Very interesting. In doing some research before buying anything I
noticed that this area seems to be the worst in electronics for using
the customer for quality control. Not just Belkin, every brand I checked
out had more than its share of problems that required the buyer
replacing it. The best of them only seemed to have a 60% chance of
working. So I decided that I would buy a cheap one locally at a store
where I could exchange it no questions asked even though I could save
20-50% buying off the web.
This second one has been running continuously for 3 days now with no
noticeable problems. Actually the first one seem to work perfectly but
smelled up the apartment. This one does not have a burnt smell, nor is
it particularly warm to the touch, the first one was damn hot. However,
I only have the router, my laptop has a used 3com card in it and the PDA
has a built in .11b. I had wanted a Netgear router but locally they are
too expensive for my budget.
I do rather think it is a matter of luck rather than brand. In fact I
have read that most of them are made by the same company and just put in
a different enclosure. In fact some of the sites I have read claim that
you can fix them by loading some other brands firmware in them. That
would indicate that they are very very similar.
I am glad you have found something that is working for you, and hope my
luck continues to hold with this cheap Belkin unit.
graywolf
http://www.graywolfphoto.com
http://webpages.charter.net/graywolf
"Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof"
-----------------------------------
mike wilson wrote:
graywolf wrote:
Hum...? Belkin wireless router is working fine. Of course this one has
only been up 3 days so it is hard to say if it is going to be durable
or not. The first had a scorched smell out of the box so I returned
it, this one seems fine. Running restricted access and encrypted, the
firewall checks out fine too.
So what kind of problems are you having.
Pretty much the same. Overheating leading to network drop out and some
wierd form of router dormancy. Had to physically reboot it to get it to
go again, by switching the power off and back on again, after trotting
to the other end of the house. Replaced router and it happened again.
One of the adaptors (for the desktop) physically failed, too and was
replaced. The PC card for the laptop would never pick up first time and
regularly took about four complete restarts to get hold of the network.
The three-step, simple wizard hung my machine every time I tried to use
it to install the router. The firmware upgrade download hung twice and
never installed. The utility interfaces are different for the USB and
PC adaptors, so it is not possible to say for sure if you have the same
faults or connectivity on both machines. Email tech support is probably
a robot, going by the (prompt) answers I received. Telephone support,
whilst free, is based somewhere on the Indian subcontinent and was not
entirely helpful. Didn't like Zonealarm running at the same time.
Looking on www.techsupportforum.com I found numerous others were having
the same problems with these particular models. Luckily, here in the
UK, the retailer is responsible for providing you with suitable product
so I just took the whole lot back, got refunded and bought Netgear. 30
minutes to install the whole system and everything works perfectly and
looks the same on both machines. Router web interface is better, too.
Left the router on the windowsill in direct sunlight, downloading two
30Mb files simultaneously - no problem. No problem since. Cost a total
of about £25 more.
On the Belkin box: "Designed in California". In small writing under the
router: "Made in China". A complete waste of fossil resources.
graywolf
http://www.graywolfphoto.com
http://webpages.charter.net/graywolf
"Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof"
-----------------------------------
mike wilson wrote:
That was what I thought when I bought the gear for a wireless setup.
You don't want to hear the thoughts I had a month later, when it was
still not working after two changes of equipment. My strongest
recommendation is to not buy Belkin.
