Home > Consumer Reviews > Belkin N1 Wireless Router

I had this router for a while now (longer than I could return it for a refund). Very often I cannot connect to web sites that I frequently use. Eventually I did some research and found that this router has a fatal defect - its DNS cache will get corrupted over time. The latest firmware from Belkin does not fix it.

When I initially had problem accessing web sites, I naturally assumed that the web sites could be down or my ISP could have problems. One day when I tried to VPN into my office the VPN could not be connected. I tried to ping my office VPN server and the IP address returned was different from the actual IP. My VPN server was on xx.xx.xx.84 but the PING request indicated xx.xx.xx.4. I then used NSLOOKUP to check various DNS servers, and pin-pionted the error to the Belkin router's DNS cache.

The DHCP server in the Belkin router automatically sets the DNS server address to be those provided by my ISP plus the Belkin's own IP address 192.168.2.1. There is no way to get rid of it. If there is a way to only use my ISP's DNS server the problem could be worked around. Belkin does not provide this option.

The DNS cache corruption problem will cause a lot of mysterious connection problems. If you are not familar with TCP/IP networking technology there is no way to find out what goes wrong. Shame on Belkin to release a product with such a critical defect.

Update 6-17-07: I have now owned this unit for a year and I still love it. I experienced intermittment drops for a short time when I switched from DSL to a cable ISP. But Belkin issued a firmware update in mid May '07 that totally resolved that problem. No issues since.

After trying the Linksys SRX400 and WRT300N routers and being totally discouraged by poor performance, I decided to give another brand a try. The Belkin N1 worked right out of the box as advertised. All I did was hook up the router to the DSL modem and then to my workstation, restarted, and then ran the CD and that was it. The WiFi range and consistency of the signal is superb. I bought this router primarily to stream video to Media Center Extenders that are littered throughout the house in various rooms. I had no problem getting an "excellent signal" in several areas - both inside my home and outside on my patio. The signal was constantly strong and did not bounce around a lot like it did with the Linksys. At the time of this review, the N1 runs rings around the newest Linksys WiFi routers - at least that is my experience. I spent many days and hours trying to tweak the Linksys routers and I only spent about 15 minutes tweaking the Belkin N1 before I was satisfied with the performance. I believe that the Belkin N1 came out about 1 month later than the other pre-N routers that are now on the market. My guess is that they spent the extra time running it through Quality Assurance. This is the first pre-n router that I am aware of that hasn't needed firware patches immediately. Anyway, if your experiencing WiFi congestion and you need the extra speed and range, then I would definitely buy this product.

This is the most horrible experience I have ever had with a router. I loved the original Orinoco routers, so easy and so reliable. I also loved the Belkin Pre-N router. This N1 however is horrible. It started with booting off the system every 15 minutes. After TWO DAYS on the phone with technical support, I got the router replaced. The new router booted me off the net after 30-40 minutes. After TWO MORE DAYS on the phone with technical support, we finally got the router to stay on for 4 hours. But then you have to go through a whole system reboot. If you don't believe this is a systemic problem, call their customer support at 877-736-5771 and you'll see that they have put in a hot line for people who can't keep this thing online. There are two things I recommend -- the Belkin Pre-N and the very nice customer support at Belkin. They really did try everything and replaced my product with a different product in the end. Thank goodness for the lifetime warranty on these. Don't buy it. Go with this one instead. Belkin F5D8230-4 Wireless 802.11x Pre-N Router

Outstanding Router were it not for some wireless glitches. I now share my wireless network with my inlaws 3 houses away (though clear line of sight). Took a long time to sort out why I couldn't maintain a wireless connection even within my house though...and I note some people think the wireless does not even work.

A review of the product at "Tom's Hardware" website finally pointed me to the problem. Apparently, the router has some hardware issues related to their Security feature. If you enable WPA-2 the signal can drop by more than 85% leading you to believe it doesn't work...I'd suggest you read that review.

Based on that, I removed the Security settings and all my problems with dropped connections etc. ceased. I provide some security by using the MAC Filtering and not transmitting the SSID. I suspect that is sufficient for a home router but not for an enterprise. But I could not engage the WPA-2 (either TKIP or AES) and get any reliable range or connection out of this router. Caused a great deal of frustration for awhile. But now it works great and I get the range and speed I was hoping for.

With all the negative comments on the Linksys model, I previously decided to try the Netgear Next router. After over 2 hours on the phone with their useless tech support, and going through two separate units, I still could not get the wireless part working with my internet service. So I rolled the dice and tried the Belkin unit. After running through the setup wizard and one short call with tech support this unit works great..good range, speeed, and the diagnostic icons on the front make it very easy to tell the status of the router. Well done Belkin!