- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 370 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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106 out of 113 people found this review helpful
1.5 stars
"Good WiFi, poor router and firewall"
Pros: Good WiFi signal strength and speed.
Cons: Lack of options and configurations for firewall and router. Buggy DoS implementation. Questionable choices with regards to security
Summary: I chose the Belkin Pre-N WiFi router and firewall based on reading reviews and recommendations. After getting it home I have run into a number of problems with the unit.
1) Wired Setup ? Isn?t this supposed to be a wireless unit? Belkin seems to require that you have a computer wired to the unit to set it up. This is a huge hindrance for folks who are upgrading from a previous wireless solution and have become dependant on the fact that there are no wired connections to their router. When I set up my DLink I never had to break out the wires. Simply connect the unit to the modem (ok, one wire), turn on, use a wireless computer to connect to the default SSID, open a browser to the default management page (usually http://192.168.1.1) and viola!
2) Unsecured Status Page - if someone is able to compromise your wireless network, they instantly have access to a wealth of information about your private network. IP addresses, DNS settings, hardware being used, firmware version, W A N IP. It's all information that could possibly be figured out anyway, but Belkin just gives it away...why make it easier for the hackers? Make them work for it.
3) The WiFi/Router/Firewall management pages seem geared toward novices - Which is all good and fine but it has no truly advanced section where power users can fine tune and tweak the settings. There are few configurable options.
4) Lack of fine tuning and configuration ? There is a lack of ability to fine tune the firewall for your personal needs. The only options you have are port forwarding/virtual servers, client IP filtering, DMZ, Dynamic DNS and W A N Ping Blocking. They don?t have any ability to handle configurable options for Block W A N Request, Multicast Pass Through, PPTP Pass Through, Filter Internet NAT Redirection, Filter IDENT(port 113), Port Triggering, Dynamic routing (RIP1 or RIP2), or static routing. While the router does have a Universal Plug n Play (UPnP) and IPSec Pass Through options it does not let you configure those options. Nor does it give you any facility to configure your Secure Packet Inspection (S P I) filters.
5) WiFi SSID and channel are on a different page from WiFi security ensuring that if you are administering your router from a wireless connection it will require multiple changes on both the router and your wireless client. For example, save SSID name change on router, then save SSID setting for you pc, and reconnect to the router. Then change WEP key for router, then change WEP key for pc and reconnect to the router. It just makes maintenance that much more difficult. DLink got it right with the DI-624M where settings that need to be in synch on both clients and the router are all on one page and can be changed in one shot.
6) My ISP, Verizon Avenue (vzavenue.com or .net), uses the "Dynamic" connection type as configured on the Belkin router. The connection type has no configurable options like Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU)
7) the Denial of Service (DoS) protection of the firewall is configured improperly for my ISP (I guess) and causes any downloads greater than 4 or 5 megabytes to stall permanently. It logs the block in the security log. This is a problem Belkin has seen in a few of it's products.
8) The security log is far too sparse giving only the date, event and the IP address. At least give us the port on which the offence occurred and perhaps the type of offence rather than just "Denial of Service" (that?s a pretty broad thing)
9) When on your internal network (behind your firewall) and trying to access your internet facing web server using one of the two or more virtual domains, you will only get the management site for the router. This makes internal testing for websites with virtual domains much more difficult. Linksys handles this in a much better way, by bringing up the management site only when the internal LAN IP address is used. If the external W A N IP (or any domain name registered to it) is used the router treats it as if it is a request coming from outside the firewall and forwards you to the appropriate service. Further, with Belkin, if you want to remotely manage your router/firewall you have no option for what port the management site will use.
When choosing this router understand that while the range and speed of the WiFi are quite good, the firewall and routing services leave a lot to be desired. I would not recommend this unit to a power user.Updated
Point 1) Belkin does infact let you perform a wireless setup if you so desire. Just connect to the bekin ssid and be sure to connect to http://192.168.2.1 for the routers management pages. I'm not sure why this didn't work for me the first time I tried it.
Point 7) After closing inbound ports on the router, the security seemed to stop reporting Denial of Service protections. So the S P I filters may not have been the issue. However the problem remains that I cannot reliably download any files larger than 1 megabyte or so. Multiple retries have sometimes yielded success, but in the end it's was just not reliable.
