Customer Reviews

Belkin Wireless N+ 802.11n Router (Black)

5 star:		(144)
4 star:		(68)
3 star:		(46)
2 star:		(69)
1 star:		(139)

 

 

The Belkin wireless N+ router is the third wireless router I have purchased over the last five years. I have a three story house and the router is located on the first floor. The earlier routers did not cover the entire house and I had to use a wireless repeater. More importantly, these earlier routers were always having to be reset, sometimes on a daily basis. This new Belkin router has taken care of both problems. It gives a substantially stronger signal and I do not need the repeater any longer. More importantly, is has been absolutely reliable. I have not had any problems since plugging it in a month ago. Set up was a breeze. I am one totally-happy camper!

I have had this router for two months, using a mixed Mac and PC environment, all with wireless N cards.

The router has phenomenal range and throughput. I am getting 5 bars in locations around my house where my previous router (D Link G router) would not give a signal at all. The speeds are also amazing. Using Comcast's Blast service in the SF Bay Area, I am regularly able to attain 20 Mbs speeds over wireless and 30 over wired connections. I have a small USB hard drive connected to the router, but really haven't played with it long enough to evaluate it's network storage speeds. The hard drive is recognized by the PC but not by the Macs.

The main drawback to this device is that it frequently drops the internet connection with the cable modem (an RCA Thompson model). I know the internet is still active on the Comcast end of things because my Comcast Digital Voice service is not affected, only my internet. Strangely, when this happens, it is also nearly impossible to connect to the router via the web page address (192.168.2.1). I expect that this is a firmware issue and have been waiting for updates, but no such luck yet.

Also, the router has a Guest Access mode which allows others to surf the internet but does not grant them network access.

Overall, great range and speed if you can tolerate the occasional need to reboot the router.

Surprisingly, there are not many highly rated wireless routers out there to pick from. It seems like the best ones only get about 3-star reviews. I am upgrading from a Linksys wireless-g router that is a few years old, and wanted to make sure whatever "n" router I purchased it would be worth the money, and shows an improvement in functionality.

We'll, this router delivers. I'll try to briefly bullet the reasons why:

* Set up was very easy using the provided CD/tutorial. Took about 20 minutes total.
* After 4 days of use, no dropped signals or functionality issues at all.
* Ability to hold a flash drive (plugs right into the back of the router) that can be accessed by other computers is very convenient. Now, when I use my work laptop at home I can access or transfer files to the house laptop easily.
* LED screen on the router is easy to read and shows you what is or isn't working.
* I am now running internet speeds significantly faster on "n" versus "g". You'll see a big difference with this.
* I am getting much stronger signals all over the house versus my Linksys router
* Amazon's price of $87 makes it worth the price.

I highly recommend it to all.

UPDATED 12/13

What does my title mean?

I was running a wireless G home network with a Linksys router (in fact, I have a review on that router!). I was happy with my setup but I wanted to upgrade to wireless N and maximize the throughput on my devices. For the record I have:

- Personal laptop
- Work laptop
- Nintendo Wii
- Xbox 360
- PS3
- DirecTV HR20
- Sony PSP
- Nintendo DS
- Dell media server

Running on my home network. Of those devices, the 360, HR20 and media server are connected via Ethernet. I'd researched the viability of going to a Gigabit network. For those that aren't aware, basic Ethernet is capable of a maximum of 100Mbps throughput. You can imagine that might be a bit of a problem when you're streaming HD movies across your server. I also noticed a significant performance impact when attempting to use my internet connection at the same time as browsing my local network, probably due to the fact that it's not a dual band router. But it was severely annoying to me and I decided to go shopping.

I noticed this router down at BBuy, for just shy of $120. It seemed quite a bit for a router (I'm used to paying no more than half of that amount), but I noticed all of the features of the router and everything clicked into place. The router is more than a router; it's actually a hub for just about everything you can imagine. There are some notable things missing, and it does have some issues, but it's easily one of the best routers I've used in recent history (and I have used quite a few of different brands).


