Belkin N1 Vision

Pros: The gimmick display is useful

Cons: Doesn't wall/rack mount

Summary: As is the norm, there were just a couple of places that my old Linksys B router did not reach in my home. Plus, all the adapters on our PCs were G. I bought two different Linksys G (with/without SpeedBoost) and there was no difference for connectivity. I bought the Belkin as a joke, planning to test it and return it to Best Buy. However, my main laptop with G internal now works on my deck. Maybe other N routers would work too, but this one does what I need it to do. The browser menu is different by usable. The funniest thing is the display. I though it was stupid, but now I love watching the activity meters. (Man does Xbox360 online suck up bandwidth!) So far, this N works better with G than the two G I tested. Without wall mounts, it sits on my desk on the clock setting mostly. A couple of clients have asked why my clock has antennas. Regarding cost-- it probably is 30% higher than another brand N router-- so you would need to decide that the display worth the premium.

Run. Run away. The device died this morning. Tried another power supply and no go. It is simply dead. It is also about 14 months old so it is out of warranty. I suspect that it simply overheated and fried. Since I paid the near $200 price, the cost of ownership was about $15 per month. I replaced it with a far less expensive DLink DIR-625 for $69 at Office Depot. The signal appears the same or better on all but one laptop-- which may be more of an issue with the laptop. I will seriously miss the nifty clock and gauges... but I miss my $200 even more. In the end-- don't buy this device (priced at $149 at Best buy this week).