The Belkin Wireless G Plus MIMO Router is the most staid looking router of this bunch. In fact, it looks more like an old-fashioned external modem than a router, if not for the antennas, you might confuse it for something else. The Belkin used an extra-wide outlet plug. Every other router has upgraded to a thin plug or to an external adapter. Its appearance is probably fitting, as the Belkin is workman like in almost every sense.

Setting up the Belkin router is easy, but the setup wizard focuses only on users who are setting up their first wireless routers and doesn’t consider those migrating from a previous router. The Belkin notebook card was another story. It didn’t install correctly the first time, and at one point the card’s utility crashed the test notebook. However, on the second time through the installation, all seemed to work well. Even with issues of stability aside, the card utility was not very impressive.

While the Belkin router offered good security and VPN functionality, it didn’t offer as much in the way of features as the D-Link or the Linksys. The Administrative user interface looks plain but is reasonably responsive and well-organized. The Wireless G Plus MIMO Router performed well enough, offering significant improvement over the class-g control router, but the throughput tended to vary substantially.

Overall, the Belkin executed the tests reasonably well and stood squarely in the middle of the pack of performance for the MIMO routers. The Belkin is solid, and its list of features will not blow you away. But the Belkin router card combination was by far is one of the cheapest and is clearly the best value, particularly if you don’t need or want the frills of the other routers.

[tags]Belkin Wireless G Plus MIMO Router[/tags]