Rating: 
Summary: A great product for an advanced home user!
Review: Hello - I see that there are a mix of reviews, so I'll try to put my angle in perspective. I am an advanced home user in the respect that I am pretty knowledgeable about basic networking and have a basic lab at home with three PCs. Anyway, my needs are strictly limited to (1) providing the most security for my PCs and (2) allowing the networked PCs to see each other when needed. The FVS318 is one of the few Netgear products that passes the GRC.COM and symantec.com security scans. No ports open and no responses - total stealth according to those scans. That is important because I have a cable connection and leave my machines running 24x7. The router has been very stable. I don't think I've ever had to reboot it in the past year. Most of the newer Netgear products are very poor but this one is still great.
Rating: 
Summary: This is Version 2, Not 3
Review: I bought this for the hardware firewall. I got version 2, not 3. Amazon and (Amazon vendor) J&R listings did not indicate version.
I use it for two networked PC's and the firewall: no more, no less.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy interface and set up, lots of features, little price.
Review: I got this router to replace a reliable Linksys router that lacked the Netgear FVS318NA's VPN feature and 8 port built in switch. The VPN feature and the 8 port integrated switch are the best selling points for this Netgear router over other brands and models. The built in Virtual Public Network (VPN) feature let's you use the FVS318NA with a wide variety of VPN Clients and Hosts (not all of course, but many.) Netgear has a 25 page online document that tells you how to VPN your FVS318NA to a Windows 2000 Server for example. Easiest of course is to buy two FVS318NA's and create a point to point VPN between two offices, friends and family with DSL, a cable modem, etc. The built in 10/100 switch and Internet connection sharing means most people with small networks won't need to purchase a separate switch in order to plug in all of their computers, game systems and other Ethernet\Internet using devices. The built in Firewall offers more than the usual NAT invisibility (it does stateful inspection of packets) and logging is adequate but could be better (more information than is currently available in the router's logs would be helpful for troubleshooting problems and or security.) All in all you will not be disappointed with the money spent on this little "network cabinet" in a box. Netgear seems to have thought of most everything your power home or small to medium office user would want.
Rating:
Summary: Great home or small office true "firewall" and router.
Review: I have been using the Netgear FVS318 router firewall for over a month now with not one glitch. For the money, this is an amazing bargain considering it is a true SPI firewall and a certified ipsec VPN endpoint for eight tunnels included with a eight port switch! The quality of Netgear products are also commendable. We had it up and running in less than fifteen minutes. My son configured two ipsec vpn tunnels with his friends networks using Linksys VPN routers in short order and I have one configured to my Windows 2000 computer at work that is behind a nat router using Windows 2000 built in ipsec capabilities. All three of our ipsec tunnels have proven to be reliable. I also have no problems using remote desktop through port 3389 or going to my pptp Windows 2000 vpn server through port 1723 behind the FVS318. We have not experienced any of the problems that other reviewers have, but we have experience configuring these kinds of devices. The FVS318 has fairly extensive built in logging though it does not store much information itself but it can be configured to transfer log information to another computer and can even send you an email alert if certain attacks are detected. It has configurable services based on ports and protocols that are used to create port forwarding to inbound services and block outbound services. However you are limited to 16 services. It can control outbound traffic which is very important to defend against undetected trojans or users [and kids] running things like file swapping or other unapproved applications that access the internet. Internet access can be even controlled by a day/time schedule. If your network is fairly simple, a default block all rule could be created [which must be at the end of the list] and then you can specify what outbound services are allowed. It is also possible to deny a computer or address range of computers from having internet access while allowing others full access. Though the block services is a great addition to this device, it is somewhat limited if you have more than a few variations of configurations compared to a more sophisticated [and much more expensive] soho firewall, and the services can not be configured to use certain ip address/subnet destinations for outbound control which should not be a big deal for most home/small office users. However inbound services/port mapping can be configure to come from specific ip address/subnet. That is an important security feature. For instance if you open an internal computer for remote managment, you can configure the FVS318 to accept connections from only one ip address, which will keep everyone else on the internet from trying to connect and guess your password! I am very impressed with the Netgear FVS318. Being a true SPI firewall and ipsec VPN endpoint with all the other feaures it has in a quality package, I can highly recommend it to anyone that wants a bargain priced internet device that is a big step up from the consumer grade nat routers.
Rating:
Summary: FVS 318 works nicely with Firmware 1.3
Review: I have installed 2 of these units in two very similar applications. The first one was a disaster. Firmware v. 1.0 was unstable and kept disconnecting us. Although firmware 1.2 was available it could not be loaded on the originally shipped unit or on its first replacement. The second replacement came with v 1.1 and we upgraded it to 1.2 without trying to use it w. v. 1.1. It worked well at this point. The next time I installed one (about 2 months later), the unit came w. version 1.3 firmware and it worked well right out of the box. Despite the frustration of the initial unit, I felt Netgear people were very responsive and helpful. Because of their support, I gave them another opportunity - and was happy with the result. I have not used the VPN feature and cannot comment on it.
