att internet. Its awful. I would not recommend comcast, either. Comcast workers are mean and nasty. If anyone knows of a good reliable internet, please let me know.
 On: 2007-07-15
Received the product on time. Fairly easy plug and play, however when I connected with AT&T CallVantage for the initial setup of the account the AT&T system thought I had the standard telephone adaptor and tried to download the wrong data. I called the AT&T help line and the service tech was great and easily corrected the problem. I have been very happy with both the router and the AT&T CallVantage service.
On: 2007-04-19
There is nothing to this device that would even earn it one star, but no stars is not an option.
I have now had four of these - provided by AT&T - over the past 15 months. The sad fact is that they just dont work and AT&T has stopped supporting this unit. The first problem seems to have been the faulty power supply that early units were shipped with. Later problems are the firmware or some such which At&T always seems to be fiddling with remotely. My fourth unit lasted less than 90 days.
When it is working, this is a standard Linksys wireless router, a generally dependable device, coupled with a phone-thing that provides miserable sound quality.
The good news is that you cant get these anymore. The even better news would be if you (unlike me) were smart enough to avoid AT&T Callvantage together. But thats a whole different story . . .
 On: 2006-11-05
Good product, working fine. A little trouble "unlocking" the product to work with other VoIP provided (other then ATT), but it worked.
On: 2006-10-07
Purchased this product seperatly from my ATT callvantage service. I installed a wireless card and then the wireless router. The whole process took less than 30min and the internet was up and running. Had slight problem with phone because ATT had set up and shipped their TA adapater(which i did not want) but this was resolved with a ten minute phone call to ATTs 24 hour tech support. All in all this has been a very stable product and I have had no problems with the phone or internet since installing it a month ago. Phone calls are crystal clear and my internet speeds are excellent.
On: 2006-08-08
Perhaps the built in phone adapter works fine, but as a router it is a remarkably bad product. The router kept resetting itself (both the wireless and the ethernet) every few minutes, and seems that when it came back online it didnt use the security settings for the wireless account and so other people were able to access my wireless network. I currently use a Belkin product with the phone adapter provided by AT&T and thinks work just fine. Avoid at all costs, expecially given that Linksys does not maintain any firmware for this product.
On: 2006-08-04
When I installed the Linksys wireless router and VoIP telephone adapter, I had already been using AT&T CallVantage services for many months, using a D-Link adpater and a D-Link wireless router. The Linksys solution is far superior in several ways. First, a single device provides all three of the necessary functions: VoIP adapter, router, and wireless LAN. Previously, I had to cobble together two D-Link devices to get the same combination of functions. D-Link and Netgear claim to have similar "one-box" solutions forthcoming, but my investigations showed them to be more expensive and later-to-market than the Linksys solution. Second, the Linksys solution was easy to install, with clear documentation from Linksys, good phone-support from AT&T, and, as a big plus, an upgrade of the Linksys device to the latest firmware done automatically by the AT&T network during the installation. Third, the Linksys device has been extremely stable and reliable from day-one, a welcome change from my experience with the D-Link gear which required constant babysitting.
 On: 2006-01-04
I have found this router to be an excellent combination of phone adapter and wireless router, all in one.
Positives:
The main reason I chose this product is space considerations. The router works well, reliability, and has a very good range. I have the router in my office in one corner of the house. With WEP encryption turned on (WPA is supported), I still manage 50% signal quality at the far corner of a 2700 square feet footprint - the signal has to travel through at least four walls and 70 linear feet.
Drawbacks:
This router is not actively supported with firmware updates by Linksys. Check out this model under the Linksys Support. You will find no firmware updates. This is a problem if you plan to add signal boosters, additional access points, or wireless print servers, etc... Most of Linksys components require the WRT54 be updated to a later firmware version for interoperability.
If you are considering adding any additional components to your Linksys wireless system, I recommend opting for the default AT&T CallVantage wired VOIP router, and adding the wireless router separately.
 On: 2005-11-21
As do many of us, I bought a product based on the faith Id gained from experience with other products (many) Id purchased from Linksys. Only not to be told that Linksys doesnt own or maintain the firmware. Based upon that info alone, Id have gone a different direction. Use the Linksys standard router and the basic TA that ATT gives you with their service. The Linksys router firmware that ATT has licenced, is not up-to-date with the current 802.11g firmware that Linksys has revd... and most likely will not ever be.
