Belkin's N1 Wireless Router: Nice and... Period

The vast majority of wireless routers are so brutally shaped than they deserve their place inside networking cabinets, closets or just camouflaged under the fake ceiling - anyway as far from the beholder's eye as possible.

Belkin's N1 Vision Wireless Router has been built with style and great taste in mind. It has all the features the most picky user could ask for: a slick user interface, a gigabit ethernet switch, as well as a browserless security setup. Add to that three cute antennae and the flashy 1.5 x 2.75 inch LCD status screen and you have got the whole picture.

The status panel shows essential linformation about connection status/SSID/number of devices connected, current and maximum upload/download speeds, current connection speeds for each computer, internet usage for each computer for the past 24 hours, and a date/time screen. This would be the point of interest in the router, since Belkin's N1 is the only one to feature it.

The N1 Wireless Router uses the latest draft 802.11n standard to allow interconnectivity with devices using the same standard at greater speeds and ranges than the older 802.11b and 802.11g versions. Although these routers are doing just fine, the N standard is a work in progress and N routers are pretty risky, since the standard specifications may change and render your router useless.

The router security can be set up via the LCD panel, that allows for setting up a guest wireless network to deny access to your resources, computers and network printers. All these can be achieved at the cost of no click. Obelkin's N1 router offers one-push-button setups for other devices to feature Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) as well, to spare the administrator the trouble of entering long and complicated passwords and network keys. This option allows anybody to connect to the router within two minutes by pushing a single button on the router's panel.

Nobody can deny that Belkin's approach to wireless interconnectivity is both elegant and facile. Still, Belkin's trendy router has a major shortcoming when it comes to the price. It is almost three times more expensive than a common router, and apart from the design sparks and glamor, it does not provide jaw-breaking performance.