Simple setup - Tight security
I chose the Linksys RVS4000 to secure a vistior-only connection for my office. Our company policy requires that visitors (vendors, partners, customers, etc.) not be allowed access to our corporate network. In addition, we often need to have an "outside view" of our web sites and other Internet accessible systems (like VPNs), for testing and performance measurement.I selected this Linksys product because: - I've had good results with Linksys switches and routers in the past- It had all the features I needed- The price fit my budget - It was on the shelf at Frys!We obtained a DSL connection from AT&T, with Motorola modem included, and the RVS4000 is connected to that DSL modem. The setup went as follows: I followed AT&Ts instructions to set up the DSL modem for a single PC - I directly-connected a Windows Vista notebook to the DSL modem's ethernet port. Then, I verified that the DSL line was working from the notebook, authenticating with AT&T PPPoE account, and getting a working IP address. At this point, I disconnected the notebook, connected the RVS4000 to the DSL modem, and connected the notebook to port 1 of the RVS4000, and powered everything on.The instructions (quick-setup box-topper) for the RVS4000 indicated that the default IP address to access the configuration page is 192.168.1.1 - that's was my second guess..., I tried 192.168.0.1 first. I entered the default "admin/admin" credentials, and got in to the Setup Summary page of the router.The web-based configuration is very well laid out and immediately understandable, though I admit I'm not a novice; still it seems like it would be easy to navigate for anyone. The summary page provides an overview of the current configuration and connections. It even has a photo-realistic diagram of the router and shows the ports in-use filled in with green. I suppose a bad port might show up red, but thankfully I've not discovered if that's true. Under the picture, there are links to various other pages you'll commonly need to access to the left, and their current setting to the right. Along the top, there are major tabs for Setup, Firewall, VPN, QoS, Administration, IPS, L2 Switch, and Status. Each major tab has one or more minor tabs - for the Setup page, the minor tabs are Summary, WAN, LAN, DMZ, MAC Address Clone, Advanced Routing, Time, IP Mode.So, first order of business was to change the Local Gateway Access username from the default. I highly recommend doing this immediately and without fail! there is no reason to leave any router set with the default password, or even the default administrative user name, if they can be changed. The RVS4000 lets you change both, so DO IT!(Note, for some of these steps you'll need to let the router reset, and then reconnect or log in again)Next, I clicked "LAN IP", and set the IP address for the router; I needed to change this so it would not conflict with some of our own address ranges. My setup calls for enabling the DHCP server, and then leaving the rest alone.Next, setting the "WAN IP": AT&T DSL requires that the connection type be PPPoE, with the DSL account Username and Password entered below. I set the Keep Alive value to 30 seconds (the default). I also set up DynDNS.org on this page to provide DNS services for the connection; this is mainly to allow easy remote admin for the router, so I can monitor and manage it from my company's internal network. But this service will also let you run other Internet servers off of your RVS4000. Check into this very valuable and free (for home users) serviceOther steps I took: - Set up IPS: There is a manual update process for the IPS signatures; you need to look at the help file on the page, and download the file and apply it manually- Set up the Firewall: If you know you won't be using certain services, you should go to this page and turn them off; I certainly turned off some stuff for which there is no good business need...- Set up remote admin: Oddly, this is not on the Administration tab, but under Firewall. Only enable this if you want to run the router setup across the WAN or Internet; you DON'T need to turn this on to access the router locally (i.e. from a device connected to one of the router ports). If you do turn on remote admin, PLEASE be sure to choose some random port number, and you may also wish to turn on HTTPS: on this page too, so that your remote sessions will be encrypted. Be aware that if you use HTTPS, you'll see the "red bar" in both IE and Firefox (and I suppose other?) browsers when you connect; the address bar will light up red and you'll get a "suspicious site" warning because the host name for the SSL certificate is "Linksys RVS4000" so it will never match any IP address. After you connect the first time, the browser should stop annoying you about it though...So... anyway, there are so many other features that this little box supports which I can't reasonably describe here. As for the downside, there's not much: the only nit-picks I have about this product are- The documentation is sparse (but this is almost to be expected nowadays, right?)- The help files sometimes refer to "the wireless router", which makes me think they are sharing some pages with other Linksys devices (this router doesn't have ANY wireless capability); more attention to detail would be reassuring- The IPS signature files need to be manually downloaded and installed - it would be far better to be able to automate this somehow- It's not totally clear what the IPS is actually doing or has done - there is a report fuction, but it is not at all clear (but sure *looks* scary)I'm also slightly concerned about how log the device will last; we've had several inexpensive Linksys switches fail on us. The box is cheap enough to mke this only a very slight worry.All in all, we are very satisfied users of this product so far. To summarize, I love the quick and easy setup, clear web design of the configuration site, and excellent feature set. Very highly recommended by this 20+year IT Pro.
heyidiot
Concord, CA