Belkin is finally adding some action to the wireless router game with its newest entry, the N1 Vision. Instead of the uninformative and confusing blinking lights which adorn
most routers, the N1 has a full monochrome LCD display which tracks your upstream / downstream speeds, logs your bandwidth, displays date, time and network access key info, and also shows you what devices are connected and how much bandwidth each one is eating up. Clearly an ideal solution for those of you requiring cold, hard facts with which to confront roommates about their rampant "film" downloading. In addition to all the displayed data, the N1 sports 802.11n, gigabit ports, a link rate of 300Mbps, a range of up 1,600 ft., and a hefty $199.99 price tag. Check some more pics after the break.
posted Jul 11th 2007 8:45PM
This is very interesting and stylish looking. But, at the typical overpriced Belkin prices.
Now, at $199 for it, I think that I can log onto my router from any of my pc's and get the same info.
Besides, I think most of the people have their routers sitting at the very top of their desks, or some high shelf. I haven't seen many people having their routers sitting right in front of their monitors.
I've seen some. But, if we're using the wireless feature of the router, we tend to put it on the highest available place we can find.
I'd still consider buying it, but only if it comes down to around $100.
I've got a secret. Order it at Belkin.com, and at checkout enter coupon code 12345. Instantly get 40-50% off. Seriously! Go check it out!
On another note I'm in desperate need for a new router. I just sent back another one from Amazon.com since it didn't work, and was going to go to Apple's Airport Extreme. I think I might wait for this, depending on how soon it comes out. Any word?
To Steve:
You, sir, are the best. Thank you.
$199.99 might be steep for some but I'[ve seen LESSER products sold for even more so I'm not to dissuaded by the tag.
I like it alot.
This would be great for those PARANOID Wifi users who think they are being Wijacked just because their 2-year old, junk mail ridden, virus laden pc's are slowing down a tad when they open YAHOO.com.
I've got an uncle like that - boy is he annoying.
I would actualy get one of these.
Hell I paid $100 for the Xbox360 Wireless LAN adapter.
Holy crap that code works! We need some KVMs here at work and that gets us the best price by far!
Steve...there is a really good router available now, the D-Link DIR-655. I would check it out. It's got tons of features and is one of the top 3 consumer routers in the amount of data it can push through. I'd say it's on par with or better than the Airport Extreme, unless you wanted the Print Server/NAS capabilities of the Airport. Although if you are using Macs, I would stick with the Airport. I haven't tried this myself, but apparently D-Links can cause some headaches. Not sure why, they use the same network protocols as PCs and the interface is web-based.../shrug.
Thanks for the suggestion! That looks pretty good actually. The router will be in a mixed environment of Macs, PCs, Ubuntu box, XBOX 360, PS3, Wii, TiVos, Slingbox, and an ethernet HP Officejet 7310. It's a decent sized house too, so I need one that goes far enough to not have dead spots.
I never thought a router would be released that would improve a person's chance of getting laid
I like the idea and how it looks, but I've had so many bad experiences with Belkin Routers that I'd really like to read some hands on reviews before I consider upgrading.
Still the thing LOOKS awesome.
I hope that DD-WRT finds and writes a version that is compatible with this.
bugger dd-wrt
lets have tomato and openwrt
I have to agree about the looks - I really like it. Very attractive.
If the performance rates high, then I'm all over it.
I just got a belkin router and set it up and it was working fine until i set up the wireless security. On my desktop it works fine but when my sister tried to connect with her wireless VISTA desktop it only allows her "limited" connection which was like no connection at all. Even with the password it still wouldn't let her go online. Does anyone know what could be the problem? Any help would be great!
Limited most often means you did not get an IP when connected.
1. You forgot to enable DHCP for wireless devices
2. You might just need to tell VISTA to try and repair the connection.
Aha. I get it- "film" means "porn"!
I love the idea.
If the price was around $30+ cheaper then $199 and got good speeds I would pick one up.
That thing is sexy to say the least. I agree though the price should come to 100$. Would be perfect at that price though I think the high price is due to it being an N router. Almost all N routers cost a lot more than their G couterparts.
Does this mean the end of Das Blinkenlights?
Wow! That display sure looks informative. And it really has a nice standup design. You could put that in your living room and it would look good. Too bad my router is in the basement and I never see it anyway. Airport Extreme Base Station N. Set it and forget it.
Just wondering. Is it draft-N, or N?
It is draft-N....We need the wireless board to approve a final standard which will be in 2009
N Draft 2.0.
it really Should have at least a couple USB ports for hooking up hard drive and/or printers to network. i mean, it does cost $200 and all.
EngadgetFanBoi so true but then it would be more cables and then it would be placed somewhere were the screen would become pointless
But will it run linux?
Oh man, you can believe that if my WRT54G (ddwrt) takes a dump on me I'm going to jump on this or various revisions of it. It's dead sexy, surprisingly not made by Apple either ... yay
If you notice at the Belkin checkout after you enter the code "12345" and the price goes down, there is a little message that says "Prices are not guaranteed until the order is Shipped." That might mean a no go for that code... Sorry to rain on your parade.
I've ordered using the code many times, and so have a lot of others. Google it.
I'm going to use it then!
I work at a summer camp, and we are working on extending our wireless range. We had a WRT54GS and a high-powered WDS repeater. On monday, we bought a N1 to replace the WRT, because it was unstable and kept crashing.
The N1 did not support (lazy)WDS, and it had less range than the WRT did! (Before and after I changed the power with ddwrt) The configuration was extremely basic. The last belkin product I bought, a wireless G unit, was extremely powerful with tons of options (WDS, AP/Bridge/Mac->IP DHCP filters etc).
How does this model compare? It is still over simplified with no way to get to advanced features? And, how is its range with wireless G equipment? Would it be improved?
Looks pretty fancy, and I like the idea of a throughput display.
But I don't quite trust belkin 100% for quality though.
Who do i have to stab to get a bridging draft-N router?
I work in the networking industry and it is interesting to note that networking gadgets like routers are coming out with displays.
This is not the first router with display. Early this month Dlink made an announcement about their draft 11n 2.0 DIR-660 router with OLED display. http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1&pid=625
If we compare the Belkin Vision router and DIR-660, the Belkin casing,design looks better.Nice work! But I wonder how the actual performance of Belkin router is going to be..
The DIR-660 claims all the features similar to DIR-655. If I assume DIR-660 is DIR-655 with OLED in addition,my guess would be that the performance of DIR-660 should be very good.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_chart/Itemid,189/chart,119/
The above link in Tom's Hardware compares the performance of different routers in the market today and DIR-655 tops the list for routing performance, P2P simultaneous connections and feature list.
My advise would be to wait for Tom's Hardware to review and rate the Belkin N1 vision router before spending 199$..
Router is not about looks since once it is configured properly, you hardly have to touch it and notice it. It is all about routing performance, automated QoS, wirelss performance and stability. Good looks is a bonus :-)
I own a DIR-655 which is 11n 2.0 draft, Works with Vista!, automatic QoS and has very good coverage for my home + GigE. All this for just $115! I won't be changing my router box in a long time and since I installed it, I never had to reset it even once!!
I always thought that the best networking gadgets would be from Linksys but I am impressed with Dlink products these days! Belkin is coming up with very unique designs for routers which is very creative. But the wireless performance is not very stable and rather pricy.
But all these innovations are a healthy sign of growth!Keep up the good work!