Small Business Networking Hardware Suggestion

I have used a Linksys EtherFast® Cable/DSL Router with 8-Port Switch for my office network for a few years.  Interestingly, I replaced 2 of them in that time and realized that, although the router meets manufacturer’s specs, I really exceeded them. 

The BEFSR81 (Linksys model number for it) was designed for 8 ports connecting to each other and to the Internet through a broadband connection such as DSL or cable.  What I found was that over time, this proves to be the very maximum of its capability.  Physically, you could string other devices to it for expanding this, such as adding a 5 or 8 port switch.  But apparently, the weight of this on this small router is too much for it and it will start to shutdown ports or crash the whole router.

My network contained the BEFSR81, a 5 port switch, 3 wireless routers (one for local access point, 2 forming a bridge between buildings), 2 servers, 11 workstations, 2 network connected printers, 2 other shared printers.  A typical crash happened once or twice a week for six months or so.  Then the frequency increased to once or twice per day, Then (towards the end) I was rebooting the router every 30 – 45 minutes.  Don’t get me wrong – I think this is a good product – I just wore it out (twice).

Time to go shoppimg.

I started researching.  I really didn’t need to go up to a Cisco or other large router, but I needed something more powerful than the home office routers that were offered.  After hours of research, I settled on another Linksys product – the RV082 10/100 8-Port VPN Router.  This router has its own Intel processor on board, 32 megs of RAM, and is built TOUGH!

Time to test it

Upon arrival, my current router was crashed so I immediately unboxed and setup the RV082.  It took roughly 10 minutes to be completely functional.  The web interface was extremely well designed and easy.

Next, I tried speed tests, at McAfee , dslreports, cnet – the router did improve my internet performance over the BEFSR81, but just slightly.  I really expected no improvement because I never felt that the BEFSR81 slowed down my access to the internet.

Crash proof?  Apparently so.  I have not ever had to reboot it, all users are reporting better performance, and the firewall that is built in to it has reported a few attack attempts.  No issues at all.

Bonus features

Dynamic DNS - I have been using dynDNS.org for about a year to give my network a DNS name and link to my DHCP issued ip address.  To do this, I have run a very inexpensive software program that watches for changes in my ip address from my internet provider and puts them in a database back at dyndns.org so that I can get to my server whenever I need to from anywhere in the world.  The software running this function on the server worked (sometimes) and failed a few times (which always seemed to be at a critical point).  Linksys built a replacement for this into the router as a feature.  You simply enter your dynDNS.org account info into the router, and if there is a change in the ip address, it automatically changes it back at dynDNS.org for you.

Firewall – Although the firewall features seem simple in the RV082, they are proving to help.  I will report more on this at a later time as I learn more about the technology Linksys has implemented for this.

VPN – Very strong VPN capability.  I am going to test ‘router to router’ and ‘router to client’ in the next few weeks and will leave info here on it.  I read the Users Guide on it, and examined the setup.  Looks pretty straight forward.

Port forwarding -  A little more cumbersome than previous models, but it did not take long to figure out and implement.

Final Note

I am extremely happy with the Linksys RV082.  It has added reliability and new capabilities to my network.  It has also reduced my stress level regarding management of my WAN.

The price (around $300 on the internet) does not seem like a value when you compare strictly on price and features listed by other manufacturer’s offering home office router solutions ($75 - $125).  What makes the difference and makes this router a great deal is when you put a value on the reliability.  I consider my time to be too valuable to be spending it re-booting a crashed router or worrying about putting my staff through the agony of being offline.

I would not call this a home office router – it has a niche beyond that.  If you have more than 5 simultaneous internet connections this router is a steal!