Belkin Play N600 HD Wireless Dual Band N Router Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Our router bit the dust and my son had taken to connecting to the neighbor's access point, while I chose to tether to my mobile phone. Meanwhile, it was only a matter of time before other family members found dissatisfaction in either of these contingencies. What is a skinflint like me to do?
I wanted, well, everything...
* 802.11 b/g/n
* at least 4 gigabit Ethernet ports
* dual-band
* ability to connect an external drive as a simple NAS
* a 2-yr warranty would be nice
Costco had these on sale for $89.99. I couldn't say 'no'.
Setup was a breeze. The Belkin Router Monitor app sits in the System Tray and makes configuration easy. Most configuration parameters have help files that can be called up by clicking on the parameter's title and help files are quite good.
Performance is very good. Gigabit Ethernet ports are fast (as they should be). Wireless is predictable (so far) and reaches 150-ft (54Mb). Configuring remote devices is easy.
Only thing is, when I connected my 1TB WD MyBook drive, the router would not recognize it. I finally called tech support and learned that the router ONLY supports SELF-POWERED portable USB drives or thumb drives. I tested this with a 320GB Seagate FreeAgent Go drive, which I had on hand, and the router detected it instantly and network access was very quick. I'm glad I didn't buy an externally powered drive.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Belkin Play N600 HD Wireless Dual Band N Router

Belkin Play N600 HD Wireless Dual Band N Router

Click here for more information about Belkin Play N600 HD Wireless Dual Band N Router

Read More...

Belkin F5D8010 Wireless Pre-N 802.11x Pre-N Notebook PC Card Adapter Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I am a Senior Network Engineer and I have been doing various things in designing, building, and fixing all kinds of networking equipment for about 13 years now. I have installed from scratch several enterprise (or very large office) class wireless networks. I use the Belkin Pre-N wireless router and laptop cards at home for a few reasons:

First to get the best benefit out of the Belkin Pre-N card you'll want to use it in conjunction with the Belkin Pre-N router. Then you'll want to upgrade the Pre-N router firmware (or software) to the latest version available on the Belkin web site.
1) The Speed - 108 Mbps (Mega Bits Per Second) which is faster than the standard 100Mbps Ethernet card in most PC's. However you will never really see this full speed due to the error correcting, radio interference, and overhead in the wireless protocol, but the Belkin Pre-N laptop card in conjunction with the Belkin Pre-N router will be at least 2 times faster than your standard 802.11G wireless cards (including the built in wireless cards in most laptops today). One thing to note you will only see the greater speed if you use the Belkin Pre-N card along with the Belkin Pre-N router. If you don't you'll only get the standard 802.11G speed (54 Mbps). The Pre-N designates a few things they did to double the standard 802.11G speed and it actually means the precursor to the 802.11N standard that was just recently ratified by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.) Incidentally Belkin now has the N1 wireless line which is compliant with the new 801.11N standard and can get theoretical speeds up to 300 Mbps (almost twice the Pre-N speed).
You can check your speed to the internet at www.speakeasy.net/speedtest. You should check your speed before installing your card (to get a bench mark of your internet speed) and afterwards to make sure it's close to the same or hopefully much better. If you find your speed slows down after installing the Pre-N card, you would want to look at what other wireless networks are operating near you. NetStumbler is a great free program [...] that will not only tell you what wireless networks are operating near you but it will tell you the all important channel they operate on. Ideally you want your wireless network channel to be 4 channels away (if possible) from any other wireless network operating near you. So if you see a wireless network near you (not yours) that is operating on channel 1, then you want to set your wireless network channel to 5 or higher. This of course gets really interesting if you have several wireless networks because 802.11G (Pre-N being an extension of that) only has channels 1 - 11 to use. So you just have to do your best to have your channel as far away as you can from all other wireless channels. Most people don't know about all of this and leave their channel on the default (channel 1) so you might be able to switch to the higher channels without many being there. The other thing that can slow your wireless network (or even cause you to get disconnected) is 2.4 GHz cordless phones. 802.11G (including Pre-N) and the slower older 802.11B standard (which operates at 11 Mbps) use the same 2.4 GHz band. I actually had to get rid of a couple of my 2.4 GHz cordless phones and buy some 900 MHz cordless phones (this was the standard before the 2.4 GHz cordless phones). The 2.4 GHz cordless phones are supposed to check for clear channels but many just go down the list from 1 to 2 to channel 3, etc because it's easier to develop the phones to do that. So when I took a phone call it would kick me off of the wireless network sometimes when my 2.4 GHz cordless phone hit the same channel as my wireless network.2) Range - The Belkin Pre-N card used in conjunction with the Belkin Pre-N router allows you to be much farther away from the Belkin router without loosing any speed or loosing your connection. Belkin boasts 8 times farther coverage than the standard 802.11G cards (like the one built into your laptop). And from what I've seen this is true. Now it may not sound like you need to be so far away from your router but the thing is, with standard 802.11G, as you get even 50 - 100 feet away from the wireless router (and especially as you add walls between your PC and wireless router) you may start to go down in your speed. The 802.11G wireless cards will start at 54Mbps and go down from there even all the way to 1 Mbps (very slow). I had this problem because I have a 2 story home with basement and my internet wiring is in the basement and therefore my Belkin Pre-N router is in the basement as well. I would then be working all the way on the second story (some 150 feet away) with several walls between my PC and wireless router and watch my wireless speed go down to 11 Mbps with the built in wireless card in my ThinkPad T43. With the Pre-N card in my ThinkPad, I maintain 108 Mbps everywhere I've gone, even outside in the yard. So the range benefit isn't just so you can go a block from your home and get wireless coverage but so that you can maintain a good wireless connection and good speed over it.3) Security - Belkin Pre-N supports WPA-TKIP, WPA-AES, WEP, and no encryption (clear). It's obviously unwise to have no encryption or clear because anybody nearby can see everything you send over the wireless network be it traffic to other computers, or things you send or receive from the internet (like your emails and website passwords). WEP is not much better and can be broken into when someone just sits in your neighborhood and sniffs less than 1 million of your network packets (usually less than 1 hour). Now having a stranger getting on your wireless network may not sound so bad but really it's like someone plugging in a network cable from their PC directly to yours only that you have no idea they did it and no idea who they are. So in addition to browsing the internet for free on your wireless network they can also try to connect to your PC, steal files from your PC, plant bad programs onto your PC, or watch the traffic you send to the internet from your PC and watch things like the login and password to your bank, etrade, etc go by. Give that some thought before you say you don't care if people connect to your wireless network. Therefore I strongly recommend you use the WPA encryption type and preferably set the Pre-N router to accept only WPA-AES encryption (the hardest to break of all of them). Once you set the Belkin Pre-N router to this, it will only accept connections of this type. You will have to come up with a long key (or key word) but this is one of the reasons why WPA-AES very secure. Along with that I would set it to 802.11G only so that no 802.11B clients (operating at 11Mbps) can connect. Running both bands causes more interference and again slows down your wireless network. I would also recommend you uncheck the box in the Pre-N router configuration that says "Broadcast SSID". By doing this you will NOT broadcast the name of your wireless network and people will not even see it when they browse for wireless networks near them. This is yet another hurdle to someone getting on your wireless network along with the WPA-AES encryption. You will know the name of your wireless network (and you should change this to something only you know as well). When you try to connect, you'll have to manually setup a wireless network in Windows and put the name in manually (not hard at all). Keep in mind only Windows XP supports WPA so if you have any other version of Windows (like Windows 2000) you would have to get special software for it to connect to a wireless WPA network. It's probably worth an upgrade anyway because Windows XP Professional runs quite a bit better than Windows 2000 or the other older versions of Windows. Again you really want to run WPA encryption. Also you'll want to set a good password on your Belkin Pre-N router so people can't connect to it and change all of this secure stuff you've set.
Conclusion: The install of the Belkin Pre-N wireless card works well and is fairly easy. The drivers they have for the card are very good also. The Belkin Pre-N router configuration is all done through a web browser and it works well too (as long as you upgrade the firmware on it to the latest on the Belkin Web site). So all and all I don't really have anything bad to say about the Belkin Pre-N products. They work very well, do what they say they can, and are pretty fast, and trouble free. They are priced well too now especially since the N1 products have come out. So as long as you're O.K with the 108 Mbps speed you should be very happy with it. But if you absolutely want the 300Mbps, then check out the more expensive N1 products that Belkin now has. This would only really matter when you are sending traffic PC to PC in your home and would not make much difference when going to the internet for anything. Remember most home internet connects are 8 Mbps or less anyway and your Pre-N card is at 108 Mbps. So the N1 products may not be worth the extra money unless you do a lot of PC to PC copying or something. But the benefits of Pre-N are definitely worth it if only for the reason that the greater range allows you to stay at full speed even if you're farther away from your wireless router.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Belkin F5D8010 Wireless Pre-N 802.11x Pre-N Notebook PC Card Adapter

Get 23% OFF

Click here for more information about Belkin F5D8010 Wireless Pre-N 802.11x Pre-N Notebook PC Card Adapter

Read More...

Belkin N600 Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router (Latest Generation) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Updated June 02, 2011: This review was beginning to resemble a short novella, so I've substantially edited it.
This is definitely a lot of router for the price. Its feature list reads like a dream:
# Dual band networks (2.4GHz and 5GHz)? Check!
# Guest network for visiting friends? Check!
# Support for standard features like port forwarding, MAC-based security, MAC address cloning, wireless security, etc.? Check!
# Support for advanced features such as Dynamic DNS services (dyndns.org), or Quality of Service (QoS) manipulation? Check!
# Ability to exercise parental control by tailoring access schedules and allowed URLs, giving me super-Dad powers? Check!
# Support an external USB drive? Check! Serve as an DLNA-compliant server? Double check!
# Ability to turn off all its router functionality and function as a barebones Wireless Access Point? Check!
# Unique aesthetics with lots of power saving options? Check! (unless you prefer your router lit up like a Christmas tree).
# A generous 2-year warranty? Check!
So what bothered me?
###############
[1] The implementation of administrator security seems a bit flawed. The router authenticates a user based on the IP address of the computer you are using to log in, and the admin password you configure.
Unfortunately, at various times in the past 8 weeks, admin authentication has failed to kick in. This allows any computer that can connect to my network to access the admin screens (and view my wireless passwords in clear text) without prompting for the admin password. Even the default 10 minute inactivity timeout for admin authentication is ignored when this happens. The only "fix" is to reboot the router. After the third such occurrence, I returned the router to Belkin for investigation.
See my uploaded screenshot for details (a link is in the Comments below). Notice that admin info is being displayed even though I did not provide an admin password. Also note that the header says "Login" (it should say "Logout" when you are authenticated).
I have a suspicion (possibly unfounded) that the "self healing" option (defaults to ON) masks this problem for most users by periodically rebooting the router.
[2] Unlike my Netgear WNDR3700, the N600 did not support DHCP Address Reservation. This is a feature that lets you reserve a given IP address for a particular device (such as a wireless printer or security camera) on your network. Without it, a router reboot could assign a different IP address to your device, requiring you to adjust its properties to get it back online. Some devices can be configured to request a particular IP address, but address reservation is a lot simpler.
[3] On the admin console, the SSID and password are on two separate pages, and each change needs to be committed before making the next. A commit requires a reboot of the router, which kicks you off the wireless network!
[4] Any change to the router settings takes 40 seconds to apply. This is perilously close to Windows reboot times!
[5] The router setup software did not work well on one of my computers. See the "additional notes" section below for an easier way to setup this router.
Conclusion
#######
This is a good value-for-money product. It is built well and is fairly stable. I was able to stream video to my PS3, and was able to connect with very decent range on both the 2.4 and 5 GHz network bands.
My favorite router is the solid Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR3700. However, given that the N600 costs about a third of what the WNDR3700 retailed for when it was first released, and that it costs about half as the WNDR3700 today, I am very impressed by the value that this router represents.
Unfortunately, the security issue was a deal breaker for me, and so I have returned this router to Belkin for inspection. I have returned to my Netgear, which works well, and I don't have to keep looking over my shoulder for abnormal behavior.
Other users seem very happy with this router. So until someone else corroborates this problem, I'm going to assume that this is limited to my router and will rate this at a neutral 3-stars to avoid skewing its product score.
Additional notes:
###########
If you have setup a router before, the standard router setup procedure is far easier to follow:
1. Power down your cable modem, router, and computer
2. Connect an Ethernet cable between the WAN port of the router and the cable modem
3. Connect an Ethernet cable between a LAN port of the router and your computer.
4. Power on the cable modem and wait for the lights to settle.
5. Power on the router and wait for the power light to steady.
6. Power on the computer, and navigate to the router (for the N600: 192.168.2.1)
7. Set up an administration password, and inactivity timeout
8. Set up the wireless SSID and security.
9. On the computer, establish a connection to your SSID, providing the appropriate passphrase.
10. Your computer is now connected on both your wired and wireless networks. Logout of the router's admin console. Else the dreaded "Duplicate Administrator" error is likely to raise its ugly head.
That's it!
Happy Networking!
~Damodar

Click Here to see more reviews about: Belkin N600 Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router (Latest Generation)

The Belkin N600 DB Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router gives you advanced performance for video streaming and gaming. Featuring exclusive MultiBeam technology and dual-band speeds of up to 300Mbps + 300Mbps*, the Belkin N600 DB gives you maximum throughput and multi-device coverage throughout your home. This router also includes a USB port for wireless printing or media-sharing and a suite of integrated applications for wirelessly playing videos from your library on your TV, backing up files, and automatically detecting and resolving potential network problems to keep your connection hassle-free.*The standard transmission rates-300Mbps (for 2.4GHz), 300Mbps (for 5GHz), 54Mbps, and 11Mbps-are the physical data rates. Actual data throughput will be lower and may depend on the mix of wireless products used.

Click here for more information about Belkin N600 Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router (Latest Generation)

Read More...

Belkin WIRELESS ACCESS POINT ( F5D7130 ) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)First of all, the installation of this product is relatively straightforward but the default factory settings will leave your system open (unsecure). In these times of increasing cases of hacking and with more and more wireless products being available, security is a major concern and you should make your first assignment to secure your system from attacks.
There are several options available for securing your connection that include eliminating the broadcast of your wireless network name (SSID), setting up encryption manually or automatically (either 64 or 128 bit) by using an optional passphrase and filtering out MAC addresses.
Now, setting up the Wireless Access Point is not as straightforward as it seems, and here's where the documentation should be a bit clearer. The WAP setup has a web-based interface that requires an Internet browser such as MSIE or Netscape.
The default IP address (and URL) of the WAP is 192.168.2.254 with a Class C subnet mask (255.255.255.0), you could care less about it, but it is very important to know. In order for you to configure the WAP, you must set up your PC IP address (either the wireless client or the host PC that you will use to connect to the WAP) on the same subnet as this default address on the WAP. In my case, my DSL router belongs to a 192.168.1.xxx subnet, so I had to change my address temporarily to a valid one(192.168.2.100) as explained in the manual. Fortunately, the WAP setup allows you to change the WAP's default IP address to suit your needs.
About applying firmware updates:
Problems arise when you apply new firmware, a common procedure that everyone should do when acquiring these kind of equipment, but should be very careful when doing so.
Firmware updates bring improvements, fixes and new features to your WAP and keeps it up to date. The problem I had was that the firmware changed the WAP's default IP address to 192.168.2.1, something I found out after researching networking.belkin.com.
The second issue was that my security settings were erased and my saved settings were not completely recovered, apparently because of some format compatibility issue not documented anywhere. Luckily, I put everything on paper and I was able to set everything back the way it was but believe me, looking at a "page not found" error after a firmware update is not for the faint of heart.
Now about client connectivity. I own a DSL router connected to a simple 8-port 10MBps hub. I connected my WAP in one of the ports on the hub. My laptop (with a PCMCIA wireless card) immediately found the WAP. Reception should be fine if your wireless clients reside across open areas. Closed rooms are another story. In my case, although my bedroom (closed area) is much closer in distance to the WAP, there was no reception initially and noise was higher than in the living room (open area). For this reason I had to place the WAP in a more direct line of sight to my bedroom and in a higher position to allow for better reception. This required a longer patch cable than the 6-inch UTP cable included with the WAP.
In summary, if you are familiar with networking PCs and know how your network is set up then you shouldn't have any problems installing and using this product, otherwise I'd recommend bringing someone with networking experience to help out.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Belkin WIRELESS ACCESS POINT ( F5D7130 )

