NETGEAR FVS336G Reviewed: VPN Your Way

[daved]

Thanks much to Tim and Dennis for your help; think I'll be buying the 336g, then.

Dennis, you mentioned that the Netgear WNDAP330 doesn't simulataneously support both 2.4GHz/g and 5.0Ghz/ n...do you know of/recommend a WAP that does?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Dennis Wood]

Both the Netgear WNDAP330 access point we purchased, as well as the Netgear FVS336G have been major headaches and time wasters for me over the last week. It would be hard for me to recomend either, although if you've time to fiddle, read, learn and then have time some more time to spend on the phone, you might be ok. I just finally got IPSEC VPN working on the FVS336G to Vista 64bit based on my own research on the topic. What I can say is that SSL VPN to 32 bit clients worked out of the box just fine. I'll be testing dual WAN behaviour on the FVS336G next week. The management interface can be quite complex, and is not well designed, however there are a pile of features there. Like the QNAP TS509 when it first came out (terribly buggy firmware) IMHO this router is 1 or 2 firmware updates away from being an excellent product.

The DRAYTEK 2950 is the only device I can find so far that most folks seem to like with a similar feature set. I cannot confirm that the 2950 however supports SSL VPN with 64 bit clients, and support is coming from overseas so I'd be slightly resistant to order one.

Tim, it would be great to review this device as there are very few dual WAN routers with SSL VPN out there to choose from.

Cheers,
Dennis.

 

[thiggins]

NETGEAR FVS336G vs DRAYTEK 2950G

NETGEAR FVS336G vs DRAYTEK 2950G

Free IPSEC VPN Solution Draytek 2950G

 

[PHyLIX]

NETGEAR FVS336G... waste of time...

I purchased both a Netgear FVS336G router and Netgear FS750T2 smart switch to provide net access to an apartment complex (32 units). I have a total of around 15 users, 3 of which I would classify as "power users". I've got 2 net connections (cable 18/1Mbps, DSL 1.5/.5Mbps).

I CAN NOT RECOMMEND THE FVS336G. I too encountered problems with the 336G locking up and also causing problems with my voip lines (downgrading the firmware solved the voip issues). I have been very impressed with netgears support and they infact shipped me a replacement unit but this did not fix/solve the problems.

I've since purchased the Draytek 2950g (thanks again Dennis Wood for your input!) and have been VERY IMPRESSED. Even though it's not fully configured/tweaked yet I've gone live with it and it has yet to go down. It's got true load balancing and the reporting functionality blows the netgear out of the water. It comes with some windows based software for monitoring your network/users which has helped me to identify a few bandwidth hogs.

My advice is that you search/read Dennis Woods forum posts on this site and if you DO go with a 336G then make sure you get EVERYTHING working on it well before the return policy date expires....

Both the Netgear WNDAP330 access point we purchased, as well as the Netgear FVS336G have been major headaches and time wasters for me over the last week. It would be hard for me to recomend either, although if you've time to fiddle, read, learn and then have time some more time to spend on the phone, you might be ok. I just finally got IPSEC VPN working on the FVS336G to Vista 64bit based on my own research on the topic. What I can say is that SSL VPN to 32 bit clients worked out of the box just fine. I'll be testing dual WAN behaviour on the FVS336G next week. The management interface can be quite complex, and is not well designed, however there are a pile of features there. Like the QNAP TS509 when it first came out (terribly buggy firmware) IMHO this router is 1 or 2 firmware updates away from being an excellent product.

The DRAYTEK 2950 is the only device I can find so far that most folks seem to like with a similar feature set. I cannot confirm that the 2950 however supports SSL VPN with 64 bit clients, and support is coming from overseas so I'd be slightly resistant to order one.

Tim, it would be great to review this device as there are very few dual WAN routers with SSL VPN out there to choose from.

Cheers,
Dennis.

 

[Superguy]

VPN SSL behind a DSL modem

Hi,

I have an FVS336G behind a DSL modem and am not able to use the VPN SSL features. I get network timeouts when trying to access it from the outside. I've tried configuring the DSL modem with port forwarding to forward everything from port 443 to 192.168.0.2 (which I believe is the FVS336G's address from the point of view of the DSL modem) and nothing has changed.

Anyone have any idea what I'm missing?

Cheers,

Superguy

 

[Unregistered]

Draytek 2950 v Netgear

I have had a 2950 working for a month now. Good reliable piece of equipment. SSL VPN works brilliantly with Vista, but not 64-bit. IpSec VPN works fine with 64-bit Vista and is easy to set up using teh Draytek client. The browser interface is good but not intuitive. The manual is complex but it needs to be because the capabilities of this unit are extensive. Fan is a bit noisier than a PC fan. I am using it with a bridged Vigor 120 modem which seems fine too.

This Draytek replaced a Netgear FVS336G which had a great manual, a good browser interface, but was very unreliable.

The router would just stop working and reboot itself, sometimes then slowing all access through the LAN and sometimes not allowing access to the WAN from PCs. Sometimes it was not possible to access the browser interface and a hard reset had to be performed. The firewall logs show it resetting every few hours, sometimes it would last only 15 minutes before going wrong. It ran extremely hot.

I upgraded firmware (which cut off all my Voip phones). I upgraded to Beta firmware - which caused SSL VPN problems. (Yes, I did manually input all the settings as recommended) I have had two replacement units. The problems remained. Netgear support were very prompt, helpful and sympathetic, but could not resolve any of the problems. Eventually I was able to get a refund from my retailer.

Thankfully, the Draytek just seems to work, although I have used only a few of its features - no load sharing, for example.

 

[Unregistered Guy]

Remote admin needs to be on

Netgear support told me that for SSL VPN to work on the FVS336G, you have to turn on Remote Administration, and the https address you use to connect from the outside has to be to the port that Remote Administration is set to, which is set by default, I believe, to 6668. So, try turning on Remote Administration and then use https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:6668/portal/VPNTest from the outside.