Home > Consumer Reviews > Belkin N Wireless Modem Router

... first want to qualify by saying that I live in a very old house with old beams, etc and use with 3 apple macs.
I've had this for 5 months and it's pretty unusable if you've a wall between you and the router, the macs are always losing signal and it needs restarting I'd say once every 3 days.

avoid if you're in a similar situation to me.

After some set-up problems, where you have to ring India (local rate), I finally got this device up and running - eventually more due my own understanding than to the helpline! It refused to pick up my previous internet settings, and I had to set them manually in the router, which I had not done before. The problem was inability to download POP3 mail. Belkin incorrectly tried taking the machine outside the network, and messed it all up, before giving up. Eventually I managed to reset the error, get the device generally running again for the internet, and then sort out the problem, which was partly due to AVG virus software needing a slightly different set-up in its email settings.

The device itself is now working fantastically. It gives me fast internet and network speeds, and was worth every penny. (I only have up to 2mbps connection, so cannot discuss beyond this). If I had not almost accidentally discovered this device, while really just intending to set up a LAN, I would have been cancelling my contract with my current ISP asap. As it is, I will not now be doing that - it has made that much difference to my internet.
Occasionally any such device will need a re-boot, and I have gained so much, I would be happy to do that; personally that has not been an issue for me.

I was rather nervous when I bought a Belkin router. I had bought other Belkin products over the years, and not one of them ever worked. But surely that was just bad luck. I opened the box and followed the instructions. I was told to connect everything up and then insert the easy setup disk. The modem lit up with bright blue lights like a radio on a teenager's Corsa. Maybe they should have included a baseball cap, so I could wear it back-to-front and try to look cool. There is no need to have status lights so bright they almost blind. The software couldn't detect the modem, even though the blue lights showed it was connected to the PC, and Windows could also see the modem. Even after I spent a whole five hours setting up this modem, and finally getting connected to the internet, the software still insisted there was no modem, and shut itself down.

Now, I did get all this to work with a struggle. No thanks to the Belkin software. The PC, Wii, and printer were all eventually connected wirelessly. But all three items had issues with this modem. Every day, when I tried to connect the PC, it wouldn't connect. Neither would the Wii, or the printer. I had to go through the whole setup procedure every time I started each item. Hardly convenient. I now have a Netgear modem connected, and all three items work seamlessly with it.

The Belkin has gone the way of the Belkin USB hub, the Belkin Bluetooth dongle, the Belkin wireless dongle. It's in the Belkin bin.

I should have known better, but I won't make that mistake again.

Belkin N Wireless Modem Router

Where to begin. After recently purchasing a new HP Elite Desktop, I was dying to start downloading and playing games online. I purchased this goodie wirless router from Comet and I was recommended that it was perfect for downloading videos/music etc.

Now right to the meat of the situation. I'm a gamer. I'm a downloader. I love music, videos, applications. The Belkin is great for downloading. Nothing else. I installed games such as Left 4 Dead and Call of Duty 4 (great online games) and every 30 seconds, I would get a "connection interrupted" error. I moved the Router from the office room and placed it in mine (and extended my ethernets cable to do so). Even though the router was 2 meters from my computer, I still received the "connection interrupted" error. Ever now and again, the connection (while downloading or on the internet) would cut off and I would have to reconnect it all over again. You might say it's because of interference, yet even though after moving it into my own room, I still received these problems!

My internet speed is a measley 2MB, yet my other friend (who is also a keen online gamer) says how he has a 2MB internet broadband speed from Virgin, yet his Belkin High Speed Wireless G+ Router is in another room and he has no "lag" or "connection interrupted" problems.

Don't get me wrong, this Router is ace. But the fact that the connection cuts off in the most urgent of moments and that the signal strength sometimes goes haywire, I would rather that you go for the G+. It costs just around the same price (I bought the N router for £35 from Comet) and a LOT more efficient in terms of connection and internet speed; I would highly recommend the G+ counterpart.

Save your money and spend it on something that is fullproof and won't cut off in the most annoying moments such as when a sniper picks his aim at your head, you spot him and right when your about to duck your connection messes up. 5 seconds later the connection goes normal. You can figure out the rest. And if your son/daugher/you are an online gamer, the frustration will mount and eventually you will end up in my situation, with a G+ wireless router that makes you think... "why did I go for that other one in the first place?" Save money, save problems, save yourself the hassle of thinking that moving the routers antennae/location will help. Buy the G+ and be a happy chappy.

After spending weeks hunting around for a cable router I eventually went into PC World and after staring at the staggering number of routers available I bought this one. It cost me £89 too, so Amazon are cheaper than PC World.

Anyway, router was a doddle to set up and picked up my 2 PCs no problem at all.

So why not 5 stars? Well, 2 things. I had to set up the security settings myself, after creating the network, which basically involved some re-working. It wasn't hard, but there is no auto prompt to do this, fortunately I'd read another review that warned me about this "feature".

Secondly, I would have liked some more help in setting up the Network with a more obvious interface telling me what computers are connected and giving me an interface into them...but I guess that would be true of all routers.

Finally, my laptop is connected at 54mps, not the advertised "n" speeds (I think around 300mps). Again there is no help to maximise your download speeds.

But with 4meg broadband it is not an issue, yet.

If you are looking at connecting your laptop without any fancy stuff or not you are not bothered about future proofing your home network (which is what I wanted to do), buy one of the cheaper Belkins, but I am happy with mine, just could be a bit more happy.