A few years ago I received a Belkin N1 Vision (F5D8232-4) wireless router from a friend of mine. She had received it as some sort of door prize. The wireless on the router isn't that great, but it was strong enough to cover parts of my house that my previous Netgear wireless router did not.

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Last night, my router finally gave up the ghost and died. It's in this loop where it tries to load the firmware and then gives up and starts over. Attempting a factory reset does nothing but put the silly thing in "Download Mode." There's a rumor that if you hold down the factory reset button too long it goes into "Download Mode." I tried a few different ways, but no matter what I did, the inevitable "Download Mode."

Fortunately, Belkin has a lifetime warranty on this device. So, I've opted for the "Advance Replacement" which means they hold on to some of my money, ship me a new device, and then wait for the old one. My only beef with this system is that the Customer (me) "bears the cost of sending the defective unit(s) to Belkin." That's annoying.

I guess the bright side is that it's cheaper than buying a new wireless router. Of course, that means I have to continue to use this less-than-stellar device.

I'll let you know how the return goes.