Home router upgrade from "b" to "g"

On Tue, 7 Jul 2009 17:57:39 -0700 (PDT), "Eugene F." wrote in :

Linksys is fine, but currently the best value IMHO is the Belkin Wireless-G Broadband Router that Wal-Mart is selling for only $30:

I've installed a few of these recently for friends and clients, and they've performed very well, no reboots required. A particularly nice feature is the Guest Account that allows you to give guests access to your Internet without exposing your own clients to them.

John,

Thank you very much for the reply.

I somehow (possibly out of ignorance) always considered Belkin of a low quality brand.

Could you please comment > On Tue, 7 Jul 2009 17:57:39 -0700 (PDT), "Eugene F."

The review is simply wrong, suggesting the user doesn't really know what he or she is doing:

• The router will easily configure and broadcast whatever SSID you wish. I know because I always change the default SSID to a unique value as per recommended practice.

• The router configures and works just fine with WPA. Again, I know because I always set up WPA security as per recommended practice. (I can't speak to WEP because I don't use it, too insecure to be on any real value, but I'm pretty sure WEP works as well.)

Belkin has a reputation for mediocre products and support, but this particular product is quite good.

On Wed, 8 Jul 2009 09:51:57 -0700 (PDT), "Eugene F." wrote in :

> Linksys is fine, but currently the best value IMHO is the Belkin

I've had the opposite experience with Belkin. While maybe not cutting edge, they seem to market very workable, quality equipment.

Hide quoted text -

I second that opinion by both respondents, excellent choice, having used a range of Belkin products including wireless router, various PCI cards and USB wireless apapters for years. Never had a problem and excellent performance.

Nothing is perfect in life and you can get a dud in any brand.

Rob

Argh. I paid $45 retail.

Agreed. The F5D7234-4 v4 looks like a winner. I've installed two of them recently with no surprises. That makes up for previous Belkin abominations and atrosities. Note that there are 3 different hardware versions of this router. I've only tried v4, which works fine. No clue on V1 or V3 (or what happened to V2).

Also be sure to update the firmware:

My big issue with Belkin is that there is usually 1 or perhaps 2 revisions of the firmware, then nothing. If there are any bugs past this point, they tend to be permanent. Other vendors (Dlink, Netgear, Linksys) will update firmware long past the point when the product is no longer sold.

Jeff,

Thank you very much for the reply.

How do I determine which hardware version NewEgg sells?

TIA, Eugene

On Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:48:09 -0700 (PDT), "Eugene F." wrote in :

Buy it, check it, and return if not satisfied.

I haven't the slightest idea. I can tell Linksys hardware versions apart because someone has throughtfully decoded the serial number on the box:

However, nobody has done that for this Belkin product. It might be fun to ask Belkin, but I doubt you'll get an answer. Basically, buy, fly, try, and hopefully, not cry.

FCC ID Page:

I could only find this one page. The serial number label identifies is at a v1. I couldn't find V3 or V4.

Jeff,

I'm confused.

Will I be able to determine the hardware version once I have the box in my hands?

Please clarify. Thank you.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D > On Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:48:09 -0700 (PDT), "Eugene F."

Yes the labels on the eqpt are quite clear: V1

V3

V4

The missing V2 may have been a 7234A or if in Canada a 7234B or even a

7230-4 but ignore it.

On Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:57:19 -0700 (PDT), "Eugene F." wrote in :

Yes, but usually only if you open the box to get access to the label on the device.

On Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:51:46 -0700, Jeff Liebermann wrote in :

Unfortunately, Belkin has again lived down to its reputation -- the latest F5D7234-4 v4 (4000) I installed turned into a disaster.

It worked fairly well servicing two computers, one wired and one wireless: good throughput, as much as 500 Kbytes/sec on a fast cable modem service, and no hard lockups (low some other brands of low end wireless routers), just some sluggishness from time to time.

But the Internet connection for a new second wireless computer (Acer Aspire One netbook) was essentially unusable -- only local wireless networking worked well. No problem when I connected the new computer directly to the cable modem. Likewise no problem when I substituted an old NETGEAR WGR614v5 (with both 1.07 and 1.09 firmware).

I didn't have the time to fully diagnose the problem with the Belkin, but tracert showed packets getting very strange routing as compared to identical tracert on the other two computers. My guess(tm) is that the Belkin was corrupting packets from the new computer.

The cause of the Belkin problem may be cheapening the product without changing the model and version. While the case is similar in appearance to earlier ones I've installed, it lacks the external antenna and stand in the picture on the Walmart link above (even though purchased at Walmart).

While they may be a bit better than Belkin, they're not that much better IMHO. Consider the NETGEAR WGR614. There are no less than NINE different incompatible non-upgradable versions, essentially different products despite same model number and SKU (a despicable practice IMHO). The firmware for (say) v5 was last updated Nov. 29, 2005, and is still flaky.

The hunt for a decent low-end wireless router continues. :(

I hate to put this out there, only to have my dreams shattered, but I've had very good results with the Linksys WRT54GL v1.1, most of which I've flashed to run dd-wrt firmware. Even so, I haven't had any call backs (so far) from the ones I've left stock.

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:11:06 -0500, Char Jackson wrote in :

The problem is that it's getting harder and harder to find early versions of the WRT54GL. Later versions aren't as good.

The Linksys website still only shows two versions (1.0 and 1.1). Can you confirm that you're referring to the GL?

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:10:42 -0500, Char Jackson wrote in :

I'm referring to the original WRT54GL (1.0) / WRT54G version 4.

According to Jeff Liebermann: "I'm not sure that's a good solution any more. The Broadcom chipset sucks. DD-WRT is an improvement, but is not stable."

I think you've got that at least half wrong and wholly out of context, but I'm ok with that.