Recommended Posts

I am leaning towards FVS336G, has anyone got suggestions/experience with these units.

For almost all of these dual wan routers, the reviews are grim, this is probably the only one with decent reviews.

I looked at Linksys, Ciscos, even Sonicwalls..

We are moving our offices to a new location and we will be getting two ISPs.

My set up will be ISP Router 1 and ISP Router 2 to FVS336G to JGS516 16 Port Switch to each workstation, plus I am planning to buy two access points for two ends of the office for wireless users. (Unless I can salvage some old Linksys WRT routers to act as access point, but I don't want laptop users to have problems accessing local network)

Suggestions & comments are appreciated.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1071819-dual-wan-router-setup/
Share on other sites

What size office? What type of connections? is this for redundancy or another reason?

My order of preference of Dual WAN:

1. Most Billion ADSL2+ routers offer Dual-WAN (one 10/100/1000 switch port becomes a WAN port) for fallover between 10/100/1000 and ADSL, I find their units quite reliable and affordable for small business, if at lease one of these connections is ADSL. Pretty customisable with VLANs and so on for a SMB product.

2. OpenWRT routers, most can configure a switch port to WAN, similar to the Billion, but even more customisable in the same small footprint

3. A dedicated machine with multiple network interfaces running as a Linux Router, possibly pfSense would be the best bet.

4. Cisco gear

Look a the Zyxel USG 50 (or a 200/300 depending on your size), or if you have a bit more cash a Cisco 1841.

Either will allow you to do dual WAN of any connection type - just plug in modems/WICs as required for you WAN type.

The USG is a breze to setup and does SSL+IPSec VPNs, LoadBalancing, Content filtering etc

The Cicso is more complex, but it is Cisco grade kit....

I purchased a FVS336G back in 2008. I used it for 1 month before removing it as it caused more trouble than it was worth. At the time the firmware was very buggy and firewall never worked properly. I've still got it sitting as a paper weight, but reading this has sort of given me an idea to try it out again, perhaps if there is new firmware too. Then again it is quite old...

I tried it the failover function which worked as stated, but it took too long to switch over. Also navigating the GUI was slow and sometimes it would crash if you navigated too fast. I also tried to split traffic, so HTTP via WAN1 and FTP via WAN2, work quite well actually. And from memory, setting up firewall rules were flakey and I never really undestood the logic behind it.

I'm also planning on setting up an office w/ dual WAN in the next month or so (in NY too coincidently), though I'm only looking to do WAN failover/failback. At the moment was probably going to get a Sonicwall & possibly pair it with a CradlePoint CBR450 to bridge a 3G/4G connection into it for failover. (Sonicwall does support some 3G/4G but it's a bit limited compared to CradlePoint's offering)

In the past I used Snapgear routers for dual WAN & they worked great. Of course later on McAfee bought them out & then killed off the entire product line, so it's not really an option anymore.

Not so sure on Netgear, haven't really liked their other stuff.

I'd be curious what you end up going with!

Simon, the setup is 15 workstations, about 4-5 connected devices, one network printer

using 2 Channel T1 (3mbps/3mbps) running on a single WAN from ISP's router + DSL or Cable Connection at 10 to 15mbps down, probably 1-2mbps/up (waiting for this to be installed this week).

I thought I hit jackpot with Netgear FVS336G since it seemed like a perfect device...

Since this is for an office environment, I am going to need something reliable. I already have a DD-WRT router (an Asus router) but there wasn't an easy way to just switch it to a dual WAN setup. There are bunch of scripts to run, and to make changes we need to go back to scripts again. Maybe it is better in newer firmwares.

S.P, It looks like there are few versions of FVS336G. Gv1 and Gv2 http://support.netgear.com/app/products/family/a_id/13333

Amazon lists two different ones see below. One has worse reviews than other, I am not sure if there is a difference in hardware or firmware. You can try the newer firmware, some amazon reviews state that problems were resolved with newer firmware. But even a newer firmware will not fix hardware issues, if there is any.

