I set this wireless router up for my non-techy parents around Thanksgiving. The setup was probably about half-an hour if you're overly-thorough like me with wanting to check everything out. After the initial setup, the 'rents have not had a bit of trouble connecting wirelessly. I noticed another review (and a comment) mention not being able to make changes to the settings. I didn't experience any of their woes. However, I do remember logging in to the router not being very intuitive and I wonder if that could be causing the issues. I was able to change the default SSID, login password for the router, and setup WPA easily. I set everything up by connecting my laptop directly with an ethernet cord and going to the router's IP address. I didn't use the included software, so I have no idea how well that works. As far as speed goes, I can't tell a difference between this cheapy router and my nice expensive one at home. My parents are only using it for browsing/email, and since they just upgraded from dial-up, they feel like they are flying.
***Update 01/20/09
I just wanted to state that my positive review of this product was not paid for, in light of Belkin's recent pay for reviews scandal (65 cents not really worth my integrity). And my parents still haven't had any problems with this router. Belkin Wireless G 4-Port Router
Just purchased this modem from Wal-Mart for $29 (+tax). After reading the reviews here, I decided to try it out myself. Used the Non-routable IP address (192.168.2.1) to configure the router (since others here had suggested it), used the wired connection first. Then had the wireless up and running. Took about 15-20 minutes. Like any G router, the range is limited, but serves my purpose. Video streaming is excellent. Using WPA for Wireless Security. Was able to change the SSID (problem mentioned by another reviewer). Wired and Wireless working fine so far. Will update if things go bad or SSID disappears (mentioned by another reviewer).
Wired setup, is a breeze...just plug and play...after configuring the LAN using IP address.
The wireless setup is a bit more challenging...for a non-tech savy person like me, but after some trial and error things are sorted out.
Overall, very pleased with the buy. Excellent coverage. Ease of setup is the only drawback, however once done it is easy to use.
I have been setting up both personal and business networks since 1999, using the same settings on many brands of routers. This Belkin is the most frustrating device I've come across. Not because it's completely bad, but because on the surface it appears to be working just fine, but then your Internet goes down. Fortunately, I was able to reproduce the problem. Belkin's phone support was friendly and wanted to help, but they were completely unaware of the issues I found. That tells me there is something seriously wrong with their quality assurance program as a company.
This hardware has convinced me to never buy Belkin again.
It's actually quite easy to set up, similar to every other router on the market. You can either use the install disk, or use your web browser to connect directly to the device. I used the web administrative interface.
Once set up, it goes through the normal motions of connecting to your ISP to get its settings and then handing out its configuration to every computer you have on the network. (This happens automatically using what's called DHCP.) But every time I launched Age of Empires -- a classic Microsoft game that every networking device should know how to handle -- and set up a multiplayer game, the game locked up with an error saying that my computers weren't talking to each other properly. (The dreaded Ping 30 error.) It didn't matter whether it was Age of Empires I or II, this device was equally confused and the game wouldn't work.
Worse, whenever I ran a game, the router lost its ability to route DNS (domain naming system) traffic. Every time. That meant that not a single computer in my network could go to a web site they weren't already connected to, because the names directory appeared to be offline. As always, turning the device off and back on fixed the DNS problem, but the game never worked.
So I pulled out another Belkin router I had been using as a wireless access point and set it up as a router. The same problem occurs on both devices. For reference, these are the model numbers:
F5D7234-4 v 4 (this device)
F5D8233-4 v 3 (the older Belkin wireless router I was using as a wireless access point)
When I called Belkin tech support, I explained the issue in technical detail. The person on the line was doing his best but all he had was a rote answer for online gaming that didn't even acknowledge the problem I was having. The Belkin seems to mix up the traffic that should go internal and external (all my gaming is inside my home network), and their tech support "answers" reflect that fundamental flaw as well. (They told me to put my PC in the DMZ and enable port forwarding for the game -- a total security risk -- and missing the point that the gaming traffic didn't need to go to the Internet!) When I tweaked the router a bit, trying different options, the Belkin's security logs indicated it thought the game was a denial of service attack, apparently because of the sheer volume of traffic during a game. More evidence that this device is not designed for anything more than basic web browsing and email.
So I returned the newer Belkin router and bought a Linksys. It took 2 minutes to set up with the exact same configuration and works just fine. With the Linksys, Age of Empires is playing multiplayer. Browsing appears to be snappier. I feel much more safe and secure knowing that my network traffic is being routed properly by a device that knows what it's doing, and knows the difference between what's inside and outside my personal network. I'd return the older router as well if I could, since I now know where the random connectivity issues I've been having for the last 3-4 years came from -- that older Belkin device I was using as an access point. Read some of the other reviews to know more.
Footnote for the techies out there: the Linksys handles DHCP and DNS much better than the Belkin, and provides both the primary and secondary DNS addresses to the client machines. The Belkin hands off its own IP address as the DNS server. It's like the Belkin folks over-engineered the product and introduced a bunch of bugs thinking they were helping.
These appear to be universal problems with the Belkin software/firmware, as I reproduced the exact same problems on two different Belkin devices that were bought years apart. (I can't believe it hasn't been fixed given the years between these devices and their respective firmware versions, specifically 2008 and 2005 based on the serial number stickers.)
I hate to spend more for an equivalent product, since Belkin had the lowest price. But sometimes you get what you pay for. D-Link and Linksys have worked just fine for years; I'll stick with those brands and leave the Belkins on the shelves. - Belkin Router - Wireless Routers - Belkin - Wi-fi'
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