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RV180W firmware bugs and shortcomings

chdh
Level 1
Level 1

I like the RV180W. It has Gigabit Ethernet ports, rich functionality, a specified NAT throughput of 800 Mbps and a low price. But the longer I work with it, the more firmware bugs I find. The bugs make it impossible to use this router for most of my installations.

The latest public Firmware 1.0.1.9 is from May 2012 (date of release notes), 9 months old. I have received and installed the beta firmware 1.0.2.3. It didn't come with release notes.

How can we proceed to get these bugs fixed within a reasonable time?

Is there a list of the currently known bugs?

Bugs I experienced:

1. Incoming forwarded TCP connections and UDP packets get the IP address of the router.

TCP connections or UDP frames that arrive at the local server through a forwarded port are associated with the local IP address of the router (e.g. 192.168.1.1), instead of the public IP address of the remote node.

Can anybody confirm this?

2. Outgoing TCP sessions without activity time out after 5 minutes (without proper termination) when the WAN is connected through PPPoE. This is in contradiction to the configuration parameter "TCP Session Timeout Duration" (in Firewall / Advanced Settings / Session Settings), which is set to 1800 (30 minutes).

This bug occurs when the WAN is connected through PPPoE and NAT.

Can anybody confirm this?

3. PPTP passthrough (outgoing Windows VPN / RAS) does not work when the WAN is connected through PPPoE.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3828872

Shortcomings:

4. Forwarding multiple ports at once is not possible. Although it's possible to define a range of ports as a custom service, all the ports within the range are forwarded to the same destination port. Nobody wants to forward a range of ports to a single destination port.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3835594

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3760037

5. Reordering firewall rules is only possible within a page display of 10 rules. When I try to reorder a rule from the second page to the first page, i get the error message "Invalid position Enter a value between 11 and 14". It would be better anyway to show all firewall rules on a single HTML page.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3835594

6. Custom services are not sorted by name and it's not possible to reorder them.

Fixed bug I experienced:

7. Port forwarding does not work when the WAN is connected through PPPoE. A connection can be established, but data is only transmitted in one direction.

This bug is fixed in beta firmware 1.0.2.2.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3690172

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2188807

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2165368

12 Replies 12

Andrew Bailey
Level 1
Level 1

Christian,

You have summarised the issues very well I think.

From a hardware perspective this is a great router. I also like this router. However the number, severity and long time to fix these documented bugs is unacceptable for a small business product.

I would echo your questions:-

How can we proceed to get these bugs fixed within a reasonable time?

Is there a list of the currently known bugs?

Kind Regards,

Andy.

rosscsoft
Level 1
Level 1

Agreed.  On paper this is a great device and I think well targeted to small business. I bought mine in order to provide a simple VPN server solution for my home office network.

Unfortunately, the more basic feature of VPN passthrough (for Windows/PPTP) didn't work for me and for that reason I cannot use it as I am unable to make outgoing connections to my client's VPN. This is a basic feature that many home workers take for granted in much cheaper domestic routers (such as the £4 Netgear I am currently using).

I bought mine in August 2012 and I look forward to being able to use it!

chdh
Level 1
Level 1

I found two bug databases:

http://tools.cisco.com/Support/BugToolKit

https://www.cisco.com/cisco/psn/bssprt/bss

The first one sais "Your Cisco Guest Login is not entitled to use Bug Toolkit" and "Registered Customers and Partners may register for access here". I thought I was a "registered customer", so I clicked on "here" and tried to register to get access to the bug database. But when I completed the form, it said my email adress is already associated with an account.

The second bug database sais "To access this section, a valid service contract is required.".

I feel as a second class customer, who may not even look at the bug descriptions of the products he bought.

I had similar issues with Cisco support. Their requirement of creating a login here before they will help you on the phone is a problem... not to mention it was a difficult form to complete and required a support rep on the phone to resolve the issues.

Anyway, I had high expectations of Cisco based on past high end equipment. Perhaps they forgot about the small business sector when they purchased Linksys and discovered the end user market.

@Cisco, please address this issue or tell us when we can expect the resolution so we can plan accordingly.

semenko86
Level 1
Level 1

The lack of firmware upgrades has been very disappoing. After six+ months of waiting, I gave up and bought a MikroTik Routerboard for $100 (which blew this out of the water) and retired my RV180W this week.

