Setup

Typically the Linksys RV082 sits between a cable or DSL modem and is the perimeter device between you and the Internet (Figure 1). The Linksys comes with a small fold-out booklet that steps you through plugging in the cable modem or DSL modem to the Internet port and plugging a laptop or PC to the LAN ports. There were about a half-dozen steps to get set up, and there is a basic wizard to walk you through the process if you need a little prompting and guidance.

Figure 1: RV802 setup

Once everything is plugged in and turned on you can view a status screen that lets you know that things are working. As Figure 2 below shows, we have one PC plugged into port 1 of the LAN, which received a dynamic IP in the 192.168 range and our DSL connection is plugged into WAN port 1. The Linksys router set itself up as the gateway from the LAN to the Internet and has an IP address of 192.168.1.1.

Figure 2: Status screen

Before I got too far, I decided to upgrade the firmware. The instructions were straight forward: download the upgrade; Select the firmware upgrade; and then click a button on the screen to apply the upgrade. There wasn't much in the way of feedback to reassure me that I had done the right thing, just the browser's progress bar at the bottom. Sure enough, when the progress bar of my browser reached the finish the browser refreshed and told me that I should wait about 45 seconds while the router reboots. After rebooting, I was pleasantly surprised that the router remembered my Internet configuration (PPPoE) and the login name and password I had entered during the initial setup. As soon as the RV082 finished booting I was able to continue browsing from another window with no changes required.

From the standpoint of securing the router from unauthorized administration the RV082 is just average. There is an administrator account, but there is no way to change the default name for the administrator account: admin. You can change the admin password but there is no password hint, so you better remember it or write it down somewhere where you (and only you) will be able to find it later. Don't leave the password blank or else all the users on your network will be able to access the router simply by entering "admin" into the password field.

Tags: Linksys, Router reviews, VPN,

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