| Belkin F5D8230-4 Wireless 802.11x Pre-N Router |
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Model: F5D8231-4
Brand: Belkin
Manufacturer: Belkin Components
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 221
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11n (draft), IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
LAN Ports - N/A
WAN Ports - N/A
Warranty - Lifetime Limited Warranty
LEDs - Yes |
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| Description: |
| Powered by Airgo Network's True MIMO technology, Belkin Pre-N products improve wireless reliability and performance, and enable users to work with high-bandwidth applications, such as audio and video streaming.Belkin utilizes True MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) from Airgo Networks in its Pre-N products. True MIMO is the first technology to address the issues of coverage, speed, and interference in larger homes and offices.True MIMO is a smart-antenna technique that uses multiple antennas to transmit and receive wireless signals. It reaches a step further than other smart-antenna technologies by transmitting multiple signals on each antenna. As a result, Belkin's Pre-N products with True MIMO technology create a robust wireless connection while providing a larger coverage area with the bandwidth and quality of service needed to run advanced applications, such as streaming video or Voice over IP (VoIP).True MIMO is one of the underlying technologies being considered for 802.11n, a standard in the works for the next generation of Wi-Fi technology. |
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| User Reviews (221 total): |
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Fast, works, interface awful, UPnP doesn't work, June 8, 2005
By user (Philipsburg, PA United States)
I'm a programmer, testing this in a lab to see how easy it is to setup, and to see whether UPnP works, so I can't speak to whether it has great wireless range or not. But at close range, the throughput is excellent. I'm pushing 1 Mbit/sec live video streams through it, and it has no trouble handling it, with no packet drops.
It was also very stable: no locking up or rebooting on me.
If you are just a very simple user who will plug this in to do nothing more than surf the web and read your email, this thing will work great. i.e. if you have never even used the web page interface to change settings on your router, you probably wouldn't care if the settings pages are lousy.
1. The user interface through a web browser is clumsy; it's hard to find the right pages for things to set.
2. UPnP is a no-go. Ports will set up on it, but the router doesn't forward anything on them. If you have no idea what UPnP is, then you can ignore this. But if you plan on getting gaming, Messenger, video conferencing, or other such tools to work, get yourself a different router.
3. Just like D-Link, NetGear and most other router companies, the tech support is awful. It's staffed by morons who can't help and can't answer any questions beyond how to plug the thing in.
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I'd pick a Netgear WPN824 over this thing.
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VPN Problems, June 1, 2005
By user (Madrid, Spain)
Hi,
this product doesn't work with Nortel Contivity Client, and from what I've read the problem is the same using anothers vpn clients.
Regards,
Inaki.
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best wireless router i ever had, May 27, 2005
By user (Raleigh, NC, USA)
used to have a linksys wireless b router (more or less ok) and recently a motorola wr850g (poor). i assumed the motorola would have strong broadcast characteristics coming from motorola, but, performance was much worse than the old linksys. in comes the belkin. easy to set up, easy to forward ports, lots of security features. best of all - excellent coverage of my 2 story pool home. i can finally surf the web sitting by the pool, something that never worked before. another first is that my laptops connect to the router evern when the SSID is not broadcasted. this never worked with the other routers i had.
get this one!
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Belkin Pre-N is an excellent router, May 25, 2005
By user (USA)
Before I purchased the Belkin pre-N, I bought one D-Link 802.11g which could not work with my old DWL-122 wireless network USB key (also a D-Link product). Well, I guess D-Link didn't fully test the backward compatibility. I returned that D-Link router and bought the Belkin instead. Now I am happy and surprised, it works with my DWL-122 and the connection is very reliable even if I bring my laptop outdoor.
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So Easy, It Was Scary, May 19, 2005
By user
This router was so easy to install, it was scary! After years of living in "Linksys hell" with their "b" router, version 2, I decided to take a chance on a new, highly-rated router. Out of the box, I had the Belkin installed and working immediately in 10 minutes or less!! I'm just an average user, but I highly recommend this router to anyone who is thinking of switching to wireless networking in their home. Well worth the money to upgrade.
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Forget about Linksys SRX, go with Belkin Pre-N!, May 7, 2005
By user (Hickory, NC USA)
I had originally purchased a Linksys WRT54GX router along with the companion SRX wireless PC card because: 1) I wanted to replace an 802.11b wireless network in my 2-story home for better coverage (I was having to use a Linksys wireless access point in repeater mode to get "complete coverage" with the old setup); and 2) I wanted a faster wireless network.
