RV325 Dual Gigabit WAN VPN Router

Top notch high end home / small business router. Not for novice users. The documentation is for network people and assumes you already know a lot about complex networking topics so if you are not a geek, you will need to plan to hire one to help set this up correctly. If you don't, expect odd behavior and issues. I have been running with dual WAN from separate ISP (not multihoming just load balance (which is somewhat crude but works)) with no issues for about 6 mos. now. The box is very stable and I have not had it hang up or require a restart unless I do something stupid. All my stuff is on UPS so I don't know how it would handle power bumps and such. It does boot up pretty fast. The HMI is reasonable and is seems to have solid security. There are several VPN options but I have only used the basic ones so I can't speak to how it will integrate with a larger VPN setup. It has a robust firewall and gives you lots of options for poking holes for services and ports etc.

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.

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!