| Belkin F5D7132 Wireless-G Universal Range Extender |
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Model: F5D7132
Brand: Belkin
Manufacturer: Belkin Components
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 173
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Offers one-touch setup for wireless repeater mode
Adds wireless-enabled PCs to your wired network in access-point mode
Works seamlessly with the majority of routers and access points available
Ensures data and network security
Works with PCs and Macintosh computers |
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| Description: |
| The 802.11g Wireless Universal Range Extender/ access point (WURE) connects to your network switch and lets you join your wireless-equipped PCs to your wired network in Access Point Mode, or lets increase the coverage of your existing wireless network in Range Extender Mode. Once you've done the simple setup, you can share data and peripherals, as well as a single Internet account among all your computers. It is based on standard 802.11g technology for fast wireless file transfers and downloads. |
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| User Reviews (173 total): |
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We send it back!!!, August 16, 2008
By MFM (Oceanside, CA)
It wasn't working properly. We send it back, and now we are waiting for our refund (2 weeks already)
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Awesome product for the price!, August 13, 2008
By B. Formaker (W. Hartford, CT)
This range extender works as advertised! I am very happy with the purchase. I was a little worried after reading some of the horror stories here, but I have to say, Chovy's review instructions (on this site) were just this ticket to get the repeater up and running in less than 30 minutes. It was unbelievably easy to install! Do not be frightened by negative reviews. If you can set up a wireless network, you can set up this repeater. However, I did upgrade the firmware before I did anything else and maybe that helped. I got the firmware update from the Belkin site.
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Frequent Signal Loss, August 13, 2008
By Budrow (New York)
This works pretty well when it holds a signal, but it's inconsistent and inexplicably loses a signal far too often. I have it hooked up to connect to a specific network, and I can often connect (albeit weakly) to the source and not to the extender. Personally I wouldn't recommend it.
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Not the easiest!, August 10, 2008
By T. Schuurman
This product is only easy to use if your network is not password protected. Otherwise it is extremely difficult to set up. I finally gave up and unsecured my network. Made things much easier for now.
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Works great - easy to set up if you know what you're doing, August 9, 2008
By NotSyncing (Michigan, USA)
And it might even be easy to set up if you *don't* know what you're doing. If you run into trouble setting this up and you don't know the difference between a bridge, access point and router you may get stuck. That said, this product does exactly what it's supposed to do and does it well.
I have it configured as a bridge. I have a home office with an Ethernet network and an old Linksys 802.11b router. In another room ~30 feet away I have a PlayStation, PC and a satellite DVR receiver hooked up to a 10/100 hub. I plugged the Belkin F5D7132 into this hub, configured it with an IP address on my network and that's it. Now the PlayStation, computer and DVR in that room have access to the Internet through the Linksys.
Disclaimer: I'm a software engineer with extensive networking experience. Your mileage may vary when it comes to ease of setup.
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Yay for Belkin Customer Service, August 3, 2008
By S. Wang (So Cal)
After a hour of trying to setup the device to no avail, I phoned Belkin's customer service, they were great, step by step directions were given as I was on the phone. Now the device works great.
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its really not that hard, August 2, 2008
By Justin T. Coulter
i plugged it straight into the power outlet right out of the box. and that was about as hard as it was to get better signal across my house. i use a unsecure wifi so it picked it up right away, only pressed reset. dont even need the instructions that come with it if your just trying to increase signal from room to room and your unsecure. i use it only for a ps3 in my living room, and i went from 30% to 100% with no problems
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Works well with a mac and a linksys wireless-G router, July 30, 2008
By D. Reid
I was a bit hesitant to buy this product after reading several reviews that complained about the difficulty of setting up this product. I was able to set this up with WEP security without much difficulty. A number of reviews here give step by step details using the installation software, etc. I set it up with my mac without the software. Here are my steps:
1. Disable internet (turn off airport or unplug ethernet cable if connected directly to router) on your computer (Powerbook G4 in my case) and plug in extender and attach using the included ethernet cable.
2. Disable security on your wireless router. I use a linksys wrt54g and went to the default IP address for the device using a different computer.
3. Go to the default IP address of the extender using the computer directly attached to it. That is, type 192.168.2.254 into your browser, and click enter when prompted for a password (default is no password).
4. Input all of the information when prompted. Enter the same SSID name as your existing network I know that a number of other people suggest giving it another name so you know which network you are connected to, but I had difficulty setting up security with two different SSIDs.
5. Set up WEP security for your extender and write down your password (I only got WEP to work). Save settings.
6. Go to your other computer and access the IP address of your wireless router. Make sure the SSID and WEP password of your extender match those of your router. Save settings.
7. Turn on the wireless connection on your computer (powerbook in my case) and you should be prompted for your WEP password.
8. To make sure your extender is working, I suggest downloading the freeware program iStumbler. It shows you all the wireless connections in your area and will list two wireless connections with the same SSID if your extender is working properly.
This unit does what I need it to do, along with WEP security. However, I do find that I need to reset the extender (unplug for a few seconds) every few days.
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MISREPRESENTED, NOT COMPATIBLE WITH LINKSYS WIRELESS-G ROUTER, July 22, 2008
By Della (Philadelphia, PA USA)
You are asking for trouble if your network is controlled by LINKSYS wireless router(s). Belkin does not properly represent this device in its advertising or in the user manual. Nothing in the Belkin spec sheet or user manual indicates that this unit will not automatically associate with Linksys Wireless-G routers. There is nothing at Belkin online support or in the PDF user manual about the issue. After wasting an ENTIRE EVENING - 3 hours - with a Belkin "technical support" agent who had to read from instructions, we were told to contact LINKSYS. We did that. LINKSYS tech support would not help set up a Belkin device of any sort. So, this unit is being returned by this dissatisfied customer. If you buy this unit, you'd be best off using it with other Belkin products.
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EASY TO USE, July 14, 2008
By Daniel A. Fsher (Greer, SC)
When I got the Belkin F5D7132, I took it out of the box, read the couple of lines of directions, plugged it in, held the "connect" button, and it was up and running. Since that time, it has been plugged in, and working flawlessly. I would recommend to anyone who has a wireless system, that may be a little less than what they need. My wireless connection was several rooms away, and even though the computer could connect, I would get a low to very low signal. With this in place, I currently get an excellent signal. I am able to move anywhere in the house with the laptop and have a great signal. I do have this as an extender, not a direct connect to the modem.
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The Extender Does Work as Expected---With Some Work, July 8, 2008
By John R. Spencer (Manheim, Pennsylvania United States)
I bought and connected the device July 1. I will admit that Chovy's review and detailed instructions did go a lonnng way to helping to get the device up and running. I do recommend using his review (actually: instructions) as the basis for getting the device working.
I did leave the device's SSID as the 'belkin54g'. The 'parent SSID' is the SSID of my main access point. The real key to Chovy's instructions was to set the IP address of the device to the same network and 'segment' of your home network. I used 192.168.0.x (the "0" is the segment). The "192.168" are the network. The 'x' is the 'host/computer' number.
I change the device's IP address to 192.168.0.254.
I left the device's 'mode' to 'Wireless Repeater Mode'.
The MAC computer that is in the house does connect in a 'back' bedroom (house is one level). The main access point is about 70 feet away from the extenter. Computers in the house now have full/excellent access.
I would recommend that once you configure the extender to satisfaction-->Save the configuration to a file. I had gone on vacation for a few days. Upon return, the 'belkin54g' network did not appear as a network to connect to as it had appeared prior to leaving.
Uploading the configuration file I had generated prior to leaving, brought the 'belkin54g' network back.
I will assume that Belkin provided the 'auto-connect' instructions to attempt to save the 'hassle' of providing a detailed manual.
To 'defend' (just a little) Belkin and manufacturers of like devices, providing devices that involve networking for the home have done a fair (to good) job of 'hiding' the complexities of networking from home users. It does appear things are getting better; but there is still quite a road to go to have networking devices operate as 'plug and go' in all scenarios.
All-in-all the device does appear to work as expected. However, I will join the chorus of persons indicating that there is more than a little bit of work required to get the device operating.
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Instructions lousy & setup utility flakey - but great unit once setup., July 7, 2008
By The Learner (CT)
Okay - I admit it - I'm a bit of a geek, and I thought most of the other people who complained about this were just not really paying attention to the instructions. I mean - how bad could it be?
Well - following the instructions included (both easy setup and the included on disk User Manual) I was completely unable to get the unit working. I could get it to automatically detect my network (with no security enabled) but then it would never stay connected. Fortunately, I had a copy of Chovy's review of this product - which gave step by step instructions - and I was able to get it working.
