Customer Reviews

Belkin N1 Wireless Router

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(50)

 

 

I had this router for a while now (longer than I could return it for a refund). Very often I cannot connect to web sites that I frequently use. Eventually I did some research and found that this router has a fatal defect - its DNS cache will get corrupted over time. The latest firmware from Belkin does not fix it.

When I initially had problem accessing web sites, I naturally assumed that the web sites could be down or my ISP could have problems. One day when I tried to VPN into my office the VPN could not be connected. I tried to ping my office VPN server and the IP address returned was different from the actual IP. My VPN server was on xx.xx.xx.84 but the PING request indicated xx.xx.xx.4. I then used NSLOOKUP to check various DNS servers, and pin-pionted the error to the Belkin router's DNS cache.

The DHCP server in the Belkin router automatically sets the DNS server address to be those provided by my ISP plus the Belkin's own IP address 192.168.2.1. There is no way to get rid of it. If there is a way to only use my ISP's DNS server the problem could be worked around. Belkin does not provide this option.

The DNS cache corruption problem will cause a lot of mysterious connection problems. If you are not familar with TCP/IP networking technology there is no way to find out what goes wrong. Shame on Belkin to release a product with such a critical defect.

Update 6-17-07: I have now owned this unit for a year and I still love it. I experienced intermittment drops for a short time when I switched from DSL to a cable ISP. But Belkin issued a firmware update in mid May '07 that totally resolved that problem. No issues since.

After trying the Linksys SRX400 and WRT300N routers and being totally discouraged by poor performance, I decided to give another brand a try. The Belkin N1 worked right out of the box as advertised. All I did was hook up the router to the DSL modem and then to my workstation, restarted, and then ran the CD and that was it. The WiFi range and consistency of the signal is superb. I bought this router primarily to stream video to Media Center Extenders that are littered throughout the house in various rooms. I had no problem getting an "excellent signal" in several areas - both inside my home and outside on my patio. The signal was constantly strong and did not bounce around a lot like it did with the Linksys. At the time of this review, the N1 runs rings around the newest Linksys WiFi routers - at least that is my experience. I spent many days and hours trying to tweak the Linksys routers and I only spent about 15 minutes tweaking the Belkin N1 before I was satisfied with the performance. I believe that the Belkin N1 came out about 1 month later than the other pre-N routers that are now on the market. My guess is that they spent the extra time running it through Quality Assurance. This is the first pre-n router that I am aware of that hasn't needed firware patches immediately. Anyway, if your experiencing WiFi congestion and you need the extra speed and range, then I would definitely buy this product.

Outstanding Router were it not for some wireless glitches. I now share my wireless network with my inlaws 3 houses away (though clear line of sight). Took a long time to sort out why I couldn't maintain a wireless connection even within my house though...and I note some people think the wireless does not even work.

A review of the product at "Tom's Hardware" website finally pointed me to the problem. Apparently, the router has some hardware issues related to their Security feature. If you enable WPA-2 the signal can drop by more than 85% leading you to believe it doesn't work...I'd suggest you read that review.

Based on that, I removed the Security settings and all my problems with dropped connections etc. ceased. I provide some security by using the MAC Filtering and not transmitting the SSID. I suspect that is sufficient for a home router but not for an enterprise. But I could not engage the WPA-2 (either TKIP or AES) and get any reliable range or connection out of this router. Caused a great deal of frustration for awhile. But now it works great and I get the range and speed I was hoping for.