This Belkin supports a variety of protocols which I'll go into momentarily. I want to first focus on the negatives of the device, as I think specific negatives will end up being dealbreakers for some - so I want to expose those first, and if none of them are that critical to you, then it's just a matter of cost benefits.

The first negative is the most basic. The web interface is quite wonky, sometimes not responding to browser requests, sometimes loading a little strange (as in text all over the page), sometimes loading but looking like it's not, etc. It's just unpredictable and quite honestly I was ready to take it back due to its behavior. I stuck it out and figured out what it's problem is...I'll get to it in a later negative as it's really a separate issue. As to the page itself, there are a lot of utilities presented, most very useful, but there are also utilities that are not present that I felt should have been..not really the page's fault, and I'll get to those later.

The next negative may be a nitpick. The Linksys routers allow you to not only view DHCP clients, but also boot specific ones off or even block them at a MAC address level. The Belkin can block (or allow) MAC addresses, but once a DHCP client is connected, you can't just "delete" it from the list and kick it out. You can Deny it, but if an IP was already leased, it's stuck until the client disconnects or the router is rebooted, which may present a security issue.

There is also what I would consider a glaring issue, and it may be fixable via firmware update (which isn't yet available). The router functions in dual mode, local and WAN, so you can have internet and local network running concurrently. The problem is, you can't navigate the LAN or the router's admin page without both being active. So for example, let's say I had no network and just wanted to use this for local network connections. You have to force the router to act as an access point - but of course, that disabled the ability to use WAN as an option until it's changed back to the default. I hate to sound like a broken record, but the Linksys allowed you to still navigate the web page and use LAN resources regardless of the presence of a WAN connection. The real issue comes with configuration: I need to connect to the Belkin router and configure it before I can give it internet signal, else it will be unsecure. Can't do that if the router won't let me connect to its admin page!

Next issue is more of an annoyance. When you make changes to router settings (any router), the router generally needs to restart itself in order to make the changes effective. I'm not sure if it's the router or if it's Vista, but I never had this problem with the Linksys, so I make the assumption the Belkin is at fault somewhere...when you make such changes, and then restart the router, you'll get local connectivity back but not WAN. You have to manually repair your connection to get it to pull an IP again. I'm not sure why this happens, because again, I've never had to do that. If I didn't know better I'd swear the router was "taking too long" to talk to my computer. Of course, since you can't access WAN during this time, you also can't access the admin page to verify everything was set, nor can you access other computers on your network to see if they are working successfully. Great.

Last but certainly not least, while it's nice that this has a USB port for connecting USB drives, I was really disappointed that a faster technology (like Firewire 800 or eSATA) was not represented. I mean this is a Gigiabit router with Wireless N yet it's using an archaic technology for the drive sharing. I guess it's for more widespread compatibility, but it's still a downer.

OK! The bad stuff is behind us. Let's get to the features and the good stuff.

As mentioned this is a Gigabit router. This applies to the Ethernet ports on the back of the device. It effectively maximizes throughput, yes...but you need to make sure that the computer is equipped with a Gigabit adapter. The standard Ethernet adapter will only max out at 100Mbps. Communications seem a lot more efficient even with standard Ethernet, but you're still not getting the most out of the connection. You can find a Netgear or other Gigabit adapter at your local store for less than $50. Once connected the router and card know to send the maximum stream through, so you should not have to do any configuration besides plugging it in and getting drivers updated.

The router supports four Ethernet devices maximum. These can be standard Ethernet, Gigabit or a combination thereof. It also supports Wireless B, G, and N...so if you have a newer laptop that supports Wireless N but other devices that use older wireless technology, you can use all of them concurrently and should not experience too much of a problem. There have been scattered reports of the Sony PSP not playing nice with the multi-spectrum setting. I have not yet tried it on mine, but I imagine it will not work because the PSP does not support WPA2 (more on that later) which I am using. Doesn't matter, as I can always get updates manually and load them on the PSP with my computer. So far the PSP is the only device I have not yet tested. All others have sync'd up to the Belkin with minimal incident.

