Belkin N600 DB Wireless Dual Band N+ Router Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is definitely a lot of router for the price.
The feature list for this router reads like a dream.
# Dual band networks (2.4GHz and 5GHz)? Check!
# Guest network for visiting friends? Check!
# Support for standard features like port forwarding, MAC-based security, MAC address cloning, wireless security, etc.? Check!
# Support for advanced features such as Dynamic DNS services (dyndns.org), or Quality of Service (QoS) manipulation? Check!
# Ability to exercise parental control by tailoring access schedules and allowed URLs, giving me super-Dad powers? Check!
# Support an external USB drive? Check! Serve as an DLNA-compliant server? Double check!
# Ability to turn off all its router functionality and function as a barebones Wireless Access Point? Check!
# Unique aesthetics with lots of power saving options? Check! (unless you prefer your router lit up like a Christmas tree).
# A generous 2-year warranty? Check!
So what bothered me?
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[1] The implementation of administrator security leaves a lot to be desired.
[a] The device does not come with a default administrator password. This isn't odd by itself. What is remarkable however is that even after I set an admin password, I was able to access the router's admin console without having to supply the password! I tried this on two different computers to ensure that I wasn't seeing things! This is a big one for me, and affected my rating for this device.
[b] Every once in a while I'd get the most annoying error message - "Duplicate Administrator. This device is managed by 192.168.2.3 currently!!". Annoyingly, I was accessing the router from the laptop with the IP address 192.168.2.3! The only fix was to hard restart the router.
[2] The setup for the router is a bit stranger than most.
[a] The accompanying software installs a router administrator. While this might make it easier for beginners, it makes it a lot harder for those who know what they are doing. For instance, the wireless settings (SSID and WPA/WPA2 passphrase) are pre-configured for both the standard and guest networks. However, when I used the software to change these, the software got confused and I ended up having to go through the browser based interface which is more intuitive.
[b] Any change to the router settings takes 40 seconds to apply. This is borderline ridiculous and is perilously close to Windows reboot times!
[c] The default IP address for this router is 192.168.2.1. This is not clearly mentioned anywhere (except, I did find it in the PDF manual later).Conclusion
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In conclusion, this seems to be a good value-for-money bundle. The router is built well, and is fairly stable, requiring no reboots over almost 3 weeks of testing. In addition, I have been successfully streaming MPEG2 video from my WDTV Live Hub and from Netflix to my PS3. Furthermore, I was able to connect with very decent range on both the 2.4 and 5 GHz network bands.
Even better is that you don't need to install the software to use an external USB drive or to have the router act as a DLNA server. You do need the software however to schedule backups to the attached device.
So why only 3 stars?
Try as I might, I couldn't see past the security issue described above. A router that does not honor an admin password is a risky device. Hence my rating.
If anyone can explain how this might have been user error (always possible), I'd gladly revise my rating upwards.
Do note that I'd still recommend the Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR3700 to friends and family. The WNDR3700 does everything that the N600 does, and does it better. To be fair, when it was released that router cost almost three times as much as this one does.
Happy Networking!
~Damodar

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The Belkin N600 DB Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router gives you advanced performance for video streaming and gaming. Featuring exclusive MultiBeam technology and dual-band speeds of up to 300Mbps + 300Mbps*, the Belkin N600 DB gives you maximum throughput and multi-device coverage throughout your home. This router also includes a USB port for wireless printing or media-sharing and a suite of integrated applications for wirelessly playing videos from your library on your TV, backing up files, and automatically detecting and resolving potential network problems to keep your connection hassle-free.*The standard transmission rates—300Mbps (for 2.4GHz), 300Mbps (for 5GHz), 54Mbps, and 11Mbps—are the physical data rates. Actual data throughput will be lower and may depend on the mix of wireless products used.

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