Linksys (RV082) CABLE/DSL VPN ROUTER W/8-PT SW
1 Does not Support Connections from "ANY" remote clients
I purchased this router to upgrade our BEFVP41. We have multiple remote sites connecting with DYnamic IP addresses. I was very disappointed in the fact that the router does ont have the option to accept requests from "ANY" Remote Gateway. After spending 2 weeks fighting with Linksys regarding this I was finally told that the only way I would be able to make the connection would be by registering a dynamic DNS for each of hte remote sites or get Static IP addresses. It makes no sense to me why Linksys would take the feature away in the RV Series routers.
2 Good small office router
Good small business router
Strengths:
Load balanced Internet connection options are great. Decent firewall.
Weaknesses:
VPN is a little complicated to connect to from xp/2000 Client. Have to play with the IPSec settings.
I am using the RV042 and a RV082 to connect an office in the US with an office in East Europe. The VPN is working perfectly.
- Excellent performance.
- Very reliable.
3 PPTP VPN dial-in not supported
If you have an office with remote users (connecting from home, the road, hotel) then this it not the right product for you.
The very important feature that is missing in the RV082 is lack of support for remote clients dialing in using the Windows-built-in PPTP VPN adaptor.
Because Linksys missed on that one, you have to install VPN client software for every remote computer. and getting your hands on that software is not easy and it costs you extra money and is not provided by Linksys.
This is the major difference between this router and the Cisco PIX 501 that costs just a little more.
True, PIX has 10 user max and only one WAN - but it this is more then enough for 99% of users.
I would buy the PIX501 and have a full-feature firewall with no need to buy extra software.
4 Excellent device
Appearance and initial impression:
I knew when I saw the Cisco stamp on the front then I knew that this was a serious piece of equipment. It arrives in a nice metal casing with mounting hardware. It would have been nice to have all the plugs on the back with the power and the lights up front instead of having lights and e-net plugs on the same side (but this follows in line with most of Cicso switch hardware).
Functionality:
Everything worked just as advertised (granted I have only been using the box for a week). The GUI works just like every other Linksys product and makes setup & maintenance a breeze. Got our VPN tunnel to connect two offices set up effortlessly inside of 5 min using two of these boxes. It truly is a one-in-all box Another reviewer said that firewall had to be disabled, but I believe that it was fixed with my firmware as I had no problems with that. I also like the ability to load balance / failover with two DSL devices (which as a good selling point for the client.)
Summary:
Cool device, I would recommend to anyone needing to bridge two or more (up to 50) offices effortlessly and cheaply.
Disclaimer:
I am an independent IT pro with no affiliation to any hardware/software manfgr. In other words I dont work for LinkSys and I am saying nice things because I really like the box :)
5 Definitely not ready for primetime
With all the mediocre reviews here, I was hesitant in buying this router. I bought it anyway because it is the cheapest router around with dual WAN and load balancing. Despite some of the earlier review, I am happy to report that I found everything worked including VPN, firewall, 1 to 1 NAT. And, they all worked fine together with one exception (see below).
But, I did find the router to be very unstable. In the last 2 months of operations, I have had to reset it at least a dozen times. In most cases, it either failed to route, assign DHCP addresses, connect VPN or the web interface failed to respond. And, it always requires a power down cold start. I am beginning to think the reset button on the front is for decoration only.
In the past 3 years, my primary WAN has only failed a handful of times, what good is dual WAN if the router fails more than that in just 2 months.
This doesn't include the hundred of times that I have to reset the unit during configuration. Sometimes, the unit's software will get itself into a knot after you save a configuration. It stills works (as a router) but some of the functions like NAT or VPN won't work correctly. This is very frustrating because you don't know if it is the software bug or wrong configuration. And, of course, there are the typical cases where the unit will completely freeze up after a config save. But, at least you can see it is dead and reset it.
