Belkin Wireless N+ Router, how good is it?

Hey, I'm comtemplating buying this router to replace a Netgear WPNv2 as the response time of wireless printing takes ages.

How good is this router and would this improve the latency between wired and wireless devices connected to it compared to my Wireless G router?

 

Do a quick scan of this board - you'll find hardly anyone that has anything good to say about Belkin.

 

Hmm, I see nothing on the router in question though. Are you sure this isn't just the cheaper routers that people bought?

 

I agree with kegobeer, belkin is not an option. Try to solve your problem with netgear, which is an excellent router.

 

Dont buy from Belkin their routers have a really bad reputation better to buy a D-Link router IMO. D-Link 855 > D-Link 825 > D-Link 655. Dont take my work for it just look at the user reviews on amazon for routers and you will see that the D-Link have the best rep followed buy Linksys, and the Belkin routers have overall bad reviews

 

Ha!

D-Link is complete and utter krap.

I had an older DIR-615 and had no problems.

Setup was easy and quick, in minutes actually and it never, I do mean never, needed a reboot, not once, ever.

Stupid me decides to upgrade so I sold my DIR-615 to a neighbor and I
bought the DIR-825 from eBay. Complete garbage.

Took F_O_R_E_V_E_R to setup, it kept dropping my Linksys VOIP
modem and requires a reboot every hour. This router just plain suks.

If anyone here happens to like it, please PM me, I will GLADLY sell it.

 

Dont get a Belkin, as clearly stated in other posts. They have horrible products.

Try going with a D-Link DIR-615 or 655

 

Are you sure it has the latest firmware? Or how do you know it isnt defective? One bad experience does not mean that they are "Complete garbage"

 

I did a firmware update, at the behest of D-Link.
I don't know if it is defective, I am forced to leave that to D-Link to decide.

 

Hmmmm, I don't suppose that eBay seller has a return policy. If a hard reset doesn't fix things, I suspect you have a faulty router. Hopefully you can make some arrangement with D-Link for an exchange. If not, buy a DIR-655 - it's a great router.

 

I looked at the DIR-655 but it isn't dual band.

The reseller is willing to take it back but I need a replacement first as my neighbor now owns my former router!

 

hey guys why you guys saying belkin is crap.
but i have belkin Wireless G+ MIMO Router model no F5D9230-4
from last 3 year i never got problem.i never have to reboot.
i'll going to get new N+ next week coz here in asia not yet release.
by the way here is the review.you can see belkin is N+ is the best wireless router in long range compare to all brand.
http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/belkin-n-wireless-router/4505-3319_7-33361546-2.html?tag=txt;page

 

cnet may have given it a good review but if you look at user reviews on amazon from people that have been using it in "real world situations" and not in the labs then you will see.

 

but belkin N+ haven't review in amazon.

 

Belkin has a bad history of not being reliable. They in most all cases test real good, if you get a good one. I had a friend buy one and wanted me to set it up. I did, the next day he called and said he could not get connected. I had him power cycle the router he was able to get in. 4 hr later he was disconnected. I went over and rechecked everything, all was good. This time it worked for 1 day. Then the reset (power cycle did not work). The router was locked solid, Had to do reset to factory. and reset up the router again. The next day it happened again. This time I could not even reset the router to factory. He took it back, they gave him another one. The same thing went back again, got a 3rd one. This one was dead straight out of the box. His next trip I told him which linksys to get, no Problem. This has happen on 4 occasions to friends of mine that buy what is the cheapest. All had bad units. I did have another one that got a good one the 1 st time.

If you have this kind of experience with Belkin Products what conclusion would you draw. This has even happened on wired products too, some work, some don't. Not a very good track record. So when someone calls and want me to setup a Belkin, I tell them to take it back, then I tell them why.

 

Everything on this router works great EXCEPT for the USB storage link transfer speeds. I am currently waiting for a Belkin tech to research the problem and get back to me within 48 hours. I will post again if and when the I get an answer.

-setup was flawless and literally took 10-15 minutes- all self- automated except for plugging/ unplugging cables.

- the range is significantly better along with throughput compared to the new linksys wrt610n AND the Dlink dir-825. (i tried and returned both)

- Both of my 1tb external Western Digital USB hard drives formatted in NTFS are supported with no problems. The simple "mounting software" makes it easy to see the drives on any computer- wired or wireless.

- I do have a usb hub running both drives to the single port on the router, and both drives are detected and accessed fine. The hub needs to be powered though.

- Transfer speeds via USB are so far horrendous though. I can only get like 1-2mbps for some reason. Like I said, Belkin is researching this now and they'll get back to me, but I can't figure out so far how to improve the speeds.

