Rating: 
Summary: Cable/DSL ProSafe VPN Firewall with 8 Port Switch
Review: 8 VPN Tunnels for Encrypted Remote Access.Want the utmost in network security for your office? NETGEAR's FVS318 ProSafe VPN Firewall provides business-class protection at a NAT router price. This completely equipped, broadband-capable Virtual Private Network (VPN) firewall is a true firewall and provides it all ' Denial of Service (DoS) protection and Intrusion Detection using Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI), URL access and content filtering, logging, reporting, and real-time alerts. It initiates up to 8 IPSec VPN tunnels simultaneously, reducing your operating costs and maximizing the security of your network. With 8 auto-sensing, Auto Uplink' switched LAN ports and Network Address Translation (NAT) routing, up to 253 users can access your broadband connection at the same time. BUSINESS CLASS SECURE Initiates up to 8 IPSec VPN tunnels simultaneously, allowing for secured connections to branch offices and the "on-the-go" mobile workforce. Network Address Translation (NAT) routing enables shared access to your broadband connection. Includes Web page URL content filtering and 168-bit 3DES IPSec encryption capability. Sends you e-mail notification of network activity ' reporting and tracking of hacker attempts ' as well as real-time alerts. WELL-ARMED Has everything you want for maximum security coverage: True Firewall using Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) and Intrusion Detection features, Denial of Service (DoS) attack protection, and VPN pass-through for extra security. There's even a Kensington Lock ' slot on the unit for theft protection. And with free Freedom' anti-virus and privacy protection software, the FVS318 ProSafe VPN Firewall provides optimal value and defense against network security threats. USER FRIENDLY Smart Wizard connects to your ISP quickly; the easy-to-use Web-based configuration screen and Install Assistant reduce setup time. Remote administration capability makes connecting to multiple sites a breeze. FLEXIBLE Make a VPN connection to other FVS318's or through client software*. Support for DHCP (client and server) as well as PPPoE allows for easy, widespread deployment.
Rating:
Summary: Great Solution for VPN
Review: After racking my brain for days on how to use a VPN between two private networks with a windows 2000 server, I stumbled across the FVS318NA. I am very pleased with the results so far. Setup was easy with no problems. With in minutes, everything was working great. The default setting are probably good for most home users with DSL/Cable Modems who has dynamic IP addresses. Would recommend to others!
Rating: 
Summary: Still a beta box
Review: As of today(8/26/02 @ 22:00 UCT), The KVS318 production firmware on their website is still at 1.00 . My FVS318 routers consistently drop sessions in SSH, TELNET; many SSL logins fail, many JHTML pages fail to load. HTML pages intermittently load slowly, partially or not at all. I had to remove them from our network to resume business. Their support is unresponsive. If I am able to get through on the phone the support reps are difficult to understand. Their technical support people have, in my experience, misenterpreted questions or problems even when I sent them TCP dumps, traps and logs to support the incident report. It appears English is a second language to their support people, a fact evident in their e-mail and web site support replies. Their answers are unreliable and often recommend disabling a feature like site keyword blocking or forwarding ports to non-existent computers. On their support web site they have closed some of my cases without answers, fixes or workarounds provided. As of 8/26/02 @ 22:00 UCT, their U.S. support is presently on firmware beta N1.01 with no date available for the production firmware to be available. It fixes a lot of problems but in my opinion is not yet production quality. For those who have a requirement for a product with features that work as advertised, I recommend against the FVS318. I recommend the DSLREPORTS web site for more information, support topics and user experiences with the FVS318.
Rating: 
Summary: Great router but $$$ for VPN client may be required
Review: Beware that the native 9x/Me/NT VPN client will not work at all as they don't support IPSpec. The 2K/XP VPN client will ONLY work from a static IP address to a static IP. If you are connecting from a dynamic IP such as a dial up you will need to purchase additional software such as Netscreen-Remote or SafeNet. Hint: Netscreen is much cheaper!<...
Rating: 
Summary: Everythings not included, expect to pay more
Review: Box is misleading, although you can support 8 VPN clients the client software is extra. Expect to pay another $45 for one license and $130 for five. Input a complex password; ended up getting locked out several times, have to reset w/ a button on the switch and reconfigure. Letters and numbers work fine. So far the rest seems good. Should protect your always on connections.
Rating:
Summary: Pure laughtable crap!
Review: Don't waste your money and time on this garbage, it is laughable crap that stops to work by its own reason and its own will. No one of administrative options works properly, no password works reliably. Netgear is low quality, or not, out of any concept of what is word quality means. It is made in China and debugged probably in India! I gave it 1 because there is no option to give it -5. Pass to ANYTHING else, do not mess with that.
Rating:
Summary: This is NOT a VPN router!
