Belkin N750 DB

[mogulman]

Yes.. I know... everyone hates Belkin...

After reading the review on here I had to try it.... I'm replacing a Trendnet TEW-633GR that intermittently would reboot on its own.

Initially I didn't think I could get around the fact that this device doesn't have static DHCP reservations. You can set up DHCP reservations in the router as "forever" though. So even though you can specify which IP it will use, once it gets one.. it will theoretically last forever.

The range and wan/lan throughput on this router seems to be really good for me. I'll have to see how it goes.

There was a reference in the review of the N750 that says you can't set up a port forward for a range of ports. This is incorrect... according to the help file on the router:

To manually enter settings, enter the IP address in the space provided for the internal (server) machine, the port(s) required to pass (use a hyphen between multiple ports), select the port type (TCP or UDP) and click "Apply Changes".

I tried the hyphen and it seems to be working.


Additionally, just found out that there seems to be a limit of about 3000 file on the Video Mover (DLNA) part of this router. Much more than this and the router stops scanning files. I called Belkin about this, but the tech support guy there told me it isn't a file limit. It is a limit of 100MB of data, which is totally wrong because I set up pictures/videos with 2500 files and about 7GB of data and it worked fine.

Anyway.. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this thing. I like the wireless/networking performance. The GUI and lack of options is kind of annoying, but it might be worth it to live with if I don't have any issues.

 

[mogulman]

Ok. I think I'm going to return this thing. The amount of limitations is really bugging me.

3000 file limit for sharing media
No static dhcp
No NAT loopback
Limited port forwarding settings
DDNS hard coded to dyndns with no options for other providers.

I wish someone had a 3rd party firmware. Or Belkin cared enough to create better firmware. I called Belkin support and got some guy who just kept saying No to me.

 

[TechnikalKP]

I know this is old, but I thought I'd post in case anyone else is looking at this router.

On setting DHCP = Forever, "Forever" means until the next reboot. If the router is powered down, the IPs get jumbled again. I've ended up using it only in Access Point mode, using the DHCP server on my cable modem/router as it allows for static IP assignment.

Access Point mode also works around another issue I've had with this router (though I do blame the cable modem somewhat, too). When set up as a normal router with the cable modem in bridge mode, any disruption to the power source usually results in the 'amber light of death' where the router simply refuses to renew the WAN IP. You can leave the thing off for 10 minutes and it still refuses to reconnect. There's no way to force a WAN IP renew in the UI. I don't know why it persists they way it does, but anytime we have a power outage because of a storm, or just need to unplug the router for whatever reason, I have to restore the router to factory settings and go through setup again to get back online. Very annoying.

The cable modem in question is a Moto SBG6580, which is very picky about bridge mode - so some of this is likely related to that. However, reading other reviews indicates I'm not the only person seeing the problem. That said, AP mode 'fixes' the issue as it removes the need to get WAN IP, at the expense of losing functionality of the router.