Rating: 
Summary: Customer = = Beta Tester
Review: I purchased a FVS 318 on March 2004. FVS 318's administrative interface allowed me to change HTTP port forwarded traffic from web server 'A' to web server 'B'. However, FVS 318 never implemented these changes I made within the administrative port forwarding interface. FVS 318 continued to forward traffic to web server 'A'. Nothing short of resetting factory settings would allow me to reconfigure HTTP port forwarding. Not acceptable for a small business. Netgear technical support (located in India) was ineffectual. Both support technicians were clueless regarding Web Services, HTTP Headers, and DNS. After 45 minutes I was told the firmware on my recently purchased FVS 318 router was two versions behind the latest 2.4 version. Neither support technician could confirm a firmware upgrade would resolve bugs regarding reconfiguration changes to HTTP port forwarding. Fortunately, once FVS 318 was operating the latest 2.4 version firmware, HTTP port forwarding could easily be modified. I have lost faith in Netgear. Netgear appears to sell products which are not fully quality tested. Given my difficulty with port forwarding, I can only imagine the bugs awaiting my implementation of VPN and/or Network Printing. I choose to spend my money on a Cisco SOHO 90 series router. In the future I will give greater credence ti other customer reviews. (reviews not written by Netgear representatives)
Rating:
Summary: Customer = = Beta Tester
Review: I purchased a FVS 318 on March 2004. FVS 318's administrative interface allowed me to change HTTP port forwarded traffic from web server `A' to web server `B'. However, FVS 318 never implemented these changes I made within the administrative port forwarding interface. FVS 318 continued to forward traffic to web server `A'. Nothing short of resetting factory settings would allow me to reconfigure HTTP port forwarding. Not acceptable for a small business. Netgear technical support (located in India) was ineffectual. Both support technicians were clueless regarding Web Services, HTTP Headers, and DNS. After 45 minutes I was told the firmware on my recently purchased FVS 318 router was two versions behind the latest 2.4 version. Neither support technician could confirm a firmware upgrade would resolve bugs regarding reconfiguration changes to HTTP port forwarding. Fortunately, once FVS 318 was operating the latest 2.4 version firmware, HTTP port forwarding could easily be modified. I have lost faith in Netgear. Netgear appears to sell products which are not fully quality tested. Given my difficulty with port forwarding, I can only imagine the bugs awaiting my implementation of VPN and/or Network Printing. I choose to spend my money on a Cisco SOHO 90 series router. In the future I will give greater credence ti other customer reviews. (reviews not written by Netgear representatives)
Rating:
Summary: Stick to LinkSys..
Review: I purchased this as an upgrade from my 4 port LinkSys router. What a mistake! Simple port redirection for HTTP or FTP works just fine. But I use my home network for managing remote sites. So, when I tried to use Remote Desktop (RDP) to manage a Win 2000 Server box, the connection froze before I could get to the login screen. The log said that the FVS318 had rejected suspicious packets. After trying to change settings and test - over and over again, I finally upgraded the firmware from 1.1 to 1.3. No change. I also use Outlook Express to manage my Hotmail and some other POP3 email accounts. Everything came through but my Hotmail. ...
Rating:
Summary: Frequent lockups
Review: I purchased this router for the 8 ports and built in firewall. Unfortunatly it never works for more than 6hours. It came with firmware v1.3. After having to reboot 3 times within 24 hours I upgrade to v1.4. Unfortunatly I had the same lockup issues. I sent an email to tech support but never received a response. I then downgraded the firmware to v1.3 and the lockups remained. This is completely unacceptable. After a call to tech support (They answered within 5 min) and an explanation of my problem they suggested that I return the router as defective. I received a second router and had the same problem. I replaced my cable modem (SB4100) with an SB3100, this helped and I was able to stay conencted for about 1 week. Then the problem returned for 2 days of headaches. A call to my ISP (Road Runner) tech support and they came out to check my signals. All they could do was replace the modem with a SB4200. The problem was still rearing its ugly head. Netgear tech support returned my email (2 weeks after sending it) and said that the SB4100 modems have had voltage problems and may be the cause. Unfortunatly changing modems didn't help and my ISP and Netgear just seem to point the finger at each other. When the router was working it seemed to perform well. The features are excellent and the interface is very good.
Rating:
Summary: Unstable
Review: Still a beta box, If you get much beyond a basic configuration, this box is not for you. Running the latest firmware (1.2) the box crashed several times and had to be initialized. Netgear's technical support states that this box cannot be used a just a VPN server, it must also be used as the network gateway in order for the VPN's to work. Entirely not acceptable.
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