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Belkin N+ Wireless Router

Manufacturer: Belkin Part number: F5D8235-4

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$76.24 - $119.99 at 13 online stores

CNET Editor rating:
4.0 stars Excellent
Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 60 reviews

Nov 2008

More product information:: Editors' review; User reviews; Specifications; Manufacturer info

Bottom Line:: The Belkin N+ Wireless Router is a great performer with excellent range and throughput speed. If its bulky design and lack of 5GHz frequency support don't put you off, the router is worth every penny of its $100 or so price tag.
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CNET editors' review

Belkin N+ Wireless Router

price range: $76.24 - $119.99

Reviewed by: Dong Ngo
Reviewed on: 11/07/2008

The good: Unparalleled range; fast throughput; easy-to-use network-storage feature; affordable.

The bad: Bulky design; network-storage feature is limited; no dual-band support; short one-year warranty.

The bottom line: The Belkin N+ Wireless Router is a great performer with excellent range and throughput speed. If its bulky design and lack of 5GHz frequency support don't put you off, the router is worth every penny of its $100 or so price tag.

Read full review

Without a fancy name, the Belkin N+ impressed us where it matters the most: range and throughput performance. As a bonus, it also offers a limited network-storage function. We were only disappointed that it doesn't offer dual-band support, like the DIR-855 or the Linksys WRT610N. The N+'s performance, however, more than makes up for this, especially considering its street price of only about $100. If you plan to have a wireless network in a neighborhood that doesn't already have too many wireless signals, we would recommend the Belkin N+ over any other wireless-N routers.

Setup and design
Although the Belkin N+ is one of the bulkiest routers we've reviewed, it actually has an elegant and curvy design. The router is made to work in the vertical position only, with two antennas on top, making it significantly taller than most routers. The ports and blue LED lights, located on the back and front of the router, respectively, are clearly labeled, and, as such, even novice users won't have a problem figuring out the function of each port and the meaning of each light.

Thanks to its clear instructions, we didn't experience any problems setting up the Belkin N+. The included CD contains setup software that walked us through every step, and we got the router up and running in less than 5 minutes. Alternatively, you can use the router's Web interface for the setup process and further customize its settings. Belkin routers' Web interfaces are generally intuitive, and their layouts have not changed since Belkin's first Wireless-N router, the Belkin Wireless Pre-N router, which is also the very first Wireless-N router that CNET reviewed. When it comes to intuitiveness, though, we prefer the Web interfaces of D-Link or Netgear routers.

Features
Although the N+ lets you connect an external USB hard drive, it is, in fact, not a full-featured NAS server. You will not be able to manage the external drive--including creating share folders and access privileges--through its Web interface, as you can with the Linksys WRT610N.

The N+ comes with the Belkin Storage Manager desktop application that makes it easy for you to access the connected external hard drive. Once you have plugged a USB hard drive into the router, the BSM application takes about 10 seconds to detect it and create a network drive mapped to it. Any computers in the network with the BSM application installed have full access to the entire hard drive's content, simultaneously. If you shut down the BSM application, the mapped network drive will be disconnected.

Alternatively, you can also access the storage without the having to install the BSM application by using the IP address of the router. However, novice users definitely want to stick to using the desktop application.

The N+'s storage function supports FAT, FAT32, and NTFS file systems and worked very well with thumbdrives. When we tried it with a few USB external hard drives, it was hit or miss. Most worked well, but the OWC mercury wasn't ever recognized.

The Belkin N+ also has a unique feature called Broadband Download Speedometer that includes an array of lights on the front of the router. These lights display a graphic representation of the download speed being transferred through the Internet connection, measured against the fastest speed that has been measured by the N+ since its first connection to the Internet. This is helpful if you want to know how much of the bandwidth is being used at a given time.