This is the most horrible experience I have ever had with a router. I loved the original Orinoco routers, so easy and so reliable. I also loved the Belkin Pre-N router. This N1 however is horrible. It started with booting off the system every 15 minutes. After TWO DAYS on the phone with technical support, I got the router replaced. The new router booted me off the net after 30-40 minutes. After TWO MORE DAYS on the phone with technical support, we finally got the router to stay on for 4 hours. But then you have to go through a whole system reboot. If you don't believe this is a systemic problem, call their customer support at 877-736-5771 and you'll see that they have put in a hot line for people who can't keep this thing online. There are two things I recommend -- the Belkin Pre-N and the very nice customer support at Belkin. They really did try everything and replaced my product with a different product in the end. Thank goodness for the lifetime warranty on these. Don't buy it. Go with this one instead. Belkin F5D8230-4 Wireless 802.11x Pre-N Router

With all the negative comments on the Linksys model, I previously decided to try the Netgear Next router. After over 2 hours on the phone with their useless tech support, and going through two separate units, I still could not get the wireless part working with my internet service. So I rolled the dice and tried the Belkin unit. After running through the setup wizard and one short call with tech support this unit works great..good range, speeed, and the diagnostic icons on the front make it very easy to tell the status of the router. Well done Belkin!

I have tried over 10 different routers over the past 9 months, mostly Linksys, since in my opinion they made "the best looking devices," but certainly not the best in any way and I finally found the best wireless router of them all and the best looking one as well!

I have tested over 5 Linksys devices, including their first one with SRX, then the SRX200 and SRX400 and most recently the very nice looking N from them to connect the following items: Two laptops, two PDA's, an XBox 360, an HP wireless printer, a Motorola Ojo and several VOIP (Sunrocket) telephones as well as wireless security cameras!

After countless days and hours of painstaking configuration and endless hours on the phone with Linksys' very poor English speaking and poorly trained support, I could never get any of these devices to work with all of the wireless devices I own!

Their latest one, the "N," is a joke! That thing never did anything other than look nice on my desk and their customer support was horrible!

Their technician had the audacity to tell me that all of my over 10 recent wireless devices were incompatible with their product, instead of the other way around and advised me to call Sony, Toshiba, HP, Microsoft, ReplayTV, the makers of my devices customer support to configure each and every single device individually to work with their piece of junk!

The truth is, technical support from Microsoft, Motorola and HP told me that they always had some kind of issue with most of the products made by Linksys! It doesn't surprise me, after their wireless print server device fried my printer!

This one from Belkin was so simple to set up, it only took me about 12 minutes and I was up and running in a secured wireless network with every single one of my devices working better than ever! I can now stream live TV, videos and music to my XBox 360 without any jitter or lag!

My online gaming is awesome! No lag either, so I highly recommend this router for XBox 360 owners!

Take it from me! Buy this router from Belkin, you will not regret it, this is truly a work of art with its really helpful status glowing icons, which also makes it look awesome and sets it apart from all the other manufacturers!

Most importantly, it is a very compatible router, working with over 10 wireless devices which I currently own from different manufacturers and it is also amazingly easy and quick to set up! Trust me on this one, you will not go wrong with this awesome product from Belkin!

In fact, I am so impressed with this company, that I will be replacing any Linksys devices that I may still have with Belkin devices, which should be easy to do, since they are quite literally plug and play! Thank you Belkin!

I first installed the latest firmware from Belkin's site on my PC, and then hooked up the Router via the supplied cables to one of my PC's. I then installed the latest firmware for the matching wireless card on another PC, and the installed the PCI card itself, (I made sure to FIRMLY push the antenna cables onto the card. The connection was snug and I had no problems with it loosening up.

After powering up the router and the PC's, the router virtually set itself automatically with no problems whatsoever.

The wireless signal strength is excellent and constant acroos two floors of my large house. I'm getting download speeds of almost 30 mbs according to the "SPEAKEASY speed test" is use via the internet.

The only complaints I have are minor. One is, that I wish the user manuals were supplied via hardcopy and not just on a CD. The other is, that the antenna cable for the wireless PC Card needs to be longer to more easily place the antenna on my computer's furniture cabinet.

I purchased the Belkin N1 Wireless router after a Best Buy employee told me that it was one of the best routers that they carried. He was horribly wrong. There are several problems with this router that should prevent you from making the same mistake that I did when I purchased it.