I have frequent lock ups...there appear to be many bugs in the router software, or at least the admin component. The current IP list (DHCP active) is rarely fully correct...the wireless list is practically never correct... The router seems to be running much slower than the standard Linksys g 4port router...and ugh the list goes on. It works..but if I now see why most stores have pulled this product off their shelves...or perhaps its Linksys that told them to.
On: 2005-10-25
I have this unit but I bought it at Staples. I got a new Motorola cable modem through Amazon but went down to Staples to get the integrated Wireless router and Telephone Adapter. I am glad that I took this path even though I paid $25 more. Why? The telephone output quit after 11 days. I exchanged for another over the counter just this morning.
I started out signing up for callvantage at their website. They sent a Centillium telephone adapter. I had a netgear wireless router installed already, and a toshiba cable modem provided by Cox cable. Had lots of problems with losing internet connections. There were multiple problems, difficult to diagnose. First I discovered that the toshiba modem (supplied rent free, basically they gave it to us) was an old model and the local office could not provide any other modem. Nice that it was free, but they could have told their customers that to get reliable internet they should go buy a new, current generation model. Reviews here on Amazon convinced me to get the Motorola surfmodem.
So, then there was the issue of having two routers inline. They got confused. The Centillium (also supplied free, from AT&T) is a router and NAT, but with only one output. Put that into the Netgear. The Netgear would get confused. Eventually I decided that the integrated TelephoneAdapter (TA) and actual multi-point router with wireless was what was needed.
Works perfectly now. I am using the netgear wireless router as a switch. Something that you cannot find out from anyones documentation is: plug the input from one router into the INPUT on another (modern) router and it is a smart switch, not a router. So, it works fine now as a switch in the cabin and I have two wireless access points on different channels and the IP telephone.
But, the first Linksys router/TA I had quit driving the telephone out port after 10 days. I hope this one is more reliable.
On: 2005-08-28
I had the following problems with AT&T CallVantage:
1. My Caller ID never showed up correctly on the phone of the party I was calling. It just gave my city and state, not my name.
2. I would sometimes have problems having phone menus understand my input (i.e., dial 1 for English, 2 for Spanish). It made checking my cell phone voice mail troublesome.
3. Terrible tech support.
4. Overpriced.
5. There were taxes and fees on my monthly statement that werent disclosed when I signed up.
I have since switched to a company called Teliax and am very happy with them. They are also cheaper - my phone bill will only come to about $10 this month, including long distance.
On: 2005-08-12
I was hesitant to purchase this item due to some of the reviews, however, after having recieved this item today.. I am pleasantly surprised.
I did go through a bit of a ordeal trying to set up the telephone portion of this router.. as I was "upgrading" from the original D-Link TA that came with the service. Due to this, I had to call customer support and have some "server issues" sorted out before the system would accept my new adapter. After that however, I am completely satisfied.
Some of the concerns addressed in other reviews were as follows:
1. Just doesnt work - NOT TRUE
2. Voice quality poor - JUST AS GOOD AS WITH ORIGINAL TA (i.e. perfect)
3. Firmware updates not provided - AGAIN, NOT TRUE. THEY ARE PROVIDED BY AT&T AUTOMATICALLY, NOT BY LINKSYS THEMSELVES. HENSE WHY YOU WONT FIND AN UPDATE ON THEIR WEBSITE. I WAS IMMEDIATELY UPDATED TO VERSION 1.00.26 FROM 1.00.11 AFTER ACTIVATING.
All in all.. if you are looking for a wireless router to complement your VoIP service with AT&T.. in my opinion this is a fine solution. I got a rebate of $60 on this.. so with Amazons great pricing.. this router was only $40!! Its features are much easier to use and includes DMZ unlike D-Link.
Go for it.
On: 2005-05-15
If I could rate this negative-one-stars, I would. The sound quality is horrible. I have tried to work with both Linksys and AT&T on the noise quality issues. I have gotten nowhere. The phone sounds like a freakin AM radio.
