Customer Reviews

Belkin Wireless Play Router (F7D4302)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(58)

 

 

Bought at Costco as it was the only router for sale, and it has a USB port which means network printing OR file sharing without having a server turned on. My first complaint is that the "Easy Setup" diagram on the box clearly shows two USB ports on the back of the device while the spec. list says that it only has one. Two would make sense, since the router can act as a print server or a media server using an external hard drive. I can see that doing both at the same time would overload this router's abilities, as connecting an external hard drive and then trying to stream DVD quality video over the WIRED connection is sluggish and will cause VLC or Windows Media Player to hang. Forget about playing ripped DVDs from the hard drive if they have a menu. The menu will load and you will do nothing but wait once you click "Play Movie." Hell, even browsing files on the external HD will cause explorer to lock up.

If I stream a video from a computer on the network (over the wi-fi) as opposed to the external HD hooked up to the router, everything works as normal (when everything's working -- see below), throughout my apartment, despite the lack of signal bars (I always had full bars everywhere with my Linksys).

From my review thus far, one would assume that my only beef is with the USB functionality. However, you would be wrong. The main reason I bought this router is because I despise power cycling. I cannot stand pulling a plug in the back of a router, and then wasting a half minute of my time daydreaming of unicorns or whatever, and then fumbling with the plug and some unseen port. Do you miss the 90's when you would see pictures load line by line or do the slowly enhancing pixel routine? Remember server timeouts with their cute "Server not found" errors and their "Try again" buttons that never worked? Remember seeing red "X's" instead of pictures? Well, if you want to feel like a kid with a 28.8 modem again, then this is the router for you!!! You'll be nostalgically transported 15 years back in time approximately every day until you realize the Internet sucked in the 90's and so you get up, unplug the router, and continue your unicorn daydream where it left off. I'm currently at the part where we take a nap in the meadow together.

Oh yea, you'll have to power cycle so often, they even added a "feature" to do this automatically for you called "self healing" where you lose Internet completely at some specified time once a week. So I guess you only have to power cycle six times a week. THANKS BELKIN!!!

This was the first item I've purchased that had an Amazon rating of two (as of 6/10/2010) or lower. From what I could tell, most of the negative aspects of the router were due to:

1) The router locking up, forcing a reset.
2) The reset losing configuration information.
3) Extremely poor N signal transmission distance.
4) Worthless/non-working "apps" that install on a windows pc
5) Lack of tweaking options, missing front panel connectivity indicator

I'm on a mac, so the apps weren't of interest to me. However, the other features of this router (dual band wireless, usb print/drive sharing) coupled with the low price did attract me.

I immediately upgraded the firmware, and it solved problems 1-3 for me. I've had no issues with connectivity, the router has not reset in at least a week, and I can get a strong signal from either transmitter from down the block if necessary. I cannot vouch for the "software" based installation method, since I did mine over the integrated webserver @ 192.168.1.1. I also cannot vouch for the extra "apps" that this provides. Also, instead of a front panel connectivity indicator, this router just has a single "idiot" light which is green normally, but turns yellow or red if it is disconnected or having a problem. I normally want some kind of indicator panel, but since this router is getting tucked into a drawer, I'm not upset about it.

For a dual band, usb sharing router, this is surely worth the $80 or so that is being charged... provided you are savvy enough to know how to upgrade the firmware via the onboard webserver, aren't going to bother with the apps, and don't mind the absence of a front indicator panel.

I think I am most upset with the fact that I threw away the box and can no longer return this useless piece of plastic. The signal strength is terrible; I can usually find my 2.4GHz signal, but don't plan on finding your 5GHz that it is supposedly streaming out unless you're sitting directly on top of your router.

Every morning after the 2nd or 3rd day of use, my laptop would show the signal, but would not connect to the internet so I would go and do a reset (just like they tell you to do) and everything would work just fine - annoying, but manageable. On the 3rd day of reseting this :"router," it reset and had COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN WHO IT WAS! Network name (SSID) and password were reset to company shipping defaults (thank god those were saved in my keychain) and I had to reset all of my settings.

