A customer was searching for a modestly priced home router for better coverage and Wireless N standard capability. For less than $40 the Belkin N300 fit the bill, the setup was mostly automatic, and we began locking down the wireless network and turning on the rudimentary Norton Internet Security filtering software built in to the router. There were several levels of security with the lowest blocking only known malware sites and threats. We were then however, unable to get the router to automatically detect the modem and connection type. Belkins' guided software Wizard is kind of humorous as it searched vain for the modem and connection type. The delay screen would say, "This is a tough one" and "Feel free to grab a cup of coffee" "This could take up to 7 Minutes". Unfortunately the process would never completed due to a glitch where if Norton Security was enabled though the web administration (via IP) before this automatic connection search initiated by the software (which should be unnecessary if you have typical automatic settings), the ability to allow automatic DNS discovery from your ISP was disabled. By default the router is not set to grab an automatic IP address from your ISP, nor is DNS automatic. I've posted this in case someone else is setting up the router and they run into the same issue. Norton's built-in security on this device obviously supplants DNS resolution, so it made sense if you thought about it, but when the device doesn't grab DNS out of the box, it could be a confusing issue and waste your time but requiring a call into the ISP. Additionally, the manner in which it prevents you from checking the box to grab DNS automatically, almost appears to be a Java or Browser based problem. The upc code from this device from Wal-Mart was printed as 072286881783 should you not be able to determine the model number.
In the future I would recommend the Belkin 450 Dual Band Wireless N Router for a typical home environment over this lesser model, this problem with the embedded Norton Internet Security filter would probably still have come up, but for the coverage capabilities inherent to dual band antennas, this would be the better model for under $60. If you're more interested in products to keep your kids safe online, see my article here.