Belkin F5D7132UK Wireless G Universal Range Extender Review

Overall Rating

Small and good looking device which feels well constructed.
Wall mountable.
Very reliable and effective when correctly set up, massively improving the range of a wireless network.
Firmware is well written and easy to navigate.
Very fast data transfer rates, with very little lag or interruption.
Requires only a power cable to operate once set up.
Configurable wirelessly.
Supports a wide range of security options, including WEP encryption and MAC address filtering.
Will also operate as a wireless access point.
Automatically re-acquires original wireless link after a power interruption, or network-related interruption.
Works with almost any router or wireless access point.

Complicated and awkward to set up.
Setup instructions are not particularly comprehensive, not taking into account the IP conflict generated when connecting wirelessly and through Ethernet, wireless encryption, and problems created by different subnets.
Easy to accidentally knock the "auto connect" button on the back of the unit when moving it about.

When setting up a wireless network, you may want to achieve full coverage of your premises without the need of network cabling running along skirting boards, up walls and under floors. In this situation, a sensible solution would be to buy a wireless range extender (wireless repeater). Range extenders offer a real cable-free and clutter-free solution to boosting the range of your network, and prices are not extortionate. However, when shopping for this device I found that there was very little information on what the device does, and how well it does it, so I will clear these issues up in this article.

There are only a few products on the market which offer such functionality, and I opted for the Belkin device, attracted by the range of features it claims to offer and also the price.

Having little experience with Belkin networking products, I came to realise that things weren't as simple as "1, 2, 3" when it came to setting up the device, and it was at this point I decided I was going to be patient and set aside some time to get the repeater working. Whilst the product description seems to hint that the repeater can only be used with Belkin APs/Routers, or APs/Routers with compatible WRE capabilities, I believe the repeater can be used with almost any conventional wireless network.

Initially, I attempted to set up the repeater with my BT Voyager 2600V router using the Belkin Repeater's "Quick Setup" guide, but failed. I had some trouble finding which IP address the configuration page is located by default, which is something like "192.168.2.1" and is very inconveniently located outside of my subnet.

Trying to log in to the range extender failed, as I could not get my browser to point to the configuration page. I decided to keep things as simple as possible and disabled WEP-128 encryption on my router, leaving the network unencrypted, and used the "Quick Connect" button located on the back of the range extender. The red magnifying glass icon on the front of the access point stopped flashing, which the manual described as meaning it had synchronised with a wireless network.

Checking my computer, I noticed that Windows was complaining that there was an IP conflict on the network. I discovered that this was due to having the range extender connected to the router via a network cable as well as wireless. Unplugging the repeater from the network port, I decided to move it upstairs and sure enough my wireless range had extended! Instead of getting a "Very Low" signal I now had an "Excellent" signal. However, I was still unable to access the configuration page. I decided to alter my IP address to the same subnet as the access point and I was able to change the range extender's IP address, as well as turning on wireless encryption.

I've now been using the device for a few months, and have recently changed router to a BT Home Hub. A bit of tinkering and everything worked fine. Just remember to set the Range Extender's SSID, encryption settings and channel to EXACTLY the same as the settings on your router. This device is also not compatible with any "Turbo" or "Wireless Acceleration" modes.

This is a brilliant little device when it works, but it is certainly not for the technically inept, and it can require a great deal of patience setting up. Belkin provide free telephone and online technical support (overseas call centre). Once working it has excellent data speeds and will at least double the range of your wireless network. It is also very stable, even when located near 2.4GHZ cordless phones, and I would strongly recommend this to anyone who would like to increase the range of their wireless network.

Members' Comments onthomascollett's Review

• m stones on 3rd Nov 2007

  I found this review unhelpful because.It doesn't warn the non-technically advanced of us [ most of us] that we will have a nightmare trying to get it to work. How can you give 9/10 for a piece of kit that is so unfriendly?

• thomascollett on 14th Nov 2007

  Read the review, I did state it is complicated to set up.

• Breanainn on 11th Sep 2008

  Great review, I need to extend a wireless network in a very old house past a huge wall, any idea if 2 of these in extend mode connected with a cable would work to extend the existing wifi?

• thomascollett on 12th Sep 2008

  Thanks for the feedback.
  
  I don't think you can really "daisy-chain" these devices in repeater mode.
  
  If you cabled two of these using patch cables into your wireless router and just used them as wireless access points then that should work.
  
  If you aren't able to run cables from your router then I would recommend using HomePlug (about £70-ish) for network connectivity through your electrical cables.
  
  If you have the repeater right next to the wall it might do the job. They reach surprisingly far, I have an old house with a lot of stuff in the walls.

• richtbiscuit on 4th Jun 2009

  Thanks for this, it pointed me in the right direction to get it set up with our secure wireless network. The IP for the extender out of the box is 192.168.2.254
  
  To manually configure the device you need to set the IP of a computer to 192.168.2.100, make sure that the computer is not connected to any other network, then connect the device to the computer with the supplied ethernet cable. Point a web browser to 192.168.2.254 (you don't need to use the software, usefully for those of us not running Windows as our OS) and then you should see the configuration page. At this point you can connect the extender to your wireless network using the configuration pages.
  
  Thanks again -- I agree with your assessment that the extender is excellent once you've worked out how to set it up. The manual is virtually useless for anyone not running an open network though.