| Belkin F5D7132 Wireless-G Universal Range Extender |
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Model: F5D7132
Brand: Belkin
Manufacturer: Belkin Components
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 173
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Offers one-touch setup for wireless repeater mode
Adds wireless-enabled PCs to your wired network in access-point mode
Works seamlessly with the majority of routers and access points available
Ensures data and network security
Works with PCs and Macintosh computers |
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| Description: |
| The 802.11g Wireless Universal Range Extender/ access point (WURE) connects to your network switch and lets you join your wireless-equipped PCs to your wired network in Access Point Mode, or lets increase the coverage of your existing wireless network in Range Extender Mode. Once you've done the simple setup, you can share data and peripherals, as well as a single Internet account among all your computers. It is based on standard 802.11g technology for fast wireless file transfers and downloads. |
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| User Reviews (173 total): |
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not as easily compatable as advertised, January 25, 2008
By user
This product advertised one button compatability and setup. This didn't work for me. Tech support couldn't help me without specific info from the router I was using. They wanted to manually input IP addresses on the computers and it was just too much hassel. A different brand worked like a charm.
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Great once configured, January 20, 2008
By user
I concider myself fairly computer literate, and almost all of the time i am ble to set up a product without the instructions. I got this in compilation with a linksys router. I set up the router in my office and this repeater on the other side of the house. After having this for a few days my friends told me that even though nobody lives near me i should encrypt my wireless. Unfortunately, this repeater does not automatically configure itself for an encrypted network, so i tried for 10 minutes to fix the problem without using the instructions. after that i got out the instructions, followed them(which was surprisingly very easy) and within 5 minutes it was up and running.
All in all, if your network is unsecured this will set up in seconds and work perfectly. If it is secured, follow the instructions, very simple, and it will work perfectly.
Another nice feature is that if you lose power you do not have to reconfigure it, unlike many others my friends have had.
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Not trivial but made it work, January 12, 2008
By user (chicago)
The instructions that come with this are not all that helpful, and setup takes some work. I found additional material on the web that got me going, and in the end it wasn't too bad. I have this centered upstairs and base station is downstairs at one end of the house, have much better signal coverage of whole house now. You will need some level of understanding of networks etc to make this work, but I'm not an expert and I got it done.
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Not Vista supported, January 12, 2008
By user
Belkin has made the decision not to upgrade this with Vista drivers or support. That's arrogant and not acceptable - Vista was released 12mth ago! Welcome to the 21th century Belkin! They include in the package - but not on the Web - that Vista is not supported. Thanks for the info - but a little late don't you think? Recommend to buy an extender from a compagny that follows the evoultion..
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Worked, but ......, December 25, 2007
By user (Florida - USA)
Took me about three hours to make it work. Setup without security was *instantaneous*. It actually surprised me to see webpages pop up about 10 seconds after I got rid of the security settings in the router, connected the extender and pressed the auto setup button. Then I tried to re-apply the security settings and hit a brick wall. My problem was that, whereas the router would accept either ASCII (ie ABCDE) or hexadecimal characters for the wireless security password, the extender only takes hexadecimal sequences (ie A1B643C4C4). The extender's programming interface has a "helpful" hex password generator starting from a "passphrase", so I just input as the "passphrase" the same ASCII characters I had used for the router wireless password and then accepted the generated hex password in the extender, but it did not work. After almost giving up on the entire thing, it finally hit me that the password generator was *not* actually translating the ASCII characters in the "passphrase" to the equivalent hex codes but to a different sequence, so I dug up my old ASCII-Hex conversion chart and input in the extender the character by character hex equivalent of the ASCII characters I had used in the router (ie ABCDE would translate to 4142434445) and, lo and behold, it worked beautifully (note that, when you are through programming with the interface you have to disconnect the cable from the router to the extender or you will get a "duplicate IP" error message; also that, every time that you connect or disconnect said cable you should "soft reset" the extender).
Soooo, it finally worked! But ..... The walls in my house are solid brick instead of drywall so the "range extender" barely extends the range from one room to the next, which was my problem with the wireless router to begin with, which I had hoped to correct with the extender. Thankfully, this unit *also* works as a wireless access point, so I set it up as such in the area where I wanted wireless coverage the most and which, also thankfully, had a network cable connecting it to the 4-port wired-wireless router and I now at least have wireless in that room and (barely) in the adjoining one. Not really what I had hoped for, but at least not a total waste.
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Easy, and Strong!, December 23, 2007
By user
The extender was surprisingly easy to install -- basically, we just plugged it in and didn't even have to go to any administrator website or software. And instantly, the wi-fi in our four-story house is stronger.
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Pain to get working...but FLAWLESS!!, December 18, 2007
By user (usa)
This review adds on to the review by Stanley Lin (VERY GOOD REVIEW, just one add-on). Make sure to DISABLE WEP Security on your router before you do anything.
