FVS336Gv3 Firmware lifespan / Product life expectancy
Is there any information about the Firmware lifespan of the Netgear ProSafe FVS336Gv3? or something about its life expectancy as a product?
I'm asking that becasue I'm looking for a Dual WAN Gigabit Firewall (NO UTM) based on Cavium OCTEON Plus CN5020 Dual Core MIPS64 embedded processor (I know, by now it's an old platform...but its numbers look good enough to me) and I found that (just as examples) also CISCO RV320 and ZyXEL ZyWALL USG 50 can be compared from that point of view...they use the same CN5020 but, to better understand each product's life expectancy and each product's possible development path, knowing the Firmware development lifespan (or the Product life expectancy) is really important especially when speaking about products that were marketed few years ago (<2014, at best) and so aren't definitely new.
For reference:
Netgear ProSafe FVS336Gv3 Firmware 4.3.3-8 was released on June 2016, that's good...but what's about the future Firmware releases (considering that is the 7th release since the initial one 4.3.1-13)?
ZyXEL ZyWALL USG 50 ZyOS 3.3x Firmware development looks officially stopped on January 2015 - last official release is actually 3.30(BDS.7) - since ZyXEL released new platforms ZyXEL USG 40 and 60 based on newer Hardware and newer Firmware branch ZyOS 4.x (Note: ZyXEL develops weekly unreleased updates for old ZyWALL USG 20, USG 50, USG 100 and USG 100 Plus and latest updated build was done on Week 28 2016, few weeks ago).
CISCO RV320 Firmware releases look good to me (eight releases in total), the initial release was on March 2013 (latest was on June 2016 - the 1.3.1.12 - same month during which Netgear FVS336Gv3 seen its 4.3.3-8) while the latest Firmware added OpenVPN support (nice feature!).
Thanks!
Model: FVS336Gv3|ProSafe dual WAN gigabit firewall with SSL and IPSec VPN
Re: FVS336Gv3 Firmware lifespan / Product life expectancy
Hi Kimera,
There is no definite time on when a new firmware for the FVS336Gv3 will be released. As well as with the life span of the FVS336Gv3, there is no definite time on when it will be declared End-of-Life or EOL.
It is possible that a new firmware is being developed to improved the performance of the FVS336Gv3. However, there is no estimated time on when it will be released.
Re: FVS336Gv3 Firmware lifespan / Product life expectancy
Hi DaneA! thanks for your answer.
As far as I understand my research is going to focus on Netgear ProSafe FVS336Gv3 and CISCO RV320...because they're - actually - the two (of three products I considered) still officially and actively maintained and they were announced no more than 3 years ago (June 2013 for CISCO RV320 and October 2014 for the FVS336Gv3) so their lifespans look potentially long (I hope at least 3 years starting from now...).
Re: FVS336Gv3 Firmware lifespan / Product life expectancy
Hi! Thanks for sharing. I've read it already...but...my fault: the Netgear ProSafe FVS336Gv3 indeed is based on the SINGLE Core Cavium Octeon Plus CN50xx...so it's the CN5010 for sure.
Sorry for stating it was based on the Cavium CN5020! probably I've just dreamed about that...forgetting to double check the true CPU used.
Now...my error renders the whole picture more interesting...because we can see how the Single cnMIPS core (the CN5010 clocked at 500 MHz as per Netgear Datasheet and not at 300 MHz as incorrectly reported by the reviewer) used on the FVS336Gv3, reviewed with (a now old) Firmware 4.3.3-5, seems to show nearly similar LAN/WAN and WAN/LAN performances obtained from the Dual cnMIPS cores (the CN5020 clocked at 300 MHz) used by the CISCO RV320 even if the VPN performances seem to be in favour of the CISCO RV320...at least at time - January 2014 - when it was reviewed with the (now very old) Firmware 1.1.1.06 of December 2013.
I've lost the FVS336Gv3 Firmware release dates but will be interesting to read an updated review of both products (I mean: both with updated Firmwares).
Re: FVS336Gv3 Firmware lifespan / Product life expectancy
I'm curious as to why you're interested about the life expectancy? Do you mean this in terms of support life expectancy or hardware? The reason I ask is because I have some real data on the hardware.
I have an FVS124G and an FVS114. Very, very legacy products. The FVS124G still works today and still works to spec. The FVS114 WAN port stopped working about 2 years ago. Funny thing is that its still covered under a lifetime warranty. And the amazing part about the 114 is that it was routing at 40Mb/sec--a speed well beyond what was ever tested on back during the development days.
