suemccartin's Full Review: Belkin N1 Vision (F5D8232-4) Wireless Router
I've owned two Belkin wireless products and a pcmcia card and a pci adapter for their N1 line. Best bang for the buck usually however I have to believe that perhaps their quality control leaves a bit to be desired. This unit is far easier to setup than their earlier N1 because windows actually sees it and puts an icon for it in your network folder. No more setup software here to screw with. My unit setup speedily however a month later the transmitter for the N1 anyway is dead, the g still seems to be working but after a laptop and another pc with the desktop card can no longer connect, it's headed back to belkin. I suppose I should not complain it's lifetime on all parts, much better warranty than other products, it's just discouraging to have to pack it up and spend ten bucks to send it back so soon.
Features:
-Wireless b/g/n1 connectivity
-2.4 ghz band using multiple antennas (MIMO)
-fancy display
-4 port wired router
-Really easy setup as windows sees it as a device (no more setup programs)
-Recessed hard reset button
setup:
Not much, plug in cables, plug in power. Cable modems should be powered down and back up after the router is working to avoid issues with that. Hit the icon in windows to change passwords, ssid, etc.
Performance:
I live in an older 50 concrete block house, connections in here are a problem, especially since the kitchen (with the microwave) is in the way of the back of the house where I have two systems going. If you fiddle with antenna orientation you can improve signal somewhat.
Security:
I don't usually bother, I've got a couple of older mobile devices that don't handle WEP well. At most I shut off SSID or filter for mac addresses, this all most of us need to discourage the casual war driver. I have found that the most troublefree setups use all the same manufacturer pieces. I always have problems when trying to mix different brands of stuff on a wireless setup.
What I think of this thing:
I think it's an improvement over their earlier N1 product, which I'm using to write this now. I also had to send one of these back but I'm also half convinced that roadrunner in my area does stuff to sabotage wireless equipment that isn't bought from them (i.e. they screw with DNS settings etc.). I really like the display on this unit, I suspect that one of my neighbors (most likely their kids) keeps trying to hack my router and making it crash and you can easily at a glance see when anyone is connected to your router via the display, you can also set it up to be a clock. The display is black and white and on all the time. I like the fact that the unit sits upright instead of flat it takes up less space that way and gets the antennas a bit higher. When I called Belkin on the earlier product they were helpful and there wasn't a lot of BS with them.
I'm disappointed that this only lasted a month and now I need to send it back but I suppose it's better than having to fork out for a whole new one. Belkin has a painless return policy, no BS no arguing just get the rma off their site send it back and you get one in a box that could just be new not refurbed. I won't buy several other products because of all the bs they give you before they will fork over a rma. In my old concrete house 5 ghz wireless A works better but I have not seen a MIMO product yet (Buffalo had one, got sued and had to pull them all off the market unfortunately). Pretty happy with this other than the problem with the radio after only a month. Hopefully 2nd one is the charm just as with my earlier N1 router from Belkin.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 140.00 Driver Availability: Windows, Linux, and Mac
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