Customer Reviews

Belkin F5D6231-4 Wireless Cable/DSL Router

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

Wireless router is a must have for laptop users. It provides a range of freedom unparallel to any wired set up. If you go to a university or work for a company that has wireless connection everywhere, you will truly appreciate the convenience of wireless internet. It has revolutionized internet as much as cell phone has revolutionized telecommunications.

Belkin's 802.11b router is a good router to have if you are using it for only wireless internet and sharing connection. The installation is very easy for novice users. It's just a matter of following a bunch of diagrams in the manual to get everything started. If you run into problems, Belkin has an excellent 24/7 free tech support program. I got almost a no-wait response. However, the regular tech support's knowledge is very rudimentary, knowing less about networking than me. I think they just following a manual of FAQs.

With that said, I have found some problems with the 802.11b router running more advanced features like De-Militarized Zone (DMZ). Because many programs such as file-sharing programs, video conferencing, etc. require non-standard ports, you'll need to either forward these ports or DMZ the computer. With the 802.11b, the DMZ feature does not work at all for me. I've talked to Belkin's high level tech support but to no avail. I have to manually forward all the ports that I need to be open, even port 80 for web server. On top of that, the router allows port forwarding for only 20 programs. If you need to forward more than that, you will do some manipulating. You can get around this by forwarding a series of ports, which only takes up one slot in the virtual server feature of the router. Say if one of your program runs on port 1024 and the other one runs on 1030 you can forward 1024-1030. The draw back with this is that it compromises the security of your network. I sometimes change the port of one program so it will run consecutive with a port of another program, so I wouldn't have a bunch of unnecessary ports opened.

RATING:
One star off of ease of use and performance because of the the problems with advance features. Other wise 5 for ease of installation and cost/benefit. Average to 4.5, but since there's not 4.5 option, I would give it a 5.

FINAL WORDS:
All in all, the 802.11b router has an unbeatable value (...)The Tech Support is great. But for more advanced functionalities, it becomes quite a nuance.

I was initially very pleased with this router. It was reasonably easy to set up, although I configured it by hand instead of using the Easy Install Wizard so I can't speak to the quality of the Wizard. The 76-page manual is good, though missing an index.

The web-based interface was very very nice (at first, but more on this later). I was able to enter my settings quickly, and there appears to be a high level of customization possible. This router comes with firewall capabilities that are not necessarily advertised, which was a welcome surprise.

Things worked well for the first day, and the range on the wireless was quite good. At that point I decided to increase security. I disabled SSID Broadcast so that the ID of my network would not be spuriously broadcast...however, a new laptop immediately saw the network. So I'm not sure if SSID broadcast disable works, or if I made some mistake.

Then I tried to filter MAC addresses (which ensures that only specified computers have access to the router). For several hours I tried to enter a list of 5 MAC addresses into the router, but it would not take any more than one! This was a maddening experience. Finally, I decided to try using Internet Explorer to access the web interface, instead of Netscape. Suddenly, it worked. It seems likely that Belkin did not adequately test the product with Netscape.

During the above process, I had tried to check the firmware revision (I have 1.00000000, and no new firmware is yet available). I clicked on the button to check to see if there's an update, and the interface hung every time. So that feature doesn't work right, either, in either browser.

The next thing I did is try to confirm that MAC Address Filtering (above) was actually working properly. I enabled the feature, and removed a few computers from my access list. But they could still access the internet! I then removed all computers but one from the list, and still, no filtering. I called tech support. To give them credit, I only waited on hold a few minutes. But the person I spoke with was clueless. He was probably so used to people having trouble getting the internet to work, that he couldn't process the notion that my problem was that the security features were improperly permitting network access to unauthorized computers. I believe he didn't even know how MAC Address Filtering is supposed to work. When I was finally able to make the problem clear to him, he said someone would get back to me. But that won't be before I return this router for a refund.

In summary: the router has good potential. But the fact that MAC Address Filtering simply doesn't work, and Disable SSID Broadcast may not work either, means that this router is missing at least one of the fundamental security features. There are other firmware problems, too, which don't speak well for Belkin's Quality Control. My advice is not to purchase this router, at least until the firmware is revised.

I love my router and feel I need to defend it. I got this thing, unpacked it, stuck it on my DSL modem and it runs...well. No resets, I get excellent signal strength all through my 3 floor brick house, MAC filtering works perfectly (doesn't block connections, but they are useless) and the encryption is as good as you can get from WEP. The PPoE works great and the DHCP assigns wireless IPs without fail.
I might suggest that some of the people who had problems might try to make sure the thing is sitting away from their computer case, as is instructed in the manual.

I just got this Belkin router yesterday (Model F5D6231-4) and I set it up this morning and it is working great.

I do have firmware version v2.00.002.

It took me less than 5 minutes to get the wired portion working. I have two desktop computers and a color laser printer all networked through this router via another hub.

