LAN & WAN Reviews

Introduction

Updated 2/25/16 - Router performance retest due to measurement process error

We last looked at NETGEAR's FVS336G VPN router over 7 years ago! The latest version, the FVS336G-300 aka "V3" offers quite a few enhancements over the original model, including a higher performance processor, hardware DMZ port and additional VPN options.

The FVS336Gv3 is designed for small and mid-sized customers with up to 100 users. It has a new look over the old model, now housed in an "industry-grade metal housing". It remains a passively cooled, silent, desktop sized router designed to provide simultaneous connectivity to up to two internet providers, remote connectivity through a multitude of VPN options and security through a highly configurable firewall.

The FVS336v3 measures 10"W x 7"D x1.56"H. The front of the router now has both the LEDs and the RJ45 ports. So if you wanted to stick it on a shelf in a rack, everything is right where you need it. There are four 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN ports, and two 10/100/1000 Mbps WAN ports, shown below.

NETGEAR FVS336Gv3 Front

The rear has a console port, a locking security port, a factory reset button and power receptacle, shown below. The power callout is incorrect; that's a DC input. Unlike the original, the V3's power supply is outboard.

NETGEAR FVS336Gv3 Rear

Inside

The new V3 is equipped with a Cavium Octeon Plus CN5010 300 MHz single core CPU. The CN5010 has integrated coprocessors for packet I/O, QoS, TCP acceleration and VPN encryption. We've previously seen this processor in Cisco's RV 120W and RV 220W and NETGEAR's UTM10. The RV 220W uses a 400 MHz version, while the UTM10's processor runs at 500 MHz.

Other key components include a Broadcom BCM53125 Gigabit Ethernet Switch, 32 MB of Macronix Flash and 128 MB of Samsung DDR2 SDRAM, shown in the board image below. Note there are heatsinks on both the CPU and switch that were removed for the photo.

NETGEAR FVS336Gv3 Mainboard

Table 1 shows the key components for the 336G-300. Components for the earlier version will be added when NETGEAR provides them.

Features

Here's a quick summary of the FVS336G's key features. I'll be getting into more detail on some of them later.

Network

• (2) 10/100/1000 WAN ports
• (4) 10/100/1000 LAN ports
• WAN Load Balancing and Failover
• 350 Mbps LAN-to-WAN Throughput rating
• IPv4 / IPv6 Support
• 802.1Q VLAN (254 VLANs)
• SIP ALG
• Bandwidth Profiles
• QoS
• Traffic Metering
• DDNS

Security

• SPI Firewall
• DoS Protection
• Block TCP/UDP Packet Flooding
• Hardware DMZ port
• MAC Address Filter
• Web object and keyword filter

VPN

• IPsec (78 Mbps throughput rating, up to 25 tunnels)
• SSL (14 Mbps throughput rating, up to 10 tunnels)
• PPTP and L2TP Server
• User authentication methods = AD, LDAP, RADIUS, WIKID, MIAS, NT Domain, Local Database