switches

I have been using the Netgear FVS318 router firewall for over a month now with not one glitch. For the money, this is an amazing bargain considering it is a true SPI firewall and a certified ipsec VPN endpoint for eight tunnels included with a eight port switch! The quality of Netgear products are also commendable.

We had it up and running in less than fifteen minutes. My son configured two ipsec vpn tunnels with his friends networks using Linksys VPN routers in short order and I have one configured to my Windows 2000 computer at work that is behind a nat router using Windows 2000 built in ipsec capabilities. All three of our ipsec tunnels have proven to be reliable. I also have no problems using remote desktop through port 3389 or going to my pptp Windows 2000 vpn server through port 1723 behind the FVS318.

We have not experienced any of the problems that other reviewers have, but we have experience configuring these kinds of devices. The FVS318 has fairly extensive built in logging though it does not store much information itself but it can be configured to transfer log information to another computer and can even send you an email alert if certain attacks are detected. It has configurable services based on ports and protocols that are used to create port forwarding to inbound services and block outbound services. However you are limited to 16 services. It can control outbound traffic which is very important to defend against undetected trojans or users [and kids] running things like file swapping or other unapproved applications that access the internet. Internet access can be even controlled by a day/time schedule. If your network is fairly simple, a default block all rule could be created [which must be at the end of the list] and then you can specify what outbound services are allowed. It is also possible to deny a computer or address range of computers from having internet access while allowing others full access. Though the block services is a great addition to this device, it is somewhat limited if you have more than a few variations of configurations compared to a more sophisticated [and much more expensive] soho firewall, and the services can not be configured to use certain ip address/subnet destinations for outbound control which should not be a big deal for most home/small office users. However inbound services/port mapping can be configure to come from specific ip address/subnet. That is an important security feature. For instance if you open an internal computer for remote managment, you can configure the FVS318 to accept connections from only one ip address, which will keep everyone else on the internet from trying to connect and guess your password!

I am very impressed with the Netgear FVS318. Being a true SPI firewall and ipsec VPN endpoint with all the other feaures it has in a quality package, I can highly recommend it to anyone that wants a bargain priced internet device that is a big step up from the consumer grade nat routers.

This device works great and has been the best of it's kind I've used for the price range. I currently access about 6 of these devices using SofteRemoteLT on a daily basis and I am very pleased with the performance. The VPN is rock solid and great for running terminal services over. If you are looking to send files over your VPN, I only got about a 6Mbps throughput rate when I used Chariot and 3DES to test it in my lab (my Linksys BEFSX41 got about 16Mbps).

For a few of my clients I've even set up "static" tunnels using the FVS318 and Linksys BEFSX41's as "clients". The performance is fantastic and it is the configuration I recommend for people connecting to the office from home. Using DDNS on both the FVS318 and the BEFSX41 work great for dynamic connections.

As for people having connections drop or trouble routing traffic to internal networks, I suggest they read up on how to properly set their key lifetime and learn how to setup static routes. It is also important to realize that you have to have each network on a different subnet in order to route traffic successfully :/ As for those having trouble with port forwarding, I suggest you RTFM. Regardless of your troubles, there are plenty of resources on the web to help you set up rock solid VPN regardless of the make or model.

My only criticism is that the latest firmware v2.4 seems to be a little buggy when using PPPoE. If you connect to a DSL provider using PPPoE I would either downgrade to firmware v2.3 or look for another solution. If you have a DSL provider that doesn't use PPPoE, then enjoy!

HTH

This router may appear to work fine, but I assure you it is a momentary occurrence. It will spontaneously reboot, interrupting your connection, eventually completely preventing any connection as it cycles through a reboot process continuously. Sometimes this will happen immediately, sometimes after a year or two of working perfectly. Netgear will send you a replacement router if the hardware doesn't work (which is what this problem is). However, they can send you one that has the same problem, since this issue has never been fixed by them. Before you consider, do a web search of this model and "spontaneous reboot" you'll see many have had this problem, and the final resolution seems to be purchasing a competitor's router. Save yourself the aggravation. Not to mention the aggravation of an inept and unreliable tech support staff based in India.