Blekin tech support has suggested I exchange the product and try a new one.
- 8 replies to this review
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Thank you for posting helpful review on this product. Unfortunately, thought this router had excellent rating on CNET so I ended up buying this router.
I am also experiencing the same DOS from my ISP, Comcast Cable. It would show so many of them in the security log.
The connection/page would take a long time to load and often times I have to stop the page or hit refresh.
Any solutions for stopping the DOS? -
In January 2006 I purchased a belkin wireless g router model f5d7230-4 which never even powered up. I took it back to the retailer where I had purchased it and got an identical replacement. This also would not even power up. I took it back as well (same day), and exchanged it for yet a 3rd time. This router actually worked for about 2 weeks before it stopped connecting. I took this one back to the retailer and explained the situation. Here they gave me yet a 4th exchange. This mopdel also worked for about 2 weeks when it also decided to stopp connecting to the network or internet. I was then told by the retailer that I now had to deal with belkin directly as their 30 day policy was now up (31 days after my original purchase). After several contacts with belkin over the next 2 months, they finally sent me , yes you guessed it another replacement of the same model. This gave me a download speed of 768kbps and upload speed of 9-11 kbps when connected through the router from my dsl modem a with a wired connection to my pc. Yet when I connected the dsl modem up directly tothe pc without the router, I was able to achieve the correct 1.5mbps download and 768kbps upload speeds. I then again contacted blekin and explained the situation to them and they sent me an upgraded exchange to their "top of the line router" (the Pre-N Router model f5d8230-4 which I recieved in May 2006. I then was actually able to get a satisfactory connection with this router up until November 2006 (2 days before thanksgiving). I had previously had a linksys router which had lasted me 4 yrs before it died. Now after the 3rd router I brought in another network admin as 2 heads would be better than one. Neither of us were able to fix the issues with each of these belkin routers. Yet we were able to get connections using the following brands of routers: linksys, netgear, d-link. I have made several inquiries to belkin to try and resolve this issue with them and as of March 5th 2007 I have yet to get any satisfoctory response from belkin. They refuse to return my phone calls, or acknowldge my emails. I do believe that they know they have a very inferior product which has known bugs and they refuse to fix the bugs or even to try and resolve any issues with their customers. I'll never buy another belkin router. May Linksys never go out of business as they make a quality product and they do stand behind their products and make every effort to help their customers with any issues they may have.
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In January 2006 I purchased a belkin wireless g router model f5d7230-4 which never even powered up. I took it back to the retailer where I had purchased it and got an identical replacement. This also would not even power up. I took it back as well (same day), and exchanged it for yet a 3rd time. This router actually worked for about 2 weeks before it stopped connecting. I took this one back to the retailer and explained the situation. Here they gave me yet a 4th exchange. This mopdel also worked for about 2 weeks when it also decided to stopp connecting to the network or internet. I was then told by the retailer that I now had to deal with belkin directly as their 30 day policy was now up (31 days after my original purchase). After several contacts with belkin over the next 2 months, they finally sent me , yes you guessed it another replacement of the same model. This gave me a download speed of 768kbps and upload speed of 9-11 kbps when connected through the router from my dsl modem a with a wired connection to my pc. Yet when I connected the dsl modem up directly tothe pc without the router, I was able to achieve the correct 1.5mbps download and 768kbps upload speeds. I then again contacted blekin and explained the situation to them and they sent me an upgraded exchange to their "top of the line router" (the Pre-N Router model f5d8230-4 which I recieved in May 2006. I then was actually able to get a satisfactory connection with this router up until November 2006 (2 days before thanksgiving). I had previously had a linksys router which had lasted me 4 yrs before it died. Now after the 3rd router I brought in another network admin as 2 heads would be better than one. Neither of us were able to fix the issues with each of these belkin routers. Yet we were able to get connections using the following brands of routers: linksys, netgear, d-link. I am not advising or trying to promote any other brand of routers, and am not here to steer potential customers away from belkin. I am only relaying my personal experiences with a company's equipment, so that others may make a more informed choice when purchasing a router. Maybe I just happened to get the only lemons in the batches, but after so many lemons I now have a sour taste from the lemon-ade. LET THE BUYER BEWARE WHEN PURCHASING A ROUTER from a certain company, and may they have better luck than I have.