A few pointers from that experience:
* The web setup utility is flakey if you use the function to automatically detect your existing network. I would use it - it would see my existing network, and then after selecting the radio button to select it - would keep telling me to select the radio button when I tried to connect. I can't tell you how many times I tried it - and it would lock up the unit causing me to have to power it down to clear its brain... I eventually resolved it by just typing in the SSID manually on the BASIC setup page, applying the changes on that page, and letting it restart the unit automatically.
* I would also recommend downloading the firmware update available on the Belkin site before you follow Chovy's instructions - since if you try to do it during them you won't have a live internet connection to use for the "update firmware" option in the web management utility.
All in all though - if you follow the advice on Chovy's review it's a nice little unit and a bargain of a price - I now have my kid's Wii connected to the Net on it and they are happily racing Mario Kart users around the world!
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decent value hard to get to work, July 6, 2008
By D. Vogel (Arkansas)
took about one hours worth of work and one call to tech support to get operational. Works ok, does extend the range for reception based on the wireless computers signal strength meter, not sure if helps performance.
The review by Chovy was very helpful, if i did not have a WEP question for tech support his was all i needed to set up system. I would recommed reading his review before setup and try to do what he said.
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No hassle setup, July 5, 2008
By RA (MD, USA)
The setup is really simple. Just press a button and it syncs up. The leds let you know at a glance what is going on.
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Works, eventually (or not), July 4, 2008
By Geoff
Like nearly everyone else, I discovered quickly that setting this device up is not at all easy. If you don't want an open network, the one button configuration is out. What you do to set it up ... I'm not entirely sure what worked, to be honest. I was about this close -><- to taking it back for a refund when whatever the last set of changes I made was, worked. About the only advice I can give is that it doesn't always reset on its own after you make changes from the web interface, even if it says it is resetting; try unplugging the thing, waiting ten seconds, and plugging it back in.
It does work--I'm posting this review over it from a room where I couldn't get any signal before. I just wish everyone good luck getting it working.
Edit: I take it back (and will, literally). It's cutting the signal in and out randomly. I don't need the hassle. Apparently I can't change my star rating. If I could, it would go to 1. What a waste.
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Good with "short"comings, July 3, 2008
By kh (T&T)
The range extender does what it is supposed to do.
I use mine to get a signal (for internet) around a corner but the range at which the extended signal is sent is not that great, 30ft at most(the box says 400ft). Although you will get a connection (three bars or beyond this 30ft pages will take forever to load if ever at all. It will work great in a closed setting.
Things to note.
1. Ignore the instruction that came with it for configuration.
2. Use the instructions from Chovy's review.
3. Input you SSIDs and youre good to go.
4. Take some time to get the best positioning of the extender with respect to the clients.
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Horrible Extender, June 28, 2008
By a rolling ball in a cubicle world (Seattle, WA)
I received my first extender about 3 weeks ago, only to find out it was defective after speaking with tech support for nearly 2 hours! Had it RMA'd and replaced, paying $10 for the return shipping. Got my 2nd extender about a week ago and it's working ok so far, but I'm not at all impressed by its overall range -- signal strength fluctuates a lot even just at the next room.
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Easy Set up, and works great, June 27, 2008
By Dutchmasta (Canton, MI USA)
I have the Belkin Pre-N wireless router and now this Belkin Wireless G range extender in my home. Set up was very easy using the WEB BASED set up in windows XP. The IP address of this router is 192.168.2.254 when trying to access the online settings. I configured it in repeater mode, using my WPA-PSK settings from my Pre-N router and it connected with no problems. Once configured, you can use the back ethernet port to connect a DVR, Xbox, whatever you desire. From opening the box to plugging it into my Dish DVR, 20 minutes. I tested it on my Xbox 360 and it works great. So if you don't want to by Microsoft's adapter, this is a cheap alternative. I also tested the range outside, and the box says 400ft, but it's about 250-300ft in my area since there are soo many other networks around. Overall, great product, no issues. I received ver.2000 and the updated firmware.
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Belkin didn't extend my wireless range very much, June 26, 2008
By Michael Peterson (SLC, UT)
Set up was somewhat difficult; I spent 30 minutes on the phone with Belkin and they were very helpful. Once it was set up and working, I didn't experience the range extension I had hoped for. My house is probably at fault (concrete & brick) but I thought this product would solve my problems. But alas, I am still without connectivity in several parts of my house.
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doesn't pick up signal!!!, June 23, 2008
By lake985 (New York, NY)
The "range extender" only picked up my routers signal after the eighth try. Then when I moved the extender to the desired location, it no longer picked up the signal. It requires you to have an unsecure connection in order to relay the signal. This was a waste of time and money.
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