Belkin Wireless G 4-Port Router

by Belkin

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.2 x 2.5 inches ; 8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001CN9K6E
• Item model number: F5D7234-4
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (178 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 15, 2008

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description With the Belkin Wireless G Router, you can quickly set up a wireless network for an apartment or small office, letting you share a broadband Internet connection with multiple computers. The Wireless G Router gives you the performance you need for handling all your basic networking applications, such as surfing the Web, emailing, and instant messaging.

The Belkin Wireless G Router: Creates a Wireless-G network with up to 54Mbps data throughput. Is backward compatible with 802.11b networks. Has four 10/100 Mbps Ethernet ports for wired connections.

Easily create a Wireless-G network to share an internet connection with the whole family. View larger.

The router also includes four wired Ethernet ports. View larger.

Smart Design with Wired and Wireless Connections
The Wireless G Router has a striking, vertical enclosure that is both handsome and space efficient. By standing vertically, the router takes up less desk space, giving you more room to work. The built-in external antenna provides the range necessary to easily cover an apartment or small office. Six LEDs for Power, Wired, Wireless, Modem, Security, and Internet let you know the status of your network at a glance, making it easy to troubleshoot any problems.

G Wireless relies on 802.11g technology and provides a wireless speed of up to 54Mbps. This means that you can surf the Internet, check emails, and chat with friends from the comfort of your kitchen table or couch.

You can also share networked peripherals such as a Wi-Fi printer, hard drives, and DVDs. The router is compatible with any 802.11g wireless products and is backwards compatible with 802.11b networks. But for maximum speed and range, the use of Belkin's G Wireless USB Adapter, Notebook Card, and Desktop Card are recommended.

In addition to G Wireless, the router also has four 10/100 Ethernet ports at the back, giving you the option to plug in for a steady and secure, fast connection running at up to 100Mbps.

Thanks to the strong built-in security, including support for WPA, WPA2, Wi-Fi Protected Setup, and 64-and 128-bit WEP encryption, you will be protected from hackers and intruders trying to gain access to your sensitive files. The router also supports VPN for making secure connections between home and office.

Easy to Set Up
Belkin designed the Wireless G Router to be as simple to use as possible. Simply connect your wireless router to your cable or DSL modem, plug the router in, and connect your computer to the router. That's it. To help monitor your network performance and usage, the router includes Personal Network Assistant software, which runs on Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X 10.4/10.5.

The Belkin Wireless G Router is backed by a 1-year warranty and includes free 24/7 technical support.

What's in the Box
Wireless G Router, quick installation guide, Personal Network Assistant CD, user manual on CD, power supply, RJ45 Ethernet cable.

The vertical enclosure looks elegant and conserves space.

Product Description

F5D7234-4 54MB 802.11G WRLSWireless CABLE/DSL ROUTER 4PORT

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a single problem..., December 28, 2008

By 

D. Naas - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Belkin Wireless G 4-Port Router (Personal Computers)

I set this wireless router up for my non-techy parents around Thanksgiving. The setup was probably about half-an hour if you're overly-thorough like me with wanting to check everything out. After the initial setup, the 'rents have not had a bit of trouble connecting wirelessly. I noticed another review (and a comment) mention not being able to make changes to the settings. I didn't experience any of their woes. However, I do remember logging in to the router not being very intuitive and I wonder if that could be causing the issues. I was able to change the default SSID, login password for the router, and setup WPA easily. I set everything up by connecting my laptop directly with an ethernet cord and going to the router's IP address. I didn't use the included software, so I have no idea how well that works. As far as speed goes, I can't tell a difference between this cheapy router and my nice expensive one at home. My parents are only using it for browsing/email, and since they just upgraded from dial-up, they feel like they are flying.

***Update 01/20/09
I just wanted to state that my positive review of this product was not paid for, in light of Belkin's recent pay for reviews scandal (65 cents not really worth my integrity). And my parents still haven't had any problems with this router.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast, Easy Setup using the IP address given. Good Value for the money!, April 16, 2009

By 

R. Nathaniel (Thibodaux, LA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Belkin Wireless G 4-Port Router (Personal Computers)

Just purchased this modem from Wal-Mart for $29 (+tax). After reading the reviews here, I decided to try it out myself. Used the Non-routable IP address (192.168.2.1) to configure the router (since others here had suggested it), used the wired connection first. Then had the wireless up and running. Took about 15-20 minutes. Like any G router, the range is limited, but serves my purpose. Video streaming is excellent. Using WPA for Wireless Security. Was able to change the SSID (problem mentioned by another reviewer). Wired and Wireless working fine so far. Will update if things go bad or SSID disappears (mentioned by another reviewer).

