Review on NETGEAR FVS318 ProSafe Firewall 8 Port by Sean Davis

I had two Linksys BEFSR41 units - both have failed and as a result I am refusing to buy another Linksys product. Is always. I chose Netgear ProSafe and I'm glad I did. It has a sturdy metal body. (In comparison, the Linksys has a very cheap plastic case.) Setup was easy. I didn't even have to use the CD that came with it. The wall socket (power supply unit) is thought out down to the smallest detail - the housing does not interfere with the neighboring socket of the power strip. (By comparison, the Linksys device occupied two positions on the built-in power strip.) The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because there's a ridiculously stupid limitation when entering a reserved IP address (eg . for a network printer). or server): [quote]This IP address MUST be in the range of IP addresses used by the DHCP server.[/quote]I had already assigned a static IP address of 192.168.1.150 to a network printer and Netgear refused to assign it to recognize, unless I have changed the IP address range of the DHCP server. Okay, okay if I HAVE TO. Now another related problem: I am building and testing servers for clients. These servers have static IP addresses that are also outside of the range of the DHCP server. So I either have to extend the IP range of the DHCP server again (bad, I really don't want the DHCP server to start with 12.24.60.64 for example) or change the static IP address of the client-server (worse). Either way, it's a dumb, dumb constraint, especially since you MUST enter the MAC address of the reserved IP address as well. NETGEAR provides a LIFETIME WARRANTY on the device and a 3-year warranty on the power adapter (AC adapter). . (Linksys has a 1 year warranty.) So in conclusion: Linksys is junk in my opinion. Use Netgear instead.