Belkin Wireless Usb

Belkin N750 Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router

Belkin's N750 Wireless Dual Band N+ Router ($129.99) has some improvements over the last Belkin router I reviewed, the Wireless Play Max Router . The N750 has much better throughput than the Play Max and is still well-stocked with features, plus it has a cool, unusual new look. On the other hand I don't like the fact that Belkin still insists on not equipping LAN ports with LEDs, making troubleshooting connectivity issues trickier. I also ran into some software issues while testing.

These problems unfortunately detract from the great strides in engineering made represented in the N750.

Design and Specs
Belkin has re-vamped its router design since the Play Max. The N750 is the oddest-looking router I've ever seen; one of my fellow analysts observed it resembled a shark's fin. The router stands upright, and the sides slightly bulge. The design does limit positioning of the router, which must stand upright–it can't be placed horizontally.

The chassis' look is not just a design whim. The shape supports multibeam antennas that maximize the MIMO sphere and coverage. The router's convex shape creates an apple-shaped pattern, as opposed to the traditional donut pattern emitted by most MIMO antennas.

According to Belkin, this design specifically orients and polarizes the multibeam antennas to provide coverage in all directions.

The N750 has a 3x3 antenna configuration, and it transmits on all three streams simultaneously. The router also has a hardware spec unfamiliar to me—hardware-based NAT.

airport card emac Belkin F5D6050 Wireless USB Network ...

After having had both the Belkin Router and the Linksys Router in the house (had to switch due to DSL provider) and having had both Belkin and Linksys PCMCIA and USB adapters I can summarize very quickly:

Maximum distance from the transmitter in our setup is about 90 feet, across two floors.

The PCMCIA adapters are really flaky at this distance. Rather than the 11Mbs, we often see it drop down to 5.5, 2, even 1. They are sensitive to angle and obstacles. The USB adapters can be placed up to 5 feet away such that they have a good “path” to the transmitter.

This Belkin USB outperformed all other three units as it always gave the strongest signal. Noticeable better performance doing anything on the network or over the DSL modem.

But – here’s the caveat: DO NOT USE THE INCLUDED CD.

Using the included CD we had POOR performance, and didn’t understand why we couldn’t even achieve 100% signal strength in the same room as the transmitter!

Upgrading over the web fixed the problem, and we have had a very reliable connection since.

Home networks

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