On: 2005-04-30
I was a little hesitant in forking over $125.00 for this router. As well as the fact that Cisco doesnt adversise it supports Mac OS X. I had previously tried a Netgear router with the D-Link telephone adapter. But this solution didnt work, and returned it within a day. So I decided to give this solution a try. Learned alot about VoIP. The key here is in having the right router, the right network and the right phone, then it works perfectly! Installation was a snap. You just plug the Linksys router per the installation instructions into your cable modem (I have Comcast), then to your computer, and then your phone. Just follow the instructions. The Linksys router configures identically as the Netgear router ... you use a web portal into the router, and just setup per the instructions. Im running a Mac Mini with OS X 10.3.9, and and a wireless IBM ThinkPad T41 .... the Mac and the IBM auto sync into the router IP address space ... a couple of clicks and your done! The catch is to have a good telephone go with your Cisco-AT&T Solution. Previously, I was using an old phone, and I was having some interference from the phone, that limited the quality of the VoIP ... so I bought another simple GE phone, for about 8 bucks at Target, and plugged it into the Cisco router, for a test I called my folks from Colorado to California ... we were all amazed at the quality of the voice call!!! They couldnt believe I was running the call over the internet!! Now Im hooked on this new technology. Thank you Cisco, Thank you AT&T!
On: 2005-03-19
No firmware upgrades yet available as of 3/19/05. The expert that I chatted with on Linksys was a smug loser who asked me questions like, is it plugged in? After answering his ridiculous questions and explaining the same thing 15 times he finally told me that I should get my router replaced...sounds like the wrong advice, since many people have the same problems. I am guessing with a new unit I will have the same issues. Internet connection will drop out periodically. Until they recall it or update the firmware. Will a firmware upgrade fix the issue? Maybe. When will it arrive?? I will probably be taking mine back. Might give AT&T one more attempt to keep me as a customer by calling their help line. But they may go the way of my former Lingo service.
On: 2005-03-15
Overall this device is not worth the hassle.
I have experienced the SAME issues as the other reviewers, ATT/Linsys/Cisco do not have VOIP hammered out yet, and the device is not up to Cisco standards, so of course its branded Linksys. I have repeated wireless drops, router lockups, etc. with no real support from Linksys/Cisco. Level one support is outsourced, so be prepared to interpret. Each company is playing the blame game, and with the state of layered support, dont plan on any resolution to your issues.
On: 2005-03-05
The good news is that as a wireless router this works just fine. Still, there are better, cheaper, faster units out there including ones from Linksys. You are buying this for the integrated Callvantage service and that is where the problems are.
I bought mine almost three weeks ago. I was essentially just swapping out my old wireless router which I am running over Comcast. I went through the install procedure for activating the Callvantage service. Sure enough, the "phone" light came on although it never did ring. Waited a while longer, tried the phone and discovered there is no dial tone.
At this point I call AT&T. After confirming my account info with about 3 people I get connected to a technician who walks me through a whole series of activities, resetting security codes, multiple reboots, reregistering the device, etc. She says that from her end everything appears fine but still no dial tone, no functioning phone. At this point they decide it must be a bad Router.
The second router arrives. Go through the set up once again. Guess what? Same thing ... NOTHING. Spend another hour with an AT&T tech doing the same steps as last time. Same results ... NOTHING. This tech tells me they will now escalate the call and I will hear back within 24 hours from the next level of support. Sure enough, they do call later that evening. We go through the EXACT SAME set of steps as last time and again ... NOTHING. I am now told that it will be escaleted up to someone in the labs and that someone will contact me in 24 hours.
A day goes by, a week goes by. No calls of any sort. I finally call up to say that I want to cancel the service. The CSR see the trouble ticket and asks me to hold while they put me through to the next level techs again. He comes back a while later and tells me that the problem has actually been escalated to the level above the labs and that someone will be calling me on Monday.
Monday comes along. No call. OK, I do not know where they are located but we did have a big storm on Monday and Tuesday so I will give them a couple of extra days. Here we are on Friday and surprise ... No one has called.
If it works for you on install and you are happy with the service then enjoy. If you are having troubles, I would suggest that you do not waste your time, just send the thing back. It is apparent that in some cases it just does not work and AT&T either does not know why or simply could care less. Pathetic customer service such as this should not be tolerated. Hello, Vonage.