Follow his steps, perfect setup.
That being said, this thing works AMAZINGLY! I cannot praise this enough, while somebody at Belkin should be killed for making the setup with WEP such a pain, once you get it working, its perfect. I own a Netgear WPN824 RangeMAX, which also works increadibly, but my house is nearly 5000 sq feet, with 18 inches of stone as the walls. The RangeMAX hit every room except our family room, the outermost wall and on the complete opposite side of the house. This Belkin Extender is placed about 6 feet off the floor on a wall shelf that happens to be the only place, thanks to doorways, where there are only 2 stone walls in the way (4 inches to the left or right and there is another wall and very little reception). This range extender makes my family have perfect connection, with the repeater at sometimes managing over a 4 mb/s download speed, very good considering what it is.
AND UNLIKE what some people say, you can unplug the thing as many times as you want, it doesn't lose the configuration....if it does you have a broken one and you should take advantage of the lifetime warranty it carries.
For appearance, very plain, very simple, VERY small, literally like 4 inches square, mine is completely hidden behind a picture frame.
The other benefit it has is that, if you keep the same SSID, your computer moves from the signals without you knowing at all, I can move from my family to the other side of the house, other router, while downloading and NEVER stop the download, it really is perfect. I am writing this review while using it and streaming TV via Media Center to my xBox 360.
4 STARS, 5 if Belkin addressed the WEP setup. And I got it off craigslist 16 SHIPPED. buy one, you won't be dissapointed!
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Exactly what I wanted, December 17, 2007
By user (Savannah, GA)
I had a bunch of wireless networks in my area and really didn't think this would work out so well.
It was perfect! All I had to do was plug it in and hold down the button and it immediately locked onto my desired network, supplying an excellent connection for my labtop. Thanks Belkin!
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Works Great for my Situation, December 15, 2007
By user (Bayside, CA)
I bought this unit to increase the range of my existing Belkin router. I live in a remote area so I don't need to use any security settings; others have mentioned that the unit is difficult to set up if you're using WEP. Fortunately for me, I was able to use the one touch automatic set up and it really works. I was up and running in less than a minute. The signal is strong and steady. For my situation, this range extender was a perfect solution.
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Installation & Setup, December 14, 2007
By user (Las Cruces, NM)
Belkin F5D7132 Wireless-G Universal Range Extender
Belkin F5D7132 Wireless-G Universal Range ExtenderSetup was a problem as instructions that came with product do not adequately discuss IP addressing issues of device in LAN setups.
Belkin tech support was poorly informed of LAN/IP addressing issues. Had I followed Belkin's instructions the wireless device would never have worked at all and I would have returned it as defective.
If buyers want to use this device in a LAN repeater mode they will need to be quite familar with LAN/IP addressing issues.
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Hard to set up, doesn't work well, December 9, 2007
By user (Atlanta, GA)
I found this product cumbersome to set up. You need to place this right next to the router so it didn't increase my signal that much at all since my router was okay and the auto-config button makes it cumbersome since I have so many signals around my area. Not really worth the headache of this product despite its lower price.
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Great Product, December 1, 2007
By user (seattle, wa)
I am using my friend's internet connection. His signal was of average strength (2 bars).
The installation was tricky. The manual says to press the autoconnect button, but when i did, it always picked up some other network's signal. So i had to attach the device to my computer with an ethernet cord. Now i changed the ip address of my LAN to 192.168.2.100 and the subnet mask came up automatically. I had to disable all my firewalls and internet connection. After that i typed 192.168.2.254 in my internet browser and after 2 or 3 attempts the configuration setup opened. From there i selected my friend's internet connection. Then i disconnected the device from the computer and moved it to a different room. It connected to the network in few seconds and i got 5 bars on my computer. Signal strength all around the house is great.
p.s. This will create a whole new network with a distict name. If you choose the same name, there will still be 2 different networks with same name.
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Very good product - Suffers 'cos of bad positioning, November 25, 2007
By user (NJ, USA)
This is a very good product for repeating your wireless signal over longer distances. I have set this up & my three level house is now saturated with the signal.
The real problem for this product is that Belkin has decided that people using this will be dumb and will buy for the 'one touch setup' feature - Can't understand why they don't realize almost all home network setup these days have security, and one touch wont work in that mode.
All they need to do is clearly write the setup functions for secured Wi-Fi connections.
* You need to connect it physically to your computer using an Ethernet cable.
* Change your TCP/IP properties for LAN to fixed IP, with the machine IP as 192.168.2.1 (or whatever for the last number), and gateway as 192.168.2.254. Don't worry about DNS.
* You will then get the units setup screen by typing in http://192.168.2.254 on the browser, and in the 'BASIC' setup screen, you could attach it to any Wi-Fi signal you need to repeat.
