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57 of 62 found the following review helpful:
 A good router with notable stability problems Dec 13, 2008
By ChildInside
To begin, I purchased this router less than a few weeks before Christmas. This is actually my first wireless router (I had always used wired routers before), but I was able to plug it in, and connect perfectly fine. In less than 30 minutes, I was able to set it up, and my wired connections worked perfectly fine. Only problem was that the wireless didn't work at all.
I've struggled with the wireless for a week after I got this router. The problem was that upon first setting up the router, it would work fine, but as soon as you implement new settings (port forwarding or wireless security, for example), it would suddenly stop working. I found that hard resetting was the only way to get the wireless to work, but of course, leaving it as thus was unacceptable because I wanted to at least set up wireless security to prevent outside access. Unfortunately, after a few hours of struggling with this, it resulted in the wireless not working at all. Hard resetting, powercycling, reinstalling the firmware; nothing worked.
As a computer hobbyist, I usually pride myself on being able to fix things like this myself, but even I wasn't able to do anything. Needless to say, I had to call tech support. I may as well say here that tech support is absolutely worthless. I was routed to, where else, India, and got on with a tech support representative. I was led through the basic steps (and had to ask the rep. to repeat multiple times because I couldn't understand) and, at the end, the wireless still wouldn't work. The rep kept insisting that wireless isn't working for me simply because I either didn't have 'the drivers' or the 'proper wireless adapter'. Finally, I just had enough, and I was on my own getting the wireless to work again.
Just as I was having serious thoughts about making a return, however, I somehow managed to get the wireless to work. I must have had help from God because, at that point, it had seemed hopeless. Nonetheless, I did manage to get it working fine. I could port forward, set up wireless security, and basically do anything just fine. Unfortunately, it's not completely problems free. Like others, I have and am experiencing random connection drops (it seems as if the router randomly resets), but fortunately, it did not stop the wireless from working anymore. Furthermore, the Belkin Wireless N resets extremely quickly, so it's not as big of a deal as the previous problem to me.
Now that I am able to get the router working fine, let me review the actual router itself. Here is how the Belkin Wireless N ranks in the important areas of range, speed, security, stability, and features.
1) Range - I, like many others, purchased the Belkin Wireless N for the purpose of using the wireless feature. As such, one of the most important features to me is the range. After all, I didn't purchase a wireless router just to be confined to a single room because the range wouldn't extent past the walls. So then, how does the router rank in range? I would say it is fairly good.
I live in a three story house and the router is set up on the third floor. On the third floor and the second floor, the connection power is fully strong. However, on the first floor, the range just drops tremendously. On the first floor at the best location, the number of connection bars is usually one or two, which is a big drop. I suspect that there may be electronic interference.
For what it's worth, the range does seem to be pretty excellent, which is a commendable point on the Belkin Wireless N's part.
2) Speed - Of course, what worth is the range if there is no speed? I have tested the speed using the wired connections and the wireless connections and this is another commendable part of the router. The speed is just as fast wireless as it is with wired connections and both compares favorably with my previous router (all three matches the speed advertised by my ISP).
Truthfully, I had expected some loss of speed when using wireless, so this was impressive. It should be noted, however, that I was in the optimal position for speed testing (i.e. I was sitting right next to the router), so more likely than not, there would not some loss of speed if I had performed the test, say, on another floor in my house.
Regardless, the speed factor is definitely a category the router does well in.
3) Security - The Belkin Wireless N offers ample security to protect against outside invaders jumping on your network. From the simple WEP to the much more powerful WPA2 (I chose that one, of course), it really is nice security. Furthermore, if you chose one of the more simple security, the router actually offers an extra step of further encrypting the password for you.
Personally, I did not like the second encryption, but it is a nice thought nonetheless. I rank the router well in the category of security.
4) Stability - Well, as noted by the first four paragraphs of this review, stability is the one category the Belkin Wireless N fails miserably in (that and tech support anyway). Aside from the trouble of setting up the wireless to work correctly, however, there is also the problem of random dropped connections, which is fortunately mitigated by the router's ability to reset quickly, but it is still a problem nonetheless.
Aside from these problems, however, which can be solved through a router update (if Belkin ever decides to make another update, that is), the router really does not lose much else in the area of stability.
5) Features - Another category in which the Belkin router does well. The router comes with ample features which can all be found on the router's homepage. All the basic features and many more advanced features are here for the users' desire.
Personally, I have no use for many of the extra features (aside from port forwarding), so it's not a big deal for me, but the gesture is still appreciated nonetheless.
Alright then, so out of five categories, the Belkin Wireless N does smashingly in four of them. One would think this speaks favorably of them, but lets look at the realistic side: For the vast majority of consumers, only three of those categories truly matters. Those three categories are the range, speed, and stability. The Belkin router does well in two of them, but it fails in the last one spectacularly.
Furthermore, unfortunately for Belkin, many other routers offers excellent speed and range too, so doing well in just those two categories is not necessarily enough to make it pass with flying colors. It really was crucial that Belkin made its router stable and it is unfortunate that it was unable to do this well enough.
Overall, what would be my recommendation for the Belkin Wireless N? My recommendation is this: If you're knowledgeable about computers and is willing to work at getting a slick and powerful router to work, then the Belkin Wireless N is not completely bad. However, if you're just looking for a simple wireless solution, I would recommend a better router.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Easy Setup and Works Great Sep 13, 2009
By S. Kopuri
I read reviews on amazon and other store websites (best buy, etc.) for this and a ton of other routers because this was my first router purchase (my parents have a D-link but I needed one for my new apartment). I spent a lot of time going back and forth on different routers because I wanted something that could last for awhile but be affordable. Most of the reviews for this Belkin router were either "I've had this router for a week and its amazing!" or "this is a waste of money do not buy!!". But after going through all of these reviews, most of which were unhelpful but some not so bad, I realized the biggest issue people had was that they had to reset the router frequently (I think people were exaggerating about how annoying that is because that usually happens with most modems and routers).
