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Linksys WMB54G Wireless-G Music Bridge | 
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Brand: Linksys
Category: CE
List Price: $117.63
Buy New: $19.99
You Save: $97.64 (83%)
New (51) Used (5) Refurbished (2)
Avg. Customer Rating:  161 reviews
Sales Rank: 586
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 3.8 x 5.6 x 5.1
Warranty: 3 years warranty
MPN: WMB54G
Model: WMB54G
UPC: 683728103729
EAN: 0745883568949
ASIN: B000E5E6KG
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Product Type - Wireless Music Bridge | | • | Warranty - 3 Years Limited | | • | Headphone jack connector for powered speakers | | • | Easy Setup Wizard for configuration |
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| Similar Items:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The Linksys Wireless-G Music Bridge lets you bring the digital music streaming to or stored on your computer to your Home Entertainment Center, without running cables through the house. Using a wireless connection, the Music Bridge finally frees your digital music collection from those little computer speakers to play in full glory through your stereo or surround sound system.The Wireless-G Music Bridge sits by your home stereo and connects to it using standard consumer electronics cables. Then it connects to your home network by Wireless-G wireless networking, or if you prefer, it can be connected via standard 10/100 Ethernet cabling. The included software creates a virtual sound system in your PC, which sends the audio output of any application to the Music Bridge and the stereo system. Use your favorite media player to play your music, and listen in the comfort of the living room.Let the Linksys Wireless-G Music Bridge bring your digital music out into the living room for the whole family to enjoy.
Amazon.com Product Description
You're having a party, but you don't have the time it will take to burn a disc of your favorite digital tunes. This is where the Linksys WMB54G Wireless-G Music Bridge comes in. By letting you wirelessly stream audio files from your PC to your stereo or other speaker system, no matter which music service you use, the Wireless-G Music Bridge gives you all the convenience of digital music with the sound of high-performance stereo. 
Toss out the cords and wirelessly stream music with the Linksys WMB54G Wireless-G Music Bridge. View larger. | With the Wireless-G Music Bridge, you can send whatever music your PC is playing--whether it's from media players, games, Internet radio, or MP3 files--through your home network and to your stereo system. If you're running a wireless (802.11b and 802.11g) network, the Music Bridge will send your music to your stereo with no need for any additional cables. Simply connect the Wireless-G Music Bridge to your entertainment system via the included RCA cable, and you'll be ready to start cranking the tunes. Alternately, you can also use standard 10/100 Ethernet cabling to connect to your network. If you have a 5.1-channel surround sound system, the Wireless-G Music Bridge includes software that creates a virtual 5.1-channel sound in your PC, so that you can take full advantage of your stereo system. The Wireless-G Music Bridge also lets you choose what audio from your PC you want to play over your audio system. For example, you can choose to send music but not email alerts or other PC tones. Or you may want to keep the alert tones streaming. It's entirely up to you. An easy-to-use setup wizard will guide you through the configuration so that you can be up and running in no time. The Wireless-G Music Bridge supports 128-bit WEP encryption to ensure a secure connection and is compatible with wireless 802.11b and 802.11g standards.
What's in the Box
Wireless-G Music Bridge, Ethernet network cable, stereo RCA cable, power adapter, setup wizard CD-ROM, user guide on CD-ROM, and quick installation guide.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 156 more reviews...
 waste of money November 13, 2008
This was the biggest waste of time & money. I am a network engineer. I have 15 years of experience with wired and wireless networks. I could not get the bridge to see the SSID of my AP. I tried for over 6 hours, thinking that I had done something wrong. I even used my Linux wireless tools to diagnose the traffic to no avail. This device just plain sucks.
I wish I could rate this a zero, but the only choice is a "1".
 Tricky install but works great November 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read a lot of reviews before buying this item. I wanted to replace a NetGear Music Player 101 which performed the function of transmitting radio transmission and music from the PC to a home stereo system. The NetGear unit was flakey and the service restricted to a pay service that was very limited and flakey as well.
What I read about the Linksys music bridge put me off some. I am familiar with adding hardware to computers but wireless is always tricky and some of the reviews on installation were bad. However, I took the leap and found some online help in terms of a step-by-step tutorial that one gracious fellow put together and shared and voila, the unit took about a half hour to install (not counting some false starts) and is working flawlessly as I write this. It is really great in that you don't need any paid service to listen to radio broadcast provided free by stations or any music stored on your PC over your stereo system. One could also use your PC like a tivo and 'tape' shows during the day to listen to at your convenience.
With the prices quoted here at Amazon (as low as $25) this thing is a bargain.
Simply does not work as advertised October 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After 6 hours, mine is only working as a wired adapter from the router to the stereo, but not as a 'wireless bridge'. In wireless mode, sound is choppy and unacceptable.
If you are a wireless network guru and must try this product, heed the advice in other reviews and dispose of the directions immediately (especially if you have a router) then expect frustration and disappointment for many hours.
If you are expecting plug and play and are not a network wizard, I highly recommend another product.
 Muic Bridge works with Belkin wireless router October 30, 2008
My recent purchase of the LinkSys Music Bridge works fine with my Belkin router. I use it primarily to play classical music directly from internet radio stations (many from overseas) on my stereo system in the living room downstairs. My computer is upstairs in my office, and there is no problem with gaps in the audio that others have mentioned.
I had to use the manual set up procedure as the easy set up assumes use of a LinkSys router whose default IP address is different from the one Belkin uses. You can plug the bridge into an ethernet port on your router if you want to (instead of directly into your computer) to change the default address of the bridge to one recognized by the router. For my Belkin it is 192.168.2.xxx where xxx is any unused number between 001 and 200 (instead of LinkSys's default 192.168.1.210).
Several people have complained that you have to connect your computer to the Music Bridge first -- in effect changing your computer's audio output to the bridge before starting your music source program (such as Windows Media Player for files or Internet Explorer for radio streams). This is a particular problem for streaming audio as you want to listen to the audio source to hear what it is before you send it to the stereo somewhere else. Unfortunately that appears not to be possible without closing your browser, then changing the output from your computer's speakers to the Music Bridge, next restarting the browser and finally reconnecting to the radio station.
I'm only giving the Music Bridge 4 stars because of this problem and because of the inconvenience of the manual set up, but the sound is excellent once it is playing.
I think someone hacked into it and Vista makes it unusable. October 30, 2008
This wireless bridge will probably work well if you don't have Windows Vista. Windows Vista's wireless network connection, under Microsoft's ingenuity, has a "feature" that you cannot turn off that looks around for new networks every 60 seconds or so. This creates a big lag in your local area connection that leads to a break in your streaming music. I don't know about you but I can't stand listening to music that pauses every 60 seconds. There are work-arounds out there but none of them work on my setup. After this issue, which I did manage to somewhat fix by limiting the types of networks that Vista polls for, my computer stopped recognizing the WMB54G. At the same time I noticed that I suddenly had download speeds over 20Mbps while connecting the WMB54G to my computer via the ethernet connection. My internet service is DSL with a max download speed of about 2.2Mbps. The only conclusion I can come to is that one of my neighbors hacked into the WMB54G to get into my computer or network somehow. Either that or the WMB54G has an unintentional side effect of connecting to other people's networks which seems unlikely to me. Overall, I think it's probably a decent product if you don't have Windows Vista or neighbors who like to mess with your network.
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