written by shpongled on 06/10/2009
I've had the Belkin N1 Modem / Router for a while now.
Firstly, and I get a lot of experience with this in my line of work, wireless networking is very hit and miss. There's no 'magic bullet' of the wireless world that'll solve all your range & speed issues in one hit, despite all the manufacturers marketing guff.
So how does the Belkin N1 work? Well ok, sort of. I've found that it's not very stable if left in it's default mode - 802n,g & b, automatic channel - it needs resetting frequently, and frustratingly after doing so can perform a factory reset on itself requiring a full setup again. This is not a frequent occurance luckily. These problems totally negate the point of it being an 'N' wireless router though, as using it in this mode just causes problems. Also don't forget every device that connects wirelessly needs to be 'N' spec or the speed of the network as a whole will drop down to 54 / 11, depending on the device. Again negating the N spec.
Wireless range is ok, although I get the best speed with it plugged in downstairs, not in the adjacent room of my house, it seems to be flumoxed by the brick wall and signal strength / speed drops right down, even though it's actually been moved closer.
Left in 54g and a fixed channel it seems ok, but quite expensive when you can buy a good 54g router much cheaper than this.