1. The router constantly gives out duplicate IP addresses. I can't begin to tell you how many times I would be in the middle of a research paper or just doing some work on the web when all of the sudden, my IP address disappeared. Often when another computer in my network was turned on, the router would give the computer the exact same IP address that I was using, forcing my computer off the internet. This occurred on every wireless device in my house.

2. The router is especially prone to random disconnects. Often the router would cease to function for no apparent reason. It would go offline and would require a power cycle to get online again.

3. The router constantly dropped the connection to my modem. As if it wasn't bad enough that the wireless constantly lost a connection, I would often see that annoying flashing "modem" light on my router which signaled that the connection was lost to my cable modem. In order to fix this problem, I often had to reset both the modem and router several times, only to have it happen again an hour later.

4. The range on the router is pathetic. Sure I have a few concrete walls in my house, but I shouldn't have to purchase a range extender just to get the router to extend its signal throughout my basement.

At best the router would function properly for about a week at a time, and at worst it would only function for a couple of minutes. It was truly one of the worst purchases that I have ever made. I owned this router for a couple of years, and it was quite expensive so I was hesitant about replacing it. Make sure that you do a lot of research before investing in a router. I recently replaced the Belkin N1 with an Apple Airport Extreme, which instantly solved all of my problems. I would highly recommed the Airport Extreme as an alternative to this abomination of a router.

Belkin is making a name for itself in the WiFi market with this gem. I own a Belkin USB Wireless Adapter for a PC in my Local Mesh and it works like a charm...I was so impressed with the PC Adapter that when it came time to upgrade my LAN to all wireless as some of the CAT-5 Cables were degenerating over time, I decided to give up my Linksys 'G' router and opt for the Big Belkin N.

Now...here's the deal. There are actually two phases of setup for the Router...one is easy and the other a bit more challenging. The first part just gets the unit communicating with the other wireless adapters in your network...the second part gets you hooked to the internet.

After following the instructions...YES, I had to read the users guide, I was able to get the Mesh up and running. After a brief conversation with the techies @ Belkin, I was hooked to the internet in about 10 minutes.

Let me say at this point in time that the unit is also UPnP for media streaming and shows up as an icon in your 'My Network Places' Window. Just right click the icon to 'Invoke' the Set Up Page and you've got enormous control over the setup and nuances of your Belkin N Router.

As a side note...it works great with my Roku M500 streaming music device which is another great wireless item and when used with Yahoo's Music Jukebox with Unlimited service, you may never have to buy another CD in your life. Also, the Belkin delivers great video signals to my Sony Location Free TV system and works like a charm when I'm viewing TV & DVDs at my local Hot Spot.

A lot of problems that others encounter may not be issues with the Router itself but with the Modem supplied by their ISPs. The Netopia DSL Modem supplied to me by AT&T is a bit quirky as it is a Router as well as a Modem...so a bit of tweaking and uncoventional thinking was used to get the two Routers to cooperate. As I said, after about 10 minutes with the Belkin agent..I was painlessly up and running.

Now...about the signal. It is very strong...very fast...and very reliable.

That being said....spend the dough and get one.

Warren

The router works fairly well and is simple almost to a fault. The flashing lights on the face of the machine have nice little icons instead of tiny little green lights with text written beneith them.

However, the router does lack a few features such as QoS and the ability to write in long ISP host names. This is irritating if you're sharing the connection with a few people and would like to priorative certain types of content. And not being able to put in long ISP host names makes that whole feature useless as most ISP hostnames are long.

The good news is that the hardware is very good. It's range even on G standard devices is awsome both in it's clarity and range. However the modes it can be in are also a bit lacking. It can only opperate a mixed G/N mode as opposed to pure N.

On the whole what this router needs is a good firmware update which I'm sure is forthcoming. However, it's a good router for home use regardless of that.