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NETGEAR FVG318 ProSafe 802.11G Wireless VPN Firewall 8 | List Price: $181.00
Discount Price: Too low to display
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Brand: Netgear
Binding: Electronics
Warranty: NETGEAR lifetime warranty
Features: - Wireless and Wired VPN with 8-port 10/100 Mbps switch
- Business-class security includes SPI firewall and an Intrusion Detection System
- 802.11g wireless access point provides up to 108 Mbps throughput
- Eight dedicated VPN tunnels to protect links between locations
- Device measures 9.92 x 1.57 x 7.1 inches (WxHxD)
Does not work as advertised [Posted on 2007-09-30]
I retruned the product to Amazon and have not yet received my credit for the return.
The product did not work as advertised. Would not retain configuration across cold boots of the device. When ever there was a power failure I had to reconfigure the device. I had purchased two of them and both of them had the problem.
The DDNS does not work. Netgear acknowedgeds the problem, however, they are not willing to put out a firmware release to fix it. Instead they suggested I purchase another one of their products which was less secure, but has DDNS that worked. This after nearly two weeks of dealing with technical support with speech that I could hardly understand and that did not even know about the DDNS feature.
Received old version from Amazon [Posted on 2008-07-09]
I too had a poor experience with this device. There are a LOT of updates and fixes available for the problems described by the other reviewer, but unfortunately they are only available for the "V2" device. Amazon shares part of the blame for the problem since I ordered my device WELL after the V2 released but Amazon sent me one of the "old stock" V1 devices.
After performing all possible V1 updates, tuning, tweaks, etc. I was ready to return the device. I decided that I would give the V2 firmware a try (yes, it may void your warranty, but if the device is an absolute piece of trash anyway...)
The "good news" is that the V2 firmware loaded just fine and performs "as advertised" - just no warranty. DDNS actually works for me with the V2 firmware, and all my VPN tunnels also all work without any issues. My device is used in a light business / heavy home user environment with 5 persistent VPN tunnels and I have not noticed any performance related issues, random resets, or dropped connections after the V2 flash upgrade.
Shame on Netgear for not offering an upgrade path from V1 to V2 (partial credit or something).
Shame on Netgear for not supporting the V2 software on the V1 device (since the V2 software is the only thing that makes the device usable).
Shame on Amazon for not returning all their old stock to Netgear and offering their customers the latest version of the product - my main complaint here is that if I purchase a book that has multiple revisions, at least I am told, and therfore able to select which revision of the book I would like to purchase. This was not the case with my purchase of the firewall.
CM
Worth the effort... [Posted on 2008-08-20]
While researching this product, I found many, many negative reviews. But, in the end, being able to get a Netgear VPN, firewall, router and wireless capability for 100 dollars less than buying the VPN and wireless access point separately was too much to pass up. As I have often found with networking (especially wireless) products, the underlying issue of the large number of negative reviews is people's lack of understanding of networking and/or inability to properly configure the device. In the case of this device, the configuration issue did turn out to be quite a headache, but the persistence was well worth it. If you are having trouble getting it configured, especially the part of upgrading the firmware, check out some of the reviews on NewEgg-- it made the difference for me. Once I got the firmware upgraded, the rest of the configuration was very similar to all the other Netgear products I own, and it has been a very solid performer for over a month now.
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