Aug 2: Belkin Pre-N Router: Nice kit without the backup
I phoned the Belkin Europe Technical Support number today: 00 800 2 2355460 for anyone who googled here and had trouble finding it on their website.
I phoned because I bought one of these things from
Transparent Communications Ltd. (because I liked the name and they looked alright), and whilst it works most of the time, it does drop the wireless connection. And no so that you can just pop it back up, again. Oh no. You have to spend 20 mins messing with the settings, pulling out the power supply, renewing the IP from DHCP on the client machines, etc.
The Belkin man stopped me when I mentioned that I was using an ADSL modem. He had a heavy accent, but tried to convince me that whilst cable modems work with the Pre-N router, ADSL ones don't, and that I should effectively downgrade to one of their 54g boxes, promising me 125Mbps wireless (they made some proprietary mods to the standard), but standard g range.
I don't want to do that. I knew what I was doing when I got the Pre-N box: it's the best you can get range-wise, etc., because of the trueMIMO, and everything.
I reckon it's their firmware: the problems diminished slightly when I downgraded the firmware version the box was using. I'm going to wait until they bring an update out: I won't be fobbed off and told that I should downgrade to solve the problem!! It can only be software-based, surely?!
As you know, I don't put lots of technical information in these articles, but if you want me to flesh it out, just leave a comment and I'll explain exactly the issues involved.
I phoned because I bought one of these things from
Transparent Communications Ltd. (because I liked the name and they looked alright), and whilst it works most of the time, it does drop the wireless connection. And no so that you can just pop it back up, again. Oh no. You have to spend 20 mins messing with the settings, pulling out the power supply, renewing the IP from DHCP on the client machines, etc.
The Belkin man stopped me when I mentioned that I was using an ADSL modem. He had a heavy accent, but tried to convince me that whilst cable modems work with the Pre-N router, ADSL ones don't, and that I should effectively downgrade to one of their 54g boxes, promising me 125Mbps wireless (they made some proprietary mods to the standard), but standard g range.
I don't want to do that. I knew what I was doing when I got the Pre-N box: it's the best you can get range-wise, etc., because of the trueMIMO, and everything.
I reckon it's their firmware: the problems diminished slightly when I downgraded the firmware version the box was using. I'm going to wait until they bring an update out: I won't be fobbed off and told that I should downgrade to solve the problem!! It can only be software-based, surely?!
As you know, I don't put lots of technical information in these articles, but if you want me to flesh it out, just leave a comment and I'll explain exactly the issues involved.