RV325 Dual Gigabit WAN VPN Router

I had been using a pair of cisco WRVS4400N routers to provide a VPN between my offices and internet and dhcp services to each local office for 6 years now. The routers had performed like a champ. I was starting to transmit more data between offices and transmit times were taking longer and longer. First, I increased my ISP bandwidth to no avail. Then I did some digging and found out that the WRVS4400n's had a max throughput of 2 Mbps when using the VPN which translates to about 250KBps. So increasing my upload speed from 3Mbps to 10Mbps didn't help once I realized my WRVS4400N's limitation. I did a lot of reading and wanted to stick with Cisco Small Business router series. I settled on the Cisco RV325 because depending on which specs you read I should get a minimum of 56 Mbps or if I hit the theoretical maximum I should be able to do 100 Mbps. Being my ISP is only 10Mbps even the lower number would work fine. I installed the routers and they have been working like a champ. I know have gone from a 50 hour data transfer to a 12 hour data transfer and general web browsing etc is much snappier. As a note, to migrate I created VPN's between the WRVS4400N's and the RV325 and that all worked fine for a transition with no incompatibilities. The most recent firmware is dated June 23, 2015 and the router has had 4 firmware upgrades that are available on the cisco support site. Being that it has been out for over 2 years now the firmware appears to be mature and with very few known bugs (none of which affect my business). At first I was hesitant to buy a router without Wi-Fi as I needed this but I decided to buy a separate Wi-Fi router and set it up as an access point. There are a few great advantages to doing that. 1. The wireless is offloaded to another box so my main router can concentrate on getting the traffic over the VPN as fast as possible. 2. As the Wi-Fi standards change I can swap out the access point and keep this router in place. I chose the ASUS RT-AC3200 Tri-Band Wireless Gigabit Router because the ASUS (RT-AC68U) Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router has been rock solid for a year and a half at my house. I love ASUS routers for wireless access. The RV325 supports up to 17 vlan's and I plan on using a few of them as I upgrade my services within my offices. Another nice thing about the RV325 is the fact that in addition to the GUI it has CLI. If your going to install several of these having the CLI will make scripting much easier. All in all I am extremely happy with this router I think it will serve my companies needs for years to come. If you have the WRVS4400n this is a great router to transition to.

I am very happy about this product. If you don’t have any experience with configuring complex router, you would be frustrating. I don’t have 2 ISP connection, so I cannot test dual-WAN function. But I would assume it works fine. All configurations can be configured by WebGUI. I wish I could have Command Interface to configure all configurations. CUI is limited. I spent quite a bit of time to play with this router before replacing the NETgear router. You can configure complex routing by using this router. Some peoples are complaining the performance of this equipment but I figured it out. You should use latest firmware. Also all home routers in the market are able to automatically optimize the bandwidth and QoS. But I had to configure them manually to get similar performance. For the internet service for the consumer by Comcast doesn't have even bandwidth (upstream/downstream). You have to put right value on the bandwidth management. If you don’t use VPN you should completely disable it. SNMP cannot capture the stats of each ports bandwidth. I wish I could define syslog’s facilities. You probably need to spend a time to reconfigure syslog server.

Just after upgrading to a 1Gbps symmetric fiber connection for my home, I learned that my previous router was limited to 350Mbps NAT throughput. My home setup consists of multiple ceiling WAPs as well as a fair number of wired connections, so the carrier provided network box just wasn't going to cut it. This router does perform to the advertised 900Mbps NAT throughput, and was a bit easier to set up multiple VLANs and address pools; can argue whether or not I really need that for my home network, but that's how I set it up. Despite the fact that I have two NAT conversions to get to the outside world, 900Mbps is a typical speed observed both in and out. The load balanced WAN is an interesting option, as I have occasionally seen my observed speeds tick just past the 1Gbps to the 1.2 that you might expect from an SFP port, although there may be some other artifact fooling the speed test sites there. Haven't had a need for the VPN connection, so can't comment there, but very happy with everything else on this router. Only drawback is that the software limits you to 24bit address pools, although, that really isn't a problem, if you do happen to have more than 250 devices, you can always stack pools together, although the configuration is a bit of a pain.

