Netgear FVS318G PROSAFE® 8-PORT GIGABIT VPN FIREWALL

by Netgear

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 7.5 x 1.4 inches ; 1.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002JTXA4I
• Item model number: FVS318G-100NAS
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #37 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Networking Products > Switches
  • #89 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Networking Products > Routers
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 22, 2009

Product Description

ProSafe FVS318G Firewall provides business-class protection at an affordable price. This completely equipped, broadband-capable firewall router offers a stateful packet inspection (SPI) firewall, denial-of-service (DoS) protection and intrusion detection, URL key word and content filtering, logging, reporting, and real-time alerts. VPNC certified, it initiates up to 5 IPsec VPN tunnels simultaneously, reducing your operating costs and maximizing the security of your network.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Run 3.07-22+ And It's Great, May 8, 2011

By 

Jamey Price (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Netgear FVS318G PROSAFE® 8-PORT GIGABIT VPN FIREWALL (Personal Computers)

When I got the device it was worthless for high-workload environments - it'd lock up or crash daily, usually more than once a day. I worked with Netgear support for six months and helped them to eventually find the problem that was causing the instability. And because of that, and the work I did with support, the 3.0.7-22 firmware was released. Run that firmware or later and it's a solid-gold device. Their support folks are solid, and they genuinely want to help. For the price, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better option.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great features but poor performance, March 20, 2010

By 

J. Ridenour - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Netgear FVS318G PROSAFE® 8-PORT GIGABIT VPN FIREWALL (Personal Computers)

I wanted to upgrade my network to gigabit as well as improve security over my current WRT54Gv8 router. After much research I settled on this unit, its really one of the only vpn/firewall with 8 port gigabit and was excited when I received it. I've configured many routers and never had issues like I did with this router. It was so bad I may have received a defective unit. Ultimately I returned it.

1. The connections are on the front, not the back the way Amazon photo shows. I knew this but just wanted to share so you have less surprises.
2. UPNP is broken and is well known error. As a pro level router UPNP isn't a priority.
3. The netgear forums that will let you know just how many problems this router has, are locked to the public, and only when you have the router and register with the serial number can you actually see the vast complaints. The forum is locked as this is a pro level router.
4. Dropped connections regularly and was completely unstable
5. Required frequent reboots and seemed to take 2 minutes or so to reboot.
6. Would lock up my cable modem and require even that to be rebooted.

On the upside
1. the firewall is very nice and configurable. All ports open as expected and is very flexible.
2. The level of control is so superior to the WRT54gv8 I'm currently using - if only it was stable.
3. QOS worked as it should and was not a gimmick like my current router.

I'm content with 802.11G speeds so I planned to use this vpn router and have the WRT54Gv8 be an access point. In the end the constant instability forced me to return it. I put the lowly consumer router back in service, updated the firmware for good measure, and returned to the stability I had prior.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works Great- Increased Speed from older model., December 28, 2009

By 

Mayanrd Kreb (Phoenix- AZ) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Netgear FVS318G PROSAFE® 8-PORT GIGABIT VPN FIREWALL (Personal Computers)

Before I owned this FVS318G, I had the FVS318 (no G). I upgraded because the G model offers way more speed. The older 318 has a WAN port that is only rated for 10 megs, so my cable connection which is rated at 25 megs was severely restricted. The older 318 also had LAN ports rated for 100 megs, while the G models are rated at 1000 meg. After switching to the G model my DL speed from the internet went from 7 megs to 23 megs!

As for the router itself, setup was fairly easy. It is administered via internet explorer or any web browser. I never had to look at the manual, and I was able to setup my 4 computer LAN with port forwarding in about 15 minutes. It has many features that I dont use such as VPN. It has been running for a month without any problems. The previous 318 ran for about 5 years without any problems (except the restriction in speed.) I do recommend this product.