Customer Reviews

NETGEAR VPN01L Vpn Client 1 User

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I purchased several copies of this product. They were intended to connect remote employees to Netgear's FVL328 router. Needless to say it was extremely difficult and time consuming to setup. And I consider myself highly competent in Server-Client network setup and configuration. FVL328 supports Dynamic DNS services, but the Client Software or FVL328 documentation says nothing of such setup. In fact it is full of typos and inconsistencies. By secondguessing the online posted manual for FVL328 (make sure you get the latest one) and using my experience I was able to connect to the FVL328. Then we upgraded the McAfee Viruscan from 7.0 to 8.0. Client computers (WinXP or Win2K) started to crash to Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Clean installs and reinstalls in various order did not hel either. Mcafee has this bug in their knowledgebase and said that the SafeNet SoftRemote software (OEMed by Netgear as Prosafe VPN Client) release 10.1 had this issue but was corrected in release 10.3.5. Netgear does not even want to provide an update to this and is still under release 10.1.1 for 2.5 years. So either buy SafeNet SoftRemote or do not relly on Mcafee, hince the 2 stars

The bummer about this software, and other reviewers tend to agree, is it's so buggy. Installation and configuration are easy, but diagnosing connection problems is a nightmare. This is especially true when trying to connect to another Netgear VPN router, which seems almost like an exercise in futility. Seeing that their software hasn't been updated in over 3 years points out Netgear itself isn't even behind this product anymore.

Buyer Beware: This software also conflicts with Cisco's VPN software, a much better, more reliable product. I needed both Cisco and Netgear's clients on the same machine, which does not appear to be possible, as the Netgear software conflicts with Cisco's operation. Uninstalling the Netgear software and *reinstalling* Cisco's (Netgear's software broke the Cisco client) enabled me to connect once again with the Cisco VPNs I often use.

The lack of a printed manual is also a downer for this product. I ended up returning my Netgear VPN Firewall 25 as well - it was very buggy and randomly went down - what a piece of junk. My Netgear Prosafe 318 VPN firewall is very good, but unfortunately their VPN software is unreliable, quirky, and seemingly unsupported.

I've been searching around for IPSec VPN software that would be compatible with my Netgear FVS318(v1) Firewall/Router before I decided to buy Netgear's VPN01L. I came across three (3) others that were known to work without any problems. I've tried their 30-day trials and came to one conclusion. They're all proven difficult to set up, especially if you don't know much about setting up VPN tunnels (I'm relatively new to it). So the final decision came down to just buying Netgear's VPN01L client software since it was cheaper. And since I'm only using it to connect to my 3-server home LAN (FTP-WEBserver/eMAIL server/Programming server) from work or on the road, I felt it was a wise choice on my part. Install didn't take but a mere 15-minutes. The only part that was difficult (as said before) was the actual set up to get it connecting to the VPN router. Netgear's documentation for the VPN01L was horrible I'll admit that. The example screenshots of the config screens did not even match what was described in the text itself. Which left me confused, thus, resulting in no VPN connection.

But what I did was bring up a .PDF I ran into a while back which shows you how to configure a Netgear FVS318 and a SAFENet SoftRemote VPN Client (which is what Netgear's VPN01L software actually is). So I used that PDF to configure my router and VPN client and had it connecting in no time. :)

If anyone is interested in that .PDF just do a GOOGLE search for, "SafeNet Softremote+FVS318", and you should find the .PDF link for "Connecting a SafeNet SoftRemote VPN Client to a Netgear FVS318".

You'll be glad you did.

All in all, I'm very happy with the Netgear VPN01L Client software. It works great with my FVS318 (which I've had for about 5 years now, and it's still going strong). The only two gripes I have with it are the lousy setup documentation and the fact that I lose my other connections on the Internet when the tunnel is active (unless there's a setting to change that behavior that I haven't figured out yet). ... Hence the 3-stars.

Whoever produced this software seems to have missed the point. There is no point in havng one VPN client on your machine that limits you to just being able to use that one client. It would be similar to, say, allowing people to just access one web site on the Internet. In my case I already had two VPN clients related to work when I installed a Netgear router with VPN capabilities on my home network. The VPN software from Netgear stops my other VPN clients working.

Added to my woes I can't tell you how often I saw 'the blue screen of death' during my repeated software install/de-install efforts.

I am now returning both the router and the client software as this is an unusable solution.

If you have previous experience in setting up VPN between two FVS318, this VPN software setup is piece of cake. It works fine for me espsecially for small office like mine, I can control all my servers when I am on a business trip even using dial up. It is awesome.

To prevent dropping of VPN connection, you need to adjust the MTU size to 1492 or other numbers. This is the information I got from Netgear technical support and it worked.

The only 2 complaints are:

1. I need to purchase it and doesn't come with the router.

2. The other guy was right, it doesn't work with Cisco VPN client

The VPN client is very functional and dependable once I was able to get it set up. The problem was I had used my Netgear VPN router with another VPN client before purchasing the Netgear Prosafe Client. I had the previous client set up and working, but I could not get the Netgear client to set up using the same settings. There are no step-by-step instructions for setting up a new tunnel on the router or client. I finally contacted Netgear support after many calls. They, too, had difficulty and could not establish a connection using the settings that had worked fine on another brand client. In the end, the support person built a new tunnel on my router and sent me an exported setup I then loaded on my client. All worked well from there but after 1 ½ hours on the phone.

Bottom line is that setup is difficult, but the end result is a functional and dependable VPN client. Don't be afraid to contact Netgear support if you have problems setting up.

I think the title about says it all. I couldn't get the software to work with my Netgear router so I called support. Since my router was out of warranty, they wouldn't provide me support even though I just purchased the software from Amazon the week before. They indicated that had I purchased it from them, they would support it. (I'll check tomorrow, but I think I have a newer router elsewhere that I can use to get support).

However...even if I can get it to work, I didn't see that it doesn't work with Vista. Luckily, I have an XP computer I can fail to get it to work on. (I can't fail on the Vista computer since it won't even install).

Needless to say, I'm somewhat disappointed. The only document that describes how to get it to work with the router I have is inaccurate (and overly complicated) and in the end...failed to set up the software in some way that would make it connect to the router.

Few clicks during the first installation, blue screen..... It killed my networks (Ethernet & Wireless) configuration. Very poor quality. Never consider it for your business.

It says it works on Vista, but what they don't say is that it only works on Vista 32bit. If you have Vista 64bit, it will not install at all

I've use previous version of the software for XP but needed to upgrade for Windows Vista. Note this will not work on Windows 7