On: 2005-02-04
Firstly, let me say that the wired switch portion, and VoIP components of this hub work very well. I have no complaints there, and signup with CallVantage was easy. Configuration is a breeze for those with previous Linksys routers. But the wireless sucks! This replaced a WRT45G which had excellent signal strenght all the time, with a signal of -50 dBm on average; with this router, in the same location as the other one, I get good-very good signal strength at about -70 dBm. Obviously wireless connection speeds suffer as a result of this. I forked out for some high-gain antennas, which was also a waste of money, as the singal strength didnt improve one bit. Also support is terrible - I dont think any of the Linksys techs I spoke to even knew they have VoIP products on the market.
On: 2005-01-22
I have a Linksys 802B unit that works perfectly. The CallVantage unit is another matter. Ive rebooted the router 3 times in 4 days to get my connection back. The tech guy in INDIA couldnt comprehend what I was trying to get across. He told me to switch channels. Only problem was I told him I was losing the connection at the router on an ethernet connection. Nothing has changed except the router and my wireless phone. It is a 5.8 gig unit with that frequency on the base unit and the handset. Shouldnt be a problem.
I changed my SSID,enabled the WEP, and changed my default password. Oh yeah, perish the thought, I forwarded a port.
I think Im sending this back and getting the AT&T adaptor. I can always get a little 4 port hub and start at the modem and split into the phone before the router, then have a cord go into the router, then out to my computer etc.
Waiting to hear from Linksys web tech now. Im holding my breath.
Regards, Owen
On: 2005-01-17
This rounter "CallVantage WRT54GP2A-AT" and the "Vonage WRT54GP2" have the same problem that Roger Simon (Orlando, FL) posted I spent about 12 hours between both the Vonage and CallVantage routers. If you leave the factory settings as is then the router works great. When I tried to add my ssh service and change any other parameters thats when the router would become unstable. It kept dropping the internet connection. Soon as i hooked up my old BEFSR41 everything worked great. Bottom line these routers should not be on the market. It is not worthy of one star.
On: 2005-01-15
The router and AT&T service sucks. I had a problem with my service and they were not able to resolve the issue. The customer service is even worse, it takes an eon to get through and they seem to have 24 to 48 hours of turnaround at each level of support.
IF you have to cross three levels, you can only imagine the wait.
I would suggest anybody thinking about switching to ensure that you have a backup cell phone with a lot of minutes!!
In short, I would not recommend it to my friends.
Thanks.
On: 2005-01-13
Ive been using this router for two days now. Ive exchanged it twice and spent over 9 hours with Linksys Technical Support.
All the Routers experienced the same problem. The router firmware (Enclosed software on a chip)is very unstable. When I enabled certain features (Logging, disabling DHCP), the router begins rebooting every 600 seconds. Only a hard reset and reconfiguration back to factory specs. clears the problem. If you try to access the router with any security features on, like a firewall, or virus scanner etc. The firmware develops a rebooting loop every 600 seconds.
Technical support, Basic and (Level 2 Advanced) is in a foreign language!! I occasionally can detect an english word. These people knew far less than I, and Im not a techy! What is the Linksys solution?:
1. Dont make any changes to the router selections. Things like changing the default password to your own more secure password, setting the clock, or any of several others.
2. Use your $12,000 workstation on the Internet w/broadband cable access and DO NOT USE your Firewall, Virus scanner, Spyware scanner etc. Everything will be OK, Your using our router... (This is insanity)!
3. The firmware (to try and reload the software) for this router IS NOT AVAILABLE!
And the VOiP features and functionality? Never got that far. I use a standard PC from Dell with XP-Pro on a cable modem.
Read the various technical forums and discover the severity of this problem for yourself. I found them on "google".
On: 2005-01-13
I have AT&T CallVantage and upgraded to this Linksys WRT54GP. The wireless router has all of the features as the other 802.11g Linksys router, but now has VOIP capability.
If you are familiar with Linksys other routers, this is a breeze to set up. If you are not, well you are in luck as this is pretty much plug and play. As soon as I connected my modem to this router, a minute later my phone rang indicating it was ready for use.
My ISP gives me 384kbit upload speed. This is pretty standard for ISPs, and many give you even faster. My phone calls sound just as clear as when I was on my regular POTS line. When I talk to people on my CallVantage, they have no idea that I am using VOIP. The only time I ever get any disruption in service is if I am doing a very large upload, filling my upload bandwidth.
