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Belkin Play N600 Wireless Dual Band N Router
This review is from : Belkin Play N600 Wireless Dual Band N Router
Great dual band router for the money! . For Christmas, one of the gifts I presented to my wife was a new laptop computer. She loved it, however, after a few days she starting complaining that she really needed access to the internet via her laptop, especially once her classes started back up in January. I started searching for options and didn't care for the wireless on-the-go route. I thought $50 a month coupled with a 2 year contact was too expensive and wouldn't even know if it would solve my issue. Then, I started looking at dual band routers and narrowed it down to two, the Belkin N600 and the Netgear N600. Both were made in China and had about the same features. I ended up going with the Belkin because it was on sale for $10 less than the Netgear. I also liked the the slim design and built in stand, whereas the Netgear had a separate stand if you wanted the item to stand vertical instead of laying horizontal. Once home, the installation was extremely easy and I was up and running in less than 10 minutes from start to finish. Upon completion of downloading the latest updates for my wife's laptop, I turned it over to her. She was thrilled and spent the next 3-4 hours on the machine. She never encountered an issue with the connection, and loved being able to access her files and folders from our other desktop computer. The speed at which she was accessing (surfing) the internet was very impressive. We live in a very large house and had no problems with the connection, it performed flawlessly. Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase and decision to go with the Belkin. It works exactly as advertised and I sincerely believe it is a great dual band router for the money.
Great dual band router for the money! . For Christmas, one of the gifts I presented to my wife was a new laptop computer. She loved it, however, after a few days she starting complaining that she really needed access to the internet via her laptop, especially once her classes started back up in January. I started searching for options and didn't care for the wireless on-the-go route. I thought $50 a month coupled with a 2 year contact was too expensive and wouldn't even know if it would solve my issue. Then, I started looking at dual band routers and narrowed it down to two, the Belkin N600 and the Netgear N600. Both were made in China and had about the same features. I ended up going with the Belkin because it was on sale for $10 less than the Netgear. I also liked the the slim design and built in stand, whereas the Netgear had a separate stand if you wanted the item to stand vertical instead of laying horizontal. Once home, the installation was extremely easy and I was up and running in less than 10 minutes from start to finish. Upon completion of downloading the latest updates for my wife's laptop, I turned it over to her. She was thrilled and spent the next 3-4 hours on the machine. She never encountered an issue with the connection, and loved being able to access her files and folders from our other desktop computer. The speed at which she was accessing (surfing) the internet was very impressive. We live in a very large house and had no problems with the connection, it performed flawlessly. Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase and decision to go with the Belkin. It works exactly as advertised and I sincerely believe it is a great dual band router for the money.
Belkin Play N600 Wireless Dual Band N Router Reviews
Revised review: . In my original review of this product I said it wasn't very good if you use apple products but they seemed to have fixed every thing I had issues with. I can now use the remote app, todo syncing, remote helper... All my wifi apps work now so I would say it's a great router now. I have had no issues other than using a non-networked printer that for some reason works on this thing but I have to jump through some hoops to keep things from crashing (but that's not belkins fault)
I had to find out in a forum that bonjour doesn't work, so my todo syncing app doesn't work. My idisplay doesn't work, thanks belkin for saying on your packaging that your product works with apple products.
Revised review: . In my original review of this product I said it wasn't very good if you use apple products but they seemed to have fixed every thing I had issues with. I can now use the remote app, todo syncing, remote helper... All my wifi apps work now so I would say it's a great router now. I have had no issues other than using a non-networked printer that for some reason works on this thing but I have to jump through some hoops to keep things from crashing (but that's not belkins fault)
I had to find out in a forum that bonjour doesn't work, so my todo syncing app doesn't work. My idisplay doesn't work, thanks belkin for saying on your packaging that your product works with apple products.
Belkin Play N600 Wireless Dual Band N Router Opinions
Belkin Play N600 Wireless . I have not been completely satisfied with this wireless router. It is easy to install and set up. But, I lose connection whenever my Windows 7 laptop goes into hibernate and it usually requires a complete shutdown of my laptop or a disable re-enable of the wireless card. The signal strength also drops almost in half when I move to the other side of my 1800 sq ft house, although I don't notice a drop in speed.
Belkin Play N600 Wireless . I have not been completely satisfied with this wireless router. It is easy to install and set up. But, I lose connection whenever my Windows 7 laptop goes into hibernate and it usually requires a complete shutdown of my laptop or a disable re-enable of the wireless card. The signal strength also drops almost in half when I move to the other side of my 1800 sq ft house, although I don't notice a drop in speed.