Other than that, the Belkin N+ supports an array of network features, such as IP address reserving, port forwarding, access control, and firewall. IP address reserving allows the router to give a fixed IP address to a computer in the network. This makes it easy if you need to forward certain services, such as an FTP server, to that particular computer. The Parental Control feature, which enables Web filtering, allows certain computers to access the Internet selectively based on time or content. The N+'s firewall adds protection against "denial of service" or "ping of death" attacks.

For wireless protection, the Belkin N+ supports both WEP (64-bit and 128-bit encryption) and WPA. It also supports MAC address filtering and Wi-Fi protected setup. WPS allows for quickly adding WPS-enabled wireless clients to the network without having to manually enter the encryption key.

Performance
We were very happy with the performance of the Belkin N+, especially its range. By far it offered the longest range among wireless-N we've tested. We were able to pick up its signal easily from 400 feet away (we can't go farther than that in our test environment). By comparison, most routers can't reach over 300 feet in our range test, partially because of the fact that our facility is not range-optimized.

The throughput performance of the N+ is also very impressive. It topped the charts on CNET Labs' range test by a large margin, scoring 77.8Mbps. The N+ was, by a small margin, the second best in our throughput and mixed mode test, scoring 87.5Mbps and 65.3Mbps, respectively.

What's most impressive about the N+'s throughput is the fact that during all three tests--maximum throughput, mixed mode, and range--the results were consistently high without as much variation as we're used to seeing. In comparison, the Linksys WRT310N is the fastest on our maximum throughput test, at 111.3Mbps, but its range score is significantly reduced to merely 28.3Mbps.

Ixia IxChariot long-range tests (at 200 feet)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Throughput in Mbps

Belkin N+ Wireless Router

77.8

DIR-855 Xtreme N Duo Media Router from D-Link

66.5

Linksys Simontaneous Dual-N Band Wireless WRT610N

47.7

D-Link Xtreme N Dual Band Gigabit router DIR-825

45.5

Linksys WRT310N - Wireless-N Gigabit Router

28.8

Linksys N Ultra RangePlus WRT310N

28.8

Apple Time Capsule

21.36

Apple Airport Express

11.7

Ixia IxChariot maximum throughput tests with mixed 802.11b/g and draft N clients operating in 2.4Ghz frequency (at 15 feet)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Throughput in Mbps

Linksys WRT310N - Wireless-N Gigabit Router

95.3

Belkin N+ Wireless Router

65.3

Netgear RangeMax Next WNR854T

67.5

DIR-855 Xtreme N Duo Media Router from D-Link

58.5

SMC SMCWGBR14-N Barricade N

52.4

Apple Time Capsule

51.5

D-Link DGL-4500 Xtreme Gaming Router

50.9

Apple Airport Express

50.5

Linksys Simontaneous Dual-N Band Wireless WRT610N

44.4

D-Link Xtreme N Dual Band Gigabit router DIR-825

39.8

Ixia IxChariot maximum throughput tests (at 15 feet)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Throughput in Mbps

Linksys WRT310N - Wireless-N Gigabit Router

111.3

Belkin N+ Wireless Router

87.5

DIR-855 Xtreme N Duo Media Router from D-Link

D-Link Xtreme N Dual Band Gigabit router DIR-825

70.2

Apple Time Capsule

65.1

Linksys Simontaneous Dual-N Band Wireless WRT610N

53.3

Apple Airport Express

52.8

Service and support
Despite the N+'s impressive performance, Belkin has little love for the router and only backs it up with a one-year warranty. This is disappointing since it gives the N1 Vision three years. Belkin's toll-free phone support is available 24-7, or you can fill out a form at Belkin's Web site for e-mail support. Its Web site also offers documentation, downloadable drivers, and FAQs.

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User reviews

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Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 60 reviews
My rating: 0 stars

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 60

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10 stars

A great mid-level router

by streamline35 on November 21, 2008

Pros: Great range, very fast, simple to set up, useful LEDs on the front, good price, USB port for network storage devices, wireless guest access, stylish looking, bandwidth meter on the front

Cons: USB port could be faster, not many advanced features, USB port only handles storage (no printers), only stands upright

Summary: I got this to replace my linksys wrt54g that kept failing after only a year. Out of the four or five different kinds of routers I've set up, this ...

