As I posted yesterday, I finally bought a new wireless router after giving up on my D-Link WBR-2310. I spent many hours researching wireless routers on various sites like Cnet, Amazon, Fry's and Best Buy. Looking at the rating of each router was not enough. I found that some routers rated 4 1/2 stars out of five also had what I thought were too many one star reviews. If these one-start reviews all had something in common, such as ".... this router is worthless, stopped working after 10 days and I returned it..." then I decided not to buy it. The router I bought was highly rated by cnet.com, and overall the user's reviews were good. The going price was $119, but Fry's had it for $89 - not bad.
Belkin calls this router a "N+", which really does not mean much. The "N" routers out now are all pre-N, since the "N" standard has not been finalize (the current standard is "G", as is 802.11g) . The salesman at Fry's ensured me that when the "N" is standardized, this wireless router, and all others, can be updated to the new standard with just a firmware update. I check and I have the latest firmware version.
This is my second wireless router and third router overall, each built by a different company. I decided to configure this router using the "wizard" setup, which I knew was a mistake. I dislike "wizards" because they try to make it easy for anyone to configure a device but usually don't work too well. One of the first choices is your ISP name. So I entered Time Warner. Then it asked me for my login. I knew this was incorrect because TW does not have a login. So I just entered my e-mail login and continued the setup. Eventually I was told that the router could not connect to the Internet, so that's when I started the manual configuration. In the "Internet WAN" menu, I just selected "Dynamic", which means that my IP address is assigned by the ISP. Once I did this, I was connected to the Internet no problem. So I then set my SSID, encryption, password and so on. The router required a restart, after which my wired connection to my computer worked fine.
Then I needed to make sure all other devices worked. I tested the wireless connection with my MacBook Pro and that worked fine. Then I attempted to access my Panasonic network camera. This failed. The problem was that my netcam was set to an IP of 192.168.0.X, and Belkin uses 192.168.2.X. So I had to run the camera's setup disk and after some trial and error I finally got access to the camera where I could change its setting so it was compatible with the router. Then I attempted to access the camera over the Internet and that failed. I had to re-register the camera with the website that allows Internet control of the camera.
So the final test was the printer, which I have connected via LAN. The test print failed! Again, after fumbling around, I found the printer's settings needed to be updated with the new IP address scheme. After making this change, the printer worked.
I then pushed my luck and tried to get my new wireless router working. After over an hour of trying, I gave up. I tried again today and still no luck. More research required.
Overall, I like the Belkin router. It offers two features my last router didn't. Four gigabit Ethernet ports (instead of just 10/100 baseT), and a USB port for connecting to an external backup hard drive, which I will buy someday. After only one day I can't say weather or not this router is better than the D-Link. I'll keep on eye on lost wired and wireless connections (hopfully there will be none) over the next few weeks and then update this review with my findings. I'll also let you know if and when I get my bridge working.
Added 01/23/09: So for so good. The router is working fine. On my post about my netcam, someone posted some links to sites saying Belkin is paying people to write good reviews. This may be true, but they have not paid me once cent - yet.
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9 comments:
Keith,
Was looking at the webcam review and noticed you had problems with your router. Really wish I had seen your first complaint about the router as I have a suggestion.
You could have purchased an inexpensive Linksys WRT 54GL (about 60 bucks) and it allows you to upload Linux, GUI firmwares. These routers are the rave of the entire net! I even have companies (20 people or less) using them for Exchange Email, FTP, VPN all at the same time! Never a hassle and i set it to reboot itself every Monday at 5am just in case (You can script it for 30 days or whatever).
Anyways, here is the link to the firmware in case you need to get another router. Oh, and you can buy several of these to repeat the signal to another building close by!
Linksys WRT 54GL
Free Firmware: http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php
Demo of router in action:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/demo/
Only routers I have ever seen more reliable, commercially or home, are the Cisco routers that start at $600!