Review: First I'll state for the price the fvs318 appears to be an excellent value, however the devil is in the details. I guess you could say: "You get what you pay for...maybe not even that". The requirement that this appliance should satisfy but does NOT is the following: Network setup:
Site 1: Home office example: simple local setup 1 flat Ethernet segment, access to internet. Site 2: Enterprise main office: Multiple subnets which is a very common setup, access to the internet. Problem:
The Problem with the FVS318 (likely in all safenet products ) is that any users on Site1 of the vpn are not able to reach any reachable IP addresses not directly connected to the (site 2) enterprise FVS318. If there are any subnets beyond that the packets are denied transport by the FVS318 (on both sides). Technically there is no reason for this restriction; I can only hope it was the suggestion of a clueless sales droid to sell more hardware. I was unable to locate publicly any available documentation that explains the critical restriction.
The reason I know this is that NetGear support stated that I should've known this before purchase. When I responded with: "There is no publicly available info on this restriction", he attempted to find it in the public domain and NetGear's site, but admitted it wasn't available. To add to this insult, Netgear's Level 2 support suggested that I call their premium support (pay support) that they may have a work around. The disappointing experience I had with NetGear support I suspect is not uncommon. At this point I'll declare success if I can return the netgear equipment and get my $$ back. However Netgear support will not even admit that this issue is a reason to return the equipment for a refund. I have other complaints about the box from a reporting perspective and limited port forward sessions (limited to 16) , along with not being able to re-map an incoming port to a separate private port but these complaints pale in comparison to the obvious technical oversight explained above. Executive Summary: If you have a simple home setup with 1 flat ethernet segment on both ends the fvs318 is fine. However, if you ever expect to have another routable segment on either end of the network (most commonly found with enterprise networks ) you should save yourself the time and frustration. Rely on 3Com (3cr856-95 nice competing product) or SSH or encrypted GRE. Do NOT consider this box for one moment if you expect anything more than a secure connection between Joes-Home-Network with Johns-home-network. I hope this helps. dwd
Rating:
Summary: This is NOT a VPN router!
Review: First I'll state for the price the fvs318 appears to be an excellent value, however the devil is in the details. I guess you could say: "You get what you pay for...maybe not even that". The requirement that this appliance should satisfy but does NOT is the following: Network setup:
Site 1: Home office example: simple local setup 1 flat Ethernet segment, access to internet. Site 2: Enterprise main office: Multiple subnets which is a very common setup, access to the internet. Problem:
The Problem with the FVS318 (likely in all safenet products ) is that any users on Site1 of the vpn are not able to reach any reachable IP addresses not directly connected to the (site 2) enterprise FVS318. If there are any subnets beyond that the packets are denied transport by the FVS318 (on both sides). Technically there is no reason for this restriction; I can only hope it was the suggestion of a clueless sales droid to sell more hardware. I was unable to locate publicly any available documentation that explains the critical restriction.
The reason I know this is that NetGear support stated that I should've known this before purchase. When I responded with: "There is no publicly available info on this restriction", he attempted to find it in the public domain and NetGear's site, but admitted it wasn't available. To add to this insult, Netgear's Level 2 support suggested that I call their premium support (pay support) that they may have a work around. The disappointing experience I had with NetGear support I suspect is not uncommon. At this point I'll declare success if I can return the netgear equipment and get my $$ back. However Netgear support will not even admit that this issue is a reason to return the equipment for a refund. I have other complaints about the box from a reporting perspective and limited port forward sessions (limited to 16) , along with not being able to re-map an incoming port to a separate private port but these complaints pale in comparison to the obvious technical oversight explained above. Executive Summary: If you have a simple home setup with 1 flat ethernet segment on both ends the fvs318 is fine. However, if you ever expect to have another routable segment on either end of the network (most commonly found with enterprise networks ) you should save yourself the time and frustration. Rely on 3Com (3cr856-95 nice competing product) or SSH or encrypted GRE. Do NOT consider this box for one moment if you expect anything more than a secure connection between Joes-Home-Network with Johns-home-network. I hope this helps. dwd
Rating:
Summary: Great hardware - Stick to another Clientware though
Review: For the money, you cannot beat this product, however, when setting up the remote VPN clients Netgear will gouge you for every dollar you have (Fee-based support for VPN05L). The tech support for the FVS318 was free and helpful as far as general setup/firewall/routing but Netgear's VPN Client is just SafeNet v10.0, the config files they send you (.spd) are bunk and the instructions for the VPN client are worthless. SafeNet has the correct support files for connecting to a FVS318.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to Configure - Strong Protection
Review: Had this for less than fifteen minutes and it was up and running with minimal effort. It gives you strong protection capability, with lots of options to configure and change as to whatever you desire. In the first day of operation, my DSL connection was protected against a handful of probes for open ports. I can't recommend this product highly enough.
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