Unique to this router is the dual-encryption. With WPA2 you can configure a key that is then authenticated with both AES and TKIP. This means that devices that support only one or the other under WPA2 can still use the same key, without compromising your network selecting a lesser encryption algorithm. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this feature. The Wii supports AES while the PS3 supports TKIP, etc. It's nigh to infuriating, and I'm glad that this router has implemented this technology so that I don't have to deal with it.

Also unique to this router is a feature that I was on the hunt for and was told would be on expensive, high end routers: Guest Wi-Fi. Got friends who come over with their laptops? Want them to have access to your internet, but don't want them touching your local network resources? Setting up Guest Wi-Fi allows you to do it. You can even configure it like the hotels with an interstitial page that will prompt the user to enter credentials before getting access. I was very pleased that this feature was included, because on occasion I may need to give a friend access to my internet but don't want them to have access to my files. Unfortunately, you can't set caps on bandwidth utilization, either per guest or even globally for the guest account. I would have liked that, so that I can pre-allocate only a fraction of my total bandwidth to prevent "bandwidth hogging" when someone's at my place. Not a big deal, just something I would like to see in future firmware.

You can also connect a USB hard drive and access its files via a shared drive in Windows underneath the router. This is a nice feature if you just need access to the files, but USB is such a slow standard in comparison to the other standards present on the router that it's almost frustrating trying to navigate the drive's contents. There is a noticable delay when trying to access files that isn't there when the drive is connected to your computer directly, and you know it's not the router, but the delay between the slowness of USB and the speed of Wireless N and/or Gigabit, so there's nothing you can do about it. Still, it helps when you're trying to migrate files on or off of a USB drive to one of your other workstations, or use a USB drive as a central hub for file storage.

One other feature that is on other routers, but not implemented nearly as well versus the Belkin, is the ability to reserve IPs for specific MAC addresses. This way, even if the IP is dynamically assigned, you can reserve it specifically for that device's future use, so you don't run into IP conflicts on your network. As mentioned, other routers let you do this as well, but not nearly as easily. On the Belkin, you simply click the "Reserve" button next to the device, and click Apply. Two clicks and you're done, whether others have signicantly more steps to do the same function.

The router does come with a software CD which isn't necessary, but does speed up the set up process. You caninstall without it, but be prepared to dedicate a few hours to the cause if you choose to do so. My setup, all told, took about 6 total hours from beginning to end. Compared to the roughly 45 minutes it takes to set up the Linksys router, this disappointed me, but it wasn't the features or anything...rather, the issue with the web admin page that I mentioned earlier that caused the majority of the problem. You should probably consider just using the CD if you don't want to be bothered with it, because if you have a somewhat complex local network, you will get frustrated...guaranteed.

Don't let what I mentioned deter you, though. This is still a great router for the price, quite powerful and comparable to those you might find in companies. But it's not for beginners. If you're not sure what you're doing, find an expert. If you do know what you're doing, this is one of the best there is.


UPDATE: I believe I may have found an inherent defect in the security. I was able to replicate the issue twice, and I'm going to research to see if it's a known issue.

When setting the security settings on the router, there is an option to set the encryption method and key. For the key you can tell the router to obscure the PSK as you're typing it. Apparently, if you do this and submit the page, it clears the password and the encryption setting, allowing unsecured connections! This is an issue...a big issue. I only identified it when my laptop stopped connecting to the router and I was resetting everything to get back up and running (rebooting fixed the underlying problem), and was going to change the password anyway. Just be forewarned that this might be a glitch that they need to fix; not sure yet. I might even put up a video review about it.

After much research, I purchased this Belkin Wireless N+ to replace my failing Linksys WRT54G. I have 2 desktops, 2 laptops,2 pda phones, a PS3 and soon to be XBOX360 in my wireless network. A replacement router has to be flexible enough to handle my needs.