Lars77,

I have been reading about and getting suggestions from few others to take a look at Peplink devices. Peplink 20 seem to be a good alternative (Pep 30 adds a 3rd WAN port)

ZyXEL ZyWALL USG50 - $234

Peplink 20 - $287

Netgear FVS336G-200NAS - $218

Netgear FVS336G-100NAS - $332

I'm using Mikrotik routerboards for my Multi-Wan setups.

For instance at home I have 2 DSL Isps at the moment, I tend to send traffic from my own machines onto 1 ISP and the the other traffic onto the other. But it can do Nth packet routing and such if you wished to load balance.

It's also possible to combine VPN tunneling and a remote server to Bond connections, but it tends to work best if each connection has simular speeds and latency, I wouldn't recommend it with 2 connection that had different latency as jittter will be a problem.

If you want to go down the pfSense route then depending on the kind of throughput you need something like a pcengines Alix might help if you don't want to run a full on PC.

Barracuda is very expensive, and the routerboards would mean another workstation, dedicated only for this purpose, and I am afraid would be less reliable. So workstation may not even work, it would probably need to be a server or PC with additional fans.

I am leaning towards peplink after reading more about it, it may even come with a gigabit LAN port if the reviews are accurate. Even if not, Gigabit switch will be enough.

The only thing that is worrying me is that web blocking is grayed out from the features in Peplink.

I am loking for something that has a straight forward and easy configuration. I read about Zywall USG50, and multiple reviews mentioned difficult management & configuration. This is the reason I passed on Sonicwall. I am not sure what part of the configuration is difficult, but if the simple options are easy to access, I can still consider it.

I am loking for something that has a straight forward and easy configuration. I read about Zywall USG50, and multiple reviews mentioned difficult management & configuration. This is the reason I passed on Sonicwall. I am not sure what part of the configuration is difficult, but if the simple options are easy to access, I can still consider it.

I find the USG one of the easiest devices to setup + the documentation is good.

I'm not quite sure where the reviewers have a problem

But then I have setup a few....

  • 6 months later...

Hi everyone, moving took forever, getting our first ISP, and then finally TWC installing our cable connection and we ordered ZyWall USG50 which is expected to arrive tomorrow. I will try setting it up tomorrow and report back. Thanks for all the suggestions.

PS: Broadview Networks service in New York City is terrible, avoid them if you can. Really not worth the cost they are charging.

  • 4 months later...

I find the USG one of the easiest devices to setup + the documentation is good.

I'm not quite sure where the reviewers have a problem

But then I have setup a few....

We bought USG50 and it is working very well, solid, not a lot of drops, and combines bandwith down (up, not so much, but it may be due to policies).

The only problem with USG50 is the VPN, it is very painful to setup VPN on this device, unless you pay for VPN client, even then it is still difficult.