My Thinkpad comes with a mini-PCI wireless card and it detected the router with no problem. I enabled 128 bit WEP and it is picking up signal nicely. I have a two story house and the router is on the second floor. I have signal throughout the house ranging from 2 - 5 bars. I had no problem using the web in the paces where there is only 2 bars of signal through my 3Mb/256kb line provided by charter.net.

(...)

This router is a great deal if your primary purpose is to browse the web. When I attempted a sustained 50KBPS VOIP connection it would start dropping packets after approximately 4 minutes rendering the conversation useless. This is probably due to memory and processor constraints.

On the positive side, configuration is a breeze, it comes with an excellent feature set and looks cool mounted on the included base. Under normal conditions turning 128 Bit encryption and MAC address filtering on added only 2 milliseconds to device latency. This is better than some other, larger and more expensive boxes I have had to live with in the past. The 4-port switch is a really nice feature and it even comes with an optional content filter to help keep your kids safe.

I decided to keep it and have purchased a cheap 5 Port Switch to place in front of the router so that my bandwith-hogging, latency intolerant, VOIP ATA can benefit from a direct connect to the ISP without clogging up this nifty router.

Belkin just released 1.10 firmware for this router without any release notes. I called them up and asked what was changed in 1.10.
I was told that MAC filtering was fixed. Unfortunately, even after updating the firmware, MAC filtering still does not work. I have called them at least 4 times and have escalated but still no response from them.

I've had this wireless router for about a year and I continue to be unhappy with it.

The Good News: The wired component is just fine. With Cat5, it has been utterly reliable.

The Bad News: The wireless range is terrible. We live in a typical post-WWII, 1200 SqFt house on LA's Westside. Aside from the 3rd bedroom/home office and living room, the signal is unreliable in all other rooms, even the backyard just outside the office's window. There has been no firmware upgrades from Belkin. Ever. The WEP security has been problematic. Even in the room I've never been able to connect up at 128.

I say buy another brand. I'm giving this one away and asking Santa for a better unit.

I'd been using a Linksys Wireless-B Broadband Router with 4-port switch, along with 2 wireless PC Cards for my three-PC home network, running Windows XP. However, we began to experience frequent outages with our cable internet. Not knowing whether the problem was our cable internet connection or the router, I bought a brand new version of the Linksys Wireless-B Broadband Router ("Linksys Router II"). But the problem persisted with Linksys Router II, so we called Comcast cable, and they sent out technicians -- twice -- to check our connection. Well, it wasn't our cable connection, so I knew it had to be the Linksys router. I went to a local computer store one day, thinking I'd try out the Microsoft wireless router. But while at the store, a Belkin manufacturer rep just happened to be there, and he convinced me to try out the Belkin Wireless 4-Port Router, which he claimed would set up in 3 minutes. The Belkin unit was cheaper and also had a generous rebate being offered at the time, so I decided to get it. I also bought two Belkin USB wireless adapters; these, too, were cheaper than the comparable Microsoft USB adapters.

The Belkin rep was right: their router and USB adapters set up MUCH more easily under Windows XP than my previous Linksys components ever did. Moreover, the router's software configuration utility was better, more advanced and easier to use and understand than the Linksys software. Best of all, the Belkin products solved our cable internet outage problem! Now our internet connection not only goes out less frequently, but when it does, I simply reboot the router through Belkin's software utility which automatically re-configures the router and in less than one minute (it literally counts down the seconds from 0 to 60), the internet is back.

Yes, it's hard to believe that the cheaper Belkin product could perform better than Linksys (which is owned by Cisco Systems!), but it does. If you're looking for a dependable and an easy to install home LAN (and I mean EASY -- you don't have to know anything about networking since both the router and USB adapters configure themselves in Windows XP), save yourself some money and give Belkin a try.

Earlier had a DLink DI-614+ wireless router. The router and the wireless card worked great. However, the concurrent VPN connections were very very intermittent. I got fed up and finally gave up on this Dlink Router. Bought this new Belkin wireless router and the wireless card which had a great rebate going.

As advertised, the installation was a breeze. Just followed the instructions and I was online both using the wired and wireless connections. They have very good installation procedure. I guess everyone could do it..

I didn't encounter the VPN problem that I encountered with DLINK DI-614+. I didn't do any setup with this Belkin Router, yet the multiple concurrent VPN connections went thru' without any hitch. This was great after spending too much time with the DLINK router.

Great product for a Great Price.

Absolutely no problem setting up and using in built up area. No problem with interference from 2.4GHz phone or microwave operated near client's 802.11b card. Setup was a breeze, 5 min. as advertised, 15 min. total to setup and configure both router and a Netgear card. Security drawback: needs implemented blocking of unknown MAC addresses. Also, turning off broadcast of SSID does not work. This device might is OK if you are not worried about security. For example, in a single family dwelling surrounded by a lot of space (c. 200 feet radius). Not bad for the money.