5/27/2011

Belkin N1 Vision Wireless Router (F5D8232-4) Review

Belkin N1 Vision Wireless Router (F5D8232-4)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I suspect most of the people with issues or complaints have version 1000 and / or old firmware.
Additionally one needs to use this in conjunction with 802.11n wireless adapters (preferably Draft 2.0 for future upgradeability / compatibility) in order to obtain the maximum benefit out of the router, at least from a wireless performance perspective.
I recently purchased version 2000 of the N1 Vision (check the sticker on the bottom of the box). I have it mated with two PC's with 802.11n Draft 2.0 (2T2R - 2 Transmit 2 Receive) wireless USB adapters (each with just an internal, but high quality, antenna).
I was up and running in no time.
I also had no problems using VPN to connect to my office network.
I am using WPA2 with AES encryption.
For extra security I have it set up with (broadcast SSID set to 'off' and have specifically only allowed my two wireless adapters by entering their MAC addresses in the 'MAC address control' of the router's setup utility).
Upstairs (one room away from the N1 Vision I get 95 - 100% signal quality and 90+ signal strength with a pretty consistent connection speed of 270 Mbps! (not the full 300 maximum but certainly close enough for me). :)
Downstairs (one floor down and all the way on the other side of the house relative to the router), I get something like 45 - 75% signal strength depending where I am in the room. The speed varies between 45 Mbps, at worst (will have to verify this tonight as I only used it one night and believe this minimum can be improved upon), to a more typical 170 or 210 Mbps (wide range, I know, but I only tested it one night and haven't tweaked settings or placement yet via the flexible silver mini extension cable).
The display is useful in that you can see who connected to your network in the past 24 hours (if an unexpected visitor enters your wireless network, at least you will have a way of knowing it).
I am pleased with the Vision N1's speed, range and overall performance, other than the disconnect issue for which there is an easy enough workaround until they fix it permanently, hopefully, via a firmware upgrade for the 2000 model).
Keep in mind my testing was done using Draft 2.0 802.11n wireless USB adapters. Wireless G adapters won't have the same performance or even close to it.The one thing to note is that there is a known issue where the N1 Vision disconnects every two hours (wireless or all around). This occurs when the router software connects to the time server to get the time (check the router setup page's security log and you can see the entries every two hours).
There is a firmware fix for this for version 1000 but ironically NOT for the newer version 2000.
The N1 Vision 1000 hardware has other issues (reported overheating etc.) though, so I still much prefer version 2000.
For version 2000 there is a workaround to stop it from disconnecting every 2 hours (search the net for it as it requires accessing a "hidden" page).
The workaround works very well and is only required to be performed once after a reboot of the router.
I haven't had to do so in a long time.
I gave it 4 stars due to the issue with it disconnecting every 2 hours and the fact that version 2000 does NOT have a firmware fix for this, even though the older version does.
This should have been caught during pre-release testing. If not, at worst, a firmware fix should have been created for version 2000 very early on.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Belkin N1 Vision Wireless Router (F5D8232-4)

N1 vision Wireless router

Buy Now

Click here for more information about Belkin N1 Vision Wireless Router (F5D8232-4)

No comments:

Post a Comment