- 720p media streams somewhat well but not always stably (MKV h264 Bluray encodes)- and 1080p is a no-no. The throughput seems to drop significantly when I use the storage link usb port too. I haven't tried to use the web server software or remote access stuff, and I haven't tried a BT downloader either since the read/ write speed issue is of utmost importance.

Anyhow, I though I could finally get away with not buying a separate expensive NAS with this router. I hope the issue can be resolved b/c it literally has everything I want it to do.

Any one else have any thoughts?

 

I have a belkin N1 wireless router and have never had any problems with it. It's great.

My old netgear one however was terrible and kept dropping packets.

 

Another belkin owner with problems here...I had an older one (don't recall the model ATM) and anytime I transferred a lot of data over it, it would die and need to be powercycled. Usually about every 15 minutes. Per day. It sucks.

I upgraded to a WRT-54G w/DD-WRT on it, and it's beautiful. Never have had to reboot in the year I've been using it.

 

I can understand people's beliefs about past Belkin Products...

but most of their "current" products are made with Rallink and equivelant chipsets... I'm not saying they are top end by any mean..; however...

In "real world experience" I've owned a Belkin N+ router for over a month now... All of my wireless componets connect instantly with it and are easily recognized... also it has a feature that will set up wireless network security with a press of a button on the router (for any newbs to wireless networking)... Plus it's got awesome security for those who aren't wpa wpa2 and of course wep.... I currently (with good signal strength) get between 10 and 11 "megabytes"per second download... I'm also using a Belkin expresscard Wireless NIC... Never had any connection issues... the signal is there from the moment the laptops boots up... before I had drops and connection issues with an actiontec qwest (to be expected) but I also had a shared connection on a linksys router (not sure the model, but it cost around 189.99 usd in January of 07... And it would lose connection constantly... I'd reset it only to have it drop again with in minutes... I've heard that others have had problems with Linksys in the past as well... So while I'll agree that at times Belkin might have had issues or with certain models... I think it's irresponsible to call a brand worthless unless it's been proven time and again... Before I bought either of my Belkin products I did a lot of research... One source I used was NEWEGG , because they post quite a few user reviews... I Purposely avoided Belkin products with bad reviews, but they weren't all bad... My router had not yet been reviewed, but here was the sweet thing, the router only cost 60.00 dollars and the Nic expresscard cost 60.00 (mostly because it was an express card)... So I know it's not set in stone that these will continue to work as well as they currently do, but so far they both work excellently and anyone who buys them will be well rewarded with their purchase in my opinion

Edit
As a side note my laptop says the connection is only 150mbps.... and while I'm annoyed it won't show the full 3oombps.... it sure is nice to know I can move around 36 gigs of data in a little over an hour

 

I'm having a little issue with my Belkin N+ router. Recently, it has started disconnecting from my modem. I am still wirelessly and strongly connected to the router, but when I check the web management, it shows that the internet is not connected. What fixes it however is a restarting of the router via the web management. And then the internet comes back no problem. So I know its not a problem with the wireless of the router as I'm always connected, but what could it be, wireless interference in the surrounding environs or the communication between the router and my modem?

Furthermore, the modem was originally connected to a wireless G router. If I were to do a CLONE MAC or WAN attempt, I should get it from that router?

 

If I may throw in my two cents regarding Belkin:

N routers (N1 and N+) are great products to use. Stable wireless, easy setup, and easy maintenance (and by that i mean, say, setting up Virtual servers, VPNS, etc)

G routers and prior all seem to be problematic, so did somewhat taint Belkin's image. My N works wounders.

This seems to be the sam situation with me and DLINK as well (great N routers, bad G routers).

Overall the N+ is good to go (if not a bit excessive over the N)

 

Thanks Gusto

Yes Belkin certainly earned bad reputation for their g products and I certainly wouldn't want to mislead someone into buying junk, but like you I've had great sucess with this particular router and am very impressed with it's capablitiies. I think that it's important that we judge companies not only past problems, but also on current sucess. Hey Nvidia dropped the ball with the 5 series cards, but I've been a loyal costumer ever since . So thanks again for helping me set the record straight (and for the record) I am not a Belkin fanboy
Averagjo

 

Hey Deathwinger

Man that stinks, I am not sure what could be causing that.. My only suggestion as of now is that your internet connection is somehow not set to always on? Wha type of internet do you have? Dialip/DSL/Cable? Or are you picking up wireless through the air? Are you using the router as an ap? If it's possible to get this information I could be of much better help to you
Averagjo