Also firewall is extremely advenced with no way to make it "easy" but I guess it is a good thing for those who want complete control over their rules and setup.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Amazon may use OpenAI and Nova models after Anthropic reportedly raises costs by Karthik Mudaliar Amazon is reportedly considering to use OpenAI models and even its own Nova family of AI models after Anthropic raised the cost of using Claude inside Amazon services. According to a report from The Information, Amazon is weighing its options to reduce costs under a new arrangement with Anthropic. But back in April, Amazon said it would invest $5 billion more in Anthropic, with the possibility of adding up to another $20 billion if certain commercial milestones are met. That investment actually came on top of another $8 billion Amazon had already put into the Claude maker. Anthropic, meanwhile, committed to spend more than $100 billion over 10 years on AWS technologies, including Amazon’s Trainium chips. Amazon isn't just a customer of Anthropic but also one of the most important backers and cloud partners. This is why it makes it interesting that Amazon is considering other alternatives to handle its internal workloads. Although Amazon has been building its own options for a while now. Its Nova family of AI models was announced in late 2024 for Amazon Bedrock, with models aimed at text, image, and video tasks. Amazon pitched the model around cost and latency at that time. With that said, OpenAI has also become a more realistic option recently for AWS customers as well as for Amazon itself. Earlier this year, OpenAI brought its latest models and Codex coding agent to Amazon Bedrock, after changes to its previously more restrictive Microsoft cloud arrangement. This allowed AWS to serve even those customers who wanted other alternatives from Claude, without having to move workloads out of Amazon's cloud. Evaluating alternatives could also be due to commercial pressure and not necessarily a sign of a damaged partnership between Amazon and Anthropic. Whether or not Amazon is actually considering switching entirely to OpenAI's models or its own Nova models remains unknown at this moment.
    • Samsung introduces new AI classroom tools and interactive displays at ISTELive 2026 by Fiza Ali Samsung has announced several new education-focused software features and interactive displays for schools during ISTELive 2026, taking place in Orlando, Florida, from 28 June to 1 July. The focus of these updates is on making shared classroom displays easier to use for teachers while giving IT administrators more control over managing devices. One of the key additions is the Samsung Account Management Solution (AMS). In many schools, multiple teachers share the same interactive display throughout the day, which means signing in and setting everything up can become repetitive. With AMS, teachers can log in by scanning a QR code or tapping an NFC-enabled ID card. Once signed in, their personalised workspace, including wallpapers, bookmarks, app shortcuts, and files, can be instantly accessed through Home Personalisation. Samsung has also included a screen lock feature, allowing teachers to lock the display if they need to step away briefly. Furthermore, the company is also updating its Education Portal with new tools designed for school IT administrators. The portal will allow IT administrators to register teachers, enrol devices, and manage user access from a central dashboard. Administrators can also link NFC cards to teacher accounts, making sign-ins quicker across shared displays. Another addition is a Tags feature that lets schools organise displays by building or classroom. Those tags can also be used to send emergency notifications to selected Samsung Interactive Displays through compatible platforms such as InformaCast and Raptor. Moreover, the tech giant's AI Assistant is gaining several new features aimed at supporting everyday classroom tasks such as lesson planning and classroom engagement. One of the features is Circle to Search, which lets teachers circle text or images on the display to quickly find related information, videos, or web results without interrupting the lesson. The content can then be brought into Samsung Whiteboard. Another feature, Live Transcript, converts spoken lessons into real-time captions, which could be useful for students with hearing impairments or those in multilingual classrooms. The AI Assistant also introduces AI Summary and AI Quiz. The summary tool creates summaries of recorded lessons, while AI Quiz generates questions based on lesson content so teachers can quickly check how well students are following along. Teachers signed in through Samsung AMS can also return to their previous AI-generated lesson materials without logging in again. Alongside the software updates, Samsung has expanded its Android-based Interactive Display range with three new models: the WAF-S, WAFX-PS, and WAHX-M. The WAF-S and WAFX-PS ship with Android 16, bringing updates to security, accessibility, and overall usability while maintaining compatibility with Google's education services including Google Classroom and Google Drive through EDLA certification. Meanwhile, the new WAHX-M is the biggest addition to the lineup, introducing a 98-inch display for larger spaces such as lecture halls and conference rooms. It will also be available in 65-inch, 75-inch and 86-inch sizes. Samsung says the WAHX-M further includes on-device AI features such as voice commands, text-to-speech, and an AI calculator, alongside support for Samsung AMS and AI Assistant. Samsung AI Assistant has been available since April, while Samsung AMS and the updated Education Portal will begin rolling out in July.
