RV220W v RV320 (Best Router To Buy? Port Mirroring?)

[matthew1471]

Hi Cisco-ers,

Planning on buying a new Small Business Router VPN Firewall in the next 24 hours and have a few questions that i'd appreciate if someone could answer.

1. I assume the most current Cisco SMB Router series is the RV series with the rest having been End of Life'd?

2. The most feature rich and best performing are the RV220W and RV320?

3. Apart from the intregrated WiFi AP in the RV220W and the dual WAN in the RV320 are there any other differences? More features in one over another? I note the RV320 might have better throughput?

4. The RV220W does not support port mirroring / SPAN only packet capturing of 1MB of traffic (which by today's standards is not enough to get an accurate look at inbound/outbound connections) but the RV320 does?

5. Port mirroring is a big deal to me (helps identify the bandwidth hungry devices on my network!) so is there any chance to put that in as a feature request for the RV220W? or is there some technical limitation? Is the physical hardware inside a RV220V not as good?

Otherwise unless someone says something different it sounds like the RV320 is the best (feature rich and performance) router you do under £500? Please correct me if not.

Thanks for your time.

[Joergen Thomsen]

The frequency of updates for the RV220W is about 1 every 1½ year and a new release was published today, so don't expect any new features in a short time frame, if ever. I would be surprised, if the support for the RV320 is better.

[matthew1471]

Thanks Joergen, are there any better products?

I think I found a bit more info here:

"The RV320 is the next generation Dual WAN VPN Router. The SW is based  on the RV0XX series. The RV042G was released in between to address  those who wanted the RV042 with GbE ports.

..

We  are working on the next generation of RV220W - which has had a great  run over the last couple of years. It will live on for a couple more.

"

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2223129

Looks like the RV320 is the hardware refresh of the RV0XX series and the RV220W is getting a bit old and due its refresh.

[Joergen Thomsen]

I am not able to give any advice on other current products.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/ is a good place to check out.

Despite of several issues the RV220W with firmware 1.0.4.17 is actually working in a setup with one WAN connection for several PCs and a couple of servers on the LAN using both IPv4 and IPv6. It also has an external IPv6 connection through a Tunnelbroker 6in4 tunnel. In addition an IPv4 VPN (IPsec) to a remote Linux server is working.

The software development of the RV series is apparently outsourced and Cisco has failed miserably in handling this.

After using several brands of routers through the years we chose a Cisco router because of the excellent brand reputation for routers. With 1½ years between releases of firmware and without fixing all known bugs there is nothing left of this brand reputation. I simply do not understand, why Cisco is not more careful about its reputation.

[Marc Nagao]

Hello all,

I believe there is always room for improvement. In the case of the RV220W, we have had some FW releases to address issues. My team is constantly looking to improve our Small Business Routers.

I am sorry your experience has not been the best, but I can promise you all this, the portfolio will continue to improve in all areas as we move into 2014 and beyond.

Thanks and Happy New Year,

Marc

[matthew1471]

Marc - Thanks, absolutly agree.. I bought one of your WAP4410N's and though I read the forums were awash with issues earlier in its life (and I encountered some rare but still disconnects that needed a full AP reboot by the time I adopted one) by now with the most recent firmware it's a solid AP (though I am convinced the "Wireless Client with Repeating" mode is still a bit broken though). In AP mode however it's the best i've had so far!

Are you able to comment on my 5 questions? I'm particularly keen on the packet capture answer as I would probably buy a RV220W for a different location if it turns out some of the newer firmwares add full Port Mirroring (or at least packet capture of over 1MB somehow).

If not here, where is the best place to ask pre-sales questions? I would like to buy a dual band AP (apparently the

AIR-AP1042N-E-K9 is your standalone < £500 offering with a decent range?) I am in the UK if this makes a difference (to telephone numbers etc).

Finally, any comments on when your new line up might be out :-)?

Happy new year too,

Matthew

[Marc Nagao · Accepted solution]

Hi Matthew,

ok, here we go:

1. I assume the most current Cisco SMB Router series is the RV series with the rest having been End of Life'd? I have not put any RV Series to pasture (EoL) recently.

2. The most feature rich and best performing are the RV220W and RV320? The RV320 and RV325 were recently launched. The RV220W has been on the market for sometime - so it is natural that the newer models have more features. we take our experiences, and suggestions from you all and incorporate them into future models.

3.  Apart from the intregrated WiFi AP in the RV220W and the dual WAN in  the RV320 are there any other differences? More features in one over  another? I note the RV320 might have better throughput? The RV320 and RV325 have SSL VPN, USB Broadband failover, Dual WAN, etc. They are better suited for a multiple device deployment vs an all-in-one/network in a box..

4.  The RV220W does not support port mirroring / SPAN only packet capturing  of 1MB of traffic (which by today's standards is not enough to get an  accurate look at inbound/outbound connections) but the RV320 does? back to the above statement. - we are actually working on the next gen RV220W - which will include 802.11AC.

5.  Port mirroring is a big deal to me (helps identify the bandwidth hungry  devices on my network!) so is there any chance to put that in as a  feature request for the RV220W? or is there some technical limitation?  Is the physical hardware inside a RV220V not as good? we would prob not entertain the feature request on that particular model Michael.

Thank you for being a member of this community.

Marc

[matthew1471]

Marc, that is brilliant. Thanks very much. Looking forward to my RV320 turning up.

I just saw in another forum on here that there is a backdoor in some Linksys by Cisco products (https://github.com/elvanderb/TCP-32764) potentially added by SerComm, I hope the RV320 doesn't have this. I've submitted an e-mail to your security guys (via psirt@cisco.com)

[Marc Nagao]

make sure to download the latest FW on your new RV320 - actually, we have new FW's for both the RV320 and RV220W.

I will take a look at the backdoor situation...

Marc