I cant recommend VOIP enough. Unlimited calling for one low price, and AT&T gives you plenty of features as part of their standard service. You no longer have to pay your local telephone company for each separate service (such as call waiting, caller ID, call forwarding, voice mail, etc). This is ALL included.
The only drawback I have right now is that this router doesnt come with the service free of charge. Maybe that will change soon.
On: 2004-12-16
When I received the Linksys router from AT&T the only problem I had was figuring out how to connect my existing router. I went to the Linksys website and pulled down some documentation but it didnt work. To make a long story short I was making the problem much harder than it was. All I had to do was plug my cable modem into the Linksys router from AT&T and connect one network port from that router to the uplink/cable modem port of my other router and I was done.
The CallVantage service setup was easy. After connecting the AT&T Linksys router to the cable modem I used my browser to connect to the CallVantage activation site. The activation process was four steps. The longest step was when it automatically updated the router. When that was done the phone gave a short ring indicating I could make phone calls. The whole process took maybe 10 minutes. AT&T includes a pamplet with the router that walks you through the process. Its just a few pages with big pictures.
Immediately after activation I started calling friends. I would talk to them for a while before asking them if they noticed anything different. No one noticed anything. Voice quality is at least as good as a conventional phone. The AT&T rep said it would be better but I cant tell. Its certainly not worse.
The phone switch over went smoothly. I was able to keep my current phone number. Dialing the phone works fine. The feature set, like someone indicated earlier, is amazing. There are features included that I didnt know you could get on a home phone. Basically every feature you have now plus some ones you probably havent heard of. AT&T has a well thought out and organized web interface for managing everything.
Some things to be aware of, AT&T says if you have a fax it may not work across the line. I dont have a fax so I cant test this. They said that some people were able to resolve faxing problems by upgrading their fax machine. Also if your power goes out or cable modem goes down you wont have a phone unless you have cellular or another line. As far as power outages Im a big believer in UPSs and all my computer equipment is connected to one. You can connect the router phone line an existing phone jack and all your phones can share the line. You have to disconnect the outside line first and if you have a 2nd line AT&T says you need a splitter so that only one phone line goes into the router. You can get a splitter from Radio Shack for a few bucks.
Last thing, when I ordered my service, the rep on the phone was extremely repetitive. They definitely want you to understand all the aspects of setting up your phone service to work over your network. Thats probably good for most people but for me it was like enough already.
Anyway this is great stuff. Next thing for me is to get the first phone bill. All of the taxes that apply to a regular phone line dont apply to a VOIP line. Im interested in knowing what the "real" total will be.
Have fun if you try it. You may not be an early adopter but one of these days this will be the standard. The current phone system will be a thing of the past.
On: 2004-12-14
I got rid of my land line and got Callvanatge service. Callvantage uses your normal phone but it plugs into your router instead of your old phone jack. The installation was very easy. I make all calls for under $30 a month. Some of their features are pretty cool also. When a call comes in, it rings my home phone and cell phone at the same time. That way if Im waiting for an important call - I can pick it up on either phone. I can also view all my incoming and outgoing calls on the internet, almost instantly. So, I can view my call log while Im at work and see who called during the day. Also, the quality is just as good as my old land line.
On: 2004-11-19
The out of box experience was OK, but AT&T left out the hardcopy router users, and the linksys telephony/VOIP menu is not visible as far as I can tell.
On to the major problems:
0) Since Im porting my local number, I cannot check the voice quality at this time. Ill post an updated review in a week or so.
1) I had to call to try to figure out why I couldnt register
with my bestbuy activation info. Customer support is only available form 8AM until 9PM, EST - this could be a problem - it should be 24x7 service.
2)The AT&T provisioning code at www.att.com/bestbuy is broken
(havent tried w/ IE on Windoze, but it FAILS on MacOS w/Firefox and Linux w/Firefox). I had to view source on the Broken HTML code and manually go to Step 2 (/callvantage/linksys/step_2.jsp)
after retail activation at Best Buy)
function directRequest() {
if (serviceTest.serviceSelection[0].checked == false && serviceTest.serviceSelection[1].checked == false) {
alert("Please select the AT&T CallVantage Service option that applies to you.");
return false;
} else {
if (serviceTest.serviceSelection[0].checked == true) {
window.location="/callvantage/linksys/step_2.jsp";
return false;
} else {
window.location="http://www.callvantage.att.com";
return false;
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