Not Reliable I bought this product 2 years ago. I really wanted to like it. It had a lot of features I wanted, dual wan ports, VPN, etc. but this thing really sucks. I have 8 years experience as a network administrator, but this thing was never reliable. I had to power cycle this router at least twice a week due to lockups. After updating firmware 4 times I finally gave up. Netgear tech support from India is worse than useless. Save yourself some frustration and get the Xincom DPG-502. It has worked f...
[Read 's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Amazon.com] | | Reviewed by: | | | Review Date: | 05/22/2008 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review |  |
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Drops traffic on both WAN interfaces when reconfiguring. I had high hopes for the FVX538, a relatively cheap router with failover support! After several months of trying to make it work (upgrading firmware, reading the manual, etc) I ended up going with pfSense on a rackmount server.
My main issue with the FVX538 is that it would drop all traffic going over both WAN interfaces for about a minute, even when making seemingly trivial changes like updating DNS.
[Read 's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Amazon.com] | | Reviewed by: | | | Review Date: | 04/29/2008 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
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Works great Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: more than 1 year
Pros: This thing works as advertised. I don't use the Dual Wan ports but I use alot of tunnels. I also have the QOS setup and it works great.
Cons: Earlier firmware had a lot of issues. Upgrade to the latest asap.
Other Thoughts: For a small business or home office, this is a very solid router. The only bug I have encountered lately is a DHCP reservation bug wher...
[Read bhoth's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | bhoth | | Review Date: | 03/24/2008 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review |  |
100% (2 of 2) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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Roasted by Newegg Tech Level: high
Ownership: less than 1 day
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com
Pros: The product is great but the Newegg service not so much.
Cons: Bottom line is that I am shipping the product back when it finally arrives. I purchased the item ""in stock"" on Friday the 7th under the promise from Newegg it would arrive in 3 days via UPS 3-day delivery. I needed this thing no later than Tomorrow morning. Well. Alas. I ...
[Read 'el Roasto's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | 'el Roasto | | Review Date: | 03/12/2008 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
28% (2 of 7) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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Great product for the money Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
Pros: Dual WAN ports for fail-over or load distribution. Very configurable firewall. Great performance. No apparent VPN or user count limitations.
Cons: With older firmware, the VPN's don't always re-connect. Many other flakey issues. Upgrade the firmware to the latest version first, and you should be good to go.
Other Thoughts: Dual WAN ports for a device under $400 is ...
[Read brndd's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | brndd | | Review Date: | 03/04/2008 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
100% (1 of 1) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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All 4 working Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com
Pros: Works very well with new firmware
Cons: None once you get new firmware
Other Thoughts: Rock solid on 4 of these so far, will get two more...
[Read VPN man's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | VPN man | | Review Date: | 01/29/2008 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
100% (1 of 1) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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Sinple but effective It lacks some features, like a command-line dump of its configuration (it uses a proprietary binary format) and some routing features; but it works, and is cheap. We had problems with the stability of vpn channels when connecting to Juniper NetScreen equipment (the channels would go down at least weekly and have to be manually reset), so I'd stick to netgear-to-netgear vpns with this box.
[Read 's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Amazon.com] | | Reviewed by: | | | Review Date: | 01/18/2008 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
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It Works.... Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com
Pros: Great Price, Great performance, lots of features. Latest firmware address's many if not all of the problems experienced by other users. While netgear's support is lackluster their product seems to be solid now. VPN is near stupid proof and was easy to setup, even to non-netgear devices. I was able to make the netgear talk to linksys, sonicwall, and netopia with...
[Read TheComputerGuy's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | TheComputerGuy | | Review Date: | 01/09/2008 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
100% (3 of 3) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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Good basic VPN Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com
Pros: Easy to set up nce you understand the rules, even has VPN wizard.
Cons: Learning curve for VPN can be long but once you know, the easy user interface is great! Good router too!
