Home > Consumer Reviews > Belkin Wireless-G Router DSL/Cable Gateway

I bought this model since it has a fat rebate which brings down the price to $10. Good for the price. And the stability is not too far above the price level.

Installation is relatively easy. Hooking the router up with my DSL modem and computer is trivial. Running the software on the CD is easy too. One thing though: since I use static ip for Internet connection, the quick setup does not support it so initially my Internet connection is not up. That's fine and I know it since many such routers only support dynamic ip address on the Internet side by default. I manually configured that through its web interface and then its wireless and ethernet connections start working.

Good so far. And I expect most people would be happy now. But since the default wireless mode does not use security at all which means someone could peek at what you visit or use my Internet connection, so I decided to add security to the router. Now the fun begins.

It took me half an hour to figure our which security mode is useable - I finally chose WPA-RSK mode since this is the only security mode I found working (after numerous reboots). But the story does not end here. It keeps dropping connection every 3-5 minutes. Yes, every 3-5 minutes! This is virtually unuseable.

I have to turn off the security feature and this works fine for only 20 minutes. The connection remains on and off periodically.

My laptop is only two feet away from the router, so signal strength should never be an issue for me.

I don't use any other features of the router, so no comments on other parts.

For the price and basic functionality, I gave it 2 star. I wish Belkin had more reliable product, but it certainly disappoints me.

I noticed that some reviewers love the product and some hate it. I wonder if Belkin has a quality control problem. My router worked for about 30 minutes though I did to have turn off security for wireless to connect. Figured I would do my own security via MAC filtering. MAC filtering worked for 10 minutes and then it died. When I called Belkin I noticed that: 1) This model router has an option (#1) on their technical support line (that should tell you something), no other product has an option. 2) It took less than 10 minutes for me to establish that the products was dead with their techs but 30 minutes on hold with their returns department before I spoke to a human. As noted by other reviewers you have to pay for the shipping the dead router back to Belkin. This was an educational experience for me. Next time I'm going with another product.

Don't be fooled by the negative reviews. As long as you follow the very simple instructions, there's nothing to the installation, and it works fine. One of the reviews commented on the difficulty in setting up WEP or WPA security. Nonsense! All you need to do is take two minutes to read the relevant chapter in the very detailed electronic manual, in Adobe Acrobat format on the CD-ROM installation disk. You have to access the router settings via Internet Explorer, and if you use WEP, you generate a passcode and then set the same code on your other computers. If you've never done that before, it may seem a little frustrating, but the fault lies not with Belkin but rather with Microsoft's Windows XP. So long as you know how to configure a wireless networking adapter on Windows XP, the Belkin components -- routers or adapters -- perform flawlessly. As a budget minded consumer, I'm thankful that Belkin makes such competitively priced networking products.

I've had this router for about 9 months now and it drops the connection about once every 2-3 days. Many times all the lights on the unit go dark. Remove the power plug and reinsert and it will work again for another 2-3 days. Belkin support has been no help and firmware upgrades don't work. Total piece of junk. Will be switching to Linksys.

I have fairly new system running XP and I have COMCAST internet service along with their ARIS cable modem. After a weekend of trying to get just the internet to run with this router I called Belkin for help. They walked me through a bunch of steps and the internet finally came on. It stayed on for all of 45 seconds and no amount of resets or re-installs would bring it back. A few more calls to tech support without success got me a replacement unit in the mail. It arrived in a few days. Super service I think. Several more days of set, reset, install, re-install netted me a grand total of three minutes of internet connect. I figured to hell with this. I set it up as a wireless adapter and it worked fine with the other end using a Linksys wireless USB adapter. By the way, the little Linksys unit installed, Zip-Pop, without a hitch. Then I changed the router and adapter between my two computers and I received the same results. Linksys installed on the first try but the Belkin was a real struggle to get running. Things ran good. Remember, no internet just a LAN. OK. Got tired and shut everything down for the night. The next day I fired everything up and would you like to take a WAG as to which unit refused to work? Don't think on it too long. The correct answer is the Belkin, Model F5D7230-4. I just ordered a Linksys unit from Amazon and I am going to give the Belkin to someone that I really hate. That is, if I can find some one like that. It's too damn small for a door stop. Belkins teck support was courteous enough and probably knowleable enough but the product sucks! Go and buy 100 feet of wire. No problems there.