NetGear FVS318G ProSafe 8-Port Gigabit VPN Firewall user reviews

Pros The product description and technical specifications

Cons The fact that the router lives up to none of these specifications. I am willing to answer factual questions regarding the nature of the failure and the failed attempts to resolve the failure, just contact me.

Summary I am an IT technical user with strengths in networking and security. Prior to implementing this router in my network, I contacted Netgear concerning functionality and stability. I was assured that the router was completely stable. However, on receiving and setting up the router, I experienced immediate and critical failures. When I contacted Netgear, they informed me that this device has a list of known issues. So far the only function that works correctly is that the LED's flash and light up as expected. Contradiction anyone? Here is a list of the issues, attempted fixes, and results:

The router comes stock with the 3.0.6-16 firmware. At least once every 24 hours, most often many more times every day, the router will experience a clock skew to Dec 31, 1969. This severe clock skew results in a de-validation of the DHCP leases on both the LAN and WAN sides, thus disconnecting every device connected to the router. In order to regain connectivity, the router must be restarted by unplugging and replugging the power. This issue has been documented in detail in many sets of logs I maintain.

Netgear will attempt to resolve the issue by having the user dance their way from firmware to firmware, eventually running through all 7 available firmwares (including the beta firmware). To date, the 3.0.7-21 firmware is the most current, and experiences the same problem. In addition, within the new firmware, computers within the network will be dropped back to 100mbps or even 10mbps without cause or explanation. Netgear will then offer to RMA the router with another FVS318G. They are doing this knowing that the fault is affecting the entire line of FVS318G routers. You then spend another month testing firmware and suffering downtime and incurring losses.

In the end of the process, Netgear will offer only one recourse. They will require you to upgrade to the FVS336G, a 4 port gigabit router. This is regardless of your infrastructure needs or regardless the fact that the FVS336G has been reviewed and shown to be unstable as well. In order to upgrade you are required to pay an additional $120 dollars for the transition to the new device. If your network needs more than 4 ports, the cost of an additional switch is also yours to burden.

Netgear's equipment is showing increasingly negative trends in stability, resulting in huge amounts of downtime. Additionally, Netgear's customer service is the poorest I have ever encountered. They acknowledge that they have misinformed you about the device, offer no recompense for having been blatantly lied to before the purchase, constantly pressure you to purchase their service contracts on an unstable device, and end with bullying you into spending more money for a replacement that is both unstable (according to many reviews) and may not even suit your networking needs. They are outright refusing other options to replace the router, insisting rather that you pour more money into an already costly loss situation.

In the end, my faith, as an IT and Networking savvy and educated customer, is somewhere between shaky and shattered. As stated in my cons, I am willing to share factual and documented experiences with those who require further information. I am not just some guy with an axe to grind. As a professional I do not wish to see home users or professionals suffer the same problems and losses that I have had to endure. I am currently reviewing many other devices, and will potentially update this review later with an alternative recommendation to this complete waste of LED's.