The heart of your connection-redundant secure small office network The Linksys 10/100 8-Port VPN Router is an advanced Internet-sharing network solution for your small business needs. Like any router, it lets multiple computers in your office share an Internet connection. But the unique dual Internet ports on the 10/100 8-Port VPN Router let you connect a second Internet line as a backup to insure that youre never disconnected. Or, use both Internet ports at the same time, and let the router balance your offices requirements between them for maximum bandwidth efficiency. The 10/100 8-Port VPN Router also features a built-in 8-port full-duplex 10/100 Ethernet switch to connect eight PCs directly, or you can connect more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need. The Virtual Private Network (VPN) capability creates encrypted tunnels through the Internet, allowing up to 50 remote office or traveling users to securely connect into your office network from off-site.

Former Linksys Business Series

Secure access at the heart of a small business network

Supports eight 10/100 wired connections for fast network transfers

Supports load balancing and failover redundancy on up to two ports

¿ Full IPSec Virtual Private Network (VPN) Capability using DES and 3DES Encryption Algorithms

Average Customer Review: ( 38 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

But, I did find the router to be very unstable. In the last 2 months of operations, I have had to reset it at least a dozen times. In most cases, it either failed to route, assign DHCP addresses, connect VPN or the web interface failed to respond. And, it always requires a power down cold start. I am beginning to think the reset button on the front is for decoration only.
In the past 3 years, my primary WAN has only failed a handful of times, what good is dual WAN if the router fails more than that in just 2 months.

This doesn't include the hundred of times that I have to reset the unit during configuration. Sometimes, the unit's software will get itself into a knot after you save a configuration. It stills works (as a router) but some of the functions like NAT or VPN won't work correctly. This is very frustrating because you don't know if it is the software bug or wrong configuration. And, of course, there are the typical cases where the unit will completely freeze up after a config save. But, at least you can see it is dead and reset it.

The most disappointing thing I found was the one thing I liked about the router, dual WAN. The router will only keep both WANs up if you have it in auto load balance mode. Otherwise, it will to shut down the 2nd WAN even in manual balance mode. A problem if you want to use the IP address on the 2nd WAN for incoming traffic. The other problem is that the VPN doesn't always work when it is in load balance mode but it works fine in single WAN backup mode.

Bottom line, you get what you paid for and I will not buy this unit again. Definitely not worth the headache of having the whole office scream at you every other day because the Internet is down, again!

11 of 11 found the following review helpful:

Good small office routerOct 14, 2004
By Ogi
Good small business router

Strengths:

Load balanced Internet connection options are great. Decent firewall.

Weaknesses:

VPN is a little complicated to connect to from xp/2000 Client. Have to play with the IPSec settings.

I am using the RV042 and a RV082 to connect an office in the US with an office in East Europe. The VPN is working perfectly.

- Excellent performance.

- Very reliable.

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:

Good VPN solution for SOHO/Small businessDec 24, 2003

I purchased the RV082 box because it is certified for interoperability test by www.vpnc.org . It seems to be the only one Linksys VPN product that pass the test. I am lucky that I made a right decision.
I set up a VPN Network using RV082 in my main office. One computer use Safenet as a VPN client at Home. Another 5 Computers using Linksys BEFVP41 as the VPN box to connect to RV082 from the Branch Office. They are working together like they were in the same office . I can monitor the VPN connection status from its VPN summary table.
There are also 15 PCs sharing the internet connection in the main office. The performance is really good.
I have not test the dual WAN function yet.
I will test it once my second link is ready.

Recommended!!

11 of 13 found the following review helpful:

Healthy Performance at Consumer Level PricingMar 04, 2004
By Eric L. DeBrosse
I've recently had the chance to play around with this router. I'm really impressed by its features. DHCP can assign my servers a static IP, this is very handy. No more trying to reboot the systems in the correct order to get the IPs assigned right. No hard coding of static IPs into the boxes themselves. I like it. The firewall features are solid. The load balancing feature sounds nice (2 WAN connections), but I've not had the chance to test it. Priorities on the 8 port switch can be assigned, using QoS -- something not normally seen on a consumer level router. It supports RIP v1 and v2 as well. The VPN features seem to be pretty robust also. It has been reported that the VPN throughput can reach 67Mbps -- that is blazing fast. I've managed to setup 2 tunnels to it using both the W2K and XP IPSec clients. It seems to be a really nice router for the price.

See all 38 customer reviews on Amazon.com