Others say...

"Stable, easy to configure, good range but weak signal"
I've been using the Pre-N since April of 2006 and have never had any of the issues reported here of crashes or dropped signals. Really... NEVER. The signal is received well by my G4 Powerbook, as well as two other networked Powerbooks 75-100 feet away in another building. Both the building the router is in, and the building where the remote users are located, have standing-seam metal roofs... it's even tough picking up local FM radio in this place.

We use the Belkin USB Wireless G adapters (RaLink software drivers download here: http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Macintosh.html) There aren't yet any N adapters with Mac drivers that I've found. I get clean signals, if a bit weak. Still, it's strong enough for file-transfers and Internet use.

I've only called Belkin support once, for help configuring the security setup, which is actually easy but I'd never done it before. The help was there when I needed it... your mileage may vary, as in all things.

In any case, the Pre-N router is more highly-rated on C-Net and other sites than many much-newer devices, including Belkin's own N router.

"Skype Ruined By Firmware Bug"
I used this router for over a year, then when I found out that it was responsible for my inability to use Skype, dumped it for the Belkin N-1

Cons:

1. Chops up, garbles and waffles Skype IP telephone service. This is an bug in the firmware that is not acknowledged by Belkin. It does not go away with the suggested firmware upgrades and it cannot be configured away. The problem went away immediately when I used the same computer and setup with a different router (including the Belkin N-1 router) but it ruined my international calls for a year by making it impossible to conduct a conversation and that cost me plenty.

2. Technical support is slow, does not answer questions correctly. Seems like the typical sad story of high-priced, slick US-brand product with penny-a-day Third World outsourced script-reading tech support.

Pros:

1. Very powerful. Wireless will cover all floors of a small house.

2. For a router, relatively complete documentation and setup only moderately complex.

3. Largely decorative LED lights are not overly bright, unlike more recent models that light up entire room at night.

"dont waste your time"
I gave this thing 2 years to work, and it failed miserably. Firstly, if it gets hot, it crashes, and requires you to reboot it. This happened more or less every 3 to 4 days. Secondly, when I tryed to configure it in access mode only, it would crash, and become completely non-responsive requiring a hard reset of the router. Thirdly, it had this "handy" feature to automatically download and apply firmware updates - attempting to apply this feature also caused the router to crash, and required a hard reset of the router.

I think it is accurate to say that I have spent hundreds of hours over the course of the last two years attempting to make this piece of junk work. It doesnt!

In any case I threw this thing out yesterday, and I couldnt be happier. I replaced it with a Bountiful wifi router, and so far so good. Couldnt be happier.

Hope this helps!



"not happy"
item worked great for a week, then it didn't work. asked for a refund, they said i'd have to ship the item back first then they would send a new one. considering it took about a week and a half to get the item in the first place, i did not feel like going 3 weeks without internet. very unhappy. would not do business with again. but when it did work it was pretty fast

"Not worth a much"
I bought this item about a year ago to replace the old wireless G router I had (slow slow slow!). There weren't too many N routers out yet but I wanted something that wouldn't be totally obsolete and would provide a better signal. The Belkin's range is decent, but the quality is only okay.

Most importantly is the frequency of WIRELESS CRASHES. This think would drop out a couple times a week and I would need to power cycle it to get wireless back up, but the last few months saw an escalation. First it was every night, then twice a day, recently I couldn't use the damn thing for more than a half hour without it taking a dump.

This is an unreliable POS. As many have noted before me about crashes, they are a serious flaw. Skip this product.