Rating: 
Summary: Do yourself a favor - get a NetGear FVS328
Review: I've been using this router for almost 2 years. Recently it just stopped working - I think it finally burned out, probably due to all of the heat it generates while running. Besides that, I found that it was very slow, compared with other routers. Its VPN implementation works OK, but its slow also - I don't know why, since its hardware!!! I replaced it with a NetGear FVS328, I now my VPN connections are about 4 times faster, and my regular web browsing is a lot faster. Do yourself a favor get the NetGear!
Rating:
Summary: Do yourself a favor - get a NetGear FVS328
Review: I've been using this router for almost 2 years. Recently it just stopped working - I think it finally burned out, probably due to all of the heat it generates while running. Besides that, I found that it was very slow, compared with other routers. Its VPN implementation works OK, but its slow also - I don't know why, since its hardware!!! I replaced it with a NetGear FVS328, I now my VPN connections are about 4 times faster, and my regular web browsing is a lot faster. Do yourself a favor get the NetGear!
Rating: 
Summary: Great VPN Box for the Money
Review: I've read several complaints from people who can't get the VPN features of the router to work. Well, I can say in fact it works pretty well. The setup is difficult (as is with any VPN setup) but once you understand "exactly" how each parameter should be set, it does work. I've setup several connections to the VPN at my site with both the W2K and XP IPSec client software built into the OS. I rate it 4 stars because I've experienced some glitches with the unit (resets itself randomly), but it doesn't seem to be a problem that can't be fixed with a more current firmware upgrade. The overall features of the router are fairly impressive. However, if you need something a little more advanced, have a look at the Linksys RV082.
Rating:
Summary: Great VPN Box for the Money
Review: I've read several complaints from people who can't get the VPN features of the router to work. Well, I can say in fact it works pretty well. The setup is difficult (as is with any VPN setup) but once you understand "exactly" how each parameter should be set, it does work. I've setup several connections to the VPN at my site with both the W2K and XP IPSec client software built into the OS. I rate it 4 stars because I've experienced some glitches with the unit (resets itself randomly), but it doesn't seem to be a problem that can't be fixed with a more current firmware upgrade. The overall features of the router are fairly impressive. However, if you need something a little more advanced, have a look at the Linksys RV082.
Rating:
Summary: It just doesn't work.
Review: So many problems:
1) If you plug in a 10Mbps downstream device, the router will crash on the first packet collision. This is true even if the 10Mbps device is another Linksys router's upstream connection!
2) With only 100Mbps downstream devices, using an IPSec tunnel causes the router to crash intermittently. I've seen it stay up as long as six hours and as little as two minutes. This seems to correlate with how busy the upstream network is. I'm on a cable modem to a shared segment; when my neighbors start big downloads and the activity light goes nuts, the Linksys crashes quickly.
"Crash" here means that the router goes through its power-up sequence: light the red DIAG LED, wait a few seconds, turn off the red LED, wait a few seconds, and repeat. It won't stabilize until I unplug all devices so it won't see a packet collision during init.
I upgraded to latest firmware. Didn't help. I sent back the unit and got a "factory reconditioned" exchange. Didn't help.
3) Linksys phone support is useless. Toll-free and worth every penny. They operate off a few scripts, don't understand what they're saying, don't speak clear English.
4) Linksys email support is even more so. In addition to being of no help, they are obstinate and insulting.
Such a shame, every other Linksys product I've owned has worked flawlessly.
Rating:
Summary: Worked for 2 months then died
Review: Tech support is below average using call forwarding to India. Unit worked for two months then died. During that period, the two units would crash every day or two. This product does not work for small businesses.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy VPN setup, but requires massive amount of maintenance
Review: The Basic router functions and VPN setup are easy to perform and work well.
My problem is with the DHCP WAN connection. I have
two of these units on RoadRunner and neither will renew the
DHCP connection when it expires. Using the DHCP renew button on
the status page does not work either.As a result, we have to cycle the power on the BEFVP41 several
times per day to re-establish the DHCP connection.- a real
pain! Of course many times this results in a new IP address,
so I must change the security settings on the VPN to allow
the new client IP addresses to connect. This router takes
far more maintenance than it is worth - I could easily afford
to spend 10 times the money on the hardware if the maintenance
issues went away.
Rating:
Summary: Useless firewall
Review: The firewall is useless if you have more than one machine behind it. The port forwarding does not allow ranges of internal IP addresses, and if you specify more than one the the port stops working for ALL addresses. For example, want to open TCP/123 for NTP synchronization? Have more than one machine? If you don't forward the port, you can't connect to the NTP server. If you forward one IP, it works, but if you forward both IP addresses, neither of them are able to connect to NTP. There appears to be no support for RTP/RTSP streaming (e.g., QuickTime), though there is a mysterious (and essentially undocumented) "port triggering" feature. Absolutely no idea how this is supposed to work; the docs are nearly useless and there is nothing on the Linksys web site. In spite of the claims in the data sheet, it could not connect to the common IPSec VPN my company uses. It does not offer the option of logging firewall violations, so troubleshooting is very difficult. I'm using the latest firmware 1.40.2.
Rating: 
Summary: Connected 3 locations 40 PCs and 2 core operating systems
Review: The Linksys VPN Router gets the best results when you use one on each end, up to 40 tunnels. It took me 20 minutes per router to set up and make a permanent VPN connection. I did get one bad router. Each router must have exactly the same settings (That is what makes a VPN). On one router installation, I couldn't get a VPN connection. After checking the log, I found that there was a Crypto Sub-System error on that unit that prevented it from operating properly. I returned the defective unit and received a good one. With a properly configured VPN, there is no reason for IP forwarding or using the DMZ application. A Microsoft Domain controller, A Unix server, a main frame, 40 PCs, and several print servers are working together like they were in the same office. Linksys did a great job with this device. If you experience problems, it is likely to be your settings. Afterall, VPN is a rigid security application.
Rating:
Summary: Another Winner From Linksys, But It's A Challenge!
Review: The router/switch/NAT features of this little box work just like the other Linksys products in this line -- and just as well. What's new is the IPSec VPN support. You can set up secure tunnels over the Internet between two or more LANs using one of these boxes in front of each LAN. Alternatively (or in addition) you can set up a tunnel between a standalone remote PC and a LAN that has one of these routers *IF* the remote PC supports IPSec. Windows 2000 and XP support IPSec but Windows 9x/Me/NT do *NOT*. (If you want a Windows 9x/Me/NT PC to connect into an IPSec VPN, you will need a 3rd party IPSec driver, or just buy another one of these boxes to put in front of the PC.) Configuring IPSec on a Windows 2000 or XP PC is not exactly easy either -- Linksys' how-to document is SIXTEEN PAGES long! But the difficulty is not Linksys' fault -- rather it's due to Microsoft's tortured GUI for the IPSec configuration. But setting up a tunnel between two of these boxes is easy. It's only the standalone PC to LAN tunnel that is daunting. I want to give this product 5 stars. It works very well, and the price is almost too good to be true -- it compares quite favorably with other products costing 5-10 times more. But I have to take a point off because Linksys does not give enough emphasis to the Windows 2000/XP limitation of the standalone PC VPN client in its marketing copy, and there is not one word about how to configure the standalone client in the manual that comes with the router -- you have to hunt for it on Linksys' Web site. From what I see on the discussion boards, there are a lot of people who are lost without better information on these points. So if you plan to use a standalone VPN client, be prepared for a struggle, but hang in there -- it DOES work!
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