Other Thoughts: Make sure to get Version 3 of firmware... --> 3.0.2-21
[Read NetMan's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | NetMan | | Review Date: | 12/10/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
100% (2 of 2) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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Works well with ver 3 firmware Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com
Pros: Very easy to manage, very good menue etc. Have three VPN tunnels, works as advertised.
Cons: Must use ver 3 of firmware, so make sure you upload it etc. Back up settings incase etc
Other Thoughts: Use gotomypc to configure two at the same time on either end!!
[Read User 1's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | User 1 | | Review Date: | 12/10/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
100% (2 of 2) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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Great product
I'm very pleased with this product and I highly recommend it:
- The setup has been a breeze including setting up VPN connections from dynamic clients as well as from another router (a Cisco/Linksys RVS 4400N).
- The performances are phenomenal (e.g. VPN set up time...)
One recommendation: make sure you upgrade your firmware in the first place (so that you don't lose your previous configuration parameters)...
One comment to the NetG...
[Read 's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Amazon.com] | | Reviewed by: | | | Review Date: | 10/22/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
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Mission critical failure I finally gave up on this dual wan router. Our use is mission critical. Whenever this router would lock up and cease to function, I would have to travel to our office all hours of the night or weekend to power cycle it to resume service. I installed every firmware upgrade for the past nine months, with hope that this time the freeze ups would be fixed. I could no longer tolerate the poor service. I have replaced this router with a single WAN port Dlink (I had to give up using the dual WAN months...
[Read 's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Amazon.com] | | Reviewed by: | | | Review Date: | 08/04/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
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Works Great if You Can Get It to Work Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
Pros: We were looking for a small business class router that can handle more traffic, provides VPN functionality, and is able to support 2 WAN lines. This is the only router that I know of is able to do this for a reasonable price.
Cons: Where do I start? Basically, if you are only going to use this router for a basic setup, it will probably work great. However, if you are going to ...
[Read Ben's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | Ben | | Review Date: | 07/10/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
100% (1 of 1) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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Lots of Problems - Works Great if You Can Get it To Work I basically have mixed feeling about this router. My company was looking for a new router that can handle more LAN traffic, provides VPN functionality, and support two WAN lines with failover or load balancing. This is the only router (that I can found) that provides all these features at a very reasonable price. Basically, it has a lots of features and functionality for a small business environment - only if you can get them to work. Basically, if you are only going to use this router for a...
[Read 's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Amazon.com] | | Reviewed by: | | | Review Date: | 07/10/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
50% (1 of 2) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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No Problems - 3 Years Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
Pros: 100% uptime with 75 computers over the last 3 years. 2 VPNs with remote locations. Remote management features.
Cons: Price?
Other Thoughts: I've been using one of these on my corporate network for quite a while. I have 2 VPN connections - one with a FVS318, and one with a Linksys junk box. I have more than 75 computers across my network, with two AD servers, so...
[Read Rob's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | Rob | | Review Date: | 06/13/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
100% (1 of 1) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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Quite a bad experience Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com
Pros: Easy to setup. Supports load balancing and failover on 2 WAN connections. Has 8 LAN ports for good switching.
Cons: DO NO USE FOR ORGANIZATIONS LARGER THAN 30. It will continuously drop packets and have to be rebooted once a day (or more). It will start to time out connections an hour or two before the web interface to the firewall is ...
[Read Carol's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | Carol | | Review Date: | 04/27/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
50% (1 of 2) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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***Memory Leak*** Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com
Pros: I would mention a few but no one should buy this router until the problem is fixed, and given that it's been 2 years it's not looking like it will be.
Cons: Memory that causes it to slow and then stop responding every 2 days (in my case). problem exist in all versions of the firmware to date. Stay away unless you like to get early morni...
[Read Burned's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | Burned | | Review Date: | 04/15/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
50% (1 of 2) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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A solid product The other review for this item might scare you into not buying it, but we installed one of these firewalls to protect my employers network and it has performed flawlessly. We liked it's gigabit capability, and that it can be connected to 2 internet sources for redundancy or to increase capacity. We also like it's construction, which is a solid metal cabinet which seems to shed heat nicely and has enough heft to say put if it's simply set of a shelf.
[Read 's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Amazon.com] | | Reviewed by: | | | Review Date: | 04/07/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
66% (2 of 3) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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Crash & Burn Tech Level: high
Ownership: less than 1 day
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com
Pros: It crashes faster than the other Netgear firewall/switch combos and I was able to return it.
Cons: It keeps scanning the lan looking for attached devices every 30 - 40 seconds. Then it locked up and it would not pass any other traffic. I was on the phone with Netgear about this issue, it was even escalated to tier 2 support in California....
[Read Crash's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | Crash | | Review Date: | 03/11/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
50% (1 of 2) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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DO NOT BUY! Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
Pros: None
Cons: AVOID USING THESE ROUTERS AT ALL COSTS!!! The current (2.0) firmware has a memory leak that Netgear refuses to fix. Their solution is for me to reboot my router every 24 hrs. (I have FVX 538's, v1 and v.2 hardware, 338 and 318. All exhibit the memory leak behavior and if you use VPN tunnels between routers, you have to reboot every 24 hours. (about 3-4 days w/o using the VP...
[Read N/A's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | N/A | | Review Date: | 02/07/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
83% (5 of 6) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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The new firmware - v2 Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
Pros: Prior to the new firmware (v2) this router was a PITA. The groups weren't working, and it was, generally, a mess. The QOS didn't work correctly and I blame this router for my terrible VOIP experience. Now, with firmware V2, most things have been cleaned up. There are still bugs (like in the IPSEC config) but I have all of my VPN stuff working in spite of that, the QOS features work, groups work and things are...
[Read RJ's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | RJ | | Review Date: | 01/30/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
100% (2 of 2) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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Works but real flaky Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
Pros: Has a lot of features for the price and has a web based setup routine
Cons: It tends to change settings that you put in when you change unrelated settings. I usually have to double check and make sure it saved the settings properly.
Other Thoughts: Takes 30 seconds or more to bootup. Don't know how the VPN works. Heard its not good. But it does what I need it to do...
[Read jimmy's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | jimmy | | Review Date: | 01/22/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
0% (0 of 2) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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Unreliable - drops connection While I have been very pleased with the performance of this product, configuration and setup was very easy, and even updates to the device are easy to do, it's not reliable.
It seems that every 3 or 4 days I lose connection to the Internet. This is a 7 PC network, couple of servers. There really isn't huge bandwidth being used. But it is like it gets frozen - you can't ping it, you can't get to anything on the outside like the gateway or DNS servers, and a simple power reset gets ...
[Read 's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Amazon.com] | | Reviewed by: | | | Review Date: | 01/22/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
66% (2 of 3) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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The Best NETGEAR VPN Router yet... Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com
Pros: NO FANS!!! Quiet! Easy setup... took awhile to connect to my remote FVS318, but I'm a VPN noob.
Cons: I wish Netgear would standardize on a web interface ""look"" for all of their products. Not a deal-breaker, but it would be nice...
Other Thoughts: On/Off switch is a nice plus for reboots. Did I mention QUI...
[Read g2's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | g2 | | Review Date: | 01/19/2007 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
100% (2 of 2) Users Found This Review Helpful |
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Powerhouse! Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com
Pros: Handles Multi Nat with a great interface so easy to setup wan ip's to lan resources. I have put the lastest firmware on and it gave the unit a whole new look and made rule setting even easier. I have not used the VPN side of this device. I have used Multi Nat, Port translation and other advanced features including the dual wan in both failover and load balanc...
[Read Bullet Proof's Complete Review for Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 (FVX538) at Newegg.com] | | Reviewed by: | Bullet Proof | | Review Date: | 12/07/2006 | | User Location: | | | Review From: | User Review | |
100% (2 of 2) Users Found This Review Helpful |
