It may sound like I'll be venting a little, but I have to express my on goinig and unpleasant experience with this router and tech support. As mentioned above in the subject line, I just received this new version 3 model yesterday afternoon, unpacked it and plugged in my DSL Modem to the Internet Port and my PC to LAN Port 1. After spending 5 straight hours on the phone with Tech Support, I'm still unable to get internet.
Brief history. I have one highspeed Windstream DSL Modem coming into my office. I'm upgrading from Lynksys BEFSR81 which I've been using for over 5 years with no problems. I think I'm at or near the end of the life cycle of this router and rather than waiting to come into work one morning to find an exhausted & non functioning router, I thought I should Upgrade and at the same time take advantage of the latest hardware and software available. So I upgraded to a much larger capacity router in hopes of improved functionality. This is when my headaches began with an RV082 after reading tons of positive reviews before buying.
Appreantly the RV082 V3 is not PNP or I have a defevtive router (!?!) or a bad Technician In "Training". Either way, for $300.00 I would not have thought I would be on the phone for almost 5 hours straight after work with a tech support person in training (I could tell) in order to still have no internet connectivity. This tech guy had me reset my modem, reset the new router and reboot my PC two different times before he had me contact my ISP to reset the signel. Now power down everything and restart again. No Good. He had me pinging this and pinging that, putting me on hold for several minutes at a time in between every single command/suggestion. Then he had me contact my ISP again in order for them to create a bridge in the modem for the new router. Again, power down everything and reboot. No Good. Now after all this I had no internet through my modem at all! Where as before I could always connect it direct to my PC and old router. Then he put me and my ISP on a 3-Way conference call to try to check some settings. The ISP said they had done all they were required to do when they created a working bridge and they confirmed my internet was still operating fully and the ISP guy was not going to stay on the phone to troubleshoot a problem that was not on their end. After 20 minutes, the Tech guy had me release the ISP technician. Finally around 10:00 PM last night the tech guy had done all he knowed to do and wanted to talk with some other 1st shift tech guy's the next morning and call me back this afternoon to begin this whole thing over again.
I told him I could not leave the office without an operating internet modem for the office personal in the morning! He suggested I call my ISP again and have them Un-bridge the modem and see if that would get me back online and he offered to stay on the line to help me connect it back to my old router. And I could call my ISP back tomorrow to bridge the modem to the new router again. Really?! Un-beliveable! I said I don't know how much more my ISP is going to put up with me and this situration. I said what about me connecting my modem up to my old router just to see if I have internet before I involve my ISP again. Bang! I have internet!! Needless to say the tech guy and those helping him in the back ground did not know what to make of this whole situration.
After all the resets, the power downs, the reboots, the modem bridging, the 3 way conference calls, after all this at the end of the day (night) I simply plugged in the modem to the old router $80.00 router and I have internet. Now I'm no IT guy but somehting about this whole situration seems strange to me. I'm leaning to the fact I may have a defective RV082 or a tech guy that dosent know anything and should not be troubleshooting small businesses. I am NOT looking forward to staying another 5 hours after work tonight!
One other thing that erked me too. While reviewing and investagating what router to upgrade to, I learned of the version 3 hardware on the RV082. I contacted Cicso Sales and they told me that version 3 hardware had a manufactured date of 2011 on the router. My version 3 has a manfactured date of 2010. I contacted sales whom put me through tech support yesterday regarding this issue and I spoke with the rudist female tech person that told me that if the router said V3 it didn't madder what the manfactued date said. Well, I wished she was the one spending 5 hours after work with an Un expierenced tech support guy and waiting to to it all over agian tonight.
I am getting pretty fed up with this whole thing and I'm not sure what to do now. Ask for a refund or ask for another router (with 2011 manfact date) or spend another long night with tech support. By the way, this 5 year old $80.00 router is smoking this the $300.00 router. But I don't know for how much longer.
