Customer Reviews

Belkin Wireless Play Max Router (F7D4301)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

My experience with this router has been one major mistake after another. I didn't check the Amazon reviews before purchasing - my mistake. I bought it (not through Amazon) - my mistake. I threw away the packaging after setting it up and now I can't return - major mistake.

Although this thing was simple enough to set-up, it has been a major letdown for all of the reasons that other reviewers have mentioned. I've had it for 2 weeks now, and I count it a good day if I only have to reset the damn thing once. My devices all run more slowly than on my old router, and the stupid thing freezes up constantly. I've also run into multiple IP address conflict messages and have to reset it to prevent those messages as well.

I'm so frustrated that I'll likely trash the pile of junk and go buy another brand. Shame on me for buying this thing - and shame on me for not keeping the packaging until I knew how it worked (or didn't in this case).

I read the reviews, and I decided to give it a shot anyway since I've had good luck with connectivity in my house. In all honesty, the connectivity wasn't the issue with me. It was the configuration. Below is a detailed account of my experience trying to set this thing up:

When setting up a router, I always use the web-based interface. I don't like installing a program since there's no guarantee it will work with the operating system that I have. So I use the web-based set-up page as the basis for evaluating a router. So the first thing I do is set the administrative password. The default was blank. The next thing I want to do is change the IP address of the router under the LAN settings so that the network portion of the address (i.e. the first three numbers of the IP address) matches all the statically addressed devices on my network. I try to give the router the same IP address as my old router, which is 192.168.1.1. I immediately receive an error that the IP address is being used by the "Guest Access" (or something to that effect). I have no idea what this is, so I click on that setting. It turns out that the feature is turned off already. So what gives?

I try to eliminate some variables by turning off DHCP. Still can't change the IP address. Then I turn off the router features by turning the device into an access point, and doing this gives me a prompt to set the IP address. Ah ha! This could be it. I set the IP address and commit changes. Uh oh. Big mistake! Once the router resets, my browser navigates to page that reads "Guest Access" with a prompt for a password. What? As I said, the Guest Access feature was turned off to begin with. So I enter the administrative password that I set at the beginning, and I receive a message that the password is incorrect. Great, there's a default password for "Guest Access", which I didn't bother checking since THE D@MN THING IS SUPPOSED TO BE TURNED OFF!!!! Now I have no way to get back into the router setup. My only recourse is to stick a pin into the reset button hole to reset it to factory settings.

At this point, I should have packed this sumb1tch up to return it, but I'm a stubborn fool. I start all over, but this time I first set the "Guest Access" password. I get to the point of turning the device into an access point (mind you, I do want to use the router features, but I'm only trying to diagnose my original problem of not being able to set the LAN IP address). After applying the changes, the router resets as expected, and I get the "Guest Access" page again. I enter the password (that I now know since I set it myself), and the response is something like "You are now connected to the Internet". Again, WTF??? It still doesn't allow me to get into the setup page. So I now know that turning off the router features is a no go. I reset it to factory settings again.

I conclude that there's an issue with using the 192.168.1.* network which apparently is completely reserved by the "Guest Access" feature whether or not it's turned on. I decide to change the router's IP address to 192.168.0.1. Success! I know I still have to reconfigure other devices on the network with static IP addresses, but at least I'm able to set the router's IP address now to something other than the default of 192.168.2.1.

I now move on to setting the wireless security settings. I select WPA2-PSK. I notice the AEP is the only available encryption method (no TKIP). No biggie since that's what I was using anyway. At this point the router isn't connected to my cable modem. I want to check the wireless connection speed first. I connect to the router using the 5 GHz band, and check the connection status. While still clicking around the router settings in my browser (still no Internet connection yet), I see that the connection speed reaches the maximum of 300 Mbps, but it doesn't stay there long. It fluctuates quite a bit. It gets as low as 90 Mbps, but it seems to average around 200 Mbps. In contrast, when connected to my old router which only supports the 2.4 GHz band, my connection is capped by my adapter card at 144 Mbps, but it rarely drops below 130 Mbps. I consider this an acceptable trade-off, however.

OK. Now onto connecting the router to the Internet. I connect my cable modem to the WAN port, and I set the connection type to dynamic. The router resets, but no Internet connection. I power cycle the cable modem as well as the router for good measure. Still no Internet connection. Thinking there might be a modem provisioning issue, I change the MAC address of the router to that of my old router. Amazingly, this does the trick. Now I have an Internet connection! I now go all my statically addressed devices (desktop PC, server, and printer) and change the IP addresses.