Wired setup, is a breeze...just plug and play...after configuring the LAN using IP address.

The wireless setup is a bit more challenging...for a non-tech savy person like me, but after some trial and error things are sorted out.

Overall, very pleased with the buy. Excellent coverage. Ease of setup is the only drawback, however once done it is easy to use.

47 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Seriously buggy for handling LAN gaming; perhaps okay for simple web browsing, January 3, 2010

By 

Jeff A. Stucker "Jeff A. Stucker" (Eagle, ID United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Belkin Wireless G 4-Port Router (Personal Computers)

I have been setting up both personal and business networks since 1999, using the same settings on many brands of routers. This Belkin is the most frustrating device I've come across. Not because it's completely bad, but because on the surface it appears to be working just fine, but then your Internet goes down. Fortunately, I was able to reproduce the problem. Belkin's phone support was friendly and wanted to help, but they were completely unaware of the issues I found. That tells me there is something seriously wrong with their quality assurance program as a company.

This hardware has convinced me to never buy Belkin again.

It's actually quite easy to set up, similar to every other router on the market. You can either use the install disk, or use your web browser to connect directly to the device. I used the web administrative interface.

Once set up, it goes through the normal motions of connecting to your ISP to get its settings and then handing out its configuration to every computer you have on the network. (This happens automatically using what's called DHCP.) But every time I launched Age of Empires -- a classic Microsoft game that every networking device should know how to handle -- and set up a multiplayer game, the game locked up with an error saying that my computers weren't talking to each other properly. (The dreaded Ping 30 error.) It didn't matter whether it was Age of Empires I or II, this device was equally confused and the game wouldn't work.

Worse, whenever I ran a game, the router lost its ability to route DNS (domain naming system) traffic. Every time. That meant that not a single computer in my network could go to a web site they weren't already connected to, because the names directory appeared to be offline. As always, turning the device off and back on fixed the DNS problem, but the game never worked.

So I pulled out another Belkin router I had been using as a wireless access point and set it up as a router. The same problem occurs on both devices. For reference, these are the model numbers:

F5D7234-4 v 4 (this device)
F5D8233-4 v 3 (the older Belkin wireless router I was using as a wireless access point)

When I called Belkin tech support, I explained the issue in technical detail. The person on the line was doing his best but all he had was a rote answer for online gaming that didn't even acknowledge the problem I was having. The Belkin seems to mix up the traffic that should go internal and external (all my gaming is inside my home network), and their tech support "answers" reflect that fundamental flaw as well. (They told me to put my PC in the DMZ and enable port forwarding for the game -- a total security risk -- and missing the point that the gaming traffic didn't need to go to the Internet!) When I tweaked the router a bit, trying different options, the Belkin's security logs indicated it thought the game was a denial of service attack, apparently because of the sheer volume of traffic during a game. More evidence that this device is not designed for anything more than basic web browsing and email.

So I returned the newer Belkin router and bought a Linksys. It took 2 minutes to set up with the exact same configuration and works just fine. With the Linksys, Age of Empires is playing multiplayer. Browsing appears to be snappier. I feel much more safe and secure knowing that my network traffic is being routed properly by a device that knows what it's doing, and knows the difference between what's inside and outside my personal network. I'd return the older router as well if I could, since I now know where the random connectivity issues I've been having for the last 3-4 years came from -- that older Belkin device I was using as an access point. Read some of the other reviews to know more.

Footnote for the techies out there: the Linksys handles DHCP and DNS much better than the Belkin, and provides both the primary and secondary DNS addresses to the client machines. The Belkin hands off its own IP address as the DNS server. It's like the Belkin folks over-engineered the product and introduced a bunch of bugs thinking they were helping.

These appear to be universal problems with the Belkin software/firmware, as I reproduced the exact same problems on two different Belkin devices that were bought years apart. (I can't believe it hasn't been fixed given the years between these devices and their respective firmware versions, specifically 2008 and 2005 based on the serial number stickers.)

I hate to spend more for an equivalent product, since Belkin had the lowest price. But sometimes you get what you pay for. D-Link and Linksys have worked just fine for years; I'll stick with those brands and leave the Belkins on the shelves.