Home > Consumer Reviews > Belkin F5D5230-4 Cable/DSL Gateway 4 Port Router

This is not a bad router for the price. It's packed with features, such as a virtual server, and restrictive web access settings. The user manual, while better than nothing, is rather sketchy in places. One problem with the router that appears to be a design flaw is that it does not stop "ping of death" attacks on the Internet, which have become much more prevalent of late. My recommendation is to purchase a more recent router with better firewall control options (This router has only "on" or "off"). That way you can be sure you will be fully protected.

It was just plug and play for me on this router. I own two of them. Neither one has cause me any trouble. I am using Windows XP and have 4 computers networked together. This router worked like a charm right out of the box. I've read other reviews and the complaints. All I can say is I haven't had these issues myself.

Maybe it's the luck of the draw. I wasnt looking for anything fancy, and this router is exactly that. There are better routers available. As far as an inexpensive one that does the job this has worked fine for me.

Not a bad product, I've used it for 6 months or so, but requires too many resets for my taste. After 2 or 3 days of use, traffic through the router slows to a crawl, which requires me to reset the router. It's annoying.

I use Verizon DSL and was unable to configure this router to work properly without intervention from Belkin's technical support. The included software repeatedly failed to properly configure the router. The manual was poorly written and Belkin's website was of no use for my particular problems. I will acknowledge that the Belkin technial support representative was knowledgeable and helpful. The day after I had the router set up and running it died on me. After contacting Belkin technical support again and running some diagnostic tests, the tech support representative came to the conclusion that the device was not functioning properly and I should return it to Belkin for a replacement. Instead, I returned the device to the store and purchased a slightly more expensive router from Linksys (model BEFSR41). That router was a snap to set up - no need to contact technical support. In sum, the Belkin router was a disappointment - I can't recommend it at all.

I have had cable internet for six months now and have tried a couple different routers during this time. When I set up the router, I ran into a number of problems because I was unable to get past the "login" and "password" screen in order to clone the mac address, etc. Technical support was unable to help me and couldn't even figure out how to reset the router! I was able to get it set up and running eventually and did not have any problems those first few days. I had this router working on my small (windows xp pro, windows xp home & windows 2000) home network. When it works - all the home computers can connect to each other, share files, play multiplayer games, and surf the net with no speed concerns what so ever. The key here is "when it works". There are "down times" almost daily where the router is unable to function. I was able to continue working online just through the cable modem, but that left the rest of the network offline while I was doing so. I exchanged the router (for the same Belkin 4 port) and had the exact same problems again! Thinking it may be my cable company, I had them run numerous tests that came back fine so I then tried another brand router. Linksys and DLink work fine with absolutely no interruptions but both of the Belkins that I tried couldn't even make it 24 hours without breaking down.

For the price, it isn't bad when it's working - but you can buy both DLink and Linksys for the same price range and have more stability.