The most disappointing thing I found was the one thing I liked about the router, dual WAN. The router will only keep both WANs up if you have it in auto load balance mode. Otherwise, it will to shut down the 2nd WAN even in manual balance mode. A problem if you want to use the IP address on the 2nd WAN for incoming traffic. The other problem is that the VPN doesn't always work when it is in load balance mode but it works fine in single WAN backup mode.
Bottom line, you get what you paid for and I will not buy this unit again. Definitely not worth the headache of having the whole office scream at you every other day because the Internet is down, again!
6 Healthy Performance at Consumer Level Pricing
I've recently had the chance to play around with this router. I'm really impressed by its features. DHCP can assign my servers a static IP, this is very handy. No more trying to reboot the systems in the correct order to get the IPs assigned right. No hard coding of static IPs into the boxes themselves. I like it. The firewall features are solid. The load balancing feature sounds nice (2 WAN connections), but I've not had the chance to test it. Priorities on the 8 port switch can be assigned, using QoS -- something not normally seen on a consumer level router. It supports RIP v1 and v2 as well. The VPN features seem to be pretty robust also. It has been reported that the VPN throughput can reach 67Mbps -- that is blazing fast. I've managed to setup 2 tunnels to it using both the W2K and XP IPSec clients. It seems to be a really nice router for the price.
7 Not ready yet...
I purchased this product and spent countless hours trying to establish the VPN connection throgh the firewall. Turns out that the VPN tunnel does not work, if you enable the firewall. The Linksys support mentioned to me that they became aware of it few weeks ago. I guess it wasn't tested properly before it was released to public. Good thing is that the VPN does work. I am using Windows 2000 client for my testing.
8 Good VPN solution for SOHO/Small business
I purchased the RV082 box because it is certified for interoperability test by www.vpnc.org . It seems to be the only one Linksys VPN product that pass the test. I am lucky that I made a right decision.
I set up a VPN Network using RV082 in my main office. One computer use Safenet as a VPN client at Home. Another 5 Computers using Linksys BEFVP41 as the VPN box to connect to RV082 from the Branch Office. They are working together like they were in the same office . I can monitor the VPN connection status from its VPN summary table.
There are also 15 PCs sharing the internet connection in the main office. The performance is really good.
I have not test the dual WAN function yet.
I will test it once my second link is ready.
Recommended!!
9 Disappointed!
I purchased Linksys RV082 based on hardware specs, price and ease of configuration with Linksys products. I was hoping that we will get faster performance for our office users that need to VPN into our customer's VPN network.
Good part is that hardware seems solid and well built with a fast processor and enough memory.
Bad part is that software does not seem to be ready. All I wanted RV082 to do was to share a small office DSL connection from Verizon Online with Static IP address. The unit works fine in my home with dynamic IP Address.
I could not get the unit to work with Static IP address. I did upgrade the firmware to 1.07. I called Linksys technical support and they were not able to help.
I also have sub $100 Linksys routers that work fine with static IP address in my office. So, I do not think there is a problem with our DSL line or configuration (which is relatively simple).
I am hoping that Linksys will test RV082 for simple test cases first and then for complex configurations.
10 RV082 sounds great, but it's not ready for prime time
Save your money and time, don't buy this unit. I am getting ready to package up and send back my SECOND RV082 VPN
router/firewall purchased from Amazon. I was really looking forward
to getting this piece of hardware installed, as it offers a great
feature set at a great price.
The main reason I bought was the price and the fact that this firewall
unit can handle 1 to 1 NAT. Unfortunately after spending time
configuring it, when I went to my data center to install it didn't
work exactly right. When trying to perform some last minute tweaks,
the unit basically crashed. This was the second time this happened,
and both times Linksys technical support said that it's a hardware
failure, there's nothing we can do for you and you must send the unit
back.
Well, 2 times in a row is enough for me. I'm going to go with a
Sonicwall I think. I think that the problem is this device is just
too new and I've become a beta tester! They don't even have any
firmware available for download, it's only the version that came
preinstalled (version ONE!!!)
If you still want to buy this unit, check Linksys' website to see if they have new firmware available. If not, don't waste your time!