Everything is looking good so far. I check if I can access a website that I'm hosting on my server. Oops. I forgot to set the virtual server settings. I go back to the router setup page, and set up the virtual servers like on my old router. It's a little bit more cumbersome since you can add servers using a port range. However, I like the fact that you can set the private port number to something other than the external port number. My old router lets you add servers using an external port range, but it doesn't let you set the private port number. Anyway, I set up all the virtual servers, open up a browser window, and navigate to my website. Take a wild guess what renders. That's right. It's the D@MN router setup page! What's going on? I check the settings for remote router configuration, and it's turned off! So why is this page coming up? I change the URL to one that I know doesn't exist on the router's web-based setup, and I get a 404 error. Essentially, my web server isn't receiving the HTTP requests. I check my web server configuration, and every thing is OK. I even remembered to change the IP address that the web server is listening to. I fiddle around with the router some more, and I eventually give up.

Now, I've had problems setting up routers before. Even setting up Netgear business-class routers using Telnet wasn't as frustrating as this experience. Admittedly, the router works OK if you're just using it to access the Internet. But if you want to use it as the router for your own internal network and want to set up your own web server, stay away from this product. I'm warning you.

I too have to agree with the negative reviews. This router drops connections all the time. I was upgrading from a Netgear super G to this and was sorely disappointed. The router is in route back to Amazon for a refund as we speak. Another annoying feature is that the router itself will not allow you to make more than one change at a time without a reboot to allow for the settings to take place. Simple things like giving the network a name or setting the router password, let alone changing the channel you want to broadcast on.

My advise, stay away.

I was really excited when I heard about this product as it looked like it could do everything I wanted it to. I got my order from Amazon and quickly hooked it up. The encloded software seemed ok.

Anyways I replaced an older Wireless N router with it, and knew there was trouble when I was standing 10 feet away with the new router in direct site and was not even getting a full signal from the router.

In my house I was able to get internet everywhere with all my old routers, no so with this one...

Besides the poor range, I found that I had to reboot this router a few times a day as I found my internet slowing to a crawl. When I rebooted it, my full speed of my 50 meg connection returned. You know this router is bad when in the firmware is a utility for automaticlly rebooting the router.

UPNP on this router does not work, I had to go an setup my Slingbox units manually to watch from outside my home. With my old routers the Slingbox just worked with no setup.

The final straw on this router was I changed the SSID of the router from the default. A few times in the middle of using the internet I got a message on the screen that the network has gone away. I rescan my networks and the router has reset itself and its SSID back to its default name. I have had my wife call me because she can't get online because the router has changed its name. VERY ANNOYING.

I hate to say it, but this router is JUNK.

I was excited for this router ever since I read about it back on Gizmodo. I am a heavy internet user, on a 30MBps connection. Multiple gaming consoles, media center, and bittorrent are all major users. I was happy to see the 5 Ghz spectrum for my xbox gaming / HD streaming needs. Router was up and running extremely fast (a great point), but when it came to getting into the advanced features, this router is just lacking. Think of it as a 'Router for Dummies', which is not necessarily a bad thing, but the higher level tweakers and enthusiasts will not be pleased. Port forwarding is horrible on this router, and the QoS settings leave much to be desired. The 'built in gaming profiles' for QoS was a feature I was looking forward to as well, but when I pulled up the list, 'Doom 3' was the NEWEST game on the list.

Settings and features aside, I hooked everything up to the router and started testing. As soon as I started using Bittorrent, speeds were about 50% of normal right away. Figured it was a few settings. Tried to log into router, internet locked up (router side) and I had to restart the router. Tried this a few more times, Web browsing was impossible with one Bittorrent file going. Hangs on a webpage and locked up again. This time a normal reset actually reset router back to factory settings.

Went through this process about 5 times, and promptly switched back to my Linksys WRT54GL, and returned this horrible router. This is the 2nd Belkin router I have returned (The Vision N1 had similar issues hooking up to some of my consoles back in the day), and I will never go with Belkin ever again.

These comments apply to using the Belkin Play Max Router with the Belkin Play Wireless dual band USB Adapter (F7D4101). After wasting 7-8 hours messing around with this router it still had absolutely no range on either 2.4 or 5Ghz bands. Both bands start dropping off at 20' even in an open room. Going into the next room or up a short open staircase and I was quickly out of range or this router. Way less range then my old Linksys WRT54GX router. The Belkin did connect at 300mbps on 2.4Ghz and 216mbps on the 5Ghz band at close range but internet speed tests on either band with the Belkin router connected to a Comcast cable modem with a 7' Cat 5e cable were no better than the Linksys g router connected at 54mps. Both gave wireless speeds of about 14,000Kbs down and 2500Kbs up, probably limited by the Comcast connection. For reference, connecting to the Comcast cable modem with a Cat 6 cable directly to my Lenovo T60 tested about 20,000Kbs down and 2500Kbs up. Had to return the Belkin Play Max and am currently back to my Linksys g router because it has triple the range or more than the Belkin n.

