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| Belkin Wireless-G Router DSL/Cable Gateway |
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List Price: $49.99
Our Price: $34.99
You Save: $ 15.00 (30%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Belkin Components
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Batteries Included: 0
Binding: Electronics
Brand: Belkin
CPU Manufacturer: Intel
CPU Speed: 2.1
CPU Type: PowerPC G4
EAN: 0722868455654
Feature: Creates a network in your home or office without cables
Format: CD
Hard Disk Size: 1
Is Autographed: 0
Is Memorabilia: 0
Label: Belkin Components
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
Manufacturer: Belkin Components
Model: F5D7230-4
Number Of Items: 1
Processor Count: 1
Publisher: Belkin Components
Studio: Belkin Components
System Memory Size: 2000
System Memory Type: SDRAM
Warranty: Limited lifetime warranty
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Features
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Creates a network in your home or office without cables
Ensures data and network security with wireless 64- and 128-bit WEP encryption
Offers backward-compatibility with all 802.11b devices
Sets up easily with Belkin Easy Install Wizard-automatically detects Internet settings and self-adjusts Router to get you online in under 3 minutes
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Editorial Reviews:
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Belkin F5D7230-4 802.11g Wireless Cable/DSL Router - This device is a must if you have multiple computers and a hi-speed Cable or DSL Internet connection. With a built-in 4-Port Ethernet switch and support for 802.11g technology, you can share files, peripherals, or the Internet - with or without wires! DMZ Hosting Configures easily with any web browser or Easy Install Wizard 64- and 128-bit WEP data encryption Stackable enclosure and vertical stand (included) helps reduce the desktop footprint Includes - power supply, manual, quick install guide, RJ45 networking cable, & software CD
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| Spotlight customer reviews: |
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Customer Rating:
Summary: 10 minutes up and running
Comment: I am a technological dunderhead and it still worked out of the box for me. I followed the directions in the package exactly and it works great. The only other tip I needed to follow was disabling Windows nearly useless firewall. We don't have any other computers networked, but we did connect our Wii to this and I am able to access the internet on our second floor with my Palm TX now with a fairly strong signal. My kids asked me if I can get online while I poop.(in our upstairs bathroom) Yes, I can!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: If you just want a wireless router this is excellent
Comment: If you're not looking for pointless bells and whistles with blue LEDs then you cannot go wrong with this router. It is practical, easy to setup and extremely affordable.
I think the engineers at Belkin thought "Enough with all the unimportant stuff and flashy designs, let's just make a good product that does what it's supposed to."
Granted, other routers have nice features, but let's face it, you did not buy a router to use its features, you bought it because you wanted to be wireless. You didn't buy it to look at it in a daze and say "Oh, pretty!"
I'm sitting on my laptop downstairs on the opposite side of my house. This router is on my desk upstairs in the most distance corner. No problems. It only took me 8 minutes to set it up, but I used some advanced features such as opening my FTP server, Web Server and Database sever ports. (By the way, I work in technology for a Fortune 100 company)
Here are some facts. If you are using built in wireless on a laptop, you'll get nothing out of routers with "SPEED THIS" or "EXTREME THAT" because YOUR laptop doesn't support that. 10X the range of others! No, again, your laptop doesn't support that. You have to buy their cards for that and who wants to stick a bulky card or USB adapter on their laptop and then find out the nice router was testing outdoors with no obstructions and really only performs 40% as well as advertised.
Now if you are streaming video, using a slingbox or media center, you might want that. But if you're just browsing the internet and sharing information with your other computer(s), conducting normal business and maybe checking out something on YouTube, you only need this router.
Keep in mind, even wireless technology from 10 years ago is faster than your broadband connection. With this Belkin 54G I can go to the furthest point in my house and still have more speed than my broadband internet connection can use.
