FVS318 ProSafe VPN Firewall 8 with 8-Port 10/100 Switch

As a security consultant, I consult people everyday on the need for a solid defense-in-depth strategy to protecting their network resources from potential attacks. The same applies to your home networks! Most broadband/HSI providers do not provide much in terms of securing "your assets", but rather, are interested in protecting their own. Often times, the perimeter equipment that is recommended (such as a typical wireless AP/router) does not really provide much in terms of security, and does nothing in terms of providing remote connectivity to resources on your home network when away. In comes the FVS318 Firewall with built-in IP Security (IPSec) Virtual Private Networking (VPN) capabilities. The appearances of this appliance seemed to meet almost all of my basic requirements ... with one key exception: NetGear does NOT provide support for remote Mac OS X clients in any of their VPN solutions and corresponding documentation. Most client OS's support VPN's (Windows XP/7, Mac OS X, Linux/Ubuntu, Android, iOS, etc.) that require a "login mechanism" for user authentication, and they utilize a secure tunnel to maintain communications. The FVS318 is really meant for a site-to-site typeo of VPN which utilizes the IPSec tunnel without any user authentication. This would be the case when two branch offices are connected together. Enough of the heavy technical details ... the problem is "how can I connect my Mac OS X computer to the FVS318 remotely?". After researching this for some time, I found two products that both work exceptionally well for the Mac environment. The first is freeware called IPSecuritas from Lobotomo Software. This comes with a preconfigured template for the FVS318. The other, which is available for a free, is called VPN Tracker. Like IPSecuritas, it also has preconfigured templates for the FVS318. So, if you are considering a security appliance to use at your home, and are concerned about the lack of Mac client software, do not worry any longer ... a solution is available to make your FVS318 work seaminglessly in your local and remote network.

This model is past "end of life" according to Netgear, so don't expect any technical support. Even the Netgear webpage is not much use; however, the router is totally intuitive to set up and configure and works very well. This model does NOT have Wi-Fi LAN. After configuring the FVS318, I connected my old Wi-Fi modem in pass-through mode on the LAN side behind the firewall, so wired and wireless devices are now all behind the wall and all on the same LAN. Easy. Does a great job at a super low price. EDIT-A few more days later. Did not notice at first, but ethernet traffic has slowed down. Most noticed when streaming (Amazon Prime, Netflix etc....) the buffering is annoying.

I am the sole IT person for a company that has several branch offices and they are all equipped with one of these routers. They are updated to the latest firmware which may play a key role in my success with these routers, but so far I couldn't be happier. Not one has had a problem that couldn't be resolved with a power cycle. I am not doing anything too complex with these as their DHCP/DNS functions are being handled by a windows server and there is no need for VPN yet, but the expandability is good to have. Port forwarding is in use and working fine and the internet access policy, although not the most robust I've seen, it does the job. Internet access is quick and the setup is relatively easy. I am A+,NET+, and CCNA certified, however I don't think the setup requires a professional touch as the web access GUI is pretty intuitive. Lastly the body is good at keeping the unit cool, is easy to mount, and has a pretty small footprint. To combine all of this with a price tag that any power user or SOHO can afford makes it 5 stars to me.

I bought this router when, after switching modem's to a Motorola SurfBoard, my old SMC Barricade router/firewall would not communicate with it. SMC was worse than useless when I sought service help since the router was out of warranty (note to self -- avoid SMC products in the future). Anyway, I bought this Netgear router as it was the only one with 8 ports and firewall at a reasonable price. Oddly this market segment seems to have whitered as 3 years ago when I last shopped, I recall more options. Anyway, the Netgear has worked very well. I just connected it to everything and turned it on and it ran. I needed 8 ports because my house is hard-wired with CAT5 cable in each room and I like to use a wired connection when possible for security and speed. We are generally using at most 3 ports at once, so perhaps this is not the most testing application, but it has worked well for me. I'm not sure I'm getting all the benefits of the firewall, as some seem intended for more advanced users, but its has not failed in the 3 weeks its been working for me. My speed at each link was tested at 1.5M/Sec which perhaps is somewhat below what my modem direct would support, but that far exceeds the speed of most down-loads anyway. I've experienced none of the technical problems that some have reported, so perhaps the most up-to-date version has these fixed. I would highly recommend this router/firewall for anyone for a home with many ports or a small business.