Read more

Summary: I got this to replace my linksys wrt54g that kept failing after only a year. Out of the four or five different kinds of routers I've set up, this one is my favorite.

I'm slightly confused by prior reviews saying that it was a pain to set up - I just plugged it into power, modem, and my computer, and went to 192.168.2.1, and changed all the settings to my prefered settings. It was that simple.

I like the web interface far more than the linksys or dlink ones that I've tried - it's much cleaner, much more intuitive, and very responsive (doesn't tend to freeze and have browser issues). I'm no power user, so I can't say it's hurting for features - it has everything I need and more than I'll end up using. The guest access is nice - it allows for a second network for guests, internet only, and requires them to log in either with WPA or through a web portal (hotel-style).

The USB storage feature is very nice. Just plug in your hard drive or flash drive and go to \\192.168.2.1\DEVICENAME and there it is. I hear there is also manager software if you want it (windows only), but I don't need it. I've tried it with my external HD and with a flash drive, and both worked perfect. It's a little slow, but it's not bad for smaller files and such (just don't try and move your entire hard drive through it).

Overall I'm very happy with it - N wireless, gigabit ethernet, fast, simple, and with network storage. I have not experienced any problems that any other users have in their reviews (or any problems for that matter).

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9 out of 9 users found this user opinion helpful.
8 stars

Requires advanced settings to work correctly

by lgald on April 11, 2009

Pros: Initially the router kept dropping connection. You have to hard set settings in router to a diffrent channel and match that channel on your pc's, I recommend ch3. Because almost all routers default to 6, use diffrent ch.

Cons: Read bottom line summary

Summary: And hard set to either 802.11b or 802.11g and do same on your pc. I have comcast cable modem and have got it to work. I had Linksys ...

Read more

Summary: And hard set to either 802.11b or 802.11g and do same on your pc. I have comcast cable modem and have got it to work. I had Linksys wrt300 and it died after 2 years. I've had this one for 2 days and now its not dropping connection and seems to work fast. If you buy this router, follow my recommendations. Your neighbors probably have wireless routers and they will be on the same ch as this one. Also set your SSID to something unique and disable broadcast so no one can piggy back on your router. I am a network administrator and this should help you get max performance from this device.

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4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

Bulky Design?? Great Router

by bellerjo on December 20, 2008

Pros: Easy, easy, easy to install. Very fast connection and throughput fantastic. Takes up less room than old Linksys. The price was excellent. Directions for installing were easy to follow. Everything I needed was in the box and then some.

Cons: None. I just wish I had found it sooner.

Summary: I purchased this great router from Geeks.com and could not be happier. It replaced an old Linksys B router. I was ready to ship my new laptop back because ...

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Summary: I purchased this great router from Geeks.com and could not be happier. It replaced an old Linksys B router. I was ready to ship my new laptop back because it wouldn't connect securely or consistently to my wireless home network. OMG, what a difference this new router makes. I don't know why this product was described as "bulky", it takes up much less space than the linksys did because it stands on end.

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3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
7 stars

Better than expected after reviews here and at BestBuy.

by UPBull340 on November 27, 2008

Pros: Small footprint vs what I had. Easy set up with my cox internet service provider where my LinkSys wasn't. I find the signal stength better than my previous router. Easy access to web for advanced features.

Cons: Don't care for all the blue lights on the front of the unit. But not a deal breaker.

Summary: Returned my dual band LinkSys after it stopped working after 3 months. Found set up quick. I like the USB network. Easier to configure and get up and running vs ...

