I just picked up a new Belkin N+ wireless router. This is an 802.11n router with four gigabit ethernet ports as well as a USB port for attaching an external hard drive. All in all, it seems like a very nice wireless router. I did, however, run into a semi-major snag while setting it up.
I started off using their “Setup Assistant” but was unable to get my MacBook Pro to connect to the network once it was (supposedly) up and running. I then popped into the admin interface and checked the firmware. As I suspected, the firmware was out of date (it was running ver. 2.01.06).
The good news is that you can download the new firmware (ver. 2.01.07) from within the admin interface. Simply save it to a convenient spot on your hard drive and then, once the download is complete, browse to it and hit update. Unfortunately, whenever I did this, it would start updating and then spit out the following error message:
Firmware Update Failure: You have attempted to install an incompatible firmware version. Your router will now reboot.
The solution
After a bit of digging around, I noticed that the firmware that I downloaded appeared to be version 2.01.07, but the Belkin website was still listing 2.01.06 as the current version. After a bit more digging, I discovered that the Belkin UK website had the 2.01.07 firmware available for download, so I grabbed it and tried again. Voíla. It worked.
After the firmware update finished and the router rebooted, I was able to connect without any problems. If you’re having similar problems, I suggest you head over to the Belkin UK site and try downloading the firmware update from there.
Belkin N+ Firmware Update (from the UK site): link
For reference, the model Belkin N+ Wireless Router model # that I’m talking about is F5D8235-4 v2000.
*Note: You can access the admin interface by browsing to http://192.168.2.1/
Get free updates via e-mail!
Related articles...
- Belkin N+ Wireless Router Not Compatible With HFS+ Hard Drives
- Belkin N+ Wireless Router Drops Connections
- Configuring the Brother 2170W Wireless Laser Printer to Work With a Mac
- Asus Eee PC Wireless Network Card Not Working?
- Update to iOS4 So You Can Jailbreak Your iPhone
- MacBook Airport Network Getting Full Bars, No Internet Connection
- How to Stop iTunes from Updating Your iPhone (or iPod) Operating System
- Brother 2170W: Tick Marks Along Edge of Printed Page
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I wish I found ur blog before hand. I picked mine up today and run through the exact same problem. I really hope they came out with a new firmware to address the HSF+ HD compatibility I bought it with the same intention as a wireless Time Machine backup drive.
Very helpful. I’ve been trying to update firmware for an hour now, thinking I was doing something wrong. Bummer about the Time Machine compatibility. I hope they get that addressed in the future.
THANK YOU SO MUCH JAMMER(SIX) IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice work, Jammer(six). Woke up this morning to someone pinging the hell out of my machine, and thought I’d triple-check the router’s security. Got the firmware notice, and it promptly failed. Searched internet–found you!
You’d think Belkin would be a little more on top of this…
Thanks again.
WD
That’s very cool – Thank you! The firmware updated and I can connect to the wireless network to get online but I still can’t connect to the external 1 TB HD I have pluged into the USB on the router. That’s really the whole reason I bought this router opposed to a dual band for the same price.
Every time I try to connect to the router – which shows up under shared drives in Finder – I’m prompted for a password… and have no idea what the heck it’s talking about as I didn’t set one up. I used the WPA password, I tried blank, I tried choosing “Guest”… any ideas any one!? HELP! Ugh! Thanks in advance.
- Ron
PS – I’m on a 13″ 2.4 Ghz Unibody MacBook, my wife has a 13″ white one, and our wee ones have a G4 PowerBook and G3 iBook. …And of course an iPhone. LOL We don’t use the System 7 Color Classic much anymore (LOL)
Ron: The N+ doesn’t support HFS+ formatted hard drives. Perhaps that’s the problem?
Thanks Admin. So does that mean my external maxor HD (formatted osx extended journal) can’t work unless I backed it up to another drive/source and reformatted it as FAT32? Should it (or another hd) work then?
Thanks!! – Ron
I believe that it *should* work at that point, but no promises. Also note that you won’t be able to use it for Time Machine even if you can get it working (TM requires HFS+).
great fix! definitely helped.
thought i was screwed when the update didn’t work.
Thank you very much. I had had some frustrating hours attempting to update the firmware of my new router. I am glad that you posted this solution. Thank you again!
PS: My previous Belkin router had the ability to permit a wireless bridge (I am using the Belkin Extender) to pick up the signal from my router. Unfortunately, the admin software for my N+ router does not have the “Wireless Bridge” option (it seems). Consequently, I am unable to use the extender – even after trying for hours to connect the extender to the network … Do you happen to know of a workaround?
Thanks you very much for your time.
I’d been frequently trying to update my router for the last month or so. I’ve read and tried solutions from several other posts, but yours was the only one that has been successful. Thanks for the info and especially for the link to the UK version of 2.01.07. Good work on not giving up on the mission until you accomplished, and thank you sooo much for this post!
Thank you so much. I finally have my firmware updated after many prior failed attempts.
Hey Jammer, thank you so much.
I’ve been so frustrated with this router.
It was about to drive me crazy.
Thanks so muh for the valuable information, this worked for me! I have been trying to upgrade for weeks thinking that something was wrong with my configuration. I bought teh router from Walmart in Maryland, but they probably got it from UK sources.
could some one send me the bin file update for this router belkin web support is down,been trying to up date for weeks thanks phil
email phil.riddell@sky.com
Great solution. I was able to go from version 2.01.06 to 2.01.08. It is surprising that the US site gives you version, 2.01.07 — which does not work at all. But if you use the latest version of the UK site, it works great. Thanks.