Although Netgear runs this device under 'Lifetime Hardware Warranty', we are now left with multiple devices that misbehave and we have no clue why!
After about 50h (yes, hours...!) of debugging, phones, exchanges of devices between networks, firmware up- and downgrades, network reconfigurations and much more, Netgear now refuses to help and points to a support-plan. The problem clearly remains with the device. On request by Netgear Support, we had even installed a syslog-server and provided Support with proper logs of crashes. Once they had the logs, they refused to give feedback on them. Cost us couple of hours and we don't even know if they looked at them... Instead they were blaming all sorts of things.
This is unacceptable for a business product with lifetime warranty.
I understand that netgear does not want to cover for all misconfigurations. But according to support, the config was proper and the devices are still misbehaving. Another statement was: "well it can always be that due to traffic load from WAN, the device becomes unresponsive". Oh?! Great job for a firewall...! Netgear, understand that when the source of the problem clearly points to a device, you should at least cover as far as to let customers know what the reason is. That should be in your own interest. But no.
So here we are left with multiple routers that we can't rely on and we still have no clue why.
We tried everything from our side and communicated with Netgear as good as possible. At this point we consider our second attempt with netgear routers (first was around 2008) as a failure and will switch to a more reliable brand.
Model: FVS318N|ProSafe Wireless N 8 port gigabit VPN firewall
I have checked your profile and it shows that the support warranty of the FVS318N you have is already expired about 5 years ago. I believe NETGEAR Support has not refused to help you because a one-time exemption has been given to you last December 2016 and a replacement has been processed for you. It just happened that the replacement FVS318N you received still has problems and still NETGEAR Support has provided you with technical assistance. However, you will need to purchase support contract in order to escalate the case to the engineering team since the support warranty has already expired.
Perfect example how Netgear is deflecting from the real issue:
1. Netgear looked at one case among 4 and is now arguing about that...
2. Every bit of the problem analysis tends towards a hardware issue (confirmed by multiple Netgear support staff)
3. The FVS318 has lifetime warranty on the hardware
4. We have confirmation that the FVS can still be exchanged under warranty.
So Netgear is totally ok with the fact, that their customer should put about 20 hours of debugging on replacements they are sending out!
DaneA, the logs we sent in were taken off a REPLACEMENT!!! That device was behaving even worse that the original! And now we can't exchange THAT?! We never claimed support. We wanted a device that's properly working and we wanted to know what's causing the trouble to we can get a grip of it. If Netgear states that the device might overload under certain conditions, custormers want to know what that condition might be and confirm that.
If Netgear is sending out refurbished, untested or faulty devices, don't expect us to come discussing the support warranty. I'm talking hardware.
But thanks for acutally confirming my point: Hardware issues don't exist with Netgear. And if they (might) do, Netgear will just ship out another one for you to debug. You can see where this is going. Oh, and a little google brings out cases where exchanges were made up to 4(!) times before the situation improved.
That's why the post title sais: "Trash your FVS318N once it acts up" - it's just a waste of time to even try to debug under these circumstances.
What I've learned about these over the last few years is that there are some corruption issues that will start causing all sorts of issues even if the config hasn't changed. I have one such unit that did this and after spending 2 days with it I was finally able to get it back up and running.
If it costs more time and money to debug these units, then congrats, you can afford much better enterprise gear. We moved our main router off of smb products to a used, obsolete enterprise router that gave us new piece of mind. We then stuck with the product line and recently got their latest and greatest--but it comes at a cost one way or another.
If you plan to trash the 318Ns, I"ll take them off your hands. I have plenty of use cases where they are perfect as dumb switches.