The RV180 had great potential, but it's clearly forgotten by Cisco.

semenko86 napisano:

The RV180 had great potential, but it's clearly forgotten by Cisco.

as well as RV220W

I am not able to understand the cisco approach .. but I've learned at least one, do not invest in the products of this brand never more .. sad but true

thefid101
Level 1
Level 1

Quote:

1. Incoming forwarded TCP connections and UDP packets get the IP address of the router.

TCP connections or UDP frames that arrive at the local server through a forwarded port are associated with the local IP address of the router (e.g. 192.168.1.1), instead of the public IP address of the remote node.

Can anybody confirm this?

I am getting the exact same issue. My web server logs confirm 100% of forwarded traffic is showing the IP of the router. Firmware 1.0.2.3 is not forwarding the originating IP address. FTP and Email servers are experiencing the same issue and is causing headaches with anti-hammering filters.

rosscsoft
Level 1
Level 1

I see there is some new firmware for RV180W, 1.0.2.6. 

According to the release notes of firmware 1.0.2.6,

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/routers/csbr/rv180w/release_notes/rv180w_rn_1-0-2-6.pdf

bug CSCue49377 (NAT translates the source IP for inbound traffic, #1 in my list) is still open. Does anyone understand the "Workaround"? It sounds more like a bug description than as a workaround.

And forwarding a port range (CSCuc72086, #4 in my list) does still not work.

The other bugs and shortcomings of my list are not mentioned in the release notes.

According to the release notes, they have fixed 4 bugs in 9 months...?

Zorglub75
Level 1
Level 1

Hi

Nothing has changed since this new firmware.

Port forwarding for a range of ports is still missing

Firewall rules reordering is still messed up

Web admin page is still broken in Internet Explorer 10

This router beeing totally useless and horrifyingly slow, I'm just going to get a good old PIX 501 off eBay.

Nagaraja Thanthry
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hello Christian,

Please see my comments inline:

1. Incoming forwarded TCP connections and UDP packets get the IP address of the router.

TCP connections or UDP frames that arrive at the local server through a forwarded port are associated with the local IP address of the router (e.g. 192.168.1.1), instead of the public IP address of the remote node.

Can anybody confirm this?

[NT] As you noted in another post, this issue has been reported to Engineering and they are working towards a fix.

2. Outgoing TCP sessions without activity time out after 5 minutes (without proper termination) when the WAN is connected through PPPoE.  This is in contradiction to the configuration parameter "TCP Session  Timeout Duration" (in Firewall / Advanced Settings / Session Settings),  which is set to 1800 (30 minutes).

This bug occurs when the WAN is connected through PPPoE and NAT.

Can anybody confirm this?

[NT] Has this issue been reported to Cisco SBSC and a case has been opened? If not, we would request you to do so.

3. PPTP passthrough (outgoing Windows VPN / RAS) does not work when the WAN is connected through PPPoE.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3828872

[NT] Has this issue been reported to Cisco SBSC and a case has been opened? If not, we would request you to do so.

Shortcomings:

4. Forwarding multiple ports at once is not possible. Although it's possible to define a range of ports as a custom service, all the ports within the range are forwarded to the same destination port. Nobody wants to forward a range of ports to a single destination port.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3835594

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3760037

[NT] This is a device limitation at the current time. We will convey the request to change this behavior to the Product Engineering team. If this feature is within the scope for the product, it may be implemented in one of the future firmware releases.

5. Reordering firewall rules is only possible within a page display of 10 rules.  When I try to reorder a rule from the second page to the first page, i  get the error message "Invalid position Enter a value between 11 and  14". It would be better anyway to show all firewall rules on a single HTML page.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3835594

[NT] This issue has been reported to the Engineering and they are working towards addressing it.

6. Custom services are not sorted by name and it's not possible to reorder them.

[NT] This is a device limitation at the current time. We will convey the  request to change this behavior to the Product Engineering team. If this  feature is within the scope for the product, it may be implemented in  one of the future firmware releases.

Thanks,

Nagaraja

I can confirm that point (3) PPTP Passthrough has been reported as case 624778227 and is no doubt being diligently investigated as we speak.  In fact, they are working so busily* on it that they have not even had time to respond to my emails since the case was reopened 5 weeks ago - it must be a real stinker of a bug! Either that or they are ignoring me...

Message was edited to substitute the word 'busily' for 'hard' as this is was flagged as an obscenity when followed by the word 'on'. Amusingly, the forum software has highlighted another possibility for the length of time it takes to fix RV180 bugs.

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