I have been using my trusty Linksys WRT54G WiFi router for the last 4 years and decided to upgrade to a N based WiFi router I choose the Belkin N+ router as its supposed be the best single band N router in it’s class, as all my computers (laptops & desktop) heck even my printer is connected via WiFi hence I wanted a router that is dependable and here is my review regarding the Belkin N+ after a month of usage.

Why am I retiring my Linksys WRT54G router

I have been using my internet connection over WiFi for quite some time and be frank the Linksys WRT54G router has served me well (G router provides a speed upto 54 Mbps) I had modded this router to use the ddwrt firmware the lan ports on this router is 100 Mbps and the internet port is 10 Mbps, I have my home server which has a gigabit port but due to Linksys port supporting only 100 Mbps this was a limiting factor, now as I upgraded to 8Mbps internet connection I was nearly maxing out the internet port on my linksys (10 Mbps) also my iMac computer has the wireless N so wanted to use a router that supported N speeds.

What does the Belkin N+ router offer

Its a single band (20Mhz / 40 Mhz) N based router which supports speeds upto 300 Mbps, it is  also backward compatible with 802.11b,   802.11g,  its basically a  802.11n (draft 2.0) router. It has four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports (fastest in home segment routers) A USB slot is provided, to which you can attach portable hard-disk or USB memory stick to provide network based storage, though the speeds provide via this USB port is pretty slow. Guest based login system, this router has 2 radios and the second radio is used as a guest network if you want, there by providing you 2 separate WiFi networks. The first thing you would notice is that this router is huge, its one of the biggest personal router that I have used, this router is designed to stand vertically with the two external antennas sticking out and due to that is looks even bigger, the back has the 4 LAN ports a USB port, a reset button and a Internet port, the front of the router has an array of leds which is found on most of the new Belkin router, by just seeing the router you can

figure out if you have any problem with the router / modem or your internet connection, if everything is in blue color you are good and your network / internet is running fine and when an particular led is in amber/orange color there is a problem its a very easy system in my opinion to diagnose your network if you are having a problem.

Integrated Bandwidth Meter

Apart from that status led lights there is an array of 5 led lights on the top front part of the router which acts a an bandwidth meter and the number of lights increase based on your usage, in heavy usage (when you are downloading big files) all the lights light up, and its a easy way to get an idea how much bandwidth is being consumed at a give point.

Setup

Setting up the router was pretty easy, they provide a setup CD, but I preferred to set it up manually via going to 192.168.2.1 which is the web admin interface  page of the router, there is no password set initially and its a good idea to add a password after you setup your network, the interface is pretty easy to follow and you can setup the network in 10 minutes, though after using the ddwrt with my Linksys WRT54g router I found the Belkin router interface to be a bit bland, dont get me wrong it’s okay for regular use and gets the job done.

The router supports all the well know encryption modules for Wifi setup, WEP, WPA, WPA2 with PSK, it also allows you to setup Wifi network using the combination given below

802.11 b,g,n (default)
802.11 g & b
802.11 n only

Performance of the router

This is where ther Belkin N+ router shines its a great router which according to the manual supports 16  Wireless devices, I dont have that many WiFi devices to test but I connected 6

Wifi devices and I did not have any problems with the same, I was using the mixed network (b,g and N) as I had 5 devices using the G network and just one machine my iMac using the N network and I did not have any problems with the same, regarding the range this is where this router really shines, I was able to get a good signal where my earlier Linksys struggled, in my un-scientific testing this router gives about 30-35% better range that my old Linksys G router, the other thing that I also noticed is that this Belkin N+ router runs a lot cooler doesn’t even get warm compared to my Linksys router which is a good thing, the guest mode also works as expected and is a good thing when you have guest that need to use the internet via WiFi and you don’t want them to touch your internal network or LAN but just provide internet connectivity.

Cons about Belkin N+

* I did not like the web admin interface of Belkin (a personal thing I guess, it works but could be a lot better) also this router currently doesn’t support open firmware like ddwrt.

* The range of this router is great but the antennas are not removable or upgradable.

* The Led lights in my opinion are a bit bright and if you have the router is placed in an dark environment or just near the computer you work it can be a bit bright and annoying on the eyes.

* The USB port provided is a great concept it can be used as a common file storage,  but the speeds that it offers are very poor (20-30 Mbps) just around 2-3 MB/sec also this USB port will not work with USB based printer which is a shame.

* The LED status lights sometimes get crazy, for example though I am connected to the internet with my WiFi security settings on the security light wont glow and the internet icon keeps blinking in blue color, the router also sometimes fails to list all the machines connected via “DHCP Client List” feature of the web admin page, I guess these issues can be fixed via the firmware but these are some annoying bugs.

The Guest Network is a great feature but Belkin doesn’t provide you with much control over the same, you can password protect it and switch it on / off that’s it, but it would have been great if we would be able to limit the number of guest connections or throttle the bandwidth speeds on the Guest network or to customize the guest login page.

Conclusion

The Belkin N+ is a great router, with exceptional range and does it’s job quite well and is one of the best single band N router in the market, if you upgrading your WiFi network from a b or g netwok this a great router but it is a bit expensive compared to plain vanila N bssed routers and if you dont need the USB support, Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports and the Guest network you can also opt for the cheaper router know as  Belkin N router.