Cisco RV220W Wireless Network Security Firewall Wired and Wireless Connectivity for Small Office Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I provide IT support to my many business clients and have used Linksys routers for both home and small business networks forever. I've watched them get progressively worse in terms of reliability (with the exception of the old workhorse WRT54GL) since Cisco bought them. I was looking for a better alternative that supported 802.11n and came upon this Cisco-branded model. It is specifically targeted for the small business network but also works well for an advanced home network (for example, remote access to my Windows Home Server). The RV220W setup is done from a browser instead of using half-a-measure software/browser methods like the Linksys models.
Pros:
1) It supports the 8-10 wireless devices I've got connected to it at any given time without shutting down like the Linksys.
2) You can create a "guest" wireless network (VLAN) that doesn't have access to your internal wired/wireless network. Fair warning - you need some technical understanding of how those things work to set it up but the features are there to do it if you need it.
3) I haven't tried VPN connections to the router yet but I know I can VPN out through them reliably using PPTP (the Linksys were hit-and-miss).
4) I like the fact you don't have to register the unit to use it and get pestered to purchase support contracts like you do with most higher-end routers like the SonicWalls. There is a pay service (ProtectLink) to add some advanced filtering to the router but I have not tried it.
And a couple cons:
1) I couldn't add a simple url block without subscribing to the ProtectLink service. That's pretty basic and should be in there. Even the Linksys models can do that.
2) My Gbit wired devices often connect at 100 Mbit. A driver update got one device up to Gbit but not every time. 100 Mbit is usually adequate, but I paid extra for this model to support Gbit - I think it might need a firmware update.
All told, a good step up in reliability from the "consumer" models for a small business or advanced home network when you don't want to pay for ongoing maintenance contracts.

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