Recommend A Mutliple WAN Router? Thinking RV042

[JustinSD]

Hello All,

We are looking for a good multiple WAN router for our office to do load balancing. We just ordered two DSL 3.0mbps down / 768kbps up lines because we need more speed and we want to switch our sales staff to Skype.

Here are the requirements:

--> Under $500
--> 2 WAN Load Balanced
--> Smart enough to handle special session state traffic. Example, if you start a HTTPS session on one DSL line it has to stay on that line. If you start an FTP session connection on one line it has to stay on that line.
--> VPN Tunnel Site-To-Site Support, Only need a max of 1 site-to-site tunnel, but nice to have more just in case.
--> Standard SPI Firewall With Port Forwarding
--> Reserve LAN Static IP's via MAC
--> Firewall throughput of at least 15mbps

The Linksys RV042 fulfills all our of requirements, but reviews are mixed, and often times say the load balancing is not all that good. Accurate, effective, and fast load balancing is very important, after all, it is the entire point of us upgrading from our current router.

If you guys could comment on how the Linksys RV042 preforms, and also offer up other dual WAN router products and models that fulfill our requirements, that would be awesome.

Thanks again!!

 

[JustinSD]

Quick follow up, I just read the review of the NetGear FVS336G and it support assigning certain types of traffic to certain WAN ports. This is exactly what I want. I probably will assign all SKYPE traffic to WAN2 and everything else to WAN1. Does the Linksys RV042 support this?

 

[thiggins]

Does the Linksys RV042 support this?

Yes it does.

 

[rcassettyjr]

You might want to consider a Draytek unit. I had never heard of them until last year but now that I have one, I am really impressed. I am running a Draytek Vigor 3300 which allows 4 wans and 4 lans (overkill for most setups but very cool). They have smaller units that have dual wan and failover/load balance/connection bonding. They are 100% rock solid reliable and easy to use. They are not mainstream in the US but there are a few places to get them here. I got mine used from ebay but they rarely appear there. They almost never hit the used market as most people I know who have them never get rid of them. I would look at the small business or enterprise ones. The dual wan ones without wireless should be a good fit for you and will be under $500. Here is the url for the mfg - http://www.draytek.us/

If you do a google search, you can find a few US distributors.

Good Luck

Bob

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

and also offer up other dual WAN router products and models that fulfill our requirements, that would be awesome.

http://www.peplink.com/

 

[Osamede]

You might want to consider a Draytek unit. I had never heard of them until last year but now that I have one, I am really impressed. I am running a Draytek Vigor 3300 which allows 4 wans and 4 lans (overkill for most setups but very cool). They have smaller units that have dual wan and failover/load balance/connection bonding. They are 100% rock solid reliable and easy to use. They are not mainstream in the US but there are a few places to get them here. I got mine used from ebay but they rarely appear there. They almost never hit the used market as most people I know who have them never get rid of them. I would look at the small business or enterprise ones. The dual wan ones without wireless should be a good fit for you and will be under $500. Here is the url for the mfg - http://www.draytek.us/

If you do a google search, you can find a few US distributors.

Good Luck

Bob

Ditto on the Draytek, I am running their 2100VG at home and it rock solid, far beyond typical consumer get. No overheating, no crashing no dropouts. It just works and works and works.

In got mine through SEG ( www.seg.co.uk ) in the UG, but in the US their main online seller is a company called Guideband (www.guideband.com )

 

[gde64]

McAfee Unified Threat Management (UTM) Firewall (Formerly SnapGear)

We have been using these for many years now in single, dual and quad WAN configurations and they never stop.

http://www.mcafee.com/us/enterprise/products/network_security/utm_firewall.html

 

[claykin]

My recommendation would be either:

Zyxel USG100
Sonicwall TZ100

 

[thiggins]

My recommendation would be either:

Zyxel USG100
Sonicwall TZ100

What are your thoughts about Sonicwall's mandatory support contract policy?