Great unless you have an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch . Setup was pretty easy with one exception that it go stuck until I figured out I had to reboot my ISP box.
One continous problem is that Airport Expess, Apple remote, docs-to-go and the like won't work. If you don't use and aren't going to use Apple software then go for it.
One continous problem is that Airport Expess, Apple remote, docs-to-go and the like won't work. If you don't use and aren't going to use Apple software then go for it.
Great Product Marred by Lousey Implementation . UPDATE 10.10.2011: Still working really well. No issues apart from the initial setup (read below).As a new Roku user I had already fretted over how best to hook it up to the internet. A renter with a router upstairs and the TV downstairs I did not want the hassle of running cable between floors. This left me with the ethernet-over-powerline option or trying a 802.1n router if my current wireless router (Belkin G) could not cut it.Got to love the Roku but it would only perform with a wired connection. I used Speedtext.net and got 9.8mB in wired and also wireless with a Comcast cable connection. However, the wireless would stall, reacquire (usually at a lower rate) and was generally frustrating. I needed a better solution and the 50 foot of cat-5 trailing through the house wasn't cutting it.Not real happy with the powerline options I then looked at 802.n routers and discovered the concurrent dual-band products. Not heard about them but thought this could be the answer.Two got my attention; Netgear 600 (3400/3700) and the TRENDnet products. I could care less about gigabit ethernet. Actually picked up a Belkin Play N600 from a local grocery store (Fred Meyer). A good return policy I think is important as there were too many negative reviews for all 3 brands and the Belkin in particular.I do not have a lot of patience. Within 20 minutes I was cursing the Belkin in terms that would make many seasoned cursors blush. Packed it back up determined to return it. It would not connect to the internet. The damn indicator would tease with green then show solid orange.I have set up many routers as a computer tech/geek for money and consider myself well acquainted with technology. Tech neophyte I am not.Gave it one more chance. Same. 32 minute call to Belkin tech support was pleasant but useless. She actually left me with a non-working cable modem. Took 20 minutes to get that back by setting up the original router. Went through the new Belkin setup again. Same damn orange light. 1:00am. Went to bed.Next morning peeked into den. Green light all proud and pretty on the router. Internet worked fine. Never looked back. Rebooted computer/router/modem. Always comes back to green for GO.Set up 5G for Roku, 2.4 for normal. Guest accounts set up; still works.And boy, does it work. My wired connection went from 9.8 to 16mb/sec (even saw 20!). ditched the wire to rocking Roku. Get max dots plus HD with wireless. Not a problem but we are only 24 hrs into it. I shall post updates if it fails to satisfy.Although I only have a 720P TV I use the 1080P setting in Roku that may require more bandwidth, not sure on this.The N600 HD says that it supports Bittorrent while the N600 (this review) does not. This is misleading as it will support Bittorrent. I think they are referring to the Belkin Bitorrent app. But I don't know. Don't know if Bitorrent has 2 T's.Reading the negative reviews it is quite apparent that many of the reviewers know little about routers, networking and bandwidth. Of course, a product such as this should not require such knowledge. Belkin missed the boat with this product. It is good if not great but dreadful out-of-the-box setup and dismal support will probably consign it to the trash can. I love it thus far and have no plans to change.
Cons Review
Requires frequent reboot . This router has buggy software requiring frequent rebooting. As an engineer I have a theory as to why this happens. The software contains memory leaks. The router allocates more and more memory without ever releasing the used memory. Over time the router runs out of memory and requires a reboot. Frankly Belkin needs to take time to fix the problem.
But instead of fixing the software, Belkin added a setting called "Self Healing". How it works is you specify a time for the router to automatically reboot itself. So my assumptions are Belkin is well aware of the problem but instead if fixing it simply gave us an unacceptable workaround.
This is the last Belkin product I will purchase.
But instead of fixing the software, Belkin added a setting called "Self Healing". How it works is you specify a time for the router to automatically reboot itself. So my assumptions are Belkin is well aware of the problem but instead if fixing it simply gave us an unacceptable workaround.
This is the last Belkin product I will purchase.
Biggest Piece of crap ever . So i purchased this router 8 months ago....
