NETGEAR FVS318 ProSafe VPN Firewall 8 with 8-Port 10/100 Switch

The NETGEAR FVS318 ProSafe VPN Firewall 8 with 8-Port 10/100 Switch offers: Eight auto-sensing 10/100 Mbps ports. Stateful Packet Inspection firewall and NAT for security. Eight dedicated VPN tunnels for secure remote links

NAT and an SPI firewall protects your network from most common attacks. View larger.

High-class Security
For businesses that require more than just a simple NAT router, the FVS318 offers significantly more protection. It provides: a Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall to prevent Denial of Service attacks, an Intrusion Detection System (IDS), the ability to block Java/URL/ActiveX based on extension, and FTP/SMTP/RPC program filtering.

The FVS318 has eight dedicated VPN tunnels to protect links between remote locations, encrypting the data between them. IPSec-based encryption up to 256 bit is also supported. This lets you easily create secure connections to branch offices or mobile workforces.

Easy Setup
Even with all the functionality the FVS318 provides, NETGEAR makes setup a breeze with the intuitive Smart Wizard that connects you to your ISP quickly. The web-based configuration screen is easy-to-use and requires no additional software. DHCP and PPPoE support makes widespread deployment simple.

The NETGEAR FVS318 ProSafe VPN Firewall 8 with 8-Port 10/100 Switch is backed by a 3-year warranty.

What's in the Box
FVS318 ProSafe VPN Firewall, power adapter, category 5 ethernet cable, installation guide, resource CD, warranty/support information card.

We had it up and running in less than fifteen minutes. My son configured two ipsec vpn tunnels with his friends networks using Linksys VPN routers in short order and I have one configured to my Windows 2000 computer at work that is behind a nat router using Windows 2000 built in ipsec capabilities. All three of our ipsec tunnels have proven to be reliable. I also have no problems using remote desktop through port 3389 or going to my pptp Windows 2000 vpn server through port 1723 behind the FVS318.

We have not experienced any of the problems that other reviewers have, but we have experience configuring these kinds of devices. The FVS318 has fairly extensive built in logging though it does not store much information itself but it can be configured to transfer log information to another computer and can even send you an email alert if certain attacks are detected. It has configurable services based on ports and protocols that are used to create port forwarding to inbound services and block outbound services. However you are limited to 16 services. It can control outbound traffic which is very important to defend against undetected trojans or users [and kids] running things like file swapping or other unapproved applications that access the internet. Internet access can be even controlled by a day/time schedule. If your network is fairly simple, a default block all rule could be created [which must be at the end of the list] and then you can specify what outbound services are allowed. It is also possible to deny a computer or address range of computers from having internet access while allowing others full access. Though the block services is a great addition to this device, it is somewhat limited if you have more than a few variations of configurations compared to a more sophisticated [and much more expensive] soho firewall, and the services can not be configured to use certain ip address/subnet destinations for outbound control which should not be a big deal for most home/small office users. However inbound services/port mapping can be configure to come from specific ip address/subnet. That is an important security feature. For instance if you open an internal computer for remote managment, you can configure the FVS318 to accept connections from only one ip address, which will keep everyone else on the internet from trying to connect and guess your password!

I am very impressed with the Netgear FVS318. Being a true SPI firewall and ipsec VPN endpoint with all the other feaures it has in a quality package, I can highly recommend it to anyone that wants a bargain priced internet device that is a big step up from the consumer grade nat routers.


Still a beta box   August 27, 2002
31 out of 36 found this review helpful

As of today(8/26/02 @ 22:00 UCT), The KVS318 production firmware on their website is still at 1.00 . My FVS318 routers consistently drop sessions in SSH, TELNET; many SSL logins fail, many JHTML pages fail to load. HTML pages intermittently load slowly, partially or not at all. I had to remove them from our network to resume business.

Their support is unresponsive. If I am able to get through on the phone the support reps are difficult to understand. Their technical support people have, in my experience, misenterpreted questions or problems even when I sent them TCP dumps, traps and logs to support the incident report. It appears English is a second language to their support people, a fact evident in their e-mail and web site support replies. Their answers are unreliable and often recommend disabling a feature like site keyword blocking or forwarding ports to non-existent computers. On their support web site they have closed some of my cases without answers, fixes or workarounds provided.