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Summary: Returned my dual band LinkSys after it stopped working after 3 months. Found set up quick. I like the USB network. Easier to configure and get up and running vs my LinkSys. I don't find the USB connection that slow. And I don't find the unit bulky. I like how it takes up less space that my saucer shaped LinkSys. I'm very happy with my purchase. I also like the fact that my connection speed over the network is faster than what I had before and I don't miss the dual band as I could never use the 5g effectively from 50' so I was always using the 2.4g. So much for dual band.

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3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

This product has everything I was looking for and more.

by Biggdogg50 on December 19, 2008

Pros: Extreme and fast set-up operational interface was extremely simple. Great product Great price.

Cons: Sorry, this product has not been getting the credit it deserves.

Summary: Belkin N+, not only offers great performance but, has the best range among Wireless-N routers I've seen. Belkin N+ is one of the best wireless routers on the market.

Summary: Belkin N+, not only offers great performance but, has the best range among Wireless-N routers I've seen. Belkin N+ is one of the best wireless routers on the market.

3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
4 stars

Had to go back to my Belkin Pre-N Router

by i4abuy on November 13, 2008

Pros: Good technical support from Jacquin, Ramesh.

Cons: Difficult to set up, requiring three calls to Belkin's tech support. Poor range -- the router wouldn't match the coverage of my old Belkin Pre-N.

Summary: I took the router back because it's useless to me. It wouldn't cover my house like my old Belkin Pre-N. I don't see the point in having ...

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Summary: I took the router back because it's useless to me. It wouldn't cover my house like my old Belkin Pre-N. I don't see the point in having wireless if you have to sit in the same room to use it.

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4 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 stars

Never could get it to work.

by darkbeat1 on November 19, 2008

Pros: Looks nice.

Cons: It doesn't work.

Summary: I bought this router on the strength of the CNET review. After two hours of struggling to get the router to work properly I gave up and called Belkin support. ...

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Summary: I bought this router on the strength of the CNET review. After two hours of struggling to get the router to work properly I gave up and called Belkin support. Another 2 hours on the phone with the tech and he gave up as well. Not only did it not work, when I enabled WPA2 security it knocked my modem offline (I know that sounds weird...but I swear it happened....3 times). Had to power cycle my modem to get it working again. Finally, I packed it back up so I can return it and get my $129 back. I re-hooked up my old linksys WRT54GS and now everything works fine again. I'll just stick to the wireless G standard and linksys routers.

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2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
5 stars

Good performance, usb problems, bad interface

by pharcide on November 12, 2008

Pros: Great value, wireless performance is great, gigabit switch is a big plus

Cons: Web interface is horrible, very little features, can only get the USB port to recongnize 1/6 different drives.

Summary: Although this is a great device for the notice and provides great performance and enough function for novice users, it will fall short for power users. The interface is very ...

Read more

Summary: Although this is a great device for the notice and provides great performance and enough function for novice users, it will fall short for power users. The interface is very poor, doesn't allow many other features as on other routers. Could only get the device to recognize 1/6 different drives. All drivers were NTFS and i tried different usb cables, but to no avail., resetting, unplugging, to no avail. Just an Amber USB light flashing at me.

I hope many of these problems are resolved by future firmware releases as this is a pretty new device, as well as support from the DD-WRT community.

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2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

I never thought I would buy one of these

by DPC27 on June 15, 2009

Pros: Setup is very easy. Very fast wireless connection!

Cons: Can't really be placed out of sight.

Summary: The Linksys Wireless G routers have been used in my home and small business. Recently, the Wireless G in my home quit working and I purchased the WRT54G2 as replacement ...

Read more

Summary: The Linksys Wireless G routers have been used in my home and small business. Recently, the Wireless G in my home quit working and I purchased the WRT54G2 as replacement but I could not get it to function on any of my computers or the Gaming Systems. I figured it was a bad router and took it back for a new one. Again, no luck. I read the reviews and decided I would try this router. In less than 15 minutes ALL computers and gaming systems were back online. I noticed my wifes computer was connection at 65 to 70Mbps on the second floor of our house. Totally exceeding the Wireless G. I would definitely recommend this router and will upgrade the business routers as well.

