Superb business class VPN firewall with dial backup and content filter

The Zywall 5 is Zyxel's flagship Small Office Home Office router. Combined with the latest release of Zyxel's OS, ZyNos 4.00, this product is one of the most reliable, well-designed firewalls I have the pleasure to deal with in my job as an IT consultant.

Endless Choices
I have set up countless routers in home and small business situations. These have included inexpensive firewalls from the likes of Netgear, Linksys, D-Link, 3Com and Linux roll-your-own solutions to the more expensive firewalls offered by Sonicwall and Cisco. Since Zyxel shares the same ZyNOS code base across all their router products, their products are consistently robust, full-featured, and cost effective.

A Superb Main Office Firewall
The Zywall 5 supports up to ten simultaneous VPN connections, supports load sharing and failover between broadband router connections across multiple Zywalls, has an available serial port to connect an external dial backup modem, and sports an inexpensive but full-featured content filter ($75 yearly subscription required) to ensure your employee's Internet surfing time is productive and safe.

Why use an Internet Content Filter
I consistently find there is a direct correlation between employees that indiscriminately surf the Internet and the number of virus outbreaks on their network. It is the small percentage of employees who look at porn, gamble, or play online games while on the job who seem to be the cause of almost every corporate virus outbreak. Companies simply cannot afford to chance the possibility of decimating their network infrastructure by allowing every employee free access to the entire Internet. So I now recommend every one of my SOHO customers consider content filtering as an effective countermeasure to avoid the most prevalent sources of viruses, spam, and phishing attacks. There simply is no reason to allow employee access to the classes of web sites that proliferate viruses, spam, and phishing attacks such as porn sites, gambling sites, and gaming sites.

A content filter will minimize the chance that an indiscriminate web surfer will happen upon a new virus before the virus database gets updated. A content filter is also a good way to minimize corporate liability: when people can view porn at work, the employer needs to ensure they aren't considered to be condoning that behavior by providing the mechanism to view porn or access raunchy humor.

Rock Solid VPN
We have now been using this router for over a year. The VPN just never fails. Configuring the VPN is as intuitive as they get: there are only a couple screens to set up per VPN. The VPN is ICSA certified so it is compatible with a large variety of other routers.

Configuration is a Snap
The various configuration screens are intuitive and well thought out. I can always find my away around to make any needed changes. This router is as flexible as many of the Cisco routers but you get the added advantage of a set of screens that are incredibly well designed. On a Cisco router I always have to resort to programming in the arcane IOS command language but on this Zyxel router you do not need to resort to the command language. The Zyxel router does indeed sport a full-featured command language but I have only resorted to it once in the last year (to configure NetBios on the Zywall 2).

Summary
The price of this router is extremely affordable. The reliability is phenomenal. If you want a router that is inexpensive, easy to set up and rock solid reliable, this is the router for you.