After a month of operation I have had no issues. Connectivity to all my devices have been consistent if not better than what my previous router provided. The setup is easy fairly easy. The router is setup in one corner of an 1800sqft one story home and a pc on the opposite corner is now able to receive consistent connection with no drops. My son noted that his laptop is receiving better connection when surfing the net browsing through sites such as youtube. My pc's are still using g band connectivity and will be upgraded as the need arises.

UPDATE TO REVIEW 1-15-09 (I WOULD RETRACT THE 5 STARS IF POSSIBLE)

Router was bought in Nov '08. Sony PS3 and PDA phone was unable to connect. Currently have 4 pc's (2 are hooked up wireless and 2 are hardwire connected) on the network and all of them are getting dropped from internet access randomly.

Belkin product support could not troubleshoot issue and recommended replacement. However, Belkin Customer Support (if you can call it that)is hard to contact and does not follow through on your open ticket. They do not send email regarding any replacement status. Email to customer support does not exist on their website. At the time of this update, Belkin does not have stock to replace it this router and hasn't had any for 2 weeks. They do not have an estimate of when they will receive any. This strikes me as odd. There is plenty to sell to vendors, but none available for warranty replacement cases. BUYER BEWARE. Luckily, I still have time to return this since it was an X-mas present.

I previously owned a Linksys WRT54G for years before it died. I will find another Linksys product to replace it.

I have had the Belkin N+ router for approximately 3 weeks now and it seems to be a reliable performer. Though I don't nearly push the maximum range of the device in my 2 bed apartment I have not had a single dropped connected connection or throughput issue on my Mac or my wife's vista PC. This router can be had for about $80 as of June 2009 if you shop carefully and the inclusion of gigabit wired ports, draft N, and the ability to hook up an external USB hard drive or flash drive for network storage are unmatched at this price.

As far as external form is concerned I find this router very attractive. It seems designed to only stand vertically. Note: There are lots of very bright blue lights on the front of this thing. I like it, but its not in my bedroom.

As far as range and speed go I haven't been able to do too much testing but using my wife's draft N laptop and my older Mac hooked up to a gigabit port I was able to move files from one to the other at about 5 MB per second. My wife's laptop said it was connected at 168 Mbps. Obviously lots of factors go into the speed I saw.

The USB port on the router is a very handy feature. I simply plug a flash drive into it. Both the PC and Mac can access this drive. The Mac finds it automatically (leave password blank) while with the PC you simply go to map network drive and type \\192.168.2.1\nameofyourdrive Alternatively you can install included software to find the drive automatically. When the Mac writes to the drive small files with weird names often appear as well. The Windows machine does not see these files. Windows formatted hard drives will work, but Mac formatted ones will not. The read/write speed to the USB drive is a bit slow, maybe a little over 1 MB per second. This is fine for pictures, files, and most music, but if you want to store HD video remotely it could be a time killer. Note: you cannot hook up a printer to this USB port. You currently have to move up to much more expensive routers from Linksys or Apple (could be others too) to get that feature.

Set up of this router with my cable modem was relatively easy, though I use the web browser interface, not the included software. (Simply hook up a computer and type 192.168.2.1 into a web browser.) Setup with DSL isn't quite as basic according to the instructions but I didn't mess with this. Some wireless settings are not explained in the popup help window. Sometimes the router must restart to do basic changes, which is a bit annoying if you fiddle with it a lot.

I have had a Belkin Pre N router for the last 3-4 years (I think). For the last 12 months it has been less than stable, needing to be reset multiple times per day, making downloads like product updates practically impossible to complete. My home has 3 floors, with a MacBook Pro, 1 wired HP Printer, 2 wired desktops, 1 wireless desktop, an IPhone, a Wii, a Tivo and a DS looking to connect to the internet via my Comcast cable.

