ZyXEL Next Generation VPN Firewall with 1 WAN, 1 SFP, 4 LAN/DMZ Gigabit Ports and 802.11ac/n WiFi [USG20W-VPN]

The ZyXEL router was recommended by the company providing my VOIP telephone service. It is a full featured router with WiFi that received very positive reviews and was a router that was priced competitively in the recommended list.Installation of the router required the assistance of my VOIP provider to properly set up the features. It was not something I could have done as a computer novice. After installing, I had a message that a firmware update was present. The update was something I had my IT person perform and it was not an easy task as instructions were not clear.The router has a built in VPN, but we are unsure if it is active or how to activate it if not active.

We bought one of these to setup a site to site VPN. It does everything we need it to do and more. Easy interface and good instructions online. Includes wifi which was a big plus for us so we wouldn't need another device. We've had no issues with speed or drop outs.

I had just bought and set up the wired USG20 router and the dashboard for the USG20W is very similar.I had done my setups from the LAN ports, but I imagine the accompanying USB/RS-232 cable could be used for setup and avoid conflicts when redesignating the assignments for the port you are connected to. I solved that by either connecting with a different port than the one I needed to change the assignment, or by simply rebooting the router once I made the change on the connected port.In years past, I have had neighbors that de-encrypted my WiFi password and sat on my WiFi account stealing bandwidth. This may not now be such of an issue because I offer a ZyXEL_Guest_WiFi account anyway. But, I could not find any specific MAC address filtering available to exclude unwanted use of the WiFi access point and my personal network.There is IP/MAC address binding, so it could likely be possible to tie up and assign all of the available IP address range to the designated MAC addresses. Doing that would make the MAC filtering for a broader range of open IP addresses unnecessary.

The firmware is hopelessly broken in the IPSec configuration page. Versions 4.20 and 4.25, despite enabling Java and opening up Safari, Internet Explorer, and Chrome (on macOS and Windows 10) to the widest possible security settings, fail to load the page to even allow me to input settings. I spent 6 hours combing Zyxel's knowledge base, resetting the router, and attempting every configuration permutation I could imagine.Perhaps Zyxel expects me to brush up on their proprietary command-line syntax. While its advertised features are powerful and exactly what I need, I can't even access the means of configuring them. Maybe this will meet my needs: TP-Link SafeStream TL-ER604W Wireless N300 Gigabit Broadband Desktop VPN Router, 120M NAT throughput, 10k Concurrent Sessions, 256 DHCP Clients, 20 VPN Tunnels

This router interferes with my payment processing app and email on my iPhone. When I shut the router off, everything works fine.

The 3 star review is based in the convoluted interface. Trying to adjust wireless settings is a challenge and I work with Cisco, Meraki, Unifi, SonicWall, Watchguard and many others on a daily basis. Whoever designed the interface could be a master puzzle maker.Other than a wonky interface, it seems to work well and routes traffic and allows inbound traffic as defined.Fix the interface and it is a solid 4 star budget firewall with enterprise features.

still exploring the product

Using the ZyXEL Next Generation VPN Firewall as our VoIP telephone router for phones hardwired to the connected switch and one over Wi-Fi. The call quality has improved dramatically over the old unit that it replaced. We are very satisficed.