 

[claykin]

What are your thoughts about Sonicwall's mandatory support contract policy?

As far as I know, support is not mandatory on the TZ series unless you want support and firmware updates. I certainly recommend it, the 8x5 support for the TZ100 is fairly cheap, $53 for 1 year and $90 for 2 years. Add this on to the $220 price that etailers charge for the TZ100 and its still cheaper than many other solutions.

The USG100 is about $450 and its competitive in most ways to the TZ100.

I've never been a big fan of Sonicwall because of their support requirements, but the TZ series seems to be a new idea for them.

Why don't you ask Sonic to send you a TZ100 to test. They may take the stick out of their *&% long enough to oblige.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for the reply. So it doesn't bother you that a support contract is required even if you only want firmware updates?

Actually, Sonicwall frequently asks me to review its products and most recently, the TZ100 specifically.

I have held them off due to their higher pricing and general lack of interest in reviews of higher priced products.

But we'll be reviewing the TZ100 and NETGEAR's UTM10 in the coming weeks.

 

[claykin]

Thanks for the reply. So it doesn't bother you that a support contract is required even if you only want firmware updates?

Actually, Sonicwall frequently asks me to review its products and most recently, the TZ100 specifically.

I have held them off due to their higher pricing and general lack of interest in reviews of higher priced products.

But we'll be reviewing the TZ100 and NETGEAR's UTM10 in the coming weeks.

It absolutely annoys me that Sonicwall charges for firmware upgrades. They aren't alone in the upper end world. The fact that the TZ100 is $200 less than the Zywall USG100 makes it easier to stomach. It would take 4 years of Sonicwall support to equal the price of the USG100. After 4 years it will be a doorstop anyways, so doesn't really matter.

Look forward to the review. I'm hoping you'll be pleasantly surprised.

For the Netgear I would like to see a review of the UTM25, the big bro of the UTM10. Dual WAN is important to many people now.

 

[jmpage2]

Thanks for the reply. So it doesn't bother you that a support contract is required even if you only want firmware updates?

Actually, Sonicwall frequently asks me to review its products and most recently, the TZ100 specifically.

I have held them off due to their higher pricing and general lack of interest in reviews of higher priced products.

But we'll be reviewing the TZ100 and NETGEAR's UTM10 in the coming weeks.

Actually I hope you do review the TZ100, specifically the wireless model. I debated these exact same two routers, the TZ100 and USG100 for my wife's small business and ultimately decided on the TZ100. My wife previously had the RV042 and I just about had a stroke trying to get VPN to work reliably on it from Greenbow and other clients. I made the decision I would rather have an SSL VPN based router with better performance.

The deciding factor for me was that the TZ100 offered the enhanced Sonicwall OS which had a good reputation, and it had integrated wireless N which seemed like a plus as it would allow me to retire the old Wireless G access point we had been using.

Setting up and implementing the TZ100 was pretty easy. I have a medium complexity environment which consists of two LAN subnets with traffic restrictions between these zones. TZ100 handles this well, the security services seem solid and the performance is good.

The big problem I had with the device was with the wireless networking. I ran into a lot of disconnects, lockups of the wireless radio, etc. Ultimately I ended up turning off the wireless and sticking with my access point. Currently I am debating updating the FW and giving it another try as Sonicwall reports that they have resolved the wireless issues in this product. I would like the speed boost of being able to run the TZ100 in pure N mode (and using my legacy access point for the G stuff.

With the wireless turned off the TZ100 is as solid as a rock. I have had no issues whatsoever with it and the SSL VPN is a dream. I can connect with a multitude of clients painlessly, even allowing my wife to connect with her Macbook.

Now I'm debating a 2nd TZ100 for the home office to VPN to the one at our business location. I would get it to give me better throughput on our DOCSIS 3 connection as well as some of the more advanced capabilities such as real QoS traffic shaping for voice over IP, etc. Currently I am using a D-Link DIR-655 which is a reasonable device but pretty limited in performance and capability.