Computer Times
March 2006

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Belkin's Pre-N Wireless Networking
Reviewed by: Terrance Kibiloski

Belkin's Pre-N Wireless Networking is the first wireless network solution to earn the coveted Computer Times Editor's Choice award. We reviewed the Wireless Pre-N Router, Wireless Pre-N Desktop Network Card, and the Wireless Pre-N Notebook Network Card as a packaged solution and were very impressed with the quality, performance, and reliability. In addition to testing the system in an office and home environment, we took the Wireless Pre-N Notebook Network Card on an extended road trip, staying at hotels in six states.

One of our editors was using a newer laptop with a built-in wireless antenna. We attached Belkin's notebook network card to a 5-year old laptop that had a very weak built-in antenna. At every location, the Belkin network card connected with wireless networks far beyond the connection range of our newer laptop. When in a complex of motels, our newer laptop would pick up our motel's wireless network but usually not even see the others. The Belkin card not only found the wireless network at our hotel, with a stronger signal, but also found the wireless networks at the other motels and was able to connect with a good signal. At one hotel that did not offer wireless access we were able to pick up wireless networks at office buildings in the next block. Now, that is impressive.

The Belkin's Pre-N Wireless Networking products we reviewed passed every test and exceeded all expectations. After using them in a home and office environment, plus on the road at various motels and hotels, we can give the Belkin Pre-N Wireless Networking our highest marks for reliability, speed and distance. Even if you already have a wireless network, if it uses 802.11g technology you might want to think about upgrading to Belkin's new Pre-N products that are advertised to deliver up to 800% the wireless coverage and 600% the wireless speed of 802.11g networking devices, with exceptional data transfer results. While our tests could not confirm these exact percentages, they did show that the Pre-N products provided a dramatic increase in coverage and speed which seemed to support these advertised improvements. Now, lets look at the individual Belkin products we reviewed in more detail.

The Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router (Retail $159.99) allows your connected computers to share files, printers, and other resources with exceptional throughput and no wireless drops. Featuring a revolutionary smart antenna technology, Belkin Pre-N provides a great solution for larger homes or offices that have a wide area to cover and want to run multimedia and high-bandwidth applications. The smart antenna technology boosts wireless network speed and range far beyond that of today's standard 802.11b/g and 802.11a wireless networking technologies.

With the Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router as the central network connection point, your connected computers are able to share a broadband Internet connection and networked peripherals such as hard drives, printers, CD-ROMs, and DVD players. An integrated, 4-port 10/100Base-T Ethernet switch also allows you to connect wired computers to the network.

Pre-N offers backward compatibility with existing 802.11g and 802.11b, to provide seamless integration into existing wireless networks. Its advanced technology enables Belkin Pre-N products to significantly improve the performance of standard 802.11g and 802.11b devices in the mixed network environment.

To maximize your network's security the Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router offers advanced Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) support that provides enhanced encryption to protect your wireless network. Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) and Network Address Translation (NAT) doubles your firewall and safeguards your network from Internet intruders. VPN tunnel pass-through provides secure Internet connections to your office. Built-in Parental Control/Web Content Filter provides over 50 fully configurable filters that allow you to block websites and images.

Belkin's Wireless Pre-N Desktop Network Card (Retail $129.99) will let you connect your new or older desktop computer to your wireless network to surf the web, share files, and access network resources. The installation is simple. All you do is pop the card into an available slot inside your computer, then slide in the network card and wait for the automatic installation to go through the various steps. Within minutes you will be connected and ready to go.

The Belkin Wireless Pre-N Desktop Network Card connects your desktop computer to your wireless network with the new Belkin Pre-N technology that helps combat distortion and interference so the Network Card can send its data streams greater distances, more reliably. With a Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router as the central connection point of your network, your computers can share your high-speed Internet account as well as files, printers, and hard drives.

Belkin's Wireless Pre-N Notebook Network Card (Retail $74.99) is ideal to hook up your older non-wireless notebook computers to your wireless network, as well as to give your newer wireless notebooks a greater range and better reliability to share files and access network resources on the road at wireless hotspots in airports, coffee shops, and hotels. It also uses the newer smart antenna technology.

• 800% greater coverage than standard 802.11g

• 600% greater speeds than standard 802.11g

• Improved performance of standard 802.11g and 802.11b networking devices - Using a Belkin Pre-N Router or Card with an older 802.11g or 802.11b networking product increases wireless coverage up to 20%.

• Improved resistance to wireless interference - Belkin Pre-N products sense potential interference and dynamically shift to the clearest wireless channel available.

• Belkin Pre-N products do not drop to the lowest networking speed in a mixed-mode environment - if a standard 802.11g or 802.11b device is introduced into a Belkin Pre-N network.

• The Belkin Pre-N product will not drop to the standard 802.11g or 802.11b speeds - Belkin Pre-N products will continue to transmit at a link rate of 108Mbps, a result competing products cannot achieve.

• Advanced Security - Wi-Fi® Protected Access (WPA) support provides enhanced encryption protecting your wireless network.

• Pop-up Blocker - 6 months of free pop-up, adware, and spyware stopper

• Web Content/Parental Control Filter - Web Content/Parental Control Filter 6 months of free built-in parental Control/Web Content Filter provides over 50 fully configurable filters that allow you to block websites and images.

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