Month 1: Took three days and many calls to belkin support to setup, cd setup is a joke. After all the calls, i was only able to get 2.4 Ghz band working but not the 5 Ghz. Being a big reason for buying this, not having the 5Ghz band working was a disapointment. Several power cycles, resets, and reconfigs
Month 2: All the previous procedures to get the wireless back up were now not working. So, i made another call to belkin. I was treated like an idiot and was told it was my ISP everytime (which it wasnt). I played around with 64 encryption and got my pc to recognize the 2.4ghz network and was able to get my mac to recognize the 5ghz network on WPA which i was happy about since 64 encryption is lacking in security. Things worked for a week then i had to reset and reconfigure this continued for months untill they finally release a firmware update that addressed the issue somewhat. I notice there is a weekly repair setting that was enabled which basically restarted the router weekly. After changing that setting things worked great for a month or so. Untill last week, when it did its stop working thing and this time i could not get the dang thing to connect to the internet. I searched for a new firmware and lo and behold there was one availible. I updated the firmware and things seemed to work ok. But, Apple Tv would not work with airplay sometimes and some ipad app remote features were buggy. then Yesterday i spent 4 hours trying to get the thing to work. nothing. So i went to work with it plugged in and connected to my modem. 6 hours later it just started to work. Makes no sence. I am fed up with the huge piece o crap. DO NOT BUY!!!!!. upon reading other reviews use with MAC is not a good fit. I would totally agree. I never notice a difference in speed between my Mac on the 5 ghz and pc on the 2.4ghz. You would think there would be but nope. If you own a Mac dont be cheap and by something you think will work. Just save hours of hassle and by a Airport extreme. I did, took me 2 mins to setup and my internet speed is blazing. not to mention the Range works across the street on my Iphone. With the belkin router maybe out the front door or 20 feet from router it would not work.
Seriously dont buy this router.
I now boycott Belkin you should too
Month 1: Took three days and many calls to belkin support to setup, cd setup is a joke. After all the calls, i was only able to get 2.4 Ghz band working but not the 5 Ghz. Being a big reason for buying this, not having the 5Ghz band working was a disapointment. Several power cycles, resets, and reconfigs
Month 2: All the previous procedures to get the wireless back up were now not working. So, i made another call to belkin. I was treated like an idiot and was told it was my ISP everytime (which it wasnt). I played around with 64 encryption and got my pc to recognize the 2.4ghz network and was able to get my mac to recognize the 5ghz network on WPA which i was happy about since 64 encryption is lacking in security. Things worked for a week then i had to reset and reconfigure this continued for months untill they finally release a firmware update that addressed the issue somewhat. I notice there is a weekly repair setting that was enabled which basically restarted the router weekly. After changing that setting things worked great for a month or so. Untill last week, when it did its stop working thing and this time i could not get the dang thing to connect to the internet. I searched for a new firmware and lo and behold there was one availible. I updated the firmware and things seemed to work ok. But, Apple Tv would not work with airplay sometimes and some ipad app remote features were buggy. then Yesterday i spent 4 hours trying to get the thing to work. nothing. So i went to work with it plugged in and connected to my modem. 6 hours later it just started to work. Makes no sence. I am fed up with the huge piece o crap. DO NOT BUY!!!!!. upon reading other reviews use with MAC is not a good fit. I would totally agree. I never notice a difference in speed between my Mac on the 5 ghz and pc on the 2.4ghz. You would think there would be but nope. If you own a Mac dont be cheap and by something you think will work. Just save hours of hassle and by a Airport extreme. I did, took me 2 mins to setup and my internet speed is blazing. not to mention the Range works across the street on my Iphone. With the belkin router maybe out the front door or 20 feet from router it would not work.
Seriously dont buy this router.
I now boycott Belkin you should too
Agreed. Stay away if you use Apple TV . We purchased this router to replace an old Linksys WRT54GS router in my parent's home. The Linksys is a wireless B/G router and I wanted to move them to wireless N since I had just purchased an Apple TV for them. My expectation was that I would establish a good connection at 5GHz for the Apple TV and avoid some interference problems that we had with the Linksys (firmware 4.71.4) and the kitchen microwave at 2.4GHz. I didn't expect the range to be particularly spectacular, but the distance was short enough between the router and the Apple TV that I didn't think it would cause a problem.
On the positive side, let me say that there is a decent feature set for this router. Not only does it have the capability to handle network traffic on the 2.4GHz and 5 GHz bands simultaneously, it has the ability offer a guest SSID (on the 2.4GHz band only) for when you have friends/kids over and you want to keep them off of your internal network while still providing them with Internet connectivity. It also has a USB port that provides you with DLNA compatible media sharing. From a technical specifications side of things, this router is not bad. Another plus (IMO) is that there is only 1 light to show you status. If it's solid green, you're good to go. Some people may like all those bright blue lights all the time, but I am thoroughly sick of them. Most home offices look like a disco these days.