* You should be good to go then, you could disconnect the ethernet setup and access it through wireless.
* Be sure to reset your TCP/IP for LAN properties to its previous state.
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Belkin and Netgear do not play well together, November 17, 2007
By user (Boston, MA USA)
I have been looking for a wireless bridge/range extender for some time; my network has grown organically, i.e. I solve one problem at a time, with what I can find at the time. My routers (wired and wireless) are in the basement, but I need connectivity everywhere.
I used the 'range extender' option, and synced up the Belkin Extender with my Netgear Wireless Router. I had to hold it quite close, and it took nearly a minute, but the 'searching' light came off indicating a successful sync. So far, so good.
Moving the extender anywhere else in the house, however, resulted in it not being able to find my network again. My Blackberry can find the network in my bedroom, two floors up, but this product couldn't find it from across the same room.
Tech support suggested that I call Netgear and ask them to help me reassign the frequency. Thanks, but no thanks.
I'm glad that some people found true happiness using this product. I just wish it had been my turn.
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What a piece of junk, November 16, 2007
By user (De Forest, WI United States)
My brother-in-law and I spent many hours trying to get this thing to extend his network. I took it home and tried to get it to work on mine - but it just won't work. Perhaps I got a bad one? It just doesn't work according to how it is supposed to work per the directions. Don't waste your money on this thing. Buy a bigger and better antenna for your current wireless router instead.
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Great product, November 14, 2007
By user (Fairfax, VA USA)
I bought this to increase the signal going to my wireless adaptor on my PC and for my PS3 and internet adapter. It works great I went from 2 bars of signal to 5 (out of 5). My download times are a lot faster. I have one in my basement (the unit is about 25 ft from the system) also which helps when I play my PS3 on my projector.
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It's cheap, November 12, 2007
By user
Not really easy to setup. Does not accept DHCP assigned address it must be manually configured on the network to operate as an access point. Goes off-line often but comes back when power is recycled. Ok for my purposes (occasional use) but I would not recommend for dependable wireless access.
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Works Perfectly!, November 12, 2007
By user (Juneau, AK USA)
I have a secured network so I didn't plan on even trying to use the "one button setup." Besides I don't like automatic setups anyway, I'm a "manual configuration" type of person.
So I just had to plug it into my laptop, set my IP (192.168.2.x), and log into it through the default IP (192.168.2.254). I used the "Site Survey" tool and found my network, entered my WEP key, and it connected just fine after a few minutes. I now have an excellent signal all throughout my apartment that is about 100 feet away from the main house.
Only problem I noticed is that some of the devices in the area between the router and extender have had their signal decreased somewhat, but certainly not enough to make a difference in surfing the web. No big deal to me!
Oh, also a question I had before I purchased was if the ethernet port on the device would work to extend the network with a wire also. This also works great! I have the extender sitting next to my TV with a standard hub (or a switch would work) plugged into the back of the extender. My Tivo and XBox are both plugged into the hub and work as if they were plugged directly into the main router! PERFECT!
This seems to be a much cheaper option for someone to make their XBox a wireless device (which is basically what I've done), since most of the wireless gaming adapters I've seen are about $100!
FYI, my main router is a Belkin Pre-N wireless router (also a great device!).
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A range extender that needs its range extended, November 7, 2007
By user (Seattle, WA, USA)
Like in many of the other reviews, the setup experience was not great (crappy setup UI, pieces of configuration seemed to disappear after reboot, and so on). Finally I got it connected to my wireless router. Moved to 20 feet away -- still connected. Moved to the planned location which was 30 feet away -- oops, connected no more.
Tried many configuration combinations to no luck. I'm returning it in the morning.
By the way, the box was devilishly confusing: it labeled different wireless technologies like pre-N MIMO in big fonts, as if the device were compatible. But in fine print it says it actually only supports the vanilla G. Why does it want to educate me on things it is uncapable of? I guess this does not matter much since people buying it here are not looking at the box when they decide to buy. But still...
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was not as hard as I thought it would be., November 3, 2007
By user (Seattle, WA)
thanks to L. Friedersdorf review and instructions the set up was simple. I got this around 2pm on saturday. THANK YOU PRIME! and got it set up and ready around 2:20. This was with a secure network. I followed the instructions left by L. Friedersdorf and it worked really well. My Computer has gone from 2 bars to 5 bars. my 360 has gone from zero bars to 3 bars and my Tivo has gone from 35% to 70%. This was after trying about 6 other solutions. I have tried The directional Antenna and omnidirectional antenna. Wireless access points. Better routers. Moving my room around and Nothing worked. The wireless router is One other side of the house on the main floor. and I am on the second floor in the basement with lots of Thick walls and everything. So this was the perfect solution for me. I have a Netgear wireless routher that was standard from Charter Cable so I was impressed I didnt have any trouble.
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