Why I buy this one ?
- LAN Ports - 4 10/100 Mbