Spec me a high throughput VPN/Firewall Router

john_lickman

john_lickman

john_lickman

Associate
Joined
12 Dec 2005
Posts
53
Hi,

Can someone help me please. For several years now I've had a 30Mbs Virgin Media internet connection running into my house. The output from the cable modem feeds into a Netgear FVS318 VPN/Firewall Router before feeding into a Netgear gigabit switch and hence to the rest of my home network.

I recently upgraded my VM internet connection to 200Mbs, but I've now discovered that my trusty old FVS318 has a max throughput of only 60Mbs. In all other respects this has been a rock solid bit of kit that runs totally reliably and securely. Now, I'm looking for something that is functionally similar, equally reliable, but much faster.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.
 
Under what circumstances does your Netgear top out at 60Mbit/s?

Wired or wireless?

VPN on router or none?

If VPN, what type? OpenVPN/IPsec etc.?
 
My internet connection shows 60 Mbits/s, download speed, on a internet speed testing web site when I'm connected through my Netgear router. I tried it on several and they all show about the same. If I bypass the router then the same sites show a download speed of 200Mbits/s - which is what VM sold it to me as.

No VPN. Wired using Cat6 cabling through a Gigabit switch (Netgear GS116).
 
john_lickman said:
My internet connection shows 60 Mbits/s, download speed, on a internet speed testing web site when I'm connected through my Netgear router. I tried it on several and they all show about the same. If I bypass the router then the same sites show a download speed of 200Mbits/s - which is what VM sold it to me as.

No VPN. Wired using Cat6 cabling through a Gigabit switch (Netgear GS116).
Click to expand...

Thanks. A few more questions.

  1. To confirm - you’re getting only 60Mbit/s when wired into the switch. That’s not a speed when connected via WiFi? What do you get via WiFi out of interest?
  2. You said you get faster speeds if you bypass the router. What if you only bypass the switch and plug into the Netgear router? (I’m assuming the switch is on the LAN side of the Netgear router and not beween the Netgear and Virgin routers)
  3. I’m assuming the work VPN is just a piece of software you run on one device and all testing you’ve done has not had it connected?
 
BigT said:
Thanks. A few more questions.

  1. To confirm - you’re getting only 60Mbit/s when wired into the switch. That’s not a speed when connected via WiFi? What do you get via WiFi out of interest?
  2. You said you get faster speeds if you bypass the router. What if you only bypass the switch and plug into the Netgear router? (I’m assuming the switch is on the LAN side of the Netgear router and not beween the Netgear and Virgin routers)
  3. I’m assuming the work VPN is just a piece of software you run on one device and all testing you’ve done has not had it connected?
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help. My answers to your questions are:
1. My normal network config is; Cable Modem <---> Router <----> Switch <-----> PC. This gives an approx. download speed of 60Mbit/s on a speed test website.
If I bypass the Router thus; Cable Moden <-------------------> Switch <-----> PC I get a download speed of approx. 200 Mbit/s on the same speed test website.
I only use Wifi for my mobile devices, which aren't, normally, so speed sensitive (at least not to me), so I've never run a speed test on the Wifi side of my network.

2. I have bypassed both Router and Switch before now. i.e. Cable Moden <------> PC and I get approx. 200 Mbit/s download speed.

3. Correct, most of my speed testing has been done on my main desktop PC. I have a laptop supplied by my employer which has the VPN software already installed on it. It normally connects via the Wifi, but I have also used it with a cable connection.

Hope that's clearer.
 
That's great. I guess if I'd looked up your existing router I'd have seen its only got 100Mbit ports which means you'll never exploit the full speed.

Your router seems to be a quasi-enterprise piece of kit. Do you use those facilities like the VPN on it? If not then any modern consumer router is likely to handle a low volume of clients at gigabit speeds. I can't recommend one as it's been too long since I've used anything but pfSense. I'm sure someone will recommend something soon or else just look up the consensus of reviews online. I assume you don't need a router with built in wifi either because your current one doesn't.

I have to ask why you don't use Virgin's own Superhub as a router? I think that would have to route at the speeds Virgin offer you and would be no cost. Normally one of the criticisms is wifi performance of that unit but I assume you have that already sorted.
 
BigT said:
That's great. I guess if I'd looked up your existing router I'd have seen its only got 100Mbit ports
Click to expand...
<F/X: Slaps Forehead> Doh! I'd never noticed that. Well, that at least explains why it can't keep up. Thanks :)

Yes, it is a quasi-enterprise device. I had a series of domestic market devices prior to this. None of which lasted more than 9 months. One of the things I like most about my FV318 is that is sits on a shelf and has been running for years and years. By the same token, I'm suspicious about Virgin devices. I've never managed to get the Wifi to work properly on them. So now I just switch it off and use my own Wifi solution. For the same reasons, I don't want to rely on VM for my Router. I'd much rather have my own network that I know that I can trust and if, one day, I decide to move away from VM, it's just a simple box swap and my LAN can remain undisrupted.

Part of my reason for asking here is that I don't know all of the features that I'm using. My children (both grown up and working, but living at home) connect all manner of stuff to the LAN/Internet and it all just works. I use VPN in my home office and I know that my eldest daughter also works from home occasionally and has a laptop with VPN connection, but I'm not sure what else. I'd be very disappointed to buy a replacement router and then everyone complain that their devices have stopped working.

Thanks for your help. So one else posted a website which lists routers and throughput speeds. I'm going to browse through that.
 
I used to have a few FV318 at work. Replaced them with Draytek's a few years back.

A Draytek 2862 would do the job as a replacement and give you a similar feature set / reliability. I've got them running on 350MB Virgin connections and they have no problem maxing it out.
 
john_lickman said:
I have a laptop supplied by my employer which has the VPN software already installed on it. It normally connects via the Wifi, but I have also used it with a cable connection.
Click to expand...
If the laptop has a VPN client on it that suggests that the router isn't handling the VPN.

Is the laptop the only device you connect into work on via the VPN? Does that laptop still work as it should over the VPN if you remove the FVS318 and use the Virgin hub as your router?
 
Thanks for all the input and thoughts. On Friday I bought a Drayteck 2862. I plugged it in as a direct replacement for my venerable old Netgear unit. It worked first time on the default settings and I'm was able to record speed test download speeds in excess of 200Mbit/s. There's loads of options to play with and I'll be refining my configuration over the next couple of days. But, right out of the box, this seems to have fixed my problem. Thanks again for all the help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom