RV042 hardware v1 and v3 intermittent

[vegastech]

Hello,

I've installed 80+ RV042 v1 over the last 5 yrs at my clients. I love the routers because they are cheap and their feature set matches my clients needs. Cons about the routers are they die after 3-5 yrs or if they are used in a hot environment. Even replacing them each 3 yrs is cheaper than a low end Sonicwall and you don't have to pay for firmware updates (like Sonicwall).

Lately with the new hardware v3 I've noticed they cannot keep a connection to v1 hardware. Previously, the v1 to v1 may drop the connection and you would hit the Disconnect button (which causes the VPN to re-negotiate) and it would come back. The v3 to v1 VPN connections cannot bring the link back up. If you try from a v1 to a v3 it is successful.

Both the v1 and v3 have current firmware updates (15Jun2011). I've completely blown away both sides of the VPN and rebuilt it, same issue. I've left the existing VPN there (on the old v1, new one obviously on the v3), same issue. Over Cox cable and CenturyLink DSL, same issue. Our normal IPSEC setup is group2, AES128, and SHA1.

I have not seen any issues with, as needed, PPTP connections. It is only the 24x7 IPSEC connections.

Are other people seeing this?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Are other people seeing this?

Yes....I have a client with a WAN of existing RV0 hardware, RV016 at mothership, RV042 units at the satellites. One of the RV0 units went tango uniform, I replaced with with a newer RV042, came v3. Got it in place, but every couple of weeks it seems to need a bounce to re establish the tunnel.

I was wondering how well..or rather, how compatible they'd be. Historically I always like to do a clients WAN setup with same brand hardware/same versions across the board.

I'm not losing much sleep over it trying to troubleshoot it....as I'm replacing all the RV0 units with some new UTM appliances soon, so the RV0 units will be discarded.

BTW, what I've usually done for the network hardware at clients is get a little APC es350 or es550 unit...and I have the modem/router/switch plugged into that. That nice clean power seems to permit me (and my clients) to avoid the "roasted router" problems and having to replace something every couple of years due to a power supply issue or something. That extra 45 - 65 bucks spent on the little APC easily pays for itself by avoiding replacing equipment and an hour of your time.

 

[thiggins]

I'm not losing much sleep over it trying to troubleshoot it....as I'm replacing all the RV0 units with some new UTM appliances soon, so the RV0 units will be discarded.

What are you swapping in?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

What are you swapping in?

Tim, I'm putting Untangle in across the board.
I'm installing it on hardware provided by www.UntangleAppliances.com
At the main office, I'm using their beefier NG-100 model, and at the satellite offices located in a couple of nearby courthouses and police stations, I'm using their little NG-25 units.

At the main office, they'll be running the "Education Premium" bundle of Untangle..which has the bandwidth control module (a very granular QoS module) to help out with their IP phone system. And Kaspersky antivirus module (as well as the default Clam that comes with the base Untangle system)...combined with the antispyware module, and Eset antivirus at the desktops....this client should be able to shed the rather frequent malware issues that they usually have.

At the satellites I'll just be using the free base "lite" version of Untangle.

Yes it's a bit pricey compared to just a bunch of RV0 units....(a little over 5 grand for the project)....but they need the reliability of solid VPN tunnels, and security (lots of sensitive information).

I like the disaster recovery feature that Jim put in the units from Untangle appliances. Hard drives in appliances that run software distros, such as Untangle, or Astaro, or PFSense, etc...are certainly a concern. What happens if the drive goes belly up? With his appliances, you can create a snapshot of your drive once you get it configured. If a drive gets corrupted, or something gets messed up, you can restore the image from that snapshot. Or better yet..if the drive goes totally tango uniform...you can boot and run from that backup image.

I know for a business to go to a UTM versus a basic NAT router can be price prohibitive...but with todays "rogue fake alert" malware taking up incredible amounts of IT resource and time, and employee downtime...they quickly pay for themselves.