Click here for more information about Belkin WIRELESS ACCESS POINT ( F5D7130 )

Read More...

Belkin F5D8230-4 Wireless 802.11x Pre-N Router Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This router was so easy to install, it was scary! After years of living in "Linksys hell" with their "b" router, version 2, I decided to take a chance on a new, highly-rated router. Out of the box, I had the Belkin installed and working immediately in 10 minutes or less!! I'm just an average user, but I highly recommend this router to anyone who is thinking of switching to wireless networking in their home. Well worth the money to upgrade.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Belkin F5D8230-4 Wireless 802.11x Pre-N Router

Connecting the Belkin N1 Wireless Router to your cable or DSL modem lets you share your broadband Internet account with all your networked computers. Now you can exchange documents, share resources, and distribute large video and music files throughout your network within a greater range, at faster speeds. N1 offers the easiest setup ever, and our built-in Network Status Display lets you see your connections working. Each icon represents a network component, so you can easily monitor your connections for fast troubleshooting. Based on the 802.11n draft, N1 Wireless uses smart-antenna technology to enable multiple receivers and transmitters to send and receive data wirelessly. Intelligent MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) spatial multiplexing techniques build upon the widely deployed 802.11g standard by greatly increasing speed, range, and faster speeds of up to 300Mbps.

Get 55% OFF

Click here for more information about Belkin F5D8230-4 Wireless 802.11x Pre-N Router

Read More...

Belkin Wireless N+ 802.11n Router (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The Belkin wireless N+ router is the third wireless router I have purchased over the last five years. I have a three story house and the router is located on the first floor. The earlier routers did not cover the entire house and I had to use a wireless repeater. More importantly, these earlier routers were always having to be reset, sometimes on a daily basis. This new Belkin router has taken care of both problems. It gives a substantially stronger signal and I do not need the repeater any longer. More importantly, is has been absolutely reliable. I have not had any problems since plugging it in a month ago. Set up was a breeze. I am one totally-happy camper!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Belkin Wireless N+ 802.11n Router (Black)

For those who need the fastest wireless connection, the Belkin N+ Router will have you flying down the fast lane. Thanks to the 802.11n Draft 2.0 technology that provides up to 300 Mbps of data throughput, and a wide variety of high-performance features, the N+ Router is the ideal choice for demanding Internet users.
Compatible with 802.11n Draft 2.0 for Incredible Performance Using the latest, 802.11n Draft 2.0 technology, the N+ router offers outstanding range thanks to smart MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) technology. This router offers enough range to easily cover most homes or office spaces.

With data throughput of up to 300 Mbps, the N+ Router can handle media-intensive applications that take up large amounts of your bandwidth. The router will easily handle high-demand network activity such as streaming music and HD video, playing games online, downloading large files, and making Internet phone calls, all without hiccups or slowdowns.

If even this isn't fast enough, the N+ router also has four gigabit Ethernet ports for ultra-fast wired connections.

Backwards Compatibility for Ultra Convenience The N+ router is backwards compatible with all Wireless-G and 802.11b networks and devices, which means that you can continue to use your current computers and peripherals that are on the older standards.

Keep Your Network Safe and Private With support for Wi-Fi Protected Security, you can ensure that your wireless network is safe and secure with a single button push. In addition to Wi-Fi Protected Security, the N+ router also supports 256-bit WPA/WPA2-Personal, and 64-bit and 128-bit WEP encryption to ensure that your data is protected.