I decided to order this one because it was a really good price for an N router, I figured I know computers pretty well and won't have problems like some of the other people posting bad reviews, and if I did have a serious problem with it not working, I could always just return it.
I've had this router for over a month (which I'm pretty sure is a good amount of time to see any ups and downs) and I love it. It has really great coverage, but I live in an apartment so if you have a house you might want to find a review by someone who lives in a bigger place. Setup was incredibly easy. I don't understand why some people say you should not follow the setup instructions that they give you. Trust me, follow the directions exactly, and you're good to go. The first week I had the router I had to reset it once and that was it for a whole month. Just a couple days ago my internet wouldn't work and I thought it was the router but it turned out I had to reset my cable modem so it wasn't the router at all. I also really like the way the router looks, but that's a personal preference.
BTW I have not had to call Belkin customer service for anything so I don't know firsthand if they are as difficult as people say in their reviews but I have not had any reason to call them. (If you need help with anything, try looking it up in google first before calling the company because you're probably not the first person to have a certain problem with whatever product and people tend to post helpful solutions on the internet!)
This router works great and I don't foresee any problems with it. My advice is to decide what your budget is, do research on technology websites like CNET, etc. and also consumer sites like amazon, best buy, etc., and don't really worry about customer reviews until you narrow your list down to either a brand or a few different routers that fit your needs. Then check the reviews but don't listen to EVERYTHING that people say!
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Easy to set up, unreliable use Jan 21, 2009
By Peter Sripinyo
This router is extremely easy to set up through its web interface, 192.168.2.1. I had a wireless network set up with security very quickly.
However, the router dropped its internet connection (both wired and wireless) every twenty to thirty minutes. After looking through the internet, it seemed that the router was releasing and renewing its IP lease with my ISP and disrupting the internet connection. A quick check of my security log verified that indeed, the router was attempting to renew well before the lease time was up.
I contacted Belkin through email via its website. They were quick to answer (even though my initial email was on Sunday and my follow up was on Monday, MLK day) but gave the standard response of trying to directly connect my computer to the modem to make sure my connection was stable and to reflash the firmware and reapply default settings.
If a firmware reflash and the stability of the connection were not the problem, they would have to have me return the router to them as they would consider it a hardware failure.
I'll return the router, but I won't take the chance of replacing it with another Belkin router. My wired router was an SMC and perhaps I'll give them a shot.
Important note: Someone posted on forums that the latest versions of this router ships with a new firmware revision, but SMC will not release it to the public. I don't know if this is true, but the 'new' version is not on the website and customer support pointed me to the old revision.
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Solid Performance Sep 25, 2009
By Rick Ven
"Classic TV addict"
After reading much about the N Routers available, I decided to purchase this one. Coming from the G router world with a D-Link 524 this was a fantastic leap for me. The D-Link was a very good router in its time. I almost went for their N router but I did not need the extra features to spend the $100 for it.
What I like about the Belkin:
1. Downloading Podcasts. Every podcast was successfully downloaded. Previously, I would lose about 40% of the downloads and would have to make multiple attempts to download.
2. Streaming audio/video. Seamless wireless streaming into my living room where the PC is connected to the home theater, while the unit is stored in my home office a couple of room away. Excellent connection with no drop outs. I am able to watch programs on hulu, youtube, you name it. High bandwidth with no problems. Currently I am using an ISP with 6Mbs speed. The audio on one particular station in iTunes would never play for more than a second at a time when using the G Router. Now, it is seamless.
3. Easy setup. I have Vista Home Premium and it was very easy to setup the wirless connectivity. The security wizard failed during setup which required me to set up manually through the router's GUI. I would rate the process as light skilled. You must know how to access the router's GUI and know a little about security to set up what works best for your environment. But, the process is still easy to access and implement.
4. Stability. I have been using this unit for a month now and it has been very consistent in its performance.
I have not used it for internal networking so I cannot comment on home networking. Overall, I am very pleased with the unit.
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
This Device is a HORRIBLE piece of JUNK Jan 10, 2009
By ferricoxide
This device is an utter piece of crap. If you're a telecommuter, avoid this horrendous piece of crap at ALL costs.
The first problem I encountered was with the DHCP server. The DHCP server does not allow you to change the *SUBNET* that IP addresses are allocated from. The only configuration changes it allows is changing the host addresses that it will serve up. Given that it allocates out of the 192.168.2.0/24 range, this can be a *crippling* problem if you're trying to connect to your corporate VPN. In my case, it *IS* a crippling problem because my company runs it's VPN network in the 192.168.2.0/24 range. When I sent a request to support asking how I might change the *SUBNET*, they sent back an oh so helpful reply that copied the help page that told me how to change the host IP allocation pool.
I finally disabled the DHCP server on the Belkin since it appeared hopelessly unconfigurable. This other DHCP server I set up to use allocate IPs from a non-conflicting range. I then tried to use my VPN client, VPN Tracker 5, to connect to my corporate VPN. No dice.
It should be noted that, when I use this VPN client on other networks (e.g., hotels), it connects properly. I never use the "public IP" option at the hotels. My VPN client also previously worked when I was using a LinkSys Wireless G router (WRT54G with default firmware). Unfortunately, that router had died and I replaced it with this piece of crap. Since putting this on my network, I'm no longer to VPN out.
Oh... Don't bother contacting support: they are USELESS. Example above in their "helpful" reply to my DHCP configuration issue.
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