Belkin Wireless Cable/DSL Router Review

By Bill Parker 
September 2003

This is a review of my experience setting up a wireless network.  I’ll cover some terminology and the install process, but spend most of the article on how I set up security since this was not documented as well in the manual and took most of the overall time required.

I don’t cover all possible installation options, or give all the background you may need for networking in general.  But that is where the NTPCUG user group meetings and WebBoard can come to the rescue.

Some terminology 

1. A wireless access point (AP) is a box that connects computers with wireless networking capability to a wired Ethernet network. 
2. A wireless cable/DSL gateway router (wireless router) is an access point with added features for connecting to your high speed Internet service, and usually a 4 port switch for connecting up to 4 wired (Ethernet) computers.  The wireless router also has a built in hardware firewall to help protect your computers from hackers when you are connected to the Internet.
3. The wireless equipment you get can support one or more of the three current wireless communication standards.  802.11b is the first wireless standard and has a data transfer rate up to 11 Mbps.  It operates at 2.4 GHz, same as some wireless phones.  I am told there is not much chance of interference.  Your high speed Internet access may be up to 1.5 Mbps, so 802.11b is plenty fast for Internet use.  As far as range, I stopped walking after I went outside and was still Internet surfing 200’ from the router.  (This is one reason I was interested in security.)  The signal weakens as it passes through walls, so you will get much less range at some places in your house.  I considered putting the router in the attic for better coverage, but Belkin tech support said the highest recommended temperature for the router is 78° F.
4. 802.11g is the most recent wireless standard, with a data transfer rate up to 54 Mbps.  Its range is the same as 802.11b.  It also works at 2.4 GHz., and supports 80211b.  So you can use an 802.11b network card on an 802.11g network, but the “b” card will still work at the slower rate.
5. 802.11a is a more recent standard than 802.11b, but older than 802.11g.  It can transfer up to 54 Mbps, but has a shorter range than 802.11b.  It operates at 5 GHz so there is less chance of interference from other home devices.  A Belkin rep told me that the 5GHz band was inherently less secure, and that this technology was being phased out by Belkin and presumably other manufacturers.  I don’t know if I believe the security warning, but you will find that 802.11a equipment is more expensive than b or g, so that may have to do with sales volume.  Also it is more complex to manufacture.  (Think Betamax?)

I initially thought I would get equipment that supported both the A and B standards.  Talking with the reps made me less insistent on including the A standard, and the great price on the equipment I bought left me going with just 802.11b.  If the primary use for wireless is Internet surfing and sharing printers, etc., then 802.11b is probably fine.  Another way to say it is if you don’t understand the technology enough to know why you need the G standard, you probably don’t.  Besides, at its best, G is only half as fast as a wired 100Mbps ethernet connection, and the B wireless router gives you 4 of those wired 100Mbps connections.

My equipment

I already had a DSL Internet connection going into a Linksys router (without wireless capability) that connected several computers to each other and to the Internet.  I did not disturb that setup.  Instead, the new wireless router was connected to the existing one in order to add wireless capability.  You might use this approach only if you have more than four (the number of wired ports on the router) computers that will be connected by Ethernet cabling.  If all your computers will be connected wirelessly and/or you have fewer than five computers that will be connected by wires (Ethernet), then you would only need the wireless router by itself.

The other benefit of adding this new router to the existing setup was locating the new wireless router in a central location in the house, far away from the current router and most computers.  This gave me better signal coverage around the house and outside.

Now that the faster 802.11g wireless networking standard has been officially adopted, you are likely to see some bargains on the slower (but plenty fast for broadband Internet) 802.11b equipment.  Below is the deal I found (all with rebates).

Belkin F5D6231-4 is 802.11b wireless router and 4-port switch.  Bought at CompUSA for $10.  Also bought Belkin 802.11b PCMCIA card for $20 and Belkin wireless USB network adapter for $30. ( Note: This bargain was posted on the NTPCUG WebBoard in the Bargains conference.)  This is about a 70% discount from current street pricing.  (One of my laptops has built-in A+B wireless support that is not from Belkin.  This lets me work with the standard Windows interface as well as the Belkin interface.)

Installation

The ‘out of the box’ setup was quite easy.  Just run the Easy Install Wizard, and your network is going.  Don’t be lulled into thinking that is all you need to do.  The default setup lets anyone in your neighborhood (or driving by) connect to your wireless network.  If you don’t want that, there is more work required.

There is good news and bad news.  The good news is that Belkin provides lifetime 24x7 phone technical support via an 800 number.  The bad news is that I needed it since I ran into at least one bug and the documentation was not good at explaining the security setup. 

The security setup was manual, not wizard-driven, and took the better part of a day (with frustration breaks).  I finally started calling tech support at 9:30 pm on Sunday.  As most things go, after getting it working, I could do a setup the next time quite quickly.  A big part of my problem was not Belkin’s fault.  I should have used a wired computer to do the setup of the wireless router.

My suggestions are as follows.

1. Do the setup from a computer that is hardwired to the wireless router, even if you want that computer to be wireless later on.  The Belkin documentation said this in the Easy Install section, which I naturally was not reading.
2. Have a wireless computer and the computer that is hardwired to the wireless router side by side as you are doing setup.  This makes it easy to configure with the wired computer and test with the wireless computer.  If you only have one computer, Nevermind.
3. Use the “easy install process”, that I imagine each vendor has, to get the basic setup working.  This will get you going with a minimum of fuss.
4. After everything is working, definitely set up security on the wireless network.

