Customer Reviews

Belkin F5D6050 Wireless USB Network Adapter

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Bought this item to go with my TiVo system and it works great. I plugged it in and my system recognized it immediately. It took less than 60 seconds to get my TiVo connected to my Belkin wireless system. The network connection allows me to program my system remotely online and avoid the need to provide a phone connection.

After having had both the Belkin Router and the Linksys Router in the house (had to switch due to DSL provider) and having had both Belkin and Linksys PCMCIA and USB adapters I can summarize very quickly:

Maximum distance from the transmitter in our setup is about 90 feet, across two floors.

The PCMCIA adapters are really flaky at this distance. Rather than the 11Mbs, we often see it drop down to 5.5, 2, even 1. They are sensitive to angle and obstacles. The USB adapters can be placed up to 5 feet away such that they have a good "path" to the transmitter.

This Belkin USB outperformed all other three units as it always gave the strongest signal. Noticeable better performance doing anything on the network or over the DSL modem.

But - here's the caveat: DO NOT USE THE INCLUDED CD.

Using the included CD we had POOR performance, and didn't understand why we couldn't even achieve 100% signal strength in the same room as the transmitter!

Upgrading over the web fixed the problem, and we have had a very reliable connection since.

I have this working just fine right now on my Mac G4 desktop with Tiger. HOWEVER - I downloaded the driver for 10.2 and installed the adapter, and THEN upgraded from 10.2 to 10.4. I know they don't yet have a driver for 10.4 available, but if you can get it to work with a eariler OS then it can work in 10.4

Since Apple stopped manufacturing the original airport card, they are way overpriced on eBay. You can't use Airport Extreme for the G3 iBooks, either. This is one of the few wireless adapters that has Mac OS X drivers.

Obviously, not as aesthetically pleasing as an airport card or even a smaller keychain-sized USB adapter, but hey it works for $25. I'm on Mac OS X 10.2.8 with a Netgear router. I had a bit of trouble getting it to connect to the internet, but with a bit of trial and error got it to work by changing my router settings to "open system" auth and "allow SSID broadcast".

Downside is that since the iBook is USB 1.0, traffic thru this device is rather slow--much slower than the theoretical 11MBPS that 802.11b supports

My eMac's ethernet port died after lightning storm, so I bought this bad boy to be able to hook it up. It just worked. The software for OS X works great and I had no problems connecting to a NetGear router. The OS 9 drivers are a bit weird and the documentation is nasty.

This is just what I needed, have been using it for two weeks without any problems. Could not verify the drops that others have witnessed because the adapter is 3 feet away from the router. If you are looking for a wireless network adapter that works with OS X (10.3.5 for me), this is the one to get.

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Update after a (almost) a year: It works, but if the machine goes to sleep, then it will disconnect and a reconnect from the belkin software is needed. Driver updates are non-existent, and the documentation is really not a good one. I'd drop it down to 2 stars if I had the chance again, they created the OS X driver in a rush just to sell a few more.

I'm buying another one of these for my Mac because my Sony TiVo Series 2 SVR-3000 just acquired Software Version 4.0-01-2-110 and it works flawlessly with a Linksys WAP. (The Belkin software for Mac is nice if you don't have an AirPort Basestation because it can convert an alphanumeric password to hexidecimal and vice versa. AFP works too.) Attached to the TiVo, the Belkin works great using TiVo Home Media Option and Rendezvous. I have streamed iTunes and iPhotos pictures from my PowerBook G4 with an AirPort card and iMac with an AirPort Extreme card. (Tip: Make sure Mac OS X's Firewall isn't blocking the port TiVo needs to Rendezvous with your Mac.) Streaming audio, video and connecting to TiVo over the Internet works fine too. Now I just need to upgrade to more TiVo Series 2 systems so I can stream shows to different rooms! Amazon should sell these sleek Belkin adapters in bulk... :)

I live in a mixed PC household consisting of two Wintel laptops, a Rev D iMac running MacOS 9.2.2., and a G4 Mac running OS X 10.2.8. I bought a couple of these Belkin units to get the iMac and one of the PC laptops on my 802.11b Linksys wireless system. The installation on the PC was a snap. The drivers were on the CD that came with the unit and I was up and running in minutes. Fast transfer rates - no issues. Works every time.

The iMac was a different story. First, there is no Mac software on the CD that comes with the unit. You have to go to the Belkin website and download it. Installation of the software was easy but after re-boot the problems began to surface. First, the iMac would freeze during the boot process. After restarting over and over, it would suddenly boot correctly for no apparent reason. After successfully booting, sometimes the control panel sees the device and sometimes it doesn't. I added a powered USB hub to the mix thinking that it would fix the problem - it didn't.

So on the to G4. I hooked it up the the G4 Mac just to see if it worked any better than on the iMac. Again, I had to first go to the Belkin website to get the driver. It installed with no issues, but problems with its use were similar to the iMac. While there is never a problem booting, sometimes the Network Prefs panel sees the device and sometimes it doesn't. Simply rebooting (which I hate to do with a Unix system) eventually 'fixes' the problem.

I think the bottom line is that this is a fine product with poorly written drivers for the Mac OS. I don't want to be too critical because there are so few companies anymore that take the time to support the Mac at all. But in the end, I can't recommend that anyone buy this for use on a Mac until Belkin updates the driver software or makes other changes that bring this product up to the level of plug and play that Mac users have always been used to.

Like you, i'm trying to set up a wireless network; i'd like to connect my old computer (running Windows ME) to my newer desktop running XP. I bought this device at Staples b/c of its price and because it clearly stated it supported XP and ME. Well the drivers were no good for WinME, even the newest drivers from their website would not install correctly. So it was a dead appendage. Their tech support suggested I try it on a third computer we have, it runs XP. Well it installed fine, but could not link to my network (Netgear router), even after tweaking the router settings. He said he was getting a lot of calls with the exact same problem and suggested I return it and try another device. If possible I'm going to get a refund and buy a little better one - maybe a PCI wireless adapter, instead of the bottom of the barrel cheapo which is my wont. When will I learn? Learn from my mistakes folks and move along - nothing to see here.

After spending several weekends installing & re-installing this product on my XP Pro box, to use with its sister product (Belkin F5D6130 AP), I GAVE UP. Included CD was flakey -- so, got new driver from Belkin website. Installed & worked -- until I rebooted, then XP froze up. Had to disable an XP service (SSDP Discovery). After reboot, USB device is recognized, but offline, and cannot bring online. I have extensive experience with networking (20 years). Tech support was of no help. Could be an XP problem, but note: Belkin Driver is "unsigned". Avoid this product (for XP) until Belkin releases a better XP driver. Going forward, I will be looking for a wireless Ethernet bridge, possibly LinkSys WET11.

It simply doesn't work with my Win2000 & Apple base station.
Not with the original driver, nor with the updates that can be downloaded from the Belkin site. Sad story. The frustrating thing is that sometimes it's ok, but then after a while it just dies. With the whole OS. Since I got the unit, I keep restarting my frozen computer...