I quickly became frustrated with the new Linksys SRX wireless setup, primarily because my laptop (a 2004 HP model) wouldn't always detect the wireless card after powering up from sleep mode, and often there would be dropouts in my wireless internet connection, even when my laptop remained stationary. In addition, even though the wireless icon in the task bar would constantly indicate a connection speed of 108.0 Mbps, it was obvious that my new wireless internet connection was often far slower than even my old 11.0 Mbps wireless network connection! This problem was especially obvious with websites rich in photo-quality graphic images, like ESPN.com.
So, I contacted Linksys tech support and, with the help of a friendly tech support agent, reprogrammed several parameters on the router. The problem improved, but only temporarily. Frustrated, I returned both the wireless router and the PC card and immediately ordered the Belkin Pre-N router and PC card (based on Cnet reviews, which rated the Belkin system higher anyway).
Both the Belkin wireless router and PC card installed quite easily with the accompanying installation CD's and my system has been up and running without a hitch--so far. One other thing I have liked about the Belkin system is that (using the included Belkin Wireless Client) it displays realtime send and receive speeds of the wireless card, which are often slower than the 108.0 Mbps the wireless icon in the taskbar is constantly pegged at; but at least I know the "true" speed of my wireless network at any given point in time (the measured speeds that are displayed are constantly changing and fluctuate mainly according to distance from the router).
Needless to say, I have been impressed with my early experience with this Belkin system and won't hesitate to highly recommend it to others considering a future home wireless network upgrade. Oh, and did I mention that the Belkin system was cheaper than Linksys'?!!
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BUYER BEWARE! NOT COMPATIBLE WITH XBOX LIVE!, May 3, 2005
By user (Honolulu, HI)
As a previous review said, while gaming this router drops packets like a mad dog, even if you place the game system in the DMZ!
I have the original version of this router, Version 1001, and it does not do this, so I am using that version now, but the version they have been producing in 2005, Version 2000, is rotten...
It all comes down to firmware, both versions run different firmware, and from what I've heard Belkin's hardware and firmware teams have a hard time communicating, and it shows!
The original router had an issue connecting with PSP which took months after the release of PSP to be combated with a firmware update, now with this problem it appears that it may never be taken care of... Stay away from this product if you are a gamer...
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Awsome, April 17, 2005
By user (California)
This is my first foray into wireless. I took my sweet time because I would not sacrifice bandwidth to go wireless, and i feared this was a given because of the size of my house. After reading lots of reviews, i plopped down $200 for the Pre-N router and cardbus adapter. After the very easy setup, I was totaly impressed (I always thought belkin was import crap, so this surprised me). The range on this thing is fantastic. I did some experimenting to see how much bandwidth degradation the wirelless router would introduce. I first hooked up my cable modem directly to the PC. I downloaded turbotax(300MB). The turbotax server is fast, and I saw a constant 475KByte/sec download rate. This is about what the comcast service provides at 4Mbit/sec. I then hooked up the Pre-N router with a Pre-N cardbus laptop adapter. I downloaded the same file and saw 430-460KB/sec rate. I tried it all over the house (3000sq feet 2-story). The rate was the same everywhere in the house, it just kept bouncing around between 430-460KB/sec. I guess the slight hit in bandwidth is due to the encryption overhead (I use 128-bit WEP). I also use my PDA with wireles-b with no isues. I have seen no real issues so far after 2 weeks of use. The only thing I see is that if I put my modem (SB5100) on stanby and then out of standby then I have to reboot the router, I'm not sure what the problem is. One annoyance is that the router does not have a standby button or even a power button, but I dont think any other routers do either, this is clearly a security flaw. When I'm not online I would like to put the thing on standby to reduce security risk, seems obvious to me.
Although i'm not a "power" user I can attest to the speed and range of this router and can say that if you buy this router you will not be disapointed in that respect. No wires, no range issues, no bandwidth compromise, I'm happy like a pig in S*#!
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Great set-up, April 14, 2005
By user (San Bernardino, CA USA)
I decided to go wireless in my home, no small feat when you consider I have 1 desktop, 2 laptops, and 2 printers. I initially tried to go with Linksys, but had no joy. To solve my printer problem I needed a printer server with 2 USB connections, as far as I could find out, Linksys doesn't even offer this. I had the one printer server which took me all evening to configure and still needed to be connected to my router, when it took a dump on me. I couldn't reconfigure it to work on and of my comps, so I replaced it with the Belkin with 2 USB connections. It configured right away, with encription. So I replaced all my linksys router, network cards with the Belkin pre N. What a difference, easy to set up, easy to use, and everything works, fast and smooth, with no dropouts. I can even unplug my printer server from my router and everything is still encripted. One tip, make sure you re-boot after running the set-up, the software doesn't always tell you to do it. Apart from that one thing, no problems.