I also have two rv016s that I've had in operation since 2005, at one point operating in 100 degree heat without AC for over 2 years. Both still work 100% and are kept as backup routers. I had an rv042 as well, and after a few years the capacitors started getting noisy and finally failed.
Overall, I think you'll find that there's some great hardware in these units that will long outlive the software. Keep in mind that even an 'out of date' router works perfectly as a switch when the dhcp server is disabled. I've got several old netopia dsl routers working in that capacity (I'm actually on one of them right now, lol). Most hardware lives well beyond its worldly usefulness (at least here in the US--I'm sure that US 'junk' networking equipment would give the third-world resources they don't have).
Re: FVS336Gv3 Firmware lifespan / Product life expectancy
I too have an old FVS114...and it is currently running!
My question was more focused about the "Firmware lifespan" (so it was definitely Software related)...not about the Hardware per se (even if I started with a brief Hardware comparison)...I know that Hardware will mostly survive its Software...or, better, its Software...when development (no...marketing) decides that is time for the EoL/EoS phase...is the real Hardware's killer. That's the problem with these types of appliances.
So, despite the good Hardware below the chassis, and given that the FVS336Gv3 product was released two years ago...I was interested in knowing how many years of development that product has on its horizon.
Re: FVS336Gv3 Firmware lifespan / Product life expectancy
Hi Kimera,
We have released the FVS336Gv1 back in 2008 and it had gone through a lot of hardware and software improvements which led to creating the v3. The v1 still stands strong and we still continue to provide firmware updates for it. IMHO as long as the FVS336Gv3 is still relevant and there are still a good number of users, updates will still be implemented. The v3 is one of the best routers that we have right now on the market so I don't see it going out anytime soon.
Re: FVS336Gv3 Firmware lifespan / Product life expectancy
I loved the 114--reboots almost instantly, easy to configure, and handled up to 40Mbps Internet no problem. If it wasn't for the locking up issue we had (that we solved with a rebooter), I don't think we would have found anything even wrong with it.
So the type of 'software concern' that you're talking about is something I see purchasers of enterprise equipment discussing. It's not something that the small business market talks about much because they'll just get some other equipment if need be. However, in the enterprise world, big, complex, expensive, or serious income producing systems rely or depend on the router and its software, so updates are serious enough that router companies like Cisco, Juniper, Fortigate charge substantially for 'support contracts' that include support and the updates (sometimes the units won't even work without the contract).
So the type of 'software concern' that you're talking about is something I see purchasers of enterprise equipment discussing. It's not something that the small business market talks about much because they'll just get some other equipment if need be.
Well, it's not really always as you said because the SMB/LB limit is not always so clear...and Firewalls are not "fire and forget" devices...you need to manage them as pets...there are SMBs that rely heavily on fast and stable Internet connectivity...for those SMBs knowing that Firmware updates for their Hardware Firewall (updates released to provide security bug-fixes, feature bug-fixes, enhancements or new features) will be (1) available for many years after the first Hardware introduction and will be (2) continuously released will mean that the Hardware they purchased was (and is) a good investment and helped (and help) them to work flawlessly without disruption day to day. Otherwise one can go down the OSS road solutions (pfSense/OPNSense or whatever you like) using (a) specific hardware appliances or (b) quite classic hardware (considering an Intel ATOM + some GbE NICs can be OK). My thread started mainly because I think the FVS336Gv3 uses an interesting Hardware and shows good numbers (not too dissimilar from the Hardware and numbers of other Dual - physical - WAN ports Firewall I yet know: like Cisco RV320 or ZyXEL ZyWALL USG50 or the new ZyXEL USG60) so I was interested in knowing what would be its lifespan considering I can purchase it today and I don't want to be worried in, let me say, 2018 that its Firmware development can suddenly stop.
Re: FVS336Gv3 Firmware lifespan / Product life expectancy
Agreed that there are use cases for SMBs where they can spend more money making sure they have a solid router since their business depends on it. But that's where the entry level enterprise stuff usually comes in. Most LB-SMBs can afford the entry level enterprise equipment and the associated service contracts, and from what I've seen, even if there are OSS solutions or smb products that can do the job, they simply don't go down that route because of the work/uncertainty of it working. They want someone else to handle that so they can concentrate on their core business. We considered entry level enterprise for one of our locations until we ran the numbers and saw that the losses didn't justify such an expensive solution. We stuck with the 318N instead.