I looked at the reviews, and this Belkin N+ router looked very good. So, I ran out and purchased one yesterday.

I followed the instructions and my equipment connected and found the wireless, pretty easy and quickly. I then decided to run the installation CD on my laptop to set up a new name and set a password. This process was a little problematic, but I think that was because I was trying to do it over a wireless connection. Within 45mins everything was set up and working. It did help to have had a Belkin in the past, so I was familiar with the process.

So far so good. It's working like a charm and I have had NO need to reset the device.

So what do I like? Speed, reliability, stability, excellent coverage and the Guest feature.

What do I not like? Nothing so far. Given other reviews, I fear contacting Belkin support, but have had no need to try. Nor have I tried the attached storage. If I do experience problems, I will try and update this review.

I bought this router based on the strength of the reviews from CNet etc. After some minor problems getting setup,the router worked fine for about 6 months. After 6 months it started constantly dropping my internet connection when connected wirelessly. Only powering off and powering back on would resolve the problem. I upgraded the firmware hoping that might solve the problem. No joy!
I called Belkin tech support who insisted the problem was my ISP. Reluctantly, I changed ISPs and upgraded to a high speed broadband connection. I still had the problem with dropping the connection. The I ran a speedtest (with wired connection to the router) to see if my new ISP service was working as promised. I got a measly 2 Mps. I then directly connected to my modem (i.e. bypassing the Belkin router) and suddenly I had a blazing fast (40 Mbps) highly reliable connection. I again called Belkin tech support whom initially told me to upgrade the firmware. When I explained i had already done this, they immediately told me the unit was defective and I would need to exchange it for a new one. They gave me a link at their site to do this.
Now the best part of the story. As I filled out the on-line forms to to exchange my router, the instructions described two options 1) first, they send me a new one and then I return my old one or 2)I send in my old one first and then they send me a new one. Since I need a router, I wanted to choose option 1. But after completing the address form I was sent immediately to option 2. So I called customer support. Where a nice lady told me that they were so behind due to the large number of returns of this unit that option 1 was not being offered for this item AND that even after I sent in my malfunctioning router it would be a minimum of 2 weeks before they could send me a new one.
Finally, I called the vendor from whom I'd bought the product. They graciously agreed to take the item back. So, today I'll go look for a new wireless router, but rest assured, it will not be a Belkin.

I've always liked Belkin products and bought this to replace a Linksys router G router. This didn't work out of the box with my existing Dell laptop. As soon as I contacted customer support they knew what the problem was. I guess that was to their credit, but it indicates this is a common problem. I could not use WPA to secure my network and had to fall back to WEP 64. The tech blamed it on Windows XP, but I was using WPA with a 3 year old Linksys. That problem took over two hours on the phone to resolve.

Next problem was getting the NAS port to work. Another hour got Windows Vista on my desktop to recognize the 1TB Verbatim drive, but it was god awful slow!!!!! The next night the drive disappeared from Vista and I spent another hour on the phone and finally gave up because the technician was incompetent.

Currently I am still running WEP and my NAS drive is no longer NAS, but connected directly to an USB port. I plan on calling Belkin again when I have time to spend another 1-2 hours on the phone. But, initial impressions are VERY disappointing.

I've been through Linksys G and N wireless setups and have always been relatively disappointed with their range and throughput. Even when using Linksys PCMCIA adapter cards, my speed tests were sub-par and sadly, customer service knew less about how to configure the router than I did.

I purchased this Belkin after getting Linksys download speeds of about 4 MB down, and 1 MB upload speeds on a boosted-speed cable connection. After installing the Belkin (which was a snap), my first wireless speed test rendered 20 MB down and 10 MB up, which rivaled my wired speeds I was getting on my desktop machine.

I've always had good luck with Linksys wired routers but their wireless products (and customer support) are abysmal. For anyone looking to run an easy, always-up wireless N network at home, this purchase is a no-brainer. Worth every penny spent - only sorry that I didn't make this purchase a long time ago.