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sometimes fast, sometimes slow, April 12, 2005
By user (California)
My unit only achieved the promised speeds on channel 1; channel 6 and 11 were horrible even though I don't have any neighbors with WiFi. The other problem I had was with my Centrino laptop, which had bad performance most of the time with this router.
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Forget the encryption feature, April 9, 2005
By user (Seymour, CT USA)
This product was easy to initially install and get working. I never had a range problem with my older SMC router, but it eventually just stopped working, so decided to give the Belkin a try because of the good press reviews. Mistake!
I experimented with both the 64 and 128 bit encyption. Even when the client is just a few feet away from the router, the wireless connection goes up and down. I have had the same experience with a few different client PCs and 2 different Belkin routers in 2 different locations, DSL and cable internet connections - not that it should matter. The clients had various wireless adapters including a Belkin adapter. Same issue in every case. No encryption no problem, turn on encryption and you get a flaky connection.
The other very annoying thing is you can change the router options and apply them on the fly but the router software does not indicate you need to reboot. The changes sometimes do take effect, but unless you reboot the router, the wireless connection is flaky even if disable encryption.
I described my problems to Belkin tech support and their first suggestion was to lower or drop the encryption. What does that tell you?
If encryption is a requirement for you, I would suggest checking the competition.
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System installer has to speak up., April 5, 2005
By user (Fort Worth, TX)
I have to tell you that I have configured 5 of these in the last 2 months. One was dead on arrival, one had very weak signal strength, and a third had compatibility issues with it's own pre-N NIC security settings. In my opinion, this system is much on hype, but little on delivery. It carries all the flaws that have follwed Belkin's G series routers, like only the default network address will work with DHCP, and brings some new ones into play. It sure sounds like a good product if you haven't seen any work though. More information can be found at http://www.advotechllc.com/Tips/WirelessSecurity.htm
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Never underestimate the underdog, March 30, 2005
By user (Pleasanton, CA)
I had always been a loyal Linksys customer until my home network grew beyond the range of my Linksys wireless router. After trying a couple different solutions, I researched the Belkin Pre-N Router and found that almost everyone loved it.
I purchased it yesterday and it was up and running out of the box. The range is absolutely phenominal and while it is a bit more costly than most other routers, it's certainly worth every penny.
Bravo, Belkin!!
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FAST & great range, but $$$$$, March 27, 2005
By user (Florida)
Connection setup:
Belkin PreN Router
Belkin Pren Notebook card
In the beginning, I had Linksys WRT54G router AND Hawking Model: HAI6SIP / HAI6SIA Hi Gain 6dBi Antenna. I was still getting drops at 20 paces as the crow flies thru a few walls etc. I swapped it out for a Netgear WGT624. Signal strength was about 5 db stonger according to NetStumbler on the Netgear so Linksys went into storage. BTW, I am connecting via Intel 2200 ProWireless, Linksys WPC55AG, and Belkin Wireless G USB Network Adapter F5D7050.
The best transmission rate I could get out of the Linksys was 7-8 MB/s. On the Netgear, I could peak at 9-10 MB/s. The Belkin PreN blow the doors off !!! I was getting almost 54 MB/s !??!?!!
So this is defintily legit. The next test was distance at straight line of sight. I would have to say that I was about a football field's distance between the PreN router and the PreN card and I was still getting 12-15 MB/s (with no obstructions in between). I ran out of straight line of sight to keep on testing at my condo complex !!!! Hence, this router should have no transmission problems for most houses (unless you have alot of $$$ and have a REALLY REALLY large house).
Note: WEP does not decrease thruput, but WPA reduced thruput by 50% !!! I'm sure you could still live w/ 27 Mb/s :P
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Solved my wireless coverage problems, March 26, 2005
By user (Taiwan)
I bought this unit to replace the no longer supported Microsoft wireless in my home office. With the old unit I was never able to use my wireless laptop in the back rooms or downstairs. The Belkin router gives amazingly clear signal in all areas even out in the back yard over 500 feet away through walls and floors. I am using the Belkin adapter card for my HP laptop.
Also: I am using WAP encription security and not displaying the SSID. I have not had any problems.
