Belkin's 802.11b router is a good router to have if you are using it for only wireless internet and sharing connection. The installation is very easy for novice users. It's just a matter of following a bunch of diagrams in the manual to get everything started. If you run into problems, Belkin has an excellent 24/7 free tech support program. I got almost a no-wait response. However, the regular tech support's knowledge is very rudimentary, knowing less about networking than me. I think they just following a manual of FAQs.

With that said, I have found some problems with the 802.11b router running more advanced features like De-Militarized Zone (DMZ). Because many programs such as file-sharing programs, video conferencing, etc. require non-standard ports, you'll need to either forward these ports or DMZ the computer. With the 802.11b, the DMZ feature does not work at all for me. I've talked to Belkin's high level tech support but to no avail. I have to manually forward all the ports that I need to be open, even port 80 for web server. On top of that, the router allows port forwarding for only 20 programs. If you need to forward more than that, you will do some manipulating. You can get around this by forwarding a series of ports, which only takes up one slot in the virtual server feature of the router. Say if one of your program runs on port 1024 and the other one runs on 1030 you can forward 1024-1030. The draw back with this is that it compromises the security of your network. I sometimes change the port of one program so it will run consecutive with a port of another program, so I wouldn't have a bunch of unnecessary ports opened.

RATING:
One star off of ease of use and performance because of the the problems with advance features. Other wise 5 for ease of installation and cost/benefit. Average to 4.5, but since there's not 4.5 option, I would give it a 5.

FINAL WORDS:
All in all, the 802.11b router has an unbeatable value (...)The Tech Support is great. But for more advanced functionalities, it becomes quite a nuance.

29 of 37 found the following review helpful:

Good potential, but needs firmware update  Apr 20, 2003
By A. Mandel
I was initially very pleased with this router. It was reasonably easy to set up, although I configured it by hand instead of using the Easy Install Wizard so I can't speak to the quality of the Wizard. The 76-page manual is good, though missing an index.

The web-based interface was very very nice (at first, but more on this later). I was able to enter my settings quickly, and there appears to be a high level of customization possible. This router comes with firewall capabilities that are not necessarily advertised, which was a welcome surprise.

Things worked well for the first day, and the range on the wireless was quite good. At that point I decided to increase security. I disabled SSID Broadcast so that the ID of my network would not be spuriously broadcast...however, a new laptop immediately saw the network. So I'm not sure if SSID broadcast disable works, or if I made some mistake.

Then I tried to filter MAC addresses (which ensures that only specified computers have access to the router). For several hours I tried to enter a list of 5 MAC addresses into the router, but it would not take any more than one! This was a maddening experience. Finally, I decided to try using Internet Explorer to access the web interface, instead of Netscape. Suddenly, it worked. It seems likely that Belkin did not adequately test the product with Netscape.

During the above process, I had tried to check the firmware revision (I have 1.00000000, and no new firmware is yet available). I clicked on the button to check to see if there's an update, and the interface hung every time. So that feature doesn't work right, either, in either browser.

The next thing I did is try to confirm that MAC Address Filtering (above) was actually working properly. I enabled the feature, and removed a few computers from my access list. But they could still access the internet! I then removed all computers but one from the list, and still, no filtering. I called tech support. To give them credit, I only waited on hold a few minutes. But the person I spoke with was clueless. He was probably so used to people having trouble getting the internet to work, that he couldn't process the notion that my problem was that the security features were improperly permitting network access to unauthorized computers. I believe he didn't even know how MAC Address Filtering is supposed to work. When I was finally able to make the problem clear to him, he said someone would get back to me. But that won't be before I return this router for a refund.

In summary: the router has good potential. But the fact that MAC Address Filtering simply doesn't work, and Disable SSID Broadcast may not work either, means that this router is missing at least one of the fundamental security features. There are other firmware problems, too, which don't speak well for Belkin's Quality Control. My advice is not to purchase this router, at least until the firmware is revised.

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

Great router  Aug 17, 2004
By Corey Smith
I love my router and feel I need to defend it. I got this thing, unpacked it, stuck it on my DSL modem and it runs...well. No resets, I get excellent signal strength all through my 3 floor brick house, MAC filtering works perfectly (doesn't block connections, but they are useless) and the encryption is as good as you can get from WEP. The PPoE works great and the DHCP assigns wireless IPs without fail.
I might suggest that some of the people who had problems might try to make sure the thing is sitting away from their computer case, as is instructed in the manual.


4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Excellent  Apr 12, 2004

I just got this Belkin router yesterday (Model F5D6231-4) and I set it up this morning and it is working great.

I do have firmware version v2.00.002.

It took me less than 5 minutes to get the wired portion working. I have two desktop computers and a color laser printer all networked through this router via another hub.

My Thinkpad comes with a mini-PCI wireless card and it detected the router with no problem. I enabled 128 bit WEP and it is picking up signal nicely. I have a two story house and the router is on the second floor. I have signal throughout the house ranging from 2 - 5 bars. I had no problem using the web in the paces where there is only 2 bars of signal through my 3Mb/256kb line provided by charter.net.

(...)

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Good Feature Set, Low Sustained Throughput  Oct 29, 2003

This router is a great deal if your primary purpose is to browse the web. When I attempted a sustained 50KBPS VOIP connection it would start dropping packets after approximately 4 minutes rendering the conversation useless. This is probably due to memory and processor constraints.

On the positive side, configuration is a breeze, it comes with an excellent feature set and looks cool mounted on the included base. Under normal conditions turning 128 Bit encryption and MAC address filtering on added only 2 milliseconds to device latency. This is better than some other, larger and more expensive boxes I have had to live with in the past. The 4-port switch is a really nice feature and it even comes with an optional content filter to help keep your kids safe.

I decided to keep it and have purchased a cheap 5 Port Switch to place in front of the router so that my bandwith-hogging, latency intolerant, VOIP ATA can benefit from a direct connect to the ISP without clogging up this nifty router.

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