Sunday, November 17, 2013

Belkin Wireless Play Router DSL (Cable Line)


Both brilliant and Temperamental
Sorry this is lengthy. I've had a bit of a mixed experience with this unit.

Firstly it was simple to set up and run in Win7. I had expected a nightmare, but it really was as simple as they say. The signal was rock solid and available anywhere in the house.

However, I had a scare when, after a few hours use, I decided (as recommended) to change the password. I went into the router set-up - a kind of intranet page - and simply changed the password. After this, neither my new or old password could get me connected to it! A phone number popped up for help. I rang Belkin and a very knowledgeable man took me through the 'repair' method. Luckily, I had a desktop PC hardwired to it and I was able to connect via that but, alas, all this tweaking was to no avail. I'm no way a technophobe but, had this worked, I would hardly have been able to reproduce this series of complicated settings. After 50 minutes of no joy on the phone, it was suggested I did a system reset from...
Disappointing and flaky
I bought this router, together with the Belkin play adapter, a couple of months ago. I was keen to improve the speed and reliability my old wireless G network (also Belkin) and also enticed by the ability to share printer on the network. However, I have spent all the time since then talking to Belkin network support and although I can get basic connectivity working easily, it has not lived up to my expectations.

Initially setting up the router was simple, though there was a minor problem that the ethernet cable supplied to connect to the cable modem was very short (about 1.2m). The router comes with security pre-configured (a little card tells you the network name and WPA2 password).

I then installed my new Belkin play adapter on my second machine and set it up. It connected easily, but I noticed that the connection speed was only 11 Mbs (a bit disappointing as the theoretical max is 300, also this was slower than I was getting with my old wireless G...
Easy install, useful equipment
Having got tired of using a dongle for internet access on my net book and having got a games console that promised me Wi Fi access, it seemed sensible to get some form of wi fi capability.
The Belkin play is a wireless router and much more; it promises to stream games, music and video throughout the house. It has a daily DJ function to suggest a daily dose of music and promises a secure level of protection, with personal password and guest access ability. I am not the most technical person, so in layman's terms, here are my thoughts.
The router comes in a basic box. It has the router, a black power cable and a grey ethernet cable to connect to the modem. One cable is labelled 1 with a clear diagram to show where to put it and the next cable is labelled 2. A diagram on the packaging on top of the router has a label 3, telling you to put the enclosed DVD into your 'puter. Follow these 3 steps and you are nearly there. Installation Wizard takes over and apart from clicking and...

Click to Editorial Reviews

No comments:

Post a Comment