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Worked like a charm (after dumping Belkin's software), March 24, 2005
By user (NY, NY)
Two words. Get it. Belkin's Pre-N is super fast, even when paired with a wireless G card. I now have the Pre-N PCMCIA card and my connection is even faster (surprise, surprsie). I did a quick bandwidth check using Cnet's online tool and my connection speed came in at over a T1 and just below a T3 (I have my router connected to a cable modem). Hasn't dropped a connection yet. The online managment tool is super easy to use, too.
Just one word of caution. I've read of quite a few people having problems with the PCMCIA card. The belkin wireless utility, should be called belkin useless utility, is a piece of junk. It crashed every time I used it. After I got the belkin driver to install, I downloaded Boingo's free wireless utlity manager and it connected fine first time.
Wanted to add a follow up to my review above... I recently upgraded to the latest version of Boingo, after which Boingo stopped working with my Pre-N router and wi-fi card. I have since switched to J-Wire's wi-fi browser/connection software and it works like a charm once more.
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Worth the Money, February 22, 2005
By user (Kailua-Kona, HI USA)
This router replaces my SMC Barricade .b with matching notebook card. After a couple of years of dropped connections, delayed write errors, and reception that barely made 50 feet, I decided to upgrade. The Belkin Pre-N is quite a bit more expensive than other products available now, but so far I am convinced it is worth it. As other reviewers have attested, the speed and range are terrific -- I can now take my laptop in any corner of my 4000 sqft house and get excellent to good throughput and signal strength, even through stone walls and a swimming pool! Previous reviews that warn about locking this down because anyone in the neighborhood could tap in are correct.
I bought the matching Belkin Pre-N notebook card and I achieve 108 mbps over a wide range, just as advertized. I haven't noticed very much difference in battery life either. So far (about 1 week) it has remained rock solid.
Setup took a couple of tries to get the security protocol set correctly, and although the manual could be more clearly written, it is a vast improvement over my SMC documentation.
Bottom line -- this product delivers, though at a price. For me it was worth the cost.
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What an amazing product - My reception problems solved, February 21, 2005
By user (Palatine)
This is so cool!!! What an amazing product. Just what was promised in the box and Belkin's web site.
This is my first ever review of any product and I have bought 100s of computer products and I just have to write a review.
I have a 3400sqft home with vaulted ceilings and my old linksys router is connected to the upstairs computer.
The machine downstairs had very poor reception - signal strength around 50% and speed hovers between 24-48mpbs. When I turn on the microwave in the kitchen, just forget it - the speed will go down to 1mbps and most of the time loose network connection altogether. It was just horrible. Tried many different options - different routers, boosters, antennaes - no luck and no change.
Bought the router and the desktop network card - plugged it in and everything worked beautifully. My signal strength initially was 100%, but turning on the microwave brought it down to 97% and has not moved down since.
I am very happy with the product and i would recommend this product over spending money on boosters or different routers. The price is reasonable when compated to speed boosters and 40$ antennaes or other AirG or SpeedboosterG products.
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Not so lucky, February 6, 2005
By user (SF Bay Area)
I ordered the Pre-N router after reading Mossberg's positive recommendation in the WSJ. Range has been the problem for our previous SMC 7004 and SMC 2804 WiFi routers, and the addition of high-gain antennas (both 6 dB directional and 4 dB omni-directional) to the 2804 also didn't do the job in connecting reliably to distant Dell, Sony, and IBM laptops.
Our experience was that we couldn't configure the unit to obtain both reliable wireless connectivity and consistent download throughput. We could stabilize one or the other, but not both, and we didn't see any significant increase in signal strength at the most distant machines (about 60 ft away). Six calls to tech support, several days of trying different configuration options, and a new unit didn't solve the problem, so back it went.
On the positive side, both the set-up and the router's admin software are best of class. Belkin's tech support was also the best I've experienced for WiFi products: short waits, and in all but one instance knowledgeable people. They even express shipped a replacement without demanding the return of the suspect unit.
My experience seems to run counter to that of most other reviewers, but in light of my first-rate experience with Belkin's customer service I'll have no reservations about buying their products in future.
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very good product, February 6, 2005
By user (dulles, va United States)
stable, solid and well built product. better range than my linksys router with amplifier and gain antennas. works well with my linksys usb g adaptors. only minor complaint that login page on the LAN side of the router gives a good bit of information without a login. really prefer a login to get the router details. i have difficult environment with concrete walls and this router performs well and provides good signal coverage.
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