My son did the initial default installation while I was out riding my bike.  When I got home my wife was happily surfing and
e-mailing, after getting rid of the now useless Ethernet wiring.  (She is convinced that all the computer, TV, stereo wiring rats nests will burn the house down!)

This paragraph is for advanced users that may be doing a non-standard install.  Since we were just using this wireless router as an access point, I used the Belkin option to “Use as access point only.”  After setting it, computers could use the wireless network, but I could not access the router setup screens.  Only solution was to push the button to reset the router to factory defaults.  To accomplish the same thing, just turn off DHCP and don’t plug anything into the WAN port.  The option may work, but tech support could not figure it out either.

Security

My effort to set up security took my wife offline for the rest of the day.  This was largely due to the fact that I was doing this configuration from a wireless computer.  Some security configuration settings will break an existing wireless connection.  That is why you want to work from a computer with a wired (Ethernet) connection.

After many setup attempts, 4 tech support calls that lasted a total of 2 hours, and conflicting information from different support reps, I finally ended up with the following security measures.  You may not use all of these.  I’ll describe each after they are listed.

1. The default SSID will be WLAN.  Change it to something else.
2. Uncheck the box that says “Accept ‘ANY’ SSID”
3. Uncheck the box that says “Broadcast SSID”
4. Use 64-bit WEP encryption.
5. Use Profile Manager Mode to save your settings.

All of the settings I propose make connecting to your wireless network less automatic, but after you do it once your computer remembers the settings so you don’t have to do it again.  That is a small one-time price to pay for ongoing security.  The instructions below are based on the Belkin router.

This is the menu you see when you log onto the Belkin router by typing its IPaddress into your Web browser window.  The default address for the Belkin is 192.168.2.1. When you connect to a wireless network you need to know the wireless network name.  By default, wireless cards and routers use the name WLAN so connections are automatic.  That is fine in some cases, but not for our secure network.  If you use WLAN it is one less thing a hacker needs to figure out.  From the wired computer, log onto the wireless router and select Channel and SSID.  As shown in the screen below, just type in the new network name and Apply Changes.  Now go to the wireless computer and try to connect.  You should see the new network name in the site map of available wireless networks.  If not, click the Re-scan button until it shows.  Now click on that name to connect to the network.  Browse to the Internet from the wireless computer to make sure it is working. Next, from the wired computer, uncheck the box that says “Accept ’ANY’ SSID”, and apply changes.  This reduces the possibility of people randomly finding your network.  Again, make sure you can browse the Internet from the wireless computer. Finally, uncheck the box that says “Broadcast SSID”, and apply changes.  This is should suppress the network name in the list of available networks so your neighbors can’t see the name of your network.  However, on my computers, after I have connected to the wireless router, the network name is still shown in the list of available networks.  Tech support says this should not be, and they will do some testing.  I may not hear the results until after this is published.  Again, I have some non-standard settings, so this problem may be unique to my setup.

Encryption

The last security measure is to enable encryption.  Below is the encryption screen.  Both 64-bit and 128-bit encryption are available.  You may not notice any slowness when using 128-bit vs. 64-bit encryption, but I chose 6- bit encryption for a more practical reason.  For the computers that had Belkin network cards, either encryption option is easy.  Just select the encryption type and enter a passphrase that is used to generate the encryption key.  It is easiest to leave the radio button for key 1 selected.  Apply changes.

The reason to use 64-bit encryption is that for any computers with a non-Belkin network card, you will need to type in the encryption key manually, since the passphrase capability may not be available.  The 128-bit key is much longer, so the 64-bit key is easier on users.  With the other safety measures you have taken, I expect the 64-bit encryption will be fine.  (Later, tech support told me the key string for 128-bit encryption was too long to be typed into the key window for some non-Belkin cards.  So 128-bit may not even be an option.)

Occasionally after my laptop came out of sleep mode, I was not able to connect to the network.  Two things to try are:

1. Reboot the PC.
2. Set a static ip address (I’m leaving out the details).

One of these solved my problem and now I have no problem with sleep mode using either a static or dynamic IP address.  You can always go to a DOS command prompt and type ipconfig {Enter} to see what IP address is assigned.  It should be 192.168.x.xx, where “x” is some number.

If all else fails, there is a button on the router to reset the factory defaults.  Then you can start over.

Also, you can always use NTPCUG’s WebBoard conference of Networking and the MS Networking SIG to get input from other user group members on any problems you run into.

The initial Belkin setup is quite easy, and the Web interface for managing the router is very good.  It even has a button to automatically check for firmware updates.  The manual is quite good in the area of setup with the wizard.  It is more sparse in the area of security setup. 

If you use all the standard router features and the default IP address for the router as most users will, some of the problems I ran into will likely not come up.  If you are going to try a non-standard setup, you probably know enough to deal with any problems.

The Belkin sales rep said their equipment had no problem working with other vendors' equipment, and I had no trouble working with the Phillips A+B card in my laptop.  This rep said Linksys and most other vendors also interoperated well.

Tech support is generally quite good, and wait time was not very long.  It is available 24x7.

--Bill Parker   

Bill Parker is President and SIG Coordinator of NTPCUG.
He may be contacted by e-mail: Click to e-mail Bill Parker