Review: Belkin N1 MIMO Modem/Router

Don Bradbury looks at how easy it can be to set up fast Internet connections

Product	N1 MIMO Modem/Router ------------- Belkin N1 adapters: Wireless ExpressCard, F5D8071uk, £60.16 Wireless Notebook Card, F5D8011uk, £52.00 Wireless USB Adapter, F5D8051uk, £59.20 All the above from Amazon
Company	Belkin Corp
Web	www.belkin.com
Price	£99.68 from www.amazon.com
We like	Excellent setup wizard; fast connections; good range, stability and security
We don't like	No Gigabit ports
Rating	9/10
Requirements

While the rest of the computing world plods it's merry development way forward, wireless networking, not to be outdone, provides ever faster, more stable, wider-range, safer, and easier to set up standards of it's own.

Belkin's N1 wireless modem router is physically a rather swish device with its polished black finish. Employing three foldable aerials to accommodate the MIMO (multiple in/multiple out) range and stability providing technology, and a neat blue backlit display that shows the current state of the connections well, plus a CD-based wizard that makes setting up the connection very easy, there'll be little to complain about even by novice networkers.

It's not physically possible to make the connections wrongly, of course, but the inexperienced might value the quick installation guide which tells you which lead in the pack each port is intended to receive and, importantly, the order in which they should be connected. To start the install Wizard, a prompt requires that you load the provided CD which takes you step by step through the setup procedure.

This doesn't even require that you enter the router's setup page via the usual web interface (you can, but you don't have to); it's all done via the Wizard, including entering the ISP's provided user name and password.

The Wizard knows what the settings should normally be, but should any not be appropriate for the particular ISP you use, then the necessary changes can be made by simply typing them into the Wizard. For example, the ISP is use for this review was TalkTalk, and that, we had previously been advised, requires that you switch off automatic DNS assignment and enter specific addresses. Certainly, the first attempt at connection for us failed, but with the DNS addresses attended to we were connected immediately. In all, then, a matter of just a few minutes for installation.

Status Display

A separate Network Status Display user guide described the functions of the individual lights on the front of the router. Six in all, these cover, from the right, Internet connection, ADSL functionality, modem/router functionality, wireless capability enabled, at least one wired connection lights up the fifth light, and finally we have a lock icon, showing that the communication is encrypted and secure.

If any of these lights blink after startup has settled down - on our test machine a matter of 80 seconds - or if they are displayed in orange, then a malfunction is indicated. The user guide runs through the possibilities and what you can do to correct the situation.

Sharing it out

For those without a built-in wireless-ready function on their PC, a range of devices is available at reasonable cost to add this capability to any reasonably modern computer. Similarly, if your computer doesn't have a sufficiently fast wireless function to match standards as quick as N1 already, you can disengage your slower technology and add the faster devices. Belkin and other suppliers provide ExpressCard, CardBus, and USB adapters that can satisfy this requirement. We list such examples in the header to this feature.

The ExpressCard has a nominally faster connection capability that CardBus due it's particular design technology, but in practise we'd be surprised if you would notice the difference between it and the CardBus adapter. Similarly, the USB adapter operates via USB 2.0 and so this, too, should prove adequately quick.

A houseful of Internet Pcs

Easily installed, these additions to any other computers you need to connect to the N1's router can soon have you running computers in every room in the house. A principal advantage of the N1 technology is wireless range, the extent of advantage over previous wireless standards being illustrated in the diagrammatic below.

The MIMO technology extends the advantage with its particular aerial array. Multiple Input, Multiple Output is the technology that runs this show, it tries to counteract interference from objects such as walls and steel frames by constantly changing the way it employs its aerials, selecting the optimum from dozens of possible configurations automatically. When you move the computer around, the router detects the signal changes and adjusts itself to give the optimum signal strength.

Does MIMO work? Well, it certainly helps, though reception still does depend on the obstacles in the signal's "flight path". Certainly we found that we could move a wirelessly fed computer around a typical building with some impunity, though optimising the router's setup in terms of location, particularly height, can still pay dividends. Experiment a little.

In conclusion

The Belkin N1 wireless ADSL2 modem/router is both easy to set up and fast, featuring up to a theoretical 270Mbps in 40MHz Channel Mode. It's informative, too, with a comprehensive backlit display, and capacious, letting you add up to 32 WLAN or 253 LAN computers to your wireless network. Based on the 802.11n draft specification, for optimum network performance you'll need suitably fast receivers, but these are easily catered for with the add-on devices we mention if they are not part of your present setup.

Disappointingly, the four Ethernet ports are merely "Fast" as opposed to Gigabit (though that won't affect Internet work in the least), but Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) and Network Address Translation (NAT) double the integral Firewall protection, and with WPA, WPA2, 64-bit and 128-bit WEP encryption, security is well assured.

Recommended then, and something of a bargain.

Stumble It!

Don Bradbury