Easily Share Storage with Your Whole Network The router features a USB port that allows you to connect a USB storage device, such as a hard drive or thumb drive, and share its contents with all the computers on the network. With an attached storage device, you can store music, videos, and photos in a central location for everyone on the network to share and access.

Elegant, Informative Design Featuring an elegant and smart vertical design, the N+ Router saves space and looks good on your desk. LED icons let you know at a glance the status of the connection, if security is enabled, if USB storage is being accessed, and other useful information. There's also a "Download Speedmeter" Bar of LEDs that constantly measures the download speed of your network.

The Belkin N+ Router is backed by a 1-year warranty and includes free 24/7 technical support.



Winner of the CNET Editors' Choice Award
What's in the BoxN+ Wireless Router, quick installation guide, user manual on CD-ROM, power supply, Ethernet cable.

Get 63% OFF

Click here for more information about Belkin Wireless N+ 802.11n Router (Black)

Read More...

Belkin N1 Vision Wireless Router (F5D8232-4) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I suspect most of the people with issues or complaints have version 1000 and / or old firmware.
Additionally one needs to use this in conjunction with 802.11n wireless adapters (preferably Draft 2.0 for future upgradeability / compatibility) in order to obtain the maximum benefit out of the router, at least from a wireless performance perspective.
I recently purchased version 2000 of the N1 Vision (check the sticker on the bottom of the box). I have it mated with two PC's with 802.11n Draft 2.0 (2T2R - 2 Transmit 2 Receive) wireless USB adapters (each with just an internal, but high quality, antenna).
I was up and running in no time.
I also had no problems using VPN to connect to my office network.
I am using WPA2 with AES encryption.
For extra security I have it set up with (broadcast SSID set to 'off' and have specifically only allowed my two wireless adapters by entering their MAC addresses in the 'MAC address control' of the router's setup utility).
Upstairs (one room away from the N1 Vision I get 95 - 100% signal quality and 90+ signal strength with a pretty consistent connection speed of 270 Mbps! (not the full 300 maximum but certainly close enough for me). :)
Downstairs (one floor down and all the way on the other side of the house relative to the router), I get something like 45 - 75% signal strength depending where I am in the room. The speed varies between 45 Mbps, at worst (will have to verify this tonight as I only used it one night and believe this minimum can be improved upon), to a more typical 170 or 210 Mbps (wide range, I know, but I only tested it one night and haven't tweaked settings or placement yet via the flexible silver mini extension cable).
The display is useful in that you can see who connected to your network in the past 24 hours (if an unexpected visitor enters your wireless network, at least you will have a way of knowing it).
I am pleased with the Vision N1's speed, range and overall performance, other than the disconnect issue for which there is an easy enough workaround until they fix it permanently, hopefully, via a firmware upgrade for the 2000 model).
Keep in mind my testing was done using Draft 2.0 802.11n wireless USB adapters. Wireless G adapters won't have the same performance or even close to it.The one thing to note is that there is a known issue where the N1 Vision disconnects every two hours (wireless or all around). This occurs when the router software connects to the time server to get the time (check the router setup page's security log and you can see the entries every two hours).
There is a firmware fix for this for version 1000 but ironically NOT for the newer version 2000.
The N1 Vision 1000 hardware has other issues (reported overheating etc.) though, so I still much prefer version 2000.
For version 2000 there is a workaround to stop it from disconnecting every 2 hours (search the net for it as it requires accessing a "hidden" page).
The workaround works very well and is only required to be performed once after a reboot of the router.
I haven't had to do so in a long time.
I gave it 4 stars due to the issue with it disconnecting every 2 hours and the fact that version 2000 does NOT have a firmware fix for this, even though the older version does.
This should have been caught during pre-release testing. If not, at worst, a firmware fix should have been created for version 2000 very early on.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Belkin N1 Vision Wireless Router (F5D8232-4)

N1 vision Wireless router

Click here for more information about Belkin N1 Vision Wireless Router (F5D8232-4)

Read More...