NETGEAR FVS336G-200NAS ProSafe Dual WAN Gigabit Firewall with SSL & IPsec VPN 10000 Simultaneous Sessions 60 Mbps

Pros: Dual WAN

Cons: Prior to purchasing this, I had a cheap $40 belkin router that was 100 MBit. File transfers within the office on my CAT6 network was 11.5 to 12.5 MegaBytes per second.. After switching to NETGEAR FVS336G, the speeds dropped to 3 - 5 MegaBytes.. Not what I was expecting from a gigabit router.

Pros: Was very easy to set up. Interface was as intuitive as any of these devices are. Used this for a small office (25 users) and it definitely did what it was supposed to do. The improvement in throughput and latency over the previous SOHO unit was immediate and noticeable.

Using it with an ADSL connection it was straightforward to set up and worked on the first try.

Cons: Made the mistake of ordering on Cyber Monday. Even though I payed the extra speedy processing and overnight delivery and it was supposed to arrive Tuesday, it did not arrive until Friday.

Pros: Actually performs according to specification. I have used RV042G too, and it misses on many claims. The FVS336G has no apparent software bugs. Can't say the same for RV042G.

Cons: Could use more explanation of performance under load balancing. Had to search manual for description of behavior when one WAN fails and how the failure is detected.

Other Thoughts: I can't see any reason for the failover mode on any of these dual-WAN routers unless you have an old dialup line, and you get charged by the minute.

Newegg reduced the price the day after I bought it.

Pros: easy to configure, many options, a 4 out of 5 on the intuitive interface

Cons: Sorting out your own port forwarding was a bit illogical, but far easier than Cisco's interface.

Other Thoughts: super bang for the buck. No ongoing fees like sonic wall

Pros: Could handle subnets, web based management

Cons: Product would lose about 60% of medium and large sized packets from the west coast as measured by DSLreports.com line quality test, which was backed by web browsing observations. No such problems with other routers or PC directly connected to Motorola SB6141 router at 30/5 Mbits per second. Netgear support promised new beta firmware, but then they gave runaround when recontacted.

Product defective or incompatible.

Other Thoughts: Have ordered many Netgear products over several decades. This caused me to re-ordered a different brand

Pros: The metal case.

Cons: I bought a few of these just for the SSL VPN functions. I have yet to see it work. I've spent two days on the phone with prosafe tech support without any success. I was on the phone with them for two hours today. The documentation is incomplete. They logged into the router and changed something, but didn't tell me what they changed. They claim it works on their side, but I have yet to see it work. At this point, it's no better than a cheap router.

Plus, when my call got disconnected nobody called me back and I just spent an hour just trying to get back in touch with tech support. Overall, this has to be the most frustrating experience I've had in a long time.

Pros: Throughput on my cable internet in DHCP mode is great. Much better than my old consumer grade WGT624 netgear router which maxes out at 18mbps and cannot utilize my full internet bandwidth.

Cons: Will not maintain a connection to my dsl on WAN2 which requires a login. dsl connection is great on WAN1, but it will not stay connected on WAN2. Netgear sent me latest beta firware but it did not fix the problem.

Other Thoughts: Exchanging unit via RMA since netgear thinks it is defective. But not holding my breath. I think firmware is defective. WAN2 works great in DHCP mode, but not in ppoe mode with login. I'll update review if replacement unit actually works.

Pros: The dual WAN is not simultaneous dual WAN to different networks at the same time. It acts more like a failover. Or possibly loadbalancing which I have not tried. Features wise, it is packed. Performance is also good.

Cons: First unit just bricked. The uplink just couldn't get a light to stay. I was in a datacenter with a team of network gurus and nobody could figure out the issue. Until we ruled it defective. After we got a replacement, everything worked accordingly.

Other Thoughts: The firewall rules are very open, perhaps too open. You can get real creative perhaps locking yourself out with your own rules if you don't know what you are doing. Some routers give you a warning for making bad rules, this one certainly has no warning.

Pros: Fast compared to the model of routers i purchased before. The GUI is easy to use and there is help on each page. VPN IPsec is awesome easy to set up. I'm using both static IP and dynamic and no trouble. Haven't tried the remote vpn access yet.

Cons: non so far

Other Thoughts: I had the rv042 both cisco/lynksys models and neither one could connect vpn. I need the vpn for my business. I even had customer service help and it didn't connect. I broke down and purchased 2 of these models and within 20min I had the VPN set and the link hasn't dropped yet. I didn't have to call customer service this product either.

Pros: None and Customer service Sucks from NetGear.

Cons: ALL. not reliable at all. ports block, connection disconect. totally unreliable product.

Other Thoughts: Made in China.... everything we buy made in China is poor quality.