I decided not to give you the technical factors but real examples. That being said, this router just says "Hey bud, let's get real, do you want to spend $119 for flashing lights, neat logos and a fancy plastic case? No, you just want wireless and you and I both know I'll just be shoved out of sight anyway."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Does the Job
Comment: It took 2 minutes to set up this router. I used the Quick set up guide and did not load the included disc. Vista Ultimate recognized the connection immediately on all our Dell laptops. The main computer was connected via the ethernet cable on the Belkin Router's Wan port and the other 2 computers in the house were connected wirelessly, along with our HP wireless 6980 printer. Everything was perfect. A week later I set up a 128 encyrption Wep key. I then noticed that each morning I would lose the Internet connection for about 20 seconds while the cable modem would reset. After pulling the power plug out of the cable modem and then disconnecting the ethernet cable that connects the router to my main laptop and then putting them both back in while all the computers in the house were shut off, I was not able to access the web configuration page. I even tried to reset the cable modem, but to no avail. Belkin's online troubleshooting guide would like me to reset the settings on my IE browser, but I would lose all add ons if I do that and, at the moment, it's no big deal since I wouldn't change any of the settings on the Router anyway. (But it still bothers me that I cannot access the web configuration page.) A Wep key is essential (but not strong enough) and I made sure protected mode was off. When I did have access to the settings, I tried turning off the SSID broadcast, but when I did that, my Nokia Internet Tablet (N800) was not able to connect wirelessly. So, I had to enable or turn back on that feature. Outside of the daily morning reset for 20 seconds since I put in the Wep key, the wireless signal says excellent or very good all over my house and the connection is strong. I have owned this Router for 2 weeks now and know the signal is much stronger than the Linksys 54G router and the SMC wireless access point that Roadrunner offers since I've tried them.
Routers are strange creatures that work great for some and horrendously for others. At the moment, it's accepatable for $40, but one never knows what the future will bring in Router land. I have version .8000 of this Router
Update (8/26/08):
I was able to access the web configuration page a couple of days ago and changed the time zone under system settings (under Utilities) from Pacific time to Eastern time (US, Canada) and since I did that, the Cable Modem has not reset in the morning and the Router works perfectly. I'm in NYC so maybe that was the problem. The default time zone for the Router is Pacific time so I suggest you change that if you do not live in that time zone.
Customer Rating:
Summary: value for money; not a great of router when security is enabled
Comment: This product is a value for money. But if you try to enable advanced security with 128Bit key, then the connection keeps getting dropped every few hours.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Over an hour to set up? Skip this one!
Comment: Setup Experience:
* Configuration: Belkin Wireless G router (version 9000) with wired connection to XP machine (used to edit settings on router). Second machine running Vista with Belkin Wireless G USB Adapter.
* Initial setup was quick and relatively painless. It took a couple tries to get the properties configured correctly on my Vista machine (with a Belkin Wireless G USB adapter). Connection speeds were 10x faster than with my previous 802.11b router. Encryption setup was also fairly easy.
* Initial problem: A while after getting the router up and running, my Vista machine couldn't see a fileshare I had on another machine (initially it could see this, which is how I determined the 10x transfer rate improvement). I brushed this off as a setup issue that I could fix (though it was really the initial manifestation of my evening woes).
* After poking around a bit in the Wireless Security settings, I decided to go with the supposedly better AES encryption (instead of TKAT). After changing this, I entered into an hour+ nightmare. Vista and the USB adapter absolutely would not connect to the router, no matter what combination of WPA encryption I chose, including more than one restart of the Vista machine, numerous uninstalls of the USB adapter on the Vista machine, a couple restarts of the G router, and even a "return to factory defaults" on the router. Vista only gave me obscure messages: "no response was received from the router" and "unidentified problem". After poking in the event logs on the Vista machine, I found these messages from trying to connect: "Association Status: Fail 0x00038002" and "Association Reason Code: 0x0000000a" (also "Association Reason Code: 0x00000002"). Some searching turned up nothing useful for these errors. I then headed over to the Belkin website to see if they had anything: there's one Troubleshooting issue with "Frequent Wireless Disconnects". Here I found the resolution.
* Resolution: The router ships with the wireless channel set to Auto instead of to any single channel. Apparently, if there's any interference, the router will switch channels. Selecting Channel 1 didn't fix the issue, but selecting Channel 8 (there are 12 channels total) got me up and running (for now).
* Note: Others have had problems with Protected; my router was shipped with this Off by default.
* Second Note: Configuration changes are *slow* - any changes to the wireless settings will take about 15 seconds to apply (though since my two machines are on different floors I spent this time running down to try the change - I suppose this router could be advertised as an exercise machine).
In summary: This Belkin product is poorly tested and difficult to get working. Any cost savings are not worth the extra time you will have to spend setting it up. If you did try it, hopefully you'll find the above helpful.
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