Belkin wireless cable/dsl broadband router

11Mbps wireless cable/dsl router

from Belkin

Score: 3 out of 3

Review Type: Hands On

Reviewer: Chris Kaminski 

Date: Jan 16, 2002

Firmware: 1.0

Link: Belkin

Belkin brings us a well rounded cable/dsl router called the F5D6230-3 with 802.11b, good application support and a fantastic street price (check for yourself!). Although only on version 1.0 of their firmware, Belkin seems to have gotten it right with solid network application support, a good firewall and flexible 802.11b encryption keys. A lifetime warranty and 24 hr free technical support round out this package to make it a hit.

The F5D6230-3 router is Belkin’s second cable/dsl router. It does not feature the bold progressive styling of its wired brother, instead opting for a more conservative classic look. It is however much smaller than its wired counterpart.

Basic Specs:

   NAT based cable/dsl router

   3 RJ-45 10/100 Ethernet ports

   802.11b 11Mbps wireless Ethernet

   VPN Passthrough

   SPI firewall

Click here for a full product spec sheet

Administration is done through a web based interface. The user interface is clear and uncluttered and type of setup wizard guides you through the initial configuration of the router. Remote administration can be enabled and even restricted to a single remote IP address.

Belkin made wireless encryption a snap to set up by allowing HEX or ASCII (passcode) based security. Since some vendors force the use of hex based codes and others only use passcodes, encryption setup between different manufacturers devices becomes easy. The addition of MAC address restrictions can further enhance wireless security.

Two omni-directional antenna’s mounted on the back of the router allow for better reception than the single ‘PCCard’ wireless routers but neither antenna is removable (read, harder to hack in better antennas)

It’s pretty rare to see a router do NetMeeting passthrough and VPN IPSEC passthrough in a version 1.0 product right out of the box but I tested this router with both applications and they worked with NO additional setup. What does that mean? Many routers require you to place the ‘calling’ computer for these applications in the DMZ(un-secured area). That is because the applications talk TCP/IP in a fairly complex way. To get a NAT router to function with these apps properly, like this router, the router must be programmed to recognize these applications and handle them specially. Of course, the router also supports Port Forwarding for running virtual servers and also has a ‘triggered applications’ area to setting up advanced or tricky internet applications.

  Outgoing Lan Security

  MAC Address Security

  Wireless Security

SNMP trap or syslog network security logging

Backup/restore router configuration

Better outgoing security: Group computers by mac address instead of IP, then set outgoing filters by group.

Belkin wireless cable/dsl broadband router