Customer Reviews

Netgear FVS318G PROSAFEŽ 8-PORT GIGABIT VPN FIREWALL

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I recently purchased this unit as an upgrade to my old FVS318 (non-gigabit) router, which has served me well for 4 or 5 years and has been ROCK SOLID. I had aquired the FVS318 after going through several Linksys products that failed after a short period of time (3 or 4 of their routers, both 4 and 8-port units, started failing/acting flukey within 1 year). I loved the FVS318 so much that when I decided to upgrade to gigabit, I nearly bought the FVS318G without hesitation...then I read the reviews on Amazon and had serious doubts. It seemed that everything I loved about the 318 was not true about the 318g, based on the other reviews.

In the end, I figured that a lot of these reviews were pushing a year or more since written, and it seemed a company like netgear would address the issues promptly if they were indeed the kind of company I came to think of them as. If I was wrong and the product turned out to be crap, so be it - I'd not be out a lot of money and again, my previous positive experience was worth taking the chance on Netgear again. In other words, I'd give Netgear the chance to keep or lose my business, rather than relying on others' reviews. To be honest, I figured it was a 50/50 proposition. I'm happy to say things seemed to have turned out just fine.

The FVS318G router installed in a couple minutes, and only extremely minor rewiring of my media panel had to be done to accommodate the relocation of the RJ45 jacks vs power supply jack...like 90-seconds worth of rewiring. The mounting holes in the case were identical in dimension to the FVS318, so I didn't have to relocate any mounting screws (I mount mine vertically inside a media panel).

I use the router as the primary DHCP server/router/firewall, and have multiple NAS hard drives, 4 wired-ethernet PC/Macs, a couple wireless PC's, network laser printer, satellite TV boxes, two wireless network access points (G and N), and an old network print server (to convert ethernet to Parallel-Port). I powered down the PC's/Macs, unplugged the old router, installed the new, and powered it up.

I booted up my PC, went to the router config page (noticing an immediate speed boost), logged in, and entered my DSL (PPOE) settings. About 30 seconds later I was on the internet again. I checked and my other devices had re-aquired their IP settings, and was pretty much back in business.

The only issue I had was a rectal-cranial inversion on my part - One of my PC's had to have its NIC replaced with a gigabit model, but after I did so I was still getting fast e-net speeds (100 mbps). Long story short, in the end it was a short patch-jumper of Cat5 cable in my media panel...gigabit requires Cat5e or Cat6 cabling, and I had a little jumper of Cat5 which of course doesn't support gigabit.

So, in the end the router was easy to set up, fast as you'd expect, seems to handle mixed-speed traffic just fine (i.e. the 100mbps stuff on my network doesn't seem to slow down the gigabit stuff at all), and best of all, seems to be rock solid....so far. Some of the reviews seemed to imply that failures occur after about a year, so we'll see.

If I have problems, rest assured that I'll edit this review. I sure hope not, because again Netgear stuff has been good to me, and is the only brand that seems to provide small-business-quality products at reasonable prices. I'd hate to have to buy one of those cheesy-looking plastic-cased spaceship-shaped routers that seem to be the rage amongst the competing brands these days.

I had its predecessor (RO-318) for about nine trouble free years, so when it finally gave up the ghost, I decided to stay with Netgear and get the FVS-318-G, assuming I'd get another near-decade out of it.
After a few weeks of use, it stopped accessing the internet-- I could see devices on the network, but nothing from the outside world. Call up tech support, and they suggested I call my ISP. Back and forth with my ISP and Netgear, and finally, I got it worked out that my internet connection was fine, and the router needed reconfiguring.
Things worked for a couple weeks, then no internet again. Call tech support, and do the ISP/Netgear dance again. Finally get things working, and then after a couple weeks, no internet again.
After several iterations of this, Netgear finally agreed that their hardware was to blame, and issued an RMA number.
Got the replacement unit the other day, and not 48 hours later, it's going back to the mother ship. I'm trying to figure out if this is a poorly engineered device, or a poorly manufactured one: either way, it doesn't matter. I'm going out tomorrow and buying a router from a different manufacturer-- I hear Linksys makes a good one...

I had problems with this unit from day 1. I had it in front of my network behind a standard cable modem and behind it I had another router for Wireless access only. This unit would forget its DHCP assignments and conflict with the RIP routing between the two units. On the off hand it was just a one off, I had Netgear send me another unit, but it yielded the same results. - Does not play well with other routers in the network. It's a shame, because the earlier versions worked perfectly without any problem.

Unit hangs intermittently so there is no access to anything on the local network or internet. Powercycle is the only thing that would fix it. This week I am downloading large TV show videos, its hanging at least once per day. Current firmware doesn't fix it. I would give this device zero stars if possible. I upgraded from the fvs318 100 mbit device, had it for 5 years with almost no issues.

You won't find any 8 port gigabit router in this price range. Purchased 3 for work. Works great. If you want to set it up in somewhat transparent mode in a work environment where there is another dhcp server then don't connect the wan port. Connect the regular lan to one of the normal ports not the wan.

I have two FVS318G routers to create a VPN between the office and home. After some initial stability issues, mine run for months at a time now without locking up or needing to be restarted.
The steps below created a stable system for me.

1) Create all the configuration settings you need and document them in writing (do not rely on the configuation backup feature).
2) Install the latest firmware.
3) After restarting, reset to factory defaults.
4) Now enter all your settings manually.
5) Backup your settings to a configuration file.

I suspect that configuation backup files do not transfer well from one firmware version to another.

I recently upgrade bandwidth. In testing download speeds I found that I was not getting the advertised speed. This was due to the older router that I was using. It did not have the processing power to provide higher throughput. I found this product that provided the specifications that I needed - the capability to route higher bandwidths, VPN capability and a built in gigabit switch. I am also a huge Netgear fan because of their track record of reliability (in my experience).

I received the router and did some basic configurations. I put the router into service making sure to reset all of the equipment connected to it. I found that I could connect to the switch, but it would not route traffic to the internet. I upgraded the firmware and still had the same problem.

I requested an RMA from Amazon which was processed very quickly and requested a new unit. I received that unit and went through the steps to put it into service. The unit connected and performed great. I was able to use internet and take advantage of the higher bandwidth. The next morning I went to use the internet and was unable to access it. I rebooted the router and was still unable to access the internet. After some troubleshooting I was still unable to make the router work. I disconnected it and put in a 6 year old Linksys and was back up and running.

I'm now searching for a replacement unit. It probably won't be a Netgear.