Belkin Wireless Pre-n Router review

Like the Netgear router on page 64, Belkin's Pre-n Wireless Router is designed to run at over 100 megabits a second - 125Mbit/s - more than twice as fast as the fastest recognised wireless network standard, 802.11g.

Alas, it wasn't twice as fast as the fastest wireless router we've seen. Our current recommended wireless router, the KCorp Gold Series router, completed our short-range file transfer test in 51 seconds, and our long-range test in 55 seconds. The Belkin managed the short-range test in 46 seconds but slipped to 59 seconds for the long-range test. Not twice as fast, but still a good result.

And transfer speed isn't the only thing that the Pre-n has going for it. Its setup is faultlessly easy. When the setup CD is placed in your computer's CD drive, an animated configuration wizard pops up. To setup wireless and Internet connections, you just click through the stages of the wizard.

As well as being able to beam your data and your broadband connection to all the PCs in your house, a good wireless router should also be able to encrypt everything it sends. It you don't secure your wireless network, anyone within range who has a wireless network card can snoop around your shared folders and use your broadband connection. Fortunately, the Pre-n supports both current security standards, WEP and the more rigorous WPA.

Another advantage that the Pre-n enjoys over most of its competitors is that it can maintain its increased speed, even if a slower device is added to the same network. This is useful if you have occasional visitors whom you want to let onto your network or, more importantly, if there's one device on your network, for instance a wireless print server, that doesn't run at 125Mbit/s. You don't want your entire network slowing down to 54Mbit/s - or most likely slower - just because of one device.

Impressed as we were by its user-friendliness and top-notch performance, the Pre-n's price brought us back down to earth. At £111 including VAT, it's over 30 pounds more expensive that the KCorp router. What's more, it doesn't have a built-in ADSL or cable modem, so you'll need to pay for a new Ethernet-compatible modem as well before you can use this router to share your broadband connection around the house.

The Pre-n is a good product, easy to set up and fast. If it were a little cheaper it would certainly get a Best Buy award.