For those who are reading this as a ONE STAR, the VPN Router itself is great! It has a wonderful GUI interface that is intuitive to those who have a limited background in home networking. It comes exactly as described and is packaged very well. I do have one MAJOR complaint about this product though... I purchased this product specifically so that I could use the VPN. Prior to purchasing this VPN Router I went to the CISCO website and actually went through the simulation of the GUI interface that this router offers, and how it navigates. I went to the VPN section and navigated directly to the 'EASY VPN' area that I was interested in. I set it up, and clicked on the 'HELP' file in the upper right corner. The help file shows one all that they need to setup the VPN, and at the end it says, "Easy VPN—Allows remote users to connect this device by using Cisco VPN Client (also known as Cisco Easy VPN Client) utility available on...." then the website is provided. This client is what is necessary to connect to this VPN and the primary reason I purchased this router. After receiving the router, I set it up and got it working with my network. After that was all setup I pulled out the CD that was included with the VPN Router. Surly the Client Software would be included on that disc, right? No.... So I went back to the same HELP file that I remembered seeing in the simulator online on the CISCO website. I clicked on the link and it brought me to the CISCO website. Now it says that I need a support contract with CISCO to download this file. I thought surly there must be something that I need to register online. I then went to create an account and register my device with CISCO. After it was registered it still stated that I needed a support contract to download the client. I thought there must be an error, because this VPN is offered as part of the VPN Router I just purchased, and even in the help files it says, "Download it here" to get it to work... After all its just a client, right? I called Cisco and talked to technical support first. The first lady stated that she couldn't verify my serial number even though it was verified through the Cisco system AND registered. She transferred me to another tech. The second tech told me that we DO in fact have to purchase a CISCO support contract to download the client to use the VPN I JUST PURCHASED! He recommended that I use PPTP as a means to VPN, which we discussed is the most insecure means of forming a VPN by passing information in clear text. How could CISCO do this for a Business Class Router?! This is not only completely misleading their customers, but false advertisement by placing this within their router emulation on their sales site! I asked for it to be escalated, and spoke to another representative that suggested that the device be replaced... what?! She obviously had no clue so I spoke with another representative who said she would look into it, and I have now been on the phone for over 2 hours! Completely dissatisfied with CISCO's customer support and that they did not supply this client. Misleading and False Advertisement!

I've had this router for some time now and had planned on purchasing a second for a different location but so far I am less than pleased with the result of this router (slow) and Cisco's Technical Support response (none) that a second will not be purchased until the issues have been resolved. It appears to be well-built, has a good user interface and has enough switched ports (14) built in without the need of an additional switch but the speed is a big issue. I am not a stranger to configuring networks and routers but with a Cisco modem that outputs 100mbps, I would expect the same through the router but the best I can get is around 25mbps. Some online forums, most of which report the same problem, suggest disabling part or all of the firewall which, of course, is not a permanent option but I did try it temporarily with no change whatsoever in the speed. Also, there have been several times where for whatever reason the network went down and did not reconnect. Since I am using this at a remote location, I had to make a long trip to reset it. If it had happened once I would not be concerned but it has happened several times and one of those times required resetting it to factory before it would reconnect! Clearly the firmware is very buggy.

A little disappointed with this device. We purchased one for our datacenter collocation and it's working well at that location. We purchased a second one to replace a Cisco RV082v3 at another facility and unfortunately there is a known issue that makes it unusable to us. If you have a static IP block assignment, and the assigned addresses are not contiguous with the WAN IP, the 1-to-1 NAT assignments won't work. Ironically, this was not a problem with the RV082v3, which is somewhat of a previous version of this device. After contacting Cisco Support, they notified us that this is a known issue with no work-around which would not be addressed by a future firmware update.Unfortunately, our only options were to have our IP block assignment changed or search for a new device. For our one location, we opted to look for a new device. However, this suits our needs and works flawlessly at our datacenter collocation.

I got it to work without too much trouble. It's not a perfect product, but its perfectly usable if you have sufficient technical knowledge. I'm using it with a cable modem through Cox Communications. Setting up basic IPv4 internet through the wizard was simple enough. I have not seen any performance issues, and the device has been stable. What works: - IPv4 NAT routing, the DNS proxy, assigning fixed IP addresses and local DNS names to a few machines on both IPv4 and IPv6. - keeping my DynDNS host DNS entry updated - allowing inbound services through port forwarding - Cisco Easy VPN works with my iPad (on T-Mobile at least) - Obtained access to IPv6 through 6to4 routing (Cox has not enabled IPv6 on the consumer side where I live) What's not so good: - the SSL VPN is not worth the trouble (these client-less VPNs all have problems, even the really expensive ones) - You can have only one VLAN with IPv6 as far as I can tell. - the documentation leaves quite a bit to be desired. All in all it's a decent device for the price. It's fine if you can live with its limitations.

This appliance was tested and compared to a similar Netgear business appliance. Impressive system for the advanced home users and most small business users but not intended for complex business use with multiple front facing instances. I have tested this unit under basic needs and advanced home/business needs both of which worked well but i did hit some snags with the tunnels and front facing servers hosting my websites and FTP server. I had to use my head a bit to work through the problems that I was experiencing but it was resolved after some research. Overall i am happy with this appliance compared to the Netgear UTM 25 & 50 devices as Netgear charges for everything and you have to buy annual support for advanced replacement options. With Cisco, i purchased a 3 year advanced NBD replacement plan for $49.00 PLUS this unit gives you multiple ports to connect devices. Please remember that this appliance can never be compared to the ASA5505 or higher series. This is only intended for budget friendly home & small business users. VPN works very well, the VPN tunnels work and port restrictions work. I have tested this with gaming as well