Update: Belkin customer service had contacted me regarding my review and sent me a couple of new routers to try that they had tested first to see if I had received defective units. There was no improvement in functionality at the time but using one as an access point did extend my range so I left them set up. I was just about to throw in the towel and buy a new router when Belkin updated their firmware on 8/30/2010. I downloaded and installed this update several days ago and so far it seems to have significantly improved speed and stability of my two Play Max routers (one being used as an access point). I highly recommend everyone update their firmware on these units asap if you have not already done so. When you address the router in your browser (originally by default as 192.168.2.1 for a router, and 192.168.2.254 if you by any chance set one up as a default access point), there is a firmware update tab on the menu on the left 3rd from the bottom.

I am not sure yet how many stars I would give it now but 3 for sure and maybe 4. Have to use it longer to be sure.

I've had a belkin wireless G for years, which has performed flawlessly, so I was looking to update it with this new router and was looking forward to an faster, stronger connection. Unfortunately, this router was a pain in the hind end, I have three computers in my house and this router would constantly crash, drop connections and had a weaker signal than my old router. I also tried to set up my printer through it, it worked on 2 computers but refused to connect my newest laptop with windows 7. I tried and tried to fix connection issues because I really wanted it to work, no such luck. I sent it back and hooked up my old router.

I upgraded to this router from a Belkin N+ router liking the 5GHZ and the torrent software.

This router is JUNK! I locked up frequently, constantly dropped connection and way extremely slow.

Belkin really went downhill with their routers.

I also had read all the negative reviews, about the problem plagued installs, troublesome complicated setup issues, extremely slow speeds and poor performance all around so I was prepared for a challenge but also curious to see how what sounded on paper like a terrific product in print could be so consistently bad.

We have only ever had Belkin Wireless Routers this being our 3rd, now needing an upgrade from our previous 150N Basic to a Dual Band 300N+ for HD Video Streaming and other demanding Apps now available.

I was sure to read through the instructions completely and most importantly Download the "Newest Installation Program" from the Belkin Play MAX website to use instead of the included CD with the older installation software.

The setup was fast, perfect and trouble-free, although it did have a few more steps than our basic 150N.

The only problem I had was when it came time to enter the Router Number and Pass-code which is printed on the bottom of the Router, it is printed in incredibly small type with the letters & numbers densely packed together and I missed a very important "Dot/Period" that was in the middle of the sequence the first time through and although it still completed setup without a hitch, it wasn't until I went to access the Routers Online Fine Tuning and Settings page that it wouldn't let me have access saying the Password/Code was wrong.

I checked the numbers again this time with a flashlight and magnifying glass I found the "Dot" I had left out of the Pass-Code sequence, so then simply went back and "uninstalled" the Router and Software in the Remove Programs on Windows 7 and reinstalled using the correct Pass-Code and it was up and running in minutes and was online and downloaded the newest Firmware upgrade all by itself and has been working perfectly without a problem.

Ive had it for a week now and it has been fantastic!
whether we take our Laptop outside or anywhere in the house we get a super fast 300mbps connection consistently and dependably.

The WiFi connection to our Samsung Ht-C6500 Blu-Ray Home Theater is amazingly fast as well with downloading updates and Samsung Internet Apps or streaming regular and HD movies from Netfix and Blockbuster online.

So overall we where pleasantly surprised by and very pleased with this New Belkin Play MAX Router and am still not sure how so many buyers could have such bad experiences,
We have Windows 7 running on our PC's and Pro DSL with AT&T.
It might also be that we used the Newest downloaded Istallation SoftWare from the Belkin site and not the installation CD that came with the Router, maybe other buyers misread the super tiny Pass-Code on the bottom of Router as well, missing an important "Dot" within the sequence of numbers as we did, but we cannot say enough about what a fantastic Router this turned out to be.

I got this router about a week ago, and I initially had a lot of the same troubles that the other reviewers have had: multiple internet connection drops, variable speed, overall spotty performance, et cetera. But a couple of things since then have made a huge difference: a firmware update from Belkin (on September 28th) and understanding how to get my Belkin router to work better with my modem. As I have learned by some internet research, my modem (like many modems these days) is actually both a modem and a wired router. So my Belkin wireless router was butting heads with the modem. The solution was to change the Belkin just to function as a wireless access point by using the web-based user interface. I then gave the WAN port on the Belkin a fixed IP address on the same subnet as my modem also by using the web-based user interface. (My modem's IP address was 192.168.100.1, and so I changed the Belkin's IP address to 192.168.100.3.) I also turned off the router's firewall since I have software-based firewalls on all of my computers. Since then, everything has improved. I consider myself perhaps a little above average in tech knowledge, but anyone with some understanding of setting up wireless networks should be able to make the aforementioned changes and get this router working the way it was initially supposed to. I hope this helps others who have this router or others who are considering obtaining one. I also want to say that Belkin customer service seems to be very motivated to make things right, and that is also a good sign.

***Update*** It's more than three months since my preliminary review, and I have had nothing but success with this router. We have had no further internet drops, and we run up to four computers off of it (wirelessly) at the same time with no problems. Please read the newer reviews of this product, and you will see that Belkin has fixed the firmware so that this router now works very well. It's a shame that it now has only a 2 star average because at this point I think it is fantastic!