Belkin Pre N Routers

Question

Am in the process of setting up my wireless systema and was wondering if anyone had any experience with the Belkin Wireless Pre N Router or is companion wireless cards. When doing my research these seemed to be 'top drawer' with excellent ratings and writeups.   It was released last March and frankly, I had to make 13 telephone calls to find one in stock. Heck, even Belkin had their own cards on backorder! HA!   Thanks for the info everyone!   Butkus051   BEAR DOWN CHICAGO BEARS!

BCScott MacD · Answer

I use a Belkin pre-n router for my small resort. It works very well for me, giving twice the range of the dlink it replaced. Unfortunately, it didn't work with my dell draft-n 1500 mini card in my new inspiron 6400. I tried 2 cards, then switched to an intel card. I have a belkin pre-n card also for our guests, but since it's PCMCIA, it's not compatable with my 6400, so I haven't had a chance to test it's range yet. I bought both the router and the card from Radio Shack (The Source by Circuit City now in Canada) I've had the router for 7 months, but just got the card last week ($40 on clearance). Message Edited by BCScott MacD on 10-21-2006 01:21 PM

714 · Answer

I am in the process of working with a Dell support person who says the dell draft-n 1500 mini card will work with the Belkin pre N router. He is calling back this afternoon to help me get the settings correct. First I had to backup my system and get a firmware upgrade to the Belkin router. I'll let you know if he gets it working.

GadgetGirl1 · Answer

Please look at this message previously posted. You might want to look at the entire thread.

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si_wireless&message.id=27383

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si_wireless&message.id=27390

The Pre-N and Draft-N are two different formats of the same standard. The Draft-N is Broadcom based. This is the one Dell is selling. The Belkin is a Pre-N and will work with Pre-N devices. Both are backwards compatible. The 802.11n standard has not been ratified so these devices will not be as versital as those that have been ratified such as a/b/g standards. The n standard is the way of the future, but until it is ratified by the industry you will have variations.

Here is more info on the n standard that I found helpful. It's a bit much for some, but it is well written and it discusses the different typs and some tests that were run.

http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2006/06/01/draft_11n_revealed_part1/

Hope this helps.

Chief Okemos · Answer

Got a new E1505 with the Draft-N card. Of course it did not work.
Dell support downloaded the new recently-released driver update
for the draft-n 1500 minicard. He also changed a few settings
in the card's configuration.

With the new driver I can now connect to my Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4
router at both 11 and 54 Mbps rates (which is all I expected/hoped for).

With the new 1500 minicard driver, the Dell 1500 draft-n card is now compatible with the Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4 router albeit not in N-mode.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Belkin Pre N Routers

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