New Belkin Router design

[sm00thpapa]

Anyone else see the new Belkin router design? I saw them at Walmart today. Kind of shaped like the Linksys routers. I'm wondering if they are any good.

 

[stevech]

Didn't I read that Belkin bought Linksys from Cisco a few months back?

 

[thiggins]

Anyone else see the new Belkin router design? I saw them at Walmart today. Kind of shaped like the Linksys routers. I'm wondering if they are any good.

Belkin - Linksys Deal Is Done

What model number? The Belkin site shows just the old designs that have been out awhile now.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Belkin - Linksys Deal Is Done

What model number? The Belkin site shows just the old designs that have been out awhile now.

I have to go to Walmart again. I went to the site also and the old design is still up. I will get the model number and take a pic of the front of the box. The N300 had 1 left as they were selling like hot cakes at $39.99.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Went back to Walmart and the router model # is F9K1002 Version 5000 which is the new design. V1-V4 are the old design which is on the Belkin website.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Belkin finally shows the new router design. Looks better then last gen of theirs.

http://www.belkin.com/us/F9K1001-Belkin/p/P-F9K1001?q=::categoryPath:/Web/WSNT/WSNTWLS/WSNTWLSRTR

 

[jlake]

I avoid companies like belkin. Maybe they all do it, but I won't buy Belkin or Linksys. I'm going with the "birds of a feather, flock together" now that belkin owns linksys.

http://m.cnet.com/news/fake-reviews-prompt-belkin-apology/10145399?ds=1

 

[stevech]

Add D-link.

With tiny profit margins in commodity WiFi, they take marketing liberties and cut corners on quality assurance and firmware testing.

So I buy SOHO/SMB and M2M WiFi gear, not consumer stuff.

 

[remixedcat]

Sis had a blekin and it barely lasted a day. It was an N150 one that was purchased at wal mart for 35 dollars back several years ago. It couldn't even keep proper system time and it would drop all connectivity all the time. Had to hardware reset just to get to config menus when that happened.

While my Amped R20000G barely needs messed with at all. Haven't had to reboot it since the last firmware upgrade! I've had it since January. Thier stuff is worth the higher price tag!!

 

[sm00thpapa]

I'm an Asus fan. My friend bought a Belkin N300 from Walmart used it for 24 hours and returned it. He said it was garbage. Now that Belkin bought Linksys since January it seems Linksys routers are going down hill. I still have 2 Linksys WRT54GL's in my network and love them. Best G routers on the market. Belkin needed to re-design their routers as their past router design has been the laughing stock of routers.

 

[stevech]

Historically, but not always, Belkin used Broadcom's reference designs and they were good. Long ago I was surprised - since I thought of Belkin as a retail blister-pack marketing blitz like MonsterCable. I've seen a number of Belkin WiFi routers do well.

All these consumer routers vary widely from model to model as they do spot-buys in Asia, then rebrand. This is why I prefer WiFi products from companies that control or do their own designs, Q/A, and control manufacturing. These tend to rarely be on retail shelves. From companies like Cradlepoint, ZyXel, perhaps ASUS, Engenious (because a chip house owns them), and son on. And this is certainly true for the enterprise WiFi $$$ from Aruba and Cisco Aironet. The largest difference is in consistent firmware from model-to-model, which does not happen in consumer low-margin products.