Dragonboy IT & Electronics Journey

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Belkin N1 - Good Router





Do you have more than 1 machine at your home? If you have more than 1 PC or 1 Laptop at your home, you will definitely need a router.

So what are the choices given so many routers available in the market? Linksys, Dlink, Belkin, Netgear, Airlink, etc. All flooded the market with their own Networking products.

For the past few years, I am quite happy with Linksys.

I was using Linksys WRTG54G. The speed is not too bad, 54Mbps. Fast enough to surf the web, watching youtube, and even ABC movie direct.

For the time being, there are 4 different speed available:
1. 802.11b -> 11 mbps
2. 802.11g/a -> 54 mbps
3. 802.11n -> > 108 mbps???

So after careful consideration, its time to replace the Linksys 802.11G.

I was happy with my old router since since it can be customised using dd-wrt. (Well, I did not do much with the custom DD-WRT only do it for fun.
Since this time the N router is getting more affordable. I finally decide time to get a new router. So I choose Belkin N1 after careful consideration.

So what will you get with Belkin N1?
Theoritically, it will support 300Mbps, in my testing, I can only reach 270Mbps connection.

Linksys WRT54G will only give you 54Mbps. Well 270 Mbps > 54 Mbps. So I am happy with the speed increase. The main thing, the new router is suppose to have a longer "distant" so even I am upstair, I should not encounter timeout due to lost wireless connection.

Afte doing some research, I finally decide which model that I want to get. I bought the Belkin N1 from Circuit City. And with some coupon I finally manage to get one less than US$90.

The comments from the internet is mixed for this router, but I finally give it a shot,since the linksys dualband is still very expensive (199 USD).

The installation is pretty straight forward, I do not have problems to install it but there are some minor problems that could be annoying at the beginning.

Problems that I encountered:
1. My wireless is up and down using my 2nd notebook eventhough the 1st notebook does not have any problem.
2. My VPN to office is not working

Searching from the internet and play around with the setting, I have finally found the solution:
1. Upgrade the firmware to the latest beta F5D8231-4_WW_4.00.18 --> VPN will work
2. Turn on the Bandwith (20+40 hz) --> Will make your clients faster since the 802.11N could operate at differnet bandwith (40hz)
3. Turn off the QoS --> For some reason it hates my 2nd notebook if I turn it on.

problem solved :-). No more wireless up and down, VPN, and VOIP all are working fine. Well, I am a happy man now.


Screenshots to help other people with Belin N1 Router:
































If you have a problem with Belkin N1, post your question and briefly describe your problems. If I could help, I will be glad to answer your question.

URL: http://www.belkin.com

cya

2 Comments:

Anonymous Belkin Router Support said...

This router has great speed and performs well. I have read many other positive reviews on the net.

3:41 PM  
Blogger Daisy Jones said...

A very interesting article. The insights are really helpful and informative. Thanks for posting.

Belkin Tech Support

6:03 AM  

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