Ha! I just bought the same Belkin router over the weekend and stuck at the Wizard setup where it asks for my Time Warner username and password. After two calls to Time Warner tech support and asking for the 2nd tech's supervisor, I was able to get them to confirm with me that Time Warner does not HAVE a username and pw. So irritating because they can't ask a simple question; instead, I get a Networking 101 lesson about how routers "don't care" what your username and password is. I will try configuring using the web interface. Currently, I have given up and unable to connect to the wireless network. I hate talking to tech support guys. They never listen to your problem and always stick the the script. Thanks for posting your experience!
Thanks for the comment, Kim. I almost never call customer support for that reason. I just do a search on the Internet and always find others with the same problem I'm having and eventually find the correct solution. That I why I post stuff like this - for other people like me.
Great range, very fast, simple to set up, useful LEDs on the front, good price, USB port for network storage devices, wireless guest access, stylish looking, bandwidth meter on the front...
Keith,
I purchased 2 of the Belkin N+ routhers hoping to use them to make a wireless bridge for my system. I found out that there is no firmware update for them at this time from the DD-WRT folks who do have firmware updates for the WRT54G Linksys modems.
Giving up on that I decided to hook it up to my system and have a go at it. I ran into the same problemes you did on the hardware end because as you mentioned Belkin uses the 192.168.2.X addressing scheme.
I too tried the wizard and was sorry for trying it. (I like you know better!) Anyway I called Belkin Support and after a lenghty conversation and many reboots of the computer, router and modem it worked! Solving that problem I decided to hook it up in place of my Linksys router with a 4 port switch so I could have a faster wireless connection. Ahh, shouldn't have done that! I could never get it to work again to get on line. I could do anything on my LAN but never connect to the internet. I even put it back like I had it when it was working and couldn't get it to work.
So if you want to call Belkin support they will help you but make sure you have some time set aside to do the resets and reboots until it starts working, then don't mess with it after it is!
Hope that helps. I like my wireless bridge, even at 56k it works fast enough that I hardly notice the difference.
Wow, stumbled on this thread while snooping for any change in the 3rd party firmware state of the F5D8235-4 (Belkin N+). First, its rather misleading to drop your lack of networking knowledge on the router. If you 'wizard' set up any router in the fashion mentioned in here a couple times you are going to be prompted for a user/pass. Congrats, you're on broadband - you don't need it. If you're using DSL, you will! And when you call tech support and they explain this to you, you criticize them for giving you a networking 101 lesson? Sounds like you need the Intro the the interwebz class first. Yes, the default 192.168.2.0 network configured on the router is not the typical netblock assignment on other routers. You know, that actually makes it 'easier' to drop this router into an existing network, since you then wouldn't have to change the IP scope to keep from conflicting with existing IP space. Since you would absolutely not be able to figure that one out yourself (given the nature of ther est of your comments), and very likely neither would your ISP's tech support, who isn't even obligated to support your half-assed attempts at setting up a home network. If you don't know how to access your networked devices to adjust IP's accordingly, maybe you should stick to a Polaroid. Or call geek squad.
RE: DD-WRT
Agreed - the DD-WRT routers are phenomenal when implemented, and at a steep discount to getting the same functionality from a commercial router. Why this is not relevant to this post: There is no DD-WRT support for ANY make/model of Wireless N router with gigabit ethernet and USB network storage support- particularly with the RAM/ROM specs of this guy. Depending on your needs, the F5D8235-4 may or may not be the best option available.
Overall - I have this router running great, serving media from a network-shared TB media drive. I suppose it could be argued that, given the functionality and default set-up, this is not an 'entry-level' router. I'm pretty sure my 13 yr old nephew could get wireless connectivity up and running without using google, though.
I rate it at 5 stars, excellent buy at $89.
Oh, and PS - the native OS on this box is a linux distribution. It is fully upgradeable/mod'able by compnent, just not with a nice DD-WRT walk through.
It's a bit starnge that you have to make a shift from D-link router to Belkin router. By the way belkin also provide great range of routers.
I own an Apple Airbase one, Thanks for sharing review though.
Awesome Wireless Routers for Gaming
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