Then there's the real world. The first issue is the so-so range on the Belkin N600. This is a tough one to detail, since every comparison is unique. Range is determined by where you place your router, the distance between the router and the client, as well as the number of obstacles and their composition (sheetrock, wood, metal, etc.). So let me compare it like this. The Linksys WRT54GS consistently gave us 4 out of 5 bars on 2.4GHz from the office (router) to the kitchen/dining room (laptop client). The N600 gave us 3-4 bars (4 more often than 3) at 2.4GHz and 1-2 bars (1 more often than 2) at 5GHz. Plus the microwave interference was still there at 2.4GHz even after I switched from channel 6 to channel 11.
But the killer was the Apple TV. That was in the living room and connected on 5GHz with the Belkin N600 at 4 out of 5 bars. "Cool" I thought. But that was as good as it got. Why? Because for some reason, this Belkin router does not route Bonjour traffic. I have not yet seen a resolution to this problem. Ironically, when I did the initial research on this router, I checked for Amazon reviews and there were none. One day later, Michael Norton's review shows up on Amazon. If I had know what he said, I would never have purchased the device. There are discussion threads concerning this issue on Apple's website with no real resolution. People who say that it works don't realize that they are using the N600 HD which is a different device. Other's suggest updating the firmware. There is no updated firmware for the N600 as of the date of this review. The only firmware available is the firmware that ships with the unit (1.00.27). On the off chance that there was an update that was mislabeled, I downloaded the firmware on the Belkin website and re-flashed the router. The version was identical and the results were identical.
So, it went back. If you never need to use Apple's Bonjour protocol, then maybe this will be the device for you (my 2010 Macbook Pro worked fine on the Internet). But if you're looking to use an Apple TV, don't bother. Not unless Belkin resolves this issue in a firmware update.
But there is a silver lining (for me at least). While I was waiting for the Apple TV to arrive, I flashed the firmware on the Linksys WRT54GS with DD-WRT that I have used successfully in the past on numerous other routers. I didn't need to. I planned on selling the router. But since we now needed it again, I reconnected it and programmed it. Lo and behold, that little old router, re-flashed with a free 3rd-party firmware, no longer has interference from the microwave at 2.4GHz ( at channel 11) and the connection quality is 4-5 out of 5 bars to both the laptop in the kitchen and the Apple TV in the living room. I never would have thought that the solution to all our problems was right in front of us all along. But it was. I would still like to upgrade them from WiFi-G to WiFi-N at some point. But with Apple TV only streaming 720P, WiFi-G can handle it with a reasonably strong signal.
So guess what? Out with the new and in with the old!! HUH?!?! Happy New Year!
On the positive side, let me say that there is a decent feature set for this router. Not only does it have the capability to handle network traffic on the 2.4GHz and 5 GHz bands simultaneously, it has the ability offer a guest SSID (on the 2.4GHz band only) for when you have friends/kids over and you want to keep them off of your internal network while still providing them with Internet connectivity. It also has a USB port that provides you with DLNA compatible media sharing. From a technical specifications side of things, this router is not bad. Another plus (IMO) is that there is only 1 light to show you status. If it's solid green, you're good to go. Some people may like all those bright blue lights all the time, but I am thoroughly sick of them. Most home offices look like a disco these days.
Then there's the real world. The first issue is the so-so range on the Belkin N600. This is a tough one to detail, since every comparison is unique. Range is determined by where you place your router, the distance between the router and the client, as well as the number of obstacles and their composition (sheetrock, wood, metal, etc.). So let me compare it like this. The Linksys WRT54GS consistently gave us 4 out of 5 bars on 2.4GHz from the office (router) to the kitchen/dining room (laptop client). The N600 gave us 3-4 bars (4 more often than 3) at 2.4GHz and 1-2 bars (1 more often than 2) at 5GHz. Plus the microwave interference was still there at 2.4GHz even after I switched from channel 6 to channel 11.
But the killer was the Apple TV. That was in the living room and connected on 5GHz with the Belkin N600 at 4 out of 5 bars. "Cool" I thought. But that was as good as it got. Why? Because for some reason, this Belkin router does not route Bonjour traffic. I have not yet seen a resolution to this problem. Ironically, when I did the initial research on this router, I checked for Amazon reviews and there were none. One day later, Michael Norton's review shows up on Amazon. If I had know what he said, I would never have purchased the device. There are discussion threads concerning this issue on Apple's website with no real resolution. People who say that it works don't realize that they are using the N600 HD which is a different device. Other's suggest updating the firmware. There is no updated firmware for the N600 as of the date of this review. The only firmware available is the firmware that ships with the unit (1.00.27). On the off chance that there was an update that was mislabeled, I downloaded the firmware on the Belkin website and re-flashed the router. The version was identical and the results were identical.
