A few dual-port load-balancing routers have popped up. For the past five years I've wanted one, but only expensive business ones existed. It was either that or try configuring Linux's lackluster support, and well, since college, I have more money than time. A lot more. Which is not to say I'm rich, just that I don't have a whole lot of time on my hands!
Anyway, with a bit of research I found that both Netgear's and Linksys's load-balancing routers have serious problems. Unfortunately, the Netgear FVS124G has the most problems, it seems. I say unfortunately because it has all the features I wanted: load-balanced dual WAN ports, 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports, and VPN support. However, the Netgear forums have a long topic on the lockup issues. Linksys has several load-balancing routers on their site, the RT042 (QoS feature) and RV0041 (with GbE), but of course there's a catch. The former has functional problems like the FVS124G, whereas the latter doesn't seem to be available, and it's over $300. Linksys's other RV series products, FV016 and FV082, seem to also have firmware troubles. The FV016 is interesting because it allows for up to 7 balanced ports, but if one needs that kind of capability, one would probably buy a higher-end device!
One just can't win.
The reason I'm looking is because I need a new router, and Japanese routers aren't in general so great. Turns out that we still make better equipment in the U.S. Well, routers are hardware-assisted software, so that figures. I gave my Netgear FVS318 to my dad because I couldn't tunnel into HGST's network with it...but last time I was home I was able to get in. The VPN software we use is way unreliable, so that was probably the real issue. Good products are so hard to find these days.
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