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While I do agree with some of your comments, I still think it's the best available with a long range. I've made a list of which ID I allow on. I check the log every day, and even though many neighbors can see my router, they cannot get on unless I allow them.
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I have just installed the Belkin pre-N router, replacing a Linksys 54G. As rcarrjr has pointed out, the upside is that the Belkin is faster with better range - very effective in resolving some dead spot issues I had in my house (and I was using a booster with the Linksys).
Now for the bad news - port forwarding is turning out to be a bit of a nightmare. I had read rcarrjr's post before I purchased the router, but I didn't realize that point 9 would be such a pain.
Two observations...
1. I use zoneedit to have easyname.domain.org forward to http://domain.dnsalias.org
ort/app/startpage.jsp - very user friendly. On the linksys I just forward port to my internal server that handles it and everything is fine. I can type http://easyname.domain.org and I get to my application. Inside the firewall, outside the firewall, all works. Not on Belkin. Which does make testing a pain.
2) However, Belkin customer support has told me that I can get a similar effect by setting up the hosts file (in windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts on Windows and \etc on linux). And it kinda works. It would be perfect if I only had one server, but I have two. But I can live with it.
However, I am finding that virtual servers (Belkin's term for port forwarding) is only working on my windows machine, not on my Linux machine. I am settling in for a long debugging stretch and praying that Belkin tech support will be helpful. What is quite frustrating is that external world seems to work differently than the internal (behind the firewall), so I can't be sure that I have truly solved the problem, until I call a friend and have them check - a pretty lame debugging approach. More as the situation develops. -
Thank you for your good coverage! I agree on all points (the corrected point one and seven as well
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I bought mine, mainly to get DHCP and a firewall and have no real use of a wireless setup (yeah, why buy this one?) and quickly realized the firewall's drawbacks.
I have tried numerous firewalls, smoothwall being one of the best. That one requires that a computer is up and running 24/7. My last one, Zyxel 324, fried it's internal memory while upgrading.
Drawbacks:
1) The Belkin's firewall shows your internal IP number to the WAN.
2) Logging - only logs 20 - 30 lines!! (see rcarrjr's points here)
3) Overall, very few settings
On the Wireless side you only need do google for good reviews. -
Since I have no intention of changing firewall and router configurations with each iteration of wireless technology, I use a dedicated firewall/router and Gig-E (switched) wired LAN where practical, and only use these wireless devices as AP's to enable wireless segments - then you just have to work with the wireless security aspect. I understand there's some cost to this approach, but I don't have to change firewall vendors every 9 months - just change the AP and upgrade the NIC's that need the improved wireless speed. Thanks for your in-depth look at the pros/cons of this device. I agree that the Wireless speed in Pre-N mode and range are both impressive. I replaced an AP and two range extenders (SuperG Belkin) with a single Pre-N router and get better coverage
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On week number three. During this time one laptop has lost connection twice. I rebooted the router once and the laptop once, the laptop was the problem. I installed a Pre-N card on another laptop that previously had a Belkin "g" card and after two hours, got it running. It requires the previoius Belkin setup to be uninstalled and then install the new setup.
Setting up security is not as easy or apparent as the "g" package was. I am running WPA-PSK (no server) with a shared key, MAC address limitation set up, et cetera. During the setup, the shared key had to be entered multiple times before it finally took. Another laptop running a "g" card went off line and required installing the shared key. Wow. Two hours - what a pain to get everything up. After getting all of the laptops up and running (4), I discovered that they could not view the other machines and that took another 30 minutes to tweak. The only setting that did not need to be changed was the network printer - they all worked.
Speed - gosh, it is fast - hits right up there with the desktop and downloaded a 40mb file very rapidly. Distance - another wow. The next block over with a strong signal.
The manuals - print is very light - strong lighting to see it clearly.
Overall, unless there is a real need for speed and especially distance, sticking with a "g" model is what I would do next time.