So, it went back. If you never need to use Apple's Bonjour protocol, then maybe this will be the device for you (my 2010 Macbook Pro worked fine on the Internet). But if you're looking to use an Apple TV, don't bother. Not unless Belkin resolves this issue in a firmware update.
But there is a silver lining (for me at least). While I was waiting for the Apple TV to arrive, I flashed the firmware on the Linksys WRT54GS with DD-WRT that I have used successfully in the past on numerous other routers. I didn't need to. I planned on selling the router. But since we now needed it again, I reconnected it and programmed it. Lo and behold, that little old router, re-flashed with a free 3rd-party firmware, no longer has interference from the microwave at 2.4GHz ( at channel 11) and the connection quality is 4-5 out of 5 bars to both the laptop in the kitchen and the Apple TV in the living room. I never would have thought that the solution to all our problems was right in front of us all along. But it was. I would still like to upgrade them from WiFi-G to WiFi-N at some point. But with Apple TV only streaming 720P, WiFi-G can handle it with a reasonably strong signal.
So guess what? Out with the new and in with the old!! HUH?!?! Happy New Year!
Much Better Options for the Same Price... . I've had a Belkin router for some time now and when the toddler decided to break it, I went back with what I knew... Belkin. What a mistake. While a lot has changed in networking over the years since I purchased my first Belkin, their products haven't. With the world getting ready for a conversion over to IPv6 in the upcoming months, you wouldn't know it by configuring this router... it's nowhere to be found... it's not supported. It also shows support for DDNS through DynDNS, but according to DynDNS' website this router failed certification. I've experienced dropped signals and outright freezes in service. I've also experienced weighted/spotty coverage despite its claim to "3D" coverage with its 4 internal antennas. After a week, I returned it and picked up a D-Link DIR-655 for a dollar more. Wow, what a difference. If you don't care about dual band, I wouldn't think twice about picking up one of the D-Links. The range is amazing and the service is second to none. Goodbye Belkin, goodbye...
Junk! A Nightmare! Don't buy this one. . Without a doubt this is one of the worst routers on the planet to set up, especially if you have any Macs on your network.
The pre-packaged Belkin setup application screwed my entire network and left me with a non-working DSL modem. It changed machine settings (seemingly at random), created non-valid IP addresses for each machine (I have 4 wired-network computers plus two wireless laptops), and then tried to change settings in my DSL modem.
Tech "Support" was barely coherent and not at all helpful. I don't know which country they outsource their "support" to, but they need to teach those people two things: 1. How to speak English. and 2. How to speak English.
So, I tried manual setup via http. Another nightmare! Even when it would assign valid IPs to more than one computer (the most I saw was three), the wired and wireless machines couldn't see one another. What a piece of junk! Took it back and got a Netgear instead and it setup and works like a dream.
Stay away from these Belkin routers. Somebody really screwed up when they put this on the market.
The pre-packaged Belkin setup application screwed my entire network and left me with a non-working DSL modem. It changed machine settings (seemingly at random), created non-valid IP addresses for each machine (I have 4 wired-network computers plus two wireless laptops), and then tried to change settings in my DSL modem.
Tech "Support" was barely coherent and not at all helpful. I don't know which country they outsource their "support" to, but they need to teach those people two things: 1. How to speak English. and 2. How to speak English.
So, I tried manual setup via http. Another nightmare! Even when it would assign valid IPs to more than one computer (the most I saw was three), the wired and wireless machines couldn't see one another. What a piece of junk! Took it back and got a Netgear instead and it setup and works like a dream.
Stay away from these Belkin routers. Somebody really screwed up when they put this on the market.
Feature Belkin Play N600 Wireless Dual Band N Router
- High performance for gaming and video streaming
- Simulataneous dual-band operating on 2.4 and 5 GHz bands
- Simple and Secure Guest Access
- Ships in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging
Product Details
EAN : 0722868813133UPC : 722868813133
MPN : F7D8302q
Brand : Belkin
Color : Black
Weight : 2 pounds
Height : 4 inches
Length : 12 inches
Width : 9 inches
Binding : Personal Computers
Manufacturer : Belkin Components
Model : F7D8302q
Publisher : Belkin Components
SKU : MCE88-DHF7D8302
Studio : Belkin Components
Where To Buy
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