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Belkin N1 Vision Review

With its vision Belkin N1 router takes the ease of use of its N1 router features a huge step forward. The router on the LCD screen offers loads of information without the need to dig into the configuration page. In addition, the router is unique in that it offers two SSIDs: one for you and a second for your guests. Although the N1 Vision can not be beat for ease of use, it was solidly trounced in our speed tests by 11n routers from other manufacturers. If your priority is to have the fastest router available, take a look at the D-Link DIR-655. Also, at $ 200, this is one of the most expensive consumer routers available, but if you like the ergonomics easy, this could be the router for you.

Design
The Belkin N1 Vision uses a new concept, we have not seen before. Instead of lying flat, he finds himself standing on a small stand. Three antennas that can bend and rotate protrusion of the N1 Vision’s back edge. The back of the router offers up to a Gigabit WAN port, four Gigabit Ethernet ports, a power jack, and a reset button. All ports and jacks are clearly labeled.

The truly compelling part of this router design, however, is the graphical display built into the front panel. Using the four-lane rocker and buttons that sit on the side of the screen, you can browse among the various screens that display all kinds of information. The main screen displays a graphical representation of your home network, which includes a ground symbol of the Internet, with icons for a modem, a wireless PC, a laptop wirelessly, and a padlock to represent security wirelessly. The only PC wired icon representing your wired connections, wireless and laptop icon represents all your wireless connections. Several screens to show you what’s happening on your network: what is connected and how fast; general download and send speed, and usage during the last 24 hours.

There is also a guest access screen that displays the SSID and password guest (below). Finally, you can adjust the LCD to display the current date and time. The menu provides information on the configuration of wireless security, useful troubleshooting tips, and power save option that turns the LCD screen after two minutes off without activity (via buttons). This design is impressive and much more useful than the usual array of flashing lights that adorns the facade of most routers.

Characteristics
The Belkin N1 Vision is easy to install, requiring no CDs - if it is included for those who prefer a CD-based configuration. Simply connect the router to your modem, then connect your computer to the router via an Ethernet cable. When you open a Web browser, the configuration screen is supposed to pop up. If it does not (as in this case), you simply type “routersetup” in the address line of your browser and the configuration of departure. Router does most of the work himself, only information we had was to provide the user name and password associated with our DSL account.

Once connected to the router, you can enter the manual configuration utility. Each component of the utility is followed by a link more, which will bring up a detailed explanation of each feature in layman’s terms: the reason why you want to use this function, and how to set it if you decide to l use it. We really like the friendliness of the function more because it’s useful for people who are new to networking.

The configuration options are for the most typical of a wireless router. Includes options for wireless security WEP and WPA/WPA2 (PSK). You can filter by IP address customers, limiting access to the Internet, e-mail or network services, the date and time. If you are concerned about unauthorized access to your network, you can enable the MAC address filtering. The router also supports DMZ for games and other applications whose performance is degraded by a firewall. The router also supports Wi-Fi Protected Setup, a Wi-Fi Alliance standard for the simple configuration of home networks. All products support WPS, however, it will not be useful to everyone.

The last feature we really had the capacity to establish a protected access guest. The router creates a separate SSID so guests can establish an Internet connection but have no access to other locations on the network, such as computers or network storage disks. This feature also generates a guest password (you can create one yourself or ask the configuration page to generate one for you), which is displayed on the LCD screen of router for easy reference.

Performance
CNET Labs tested the Belkin N1 Vision Router with N1 Wireless Adapter. The N1 Vision is not only an N-mode, so we tested in its default mixed mode. At 10 feet, with only the client connected 11n (not B or G customers, for example), the Belkin clocked 64.10Mbps flow among the slowest of the Draft N routers we tested. At 200 feet, with only the N connected client, it will display a speed of 23.29Mbps, always on the slow side. Finally, when we introduced a 11g client to the network, the customer’s N1 Vision has dropped significantly to 12.26Mbps (10 feet). If speed is your priority, this is not the router for you.