Belkin F5D6231-4 Wireless Cable/DSL Router
by Belkin Components
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List Price: Our Price: $36.95 You Save: $28.24 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $5.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Belkin F5D6231-4 Wireless Cable/DSL Router
Customer Review: Good...not great
Summary: 3 Stars
MicroCenter was running an excellent sale on these suckers, so I took one home to consolidate my network. The web interface was pretty slick (and highly Mac-compatible), and setup was a snap. The free 24x7 tech support was awesome. Unfortunately, there were two problems with the router that made me take it back:1. It's not compatible with anything but IP over ethernet. If you want to carry anything besides IP packets between wired and wireless ethernet (e.g., AppleTalk frames), then you're outta luck. Tech support assured me this would be addressed in a future firmware upgrade (which it was for this router's predecessor).
2. After a hard or soft restart, the SSID is broadcast regardless of setting. If it was disabled before, the only way to disable it again is to enable it and then disable it. Since this can happen without notice, it poses an unacceptable security risk in my opinion.
Customer Review: Buggy web setup interface, stable once you get it going
Summary: 3 Stars
Some parts of the online setup interface on this router do not work well at all. Sometimes it seems that changes will only take effect if you stand on your head, click the mouse button with your pinky finger, and pray that the Belkin gods will see the wisdom of your configuration and apply your changes.
That said, the router is quite reliable once you do get it set up. I have used it in a standard home router configuration and also as a simple access point in a college dorm (letting the university's downstream DHCP server handle address assignment). Both setups result in reliable performance and good signal strength within a reasonable distance of the unit.
The only gripe I have about this router aside from the quality of the setup interface is that it only features the relatively weak WEP security, and not the superior WPA.
Customer Review: Stable, but featureless
Summary: 3 Stars
The router is quite stable, at least compared to my Linksys router. I have never had to reset the Belkin, but with its great stabability comes its own problems. There is no way to disable wireless internet access, and for someone who doesn't use the feature, its just another security risk. Along with this, the setup page is only usable through Internet Explorer. Being a windows user this is not a major drawback, but for any linux user this can be quite a problem. The setup pages are also somewhat complex, requiring multiple page navigations to reach a single option. However, despite these drawbacks, the router has excellent logging capabilites that are far better than my Linksys. Overall the F5D6231-4 is a decent router and I recommend it to any wireless windows customers.Customer Review: MAC Address Filtering does not work even after new firmware
Summary: 3 Stars
Belkin just released 1.10 firmware for this router without any release notes. I called them up and asked what was changed in 1.10.I was told that MAC filtering was fixed. Unfortunately, even after updating the firmware, MAC filtering still does not work. I have called them at least 4 times and have escalated but still no response from them.
Customer Review: Good potential, but needs firmware update
Summary: 2 Stars
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.