Reviewed by: wbrinsf on 18-Jul-05 Rating:

Strengths:Flexible, price, routes Appletalk

Weaknesses:Still can\'t configure with Safari.

Summary:I\'ve been installing and using these routers for over 2 years. They work great once set up correctly. Beware of a lockout bug with earlier versions. If you encounter this, the unit will need to be replaced. Fortunately, Belkin replaced mine without hassle. The biggest issue I have with the unit is that web configuration STILL doesn\'t work with Safari. Use Explorer, Opera, etc.

--- note added 8/1/2005 ---

The latest model, hardware version 4.00.01 with firmware version 6.00.10 appears to have dropped support for wireless bridging (WDS) mode.

Reviewed by: dozen on 23-Apr-05 Rating:

Strengths:Easy setup, consistent,

Weaknesses:size is too large

Summary:This router is great. It does all what I want for a wireless router. Setup is easy for ppl not familiar with setting up router. It auto detects the type of internet connection and set itself up and ask for account/passwd if needed.

Reviewed by: jaizn2006 on 23-Aug-06 Rating:

Strengths:Very Easy Install! Small Size. Good Price.

Weaknesses:None

Summary:I am very impressed with this router. I bought it because of its low price and had low expectations... but the router well exceeded them! This was the easiest install I\'ve ever dealt with when it comes to wireless routers. A CD took me through the whole process in about 5 minutes. I am now up and running and extremely pleased!

Reviewed by: ygmort on 19-May-06 Rating:

Strengths:Good range (just as it says on the box), simple clean looks

Weaknesses:Easy Setup Wizard is useless (at least it was for me).No printed manual.

Summary:I needed the most basic and least expensive router, so I chose this one in Wal-Mart. I have a WildBlue satellite internet, and apparently the modem is configured in such manner that no router setup is required. I didn\'t know that and when I ran Belkin setup wizard from the CD it skipped from the first step (identifying network) to the last step (wireless setup). It was very confusing so I ditched the wizard, and tried to setup it manually via the web interface -- but as soon I connected everything was up and running -- no reconfiguration required.

Reviewed by: burke031 on 21-Sep-03 Rating:

Strengths:very good signal strength. easy to set up.

Weaknesses:none

Summary:have tried and return many routers over the past few weeks. This router was the quickest to set up, and also had the best signal strength through my whole house. would recommend this product to everyone.

Reviewed by: ph44paul on 01-Nov-04 Rating:

Strengths:good signal strength, good customer support, so far reliable

Weaknesses:web interface admin tool not as user friendly, large physical size

Summary:I’m a computer support specialist for a large university. Comparing with other brand such as Netgear, Linksys, and Apple Airport, F5D7230-4 is larger in size and the web interface admin tool is not as well designed. As a result, I accidentally configured the router to operate in switch mode and could not regain access to the web admin page. Called Belkin on a Saturday morning, waited only for about 30 seconds to talk to a live person who spoke perfect American English. Took him only 3 minutes to diagnose the problem and another minute to guide me through to solve it. I’ve been dealing with customer support from Dell, Apple, HP and other companies for years, this was the best experience I’ve ever had.

Reviewed by: Edwin966 on 31-Oct-04 Rating:

Strengths:Function, Price.

Weaknesses:Easy Set-up did not work on my network.

Summary:I went to Fry\'s Electronics in search of a router to build a network for my Mom. I am giving her a Powerbook with a Belkin 54g card, so when I saw the Belkin 54g Router on sale($59 with $30 rebate = $29), I thought I was the Mac Daddy.

For some reason, the Easy Set-up software did not work on my network, but it was a good idea. No Problemo...the manual includes instructions for manual set-up. Set-up still simple enough.

Router works great and can be laid flat or on the included stand to stand vertical.

Reviewed by: toobernutz on 04-Feb-05 Rating:

Strengths:User configurable wireless settings, free tech support.

Weaknesses:\"Sets up in 3 minutes - Easy Install Wizard\" should be renamed \"Screws up in 3 minutes\"

Summary:Followed install instructions exactly - after setup confirmed communication with router it asked to reboot computer. Upon reboot setup asked to reboot again. When denied it would not recognize router any more. The trick is to hold reset down over 5 seconds and use alternate setup method. Now it works flawlessly with a Dell, an iMac and an iBook.
Previously tried a D-Link. It took their tech support to connect to Dell (slow). iMac dropped connections frequently and the wireless side NEVER worked - they said call Apple. RIGHT!

Reviewed by: network_geek on 12-Feb-06 Rating:

Strengths:clean and simple configuration through browser, can be easily configured as an access point

Weaknesses:drops wireless signal intermittently

Summary:This Belkin was one of the cheapest routers I could find at Best Buy. The setup is easy (but most routers these days are). I used the manual setup through a browser instead of the easy-setup CD, and I got it working literally in a couple of minutes. I then reconfigured the wireless and networking parameters so I could use it as a wifi access point instead of a router (because I already have a DSL router). This was also very painless because the setup interface offers you a one-click option to reconfigure the unit as an access point (which turns off the dhcp and firewall). This is a cheap alternative to purchasing a real wireless access point (which is invariably 2 or 3 times more expensive but is basically the same thing).

Now, the most problematic thing about this unit is that it periodically drops the wifi signal completely (I mean down to zero!). Most users would not have noticed this, because the signal goes out for about 1 or 2 seconds and it comes back. If you are on your browser or are downloading a file, you would think that the net is just slow. But to diagnose the problem, I had to ping the router from a computer that was connected wirelessly and found that the pings intermittently returned a number of lost packets. When I examined the wireless signal during these periods of outage, I discovered that the signal strength was completely zero. I know what you would say: \"Perhaps you are just too far away from the router, that\'s why the signal goes away.\" Well, my computer was just 6 inches away! And this happened with not just one but both of my laptops with very different wireless adaptors.

After a few days, I had to return the Belkin and exchange it for a D-Link which was on sale for the same cost as the Belkin (I have another D-Link which has been working flawlessly for a few months). Even though the D-Link unit does not offer an option to easily convert it into an access point, I was able to reconfigure it to do just that in a couple of minutes, and the D-Link is working fine and doesn\'t drop packets at all (as long as you are within range).

Since I had only tested the Belkin\'s wifi capabilities but not its router functions, I can\'t comment on how it would work as a router. But since the wifi is problematic, I would recommend against it (unless you intend to not use the wireless functions, but why would you want a wifi router then?)