    • It's been $24 (single) or $89 (4-pack) for many days on both Amazon and Walmart as far as I know. That isn't a big discount. If these end up like the 1st gen, the 4-pack will routinely get down around $80, give or take a dollar. I think they have even hit $69 at times.
    • Microsoft brings Claude to its own Azure infrastructure, powered by Nvidia GB300 Blackwell by Karthik Mudaliar Anthropic's Claude models are now generally available in Microsoft Foundry on Azure and are running on Nvidia's GB300 Blackwell Ultra systems. Nvidia wrote in its announcement that the models are hosted on Microsoft Azure and accelerated by GB300 Blackwell Ultra GPUs, with Quantum-X800 InfiniBand networking used to support larger agentic systems and specialized sub-agents that can operate across business domains. This is great for customers and enterprises that want to build autonomous and domain-specific AI agents using Claude without moving outside Microsoft’s cloud platform. Microsoft currently offers Claude models in Foundry in two forms: “Hosted on Azure,” which runs end-to-end on Azure infrastructure and is generally available, and “Hosted on Anthropic infrastructure,” which remains in preview. This separation is quite important for organizations that have procurement, compliance, data processing, or internal governance requirements tied to Azure. Anthropic currently has 11 Claude models listed in Microsoft Foundry, including Opus 4.8, Sonnet 4.6, and even the unavailable Mythos and Fable models. Billing is handled through Claude Consumption Units (CCUs). Microsoft says CCU is an invoicing unit for Claude models in Foundry, with token usage converted using Anthropic’s published per-model token rates. The usage is billed through Azure Marketplace just like models from other distributors and appears on the customer's Azure invoice, while eligible spend can count against a Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment. For starters, GB300 NVL72 is a rack-scale, fully liquid-cooled system that combines 72 Blackwell Ultra GPUs and 36 Grace CPUs. Nvidia has listed 37TB of fast memory, 130TB/s of NVLink bandwidth, and FP4 Tensor Core performance of up to 1,440 petaflops with sparsity. The deal is also part of a three-way partnership between Microsoft, Nvidia, and Anthropic. Under the deal, Anthropic has committed to buying $30 billion in Azure compute capacity and contracting additional capacity up to one gigawatt. Nvidia and Microsoft also said they would invest up to $10 billion and $5 billion in Anthropic, respectively.
    • WhatsApp is getting usernames, and you can reserve your preferred one now by Fiza Ali Sharing your phone number isn't always something you want to do, especially with people you've just met. Whether it's someone from a class, a local community group, or a sports team chat, handing over your number can feel like giving away more personal information than necessary. That's exactly the problem WhatsApp is trying to solve with its upcoming usernames feature. The company has announced that users can now reserve a unique WhatsApp username ahead of the feature's wider rollout later this year. Once usernames become available, they'll let people connect without revealing their phone numbers. It's a change that makes a lot of sense for group chats. Right now, everyone in the group can see your phone number. With usernames enabled, that won't necessarily be the case when someone contacts you for the first time. WhatsApp says it's opening username reservations early because more than three billion people use the app, meaning plenty of people are likely to want the same usernames. Reserving one now gives users a better chance of securing the name they actually want before the feature launches more broadly. If your preferred username is already taken, WhatsApp will also offer a built-in username generator to suggest available alternatives. The feature isn't only aimed at individual users. Creators, businesses, and organisations will be able to claim the same username they already use on Instagram or Facebook, making it easier to keep a consistent identity across Meta's apps. Furthermore, privacy is a big part of how WhatsApp is introducing usernames. There won't be a public directory where people can browse or search for usernames. Instead, people will need to know your exact username before they can start a conversation with you. Additionally, users can also choose to enable a username key, which adds another layer of control by requiring people to enter that key before sending a message. Once the feature rolls out, people who choose to use a username will no longer have their phone number shown when messaging a person or business for the first time. If you want to reserve a username, make sure you're running the latest version of WhatsApp, then head to Settings > Account > Username. The tech giant says usernames will roll out gradually over the coming months, and users will receive an in-app notification when the feature becomes available in their country.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      KMilenkoski1202 earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      536
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      269
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      150
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      98
    5. 5
      macoman
      65
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!