As of 8/26/02 @ 22:00 UCT, their U.S. support is presently on firmware beta N1.01 with no date available for the production firmware to be available. It fixes a lot of problems but in my opinion is not yet production quality.

For those who have a requirement for a product with features that work as advertised, I recommend against the FVS318. I recommend the DSLREPORTS web site for more information, support topics and user experiences with the FVS318.


A great product for an advanced home user!   April 13, 2004
Eric J. Fridman (Baltimore, MD United States)
28 out of 31 found this review helpful

Hello -

I see that there are a mix of reviews, so I'll try to put my angle in perspective.

I am an advanced home user in the respect that I am pretty knowledgeable about basic networking and have a basic lab at home with three PCs.

Anyway, my needs are strictly limited to (1) providing the most security for my PCs and (2) allowing the networked PCs to see each other when needed.

The FVS318 is one of the few Netgear products that passes the GRC.COM and symantec.com security scans. No ports open and no responses - total stealth according to those scans. That is important because I have a cable connection and leave my machines running 24x7.

The router has been very stable. I don't think I've ever had to reboot it in the past year.

Most of the newer Netgear products are very poor but this one is still great.


Easy interface and set up, lots of features, little price.   July 31, 2002
21 out of 30 found this review helpful

I got this router to replace a reliable Linksys router that lacked the Netgear FVS318NA's VPN feature and 8 port built in switch.

The VPN feature and the 8 port integrated switch are the best selling points for this Netgear router over other brands and models. The built in Virtual Public Network (VPN) feature let's you use the FVS318NA with a wide variety of VPN Clients and Hosts (not all of course, but many.) Netgear has a 25 page online document that tells you how to VPN your FVS318NA to a Windows 2000 Server for example. Easiest of course is to buy two FVS318NA's and create a point to point VPN between two offices, friends and family with DSL, a cable modem, etc. The built in 10/100 switch and Internet connection sharing means most people with small networks won't need to purchase a separate switch in order to plug in all of their computers, game systems and other Ethernet\Internet using devices.

The built in Firewall offers more than the usual NAT invisibility (it does stateful inspection of packets) and logging is adequate but could be better (more information than is currently available in the router's logs would be helpful for troubleshooting problems and or security.)

All in all you will not be disappointed with the money spent on this little "network cabinet" in a box. Netgear seems to have thought of most everything your power home or small to medium office user would want.


A good, stable internal firewall   December 27, 2005
Yoshiro Aoki (usa)
19 out of 20 found this review helpful

(NOTE: please see new info at the end of this review)

I have been running several (5) FVS318 devices, all versions, on my internal network for many years now. I have found them to be stable and reliable and easy to configure. They also play well with other networking devices such as firewalls from other manufactures (as in setting up and maintaining secure internal VPN channels between them).

VPN performance does falloff considerably with stricter encryption, so internally across trusted subnets and through wireless channels I move unclassified data using DES.
The FVS also streams telemetry via syslog, so its easy to keep track of everything. The device, however, does not have a secure local configuration option (remote admin is supported via SSL, though).

Remote (aggressive mode) VPN works fine with this device, with Netgear's VPN client software. The built-in VPN client in Windows XP Pro doesn't seem to want to play with the FVS318. The Remote Identity Type of FQDN or FQUN required for remote access don't match up with the options available under XP Pro. Really, it seems the FVS318 could have offered a Remote Identity Type of IP Address & allow IP Any (0.0.0.0) but alas it doesn't (perhaps to sell more client software?). Since I had the client software, however, I didn't pursue that option exhaustively. But off the cuff I don't see it as workable.

Overall, the FVS318 is a good basic internal subnet firewall, except in cases where syslog forwarding out the WAN port is called for: none of the FVS318 versions (1,2,or 3) apparently supports this fundamental operation, that I have seen anyway.

I would not recommend purchasing the device online from anywhere as it is impossible to tell which version (1 - 3) that you will end up with. The differences are significant, and deal with the hardware as well as the firmware.
3 stars

UPDATE NOTE: for information regarding the various versions of the FVS318 including identification please refer to the netgear web site (netgear dot com), finding the fvs318 in the 'Product Finder' and then clicking on the 'Support' link (which is in the same panel as the 'Product Finder'). The product version information will be displayed.
Version is by serial number, and this serial number is found on the unit itself as well as on the external side of the retail box.