Cisco Small Business RV042 VPN Router 2 x 10/100Mbps WAN Ports 4 x 10/100Mbps LAN Ports

Pros: I have enjoyed this Product very much since I got these back in October. I have set this up for an 8 site IPSEC VPN for the company I work for and everything is amazing. Solid connections for the most part. The GUI for the configuration is amazingly easy to get around as long as you get whats going on. I have went through a lot of VPN/Firewalls and this one seems to fit my needs very well. Using Dual WAN with two different DSL connections. Works fantastic. Has IPV6 capabilities which I will be using soon. Easy way of forwarding Ports. 50 VPN tunnels VIA IPSEC. 50 VPN tunnels VIA Client App. These are seperate and don't count against each other (totaling 100 IPSEC tunnels). I came from something called Multitech Routefinders...These have doubled my throughput on my VPN easily with no adjustment to ISPs. At the time I wasn't getting feedback that newegg was selling V4 of this hardware so I went else where. Now I see some people saying they are getting the new V4 in so that is good.

Cons: I tried a Site-Site IPSEC VPN with Domain names (DYNDNS)on both ends instead of static IPs and can't get a connection. At least one side needs static from my usage. The included ProtectLink content control isn't anything speical. An OpenDNS account does all and more than what the other has to offer. When Setup on a PPPOE setting can't adjust the DNS settings to go to say OPENDNS. makes you use whatever DNS is DHCP. Port forward to host only by same ports, no "receive on port X through gateway and port forward to host by way of Port Y."

Overall Review: Pointers: remember the Port binding when using DUAL WAN! at least bind ports for HTTPS. I also have to bind ports for our payment gateway for use of credit cards. If Dual WAN remember the MTU! DSL and Cable are different. It is just easier if you setup with Static WAN IPs

Pros: Easy to set up. Most functions work as described.

Cons: This router logs false "block" messages. So much so that It makes the internal machines on my LAN appear like hack-bots on the Internet. This is one important function that a firewall should provide and if one can't trust the logs...

Overall Review: I've received no response to my issue from Cisco so this baby's going back!

Pros: This used to be a great VPN router/firewall. We've deployed dozens of these without issue up until about 6 months ago.

Cons: Since about 6 months ago, every one of these that we've installed have factory reset themselves whenever they get rebooted. For obvious reasons, this is completely unacceptable in a business environment as it takes the entire network down with it. Yes, we've upgraded them all to the latest firmware, but still the same.

Overall Review: Cisco SMB support denies any fault too, which just makes matters worse.

Pros: Metal case

Cons: 1 to 1 NAT was a problem to configure. No GUI diagnostics other than PING or traceroute. No packet capture ability to help diagnose the problems.

Overall Review: Buy a used Sonicwall or Netscreen 5GT router instead for $50 - $75. I am not sure how this RV product line stays alive.

Pros: Using two of these to build a site-to-site VPN with approximately 10 concurrent users through the tunnel at any given time. The VPN has been working well.

Cons: The documentation on setting up the VPN was not terribly clear. The QuickVPN client flat out did not work connecting to this device and Cisco Small Business support flat out could not get it to work (I even let them log into it to configure it). So I had to configure the PPTP server and use the Microsoft Dial-up VPN client for remote users to connect to.

Overall Review: For the price, it is not bad for small deployments.

Pros: Dual WAN, secondary WAN port can be used as a DMZ if you wish, easy VPN setup for device to device or device to client VPNs too. Has built-in firewall with firewall config wizard for creating rules if you aren't familar with creating them yourself. It has a decent built-in help system as well. Overall, this is a good little device for a home office or small office (remote office situation). It does load balancing between the two WAN ports as well.

Cons: When using the device in load balance mode, you can run into issues with web sites that require logins, and secure sites. This is caused by some traffic being sent out both WAN ports. It would be nice if the device would track sessions and send all session data for a particular site out the same WAN port so that type of thing doesn't happen. I attempted to use the secondary WAN port for our VPN line, and make that port the 'smart link backup' or failover line, and when placing the device in this configuration the tunnel would come down. Beyond this issue, I can find no real fault with the device. It does seem to run warm, so don't place anything directly on top of it so it can radiate it's heat.

Overall Review: Our company runs two of these devices in our remote offices, and an RV082 (8 port, big brother to these guys) in our home office as the main feed for the VPNs and we have no issues with any of them aside from what's listed in the Cons section. I can say that we are happy with them all. Also, although this site shows 30 tunels in the specifications, the RV042 actually supports 50 tunnels, and the RV082 supports up to 100.

Pros: Very stable, plenty of RAM, highly configurable, easy to use, won't crater under heavy P2P load

Cons: Need additional switch for gigabit Ethernet, VPN may be tricky for some users

Overall Review: I use this router for a residential cable connection and between 6 to 8 systems. Also combined with gigabit swtich, 2 wireless APs, and print server. Net use is very connection intensive. Under these circumtances I could not find a "home broadband router" that did not need to be reset on a regular basis. That is no longer a problem. VPN functionality works well. Definitely worth the money.

Pros: Attractive enclosure, mounts nicely, easy to configure.

Cons: From the start, the router gives sub-par performance for Internet usage. Seemingly random domain names do not get resolved properly which leads to a frustrating experience for Internet users. Connections seem to drop on some websites. Expensive for what you get. Overall, dissapointing.

Overall Review: With an internal DNS server it would probably work as intender, but as a single device on a small office network, this device simply doesn't work.