Belkin N300 and N150 Wireless N Routers

The folks from MSI-ECS sent us a couple of their new Belkin Wireless N routers to try out. The cheaper one, the N150, promises LAN speeds of up to 150Mbps while the faster one, the N300, can do up to 300Mbps on the local wireless network. We tested them out to see if they can do just that.

These two are actually just the entry-level Wireless-N routers from Belkin and thus, can be had at a more affordable prices (mostly under Php3k each).

The dish-shaped routers sits upright with a wine-glass stand. There are no attachable external antenna support but comes with 4 LAN ports running at 100Mbps. I was actually hoping it would be a 1Gbps port but we’re more focused on the WiFi speed itself.

The routers are pretty easy to set up. Just plug the DSL cable to the WAN port, connect the power to the wall socket and hook up to the WiFi. The WiFi AP has a preset security password, a copy of which is included in the box (printed in a small piece of paper).

Once you’re logged in, you can change this password to your liking. You may access the LAN portal via the IP address in your browser (defaults at 192.168.2.1). The LAN portal is not password protected (i.e., blank) and you should change this once you’re in.

The router admin portal is pretty extensive but you should be able to get the DSL connection easily.

The DHCP settings are already set to automatic so any wireless device or wired connection to the router will be added into the IP pool immediately. Aside from that, there should be nothing else you need to configure to get your wireless LAN working.

I connected the my Drobo FS to the router and tried to transfer large files from my the Drobo to my laptop. I was able to get a sustained ~10MB/s transfer speed over WiFi. I think the bottleneck here is the wired connection from the Drobo to the router which is just 100Mbps.

I also use the WiFi Analyzer app installed on my Macbook Air to diagnose the wireless network and got an optimal bandwidth rating of 130Mbps at 10 feet away with a signal strength of -50dB.

At 20 feet away, the bandwidth degrades to 117Mbps and a signal strength of -54dB. Wasn’t able to figure out how far away from the router I can go without losing any WiFi signal though.

Belkin N300 Wireless-N router:
Single-band 2.4GHz bandwidth
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
up to 300Mbps data transfer rate
4 x Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX
up to 16 wireless LAN connections
Encryption: 128-bit WEP, 256-bit WPA, 64-bit WEP, WPA2
1 x network status LED, 1x WPS LED

The box comes with the router, the power supply cable, CD installer and a meter-long RJ45 cable.

The Belkin N300 retails for Php2,990 while the Belkin N150 is Php1,000 cheaper at Php1,990. You should see them in local stores in malls and PC shops.

Note: MSI-ECS is the Philippine distributor of Belkin routers in the Philippines.

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

10 Comments

Belkin Support says:

6 years ago

The Belkin N300 and N150 are one of the best wireless routers of Belkin. They are easy to install and easy to use. But as you know that these are wireless routers so it may create some problem for their new users while installing. For them, this link will give the best help while installing these wireless router. If you don’t know how to install it then please visit here at once.
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Will says:

12 years ago

Hindi po sya supported ng router :)
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Regie says:

13 years ago

hello! ask ko lang po f pwede ang wireless router sa Globe tattoo usb broadband,? tnx po
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Nathan Deveza says:

13 years ago

pwede.. why not do a wifi router showdown? with care tips and tricks included.. BTW i own two linksys wifi routers one ol’skul with antenna’s and the new one that just broke down recently..
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thejorlanb says:

13 years ago

Merry Xmas Yuga, Happy Valentines. :D G
(giveaway)
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milanaorly says:

13 years ago

mura na yan ah. kesa bili ng mahal ng Wireless Router sa CDRking :D
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Benchmark says:

13 years ago

out of the “specific” device topic, but I want to know what is the best wireless router in town where you can plug in USB broadband internet like Smart Bro or Globe Tattoo. Thanks in advance for the repliers. :)
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Marc says:

13 years ago

Perfect answer is none. It all depends on the area. Try them all if you can. Madali lang naman humiram ng “Broadband sticks”. I’m from Diliman QC, in my case ok gamitin dito ang Tattoo at Sun, while Smart Bro sucks. ;)

reader says:

13 years ago

IMHO, going for N speed routers only make sense if you have gbit LAN ports to support the potential bandwidth.

Else, you will get the same results as what Yuga got (actually Yuga’s numbers are pretty good). Data transfer from wifi-N to 10/100 LAN will always be between 8MB/s – 11 MB/s. That’s the best case.

I have a Netgear wifi-N with gbit ports at home. Max transfer speeds I got was at 24 – 27 MB/s from laptop to a WD MyBook NAS hooked up to one of the gbit ports.

As yuga has pointed out, your network will only perform as fast as the smallest pipe / bandwidth.
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bern says:

13 years ago

give it away yuga!
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