I suppose this is what I get for saving the $10 and not buying a router from a more established brand. Trust me, buy another router - any other router - there are PLENTY to choose from you'll be better off.

The specs indicate the router has everything I need: Dual band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) wifi and a USB port for an HDD. However, the basic router doesn't work at all. Issues:
1. Internet is slow and gives errors for many sites including news.google.com.
2. Loses internet connectivity and needs a manual power cycle.

I'm returning this product.

Bought this router at Costco and don't want to return it because they do not have another router and dont want to spend the extra money for a better one. Every 3-4 hours I have to reset the router because Belkin knows what. After a couple of days it automatically resets it self. It works for couple hours and does the same thing. Cousin warned me about Belkin but gave them a shot anyways and definitely disappointing. Old router from Netgear got shot after 3 years.

Bought this router about a month ago. After having a terrible time setting up, consistently had trouble connecting once it was set up. Finally got it to work ok, so threw away the box. Big mistake!! Yesterday it turns off, and just won't turn back on no matter what I try. Will attempt to return this even without the box, and will never buy a router from this company again!

Even after updating the firmware on this router, it would start dropping > 50% of requests after about a day. Power cycling it would fix the problem, but it would come back. Returned it and got a decent router.

A week ago the old wireless router at our church final went down. I bought this Belkin Play Wireless Router based on a review on [...]. I installed it hard wired to an XP machine, and connected wirelessly two XP, one Vista and one Win 7 laptops to it with no issues at all.

Setup: I found it easy to use. Yes in the tray is a grey icon. Right click on that and you get into the router, the manual and other features/apps. I think that is easier for people to use than remember the routers IP.

Printing: For XP machine printing, I did have to go into the print port and put in the correct IP address. With Vista and Win 7, I had no issues. It auto detected. We had an unrelated issue with the print drivers themselves but it was not related to the router.

Speed/Range: The wireless download speed from changing routers increased from 1.8M to 2.8M (we have a 3M DSL line) with about the same upload speed. The other thing I noticed, is the strength of the signal increased dramatically. In the same location (about 90-100 ft away) in the building, we doubled the signal strength. Before we had to put in a booster and still had issues getting a strong enough signal. No signal problem now.

Security: It comes out of the box ready to go. By default you can use the SSID and passphrase that comes on a card with the router.

Con: It powers off at night and the office staff told me it does not automatically wake up. I need to double check on that.

I have their N1 as a backup. Its a million times better than this piece of junk. If they were a decent company they would give all the purhasers of this a recall slip. Firmware update version: 1.00.27 made no difference to performance too.

OK, so my previous router (Linksys wireless G) was old and required once weekly restarts which annoyed me to some degree. Saw this one in a store and based solely on the features and bad experience setting up a D-link recently I chose this one...

Setup was a pain solely based on the fact that you can't reconfigure the wired interface IP, so I had to reconfigure the entire IP setup on all of my equipment both front and back side.... add an hour of unnecessary configuration time.

Router is finally set up and working great.... Until the following day when i have to reset it. day after, the same... Everyday i have to reset this thing... sometimes the power button works, sometimes we have to cycle it from the web interface and sometimes pulling the power plug... it usually takes cycling the power 3-4 times before it finally starts working again.

The final straw was when we had to cycle the power yet again and on the third try (this time using pull the powerplug option) the stupid thing lost my entire router configuration... I was smart enough to save my configuration HOWEVER I should not have to go through this much trouble to use my internet connection. it is unacceptable. I am taking it back to the store today (after 1 week of actual use)and never buying another belkin again.

As for the other features ie. USB well, i have not yet tried to use it since i had been spending too much time trying to keep my internet connection up so I can't comment. If I could give this thing a negative rating I soooo would!