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
6 stars

Great Router, USB Storage Does Not Work

by skeltonh on June 1, 2009

Pros: Router is very fast. Wireless connections blazed, and the wired connections were very fast compared to the Linksys router that I was using before. Web interface has tons of options and allows for more complex network configurations.

Cons: USB Storage DOES NOT WORK! Network starts at 192.168.2.x not ...1.x. No source for OS even though under a GPL license.

Summary: Lowest cost N+ router of all of them. Walmart has them for $79 and they go very quickly. Forget the USB storage. Go to www.techforless.com and get a ...

Read more

Summary: Lowest cost N+ router of all of them. Walmart has them for $79 and they go very quickly. Forget the USB storage. Go to www.techforless.com and get a NAS box for your network for $50<.

Worth the money, but as noted in editor's review, support for this product is grossly lacking. Belkin does not release the source to the device, even though they are required by the GPL license they use. Belkin could make this a NAS device with a firmware patch. However, for a company that does not even provide the required GPL source, I don't see Belkin really supporting this product or listening to the users who use it. I know. I've tried.

Even so, still worth the money for the network interface alone.

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 60

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Specifications

Manufacturer: Belkin
Part number: F5D8235-4
Description: Belkin's N+ Wireless Router features a USB storage port on the back of the router for connecting USB storage devices such as an external hard drive or thumb drive to the network. Now you can centrally store and share media content and files from the USB hard drive to every computer on the network. This router also features Gigabit Ethernet ports for a wired connection that can handle applications that take up a large amount of bandwidth. The N+ router is based on the draft 802.11n 2.0 technology which provides the wireless range to easily cover any-size home or office. The N+ Router has the bandwidth and speed for handling media intensive applications that take up large amounts of your bandwidth.

General
Device Type Wireless router
Form Factor External
Networking
Connectivity Technology Wired, Wireless
Integrated Switch 4-port switch
Data Transfer Rate 300 Mbps
Frequency Band 2.4 GHz
Data Link Protocol Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11n (draft 2.0)
Switching Protocol Ethernet
Network / Transport Protocol DNS, FTP, DHCP, PPTP, PPPoE, TCP/IP, UDP/IP, ICMP/IP
Routing Protocol Static IP routing
Remote Management Protocol HTTP
Status Indicators Power, Link OK, Port status, Link activity
Features DMZ port, NAT support, DHCP support, SNTP support, MIMO technology, VPN passthrough, Auto-negotiation, Firewall protection, Firmware upgradable, DoS attack prevention, MAC address filtering, Quality of Service (QoS), Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), Auto-uplink (auto MDI/MDI-X), Access Point operational mode, Dynamic IP address assignment, Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI)
Compliant Standards IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, Wi-Fi Protected Setup, IEEE 802.11n (draft 2.0)
Antenna
Antenna Qty 2
Communications
Type None
Expansion / Connectivity
Expansion Slots Total (Free) None
Interfaces 4 x Network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-TX - RJ-45, 1 x Network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-TX - RJ-45 ( WAN ), 1 x Network - Radio-Ethernet, 1 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 pin USB Type A
Compatible Slots None

Miscellaneous
Cables (Details) 1 x Network cable
Encryption Algorithm AES, WPA, TKIP, WPA2, WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK, 64-bit WEP, 128-bit WEP
Authentication Method Radio Service Set ID (SSID)
Windows Vista Readiness Works with Windows Vista
Compliant Standards UPnP
Power
Power Device Power adapter - External
Software / System Requirements
Software Included Drivers & Utilities
OS Required Linux, Apple MacOS 8.x, Apple MacOS 9.x, Apple MacOS X 10.x, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP
Manufacturer Warranty
Service & Support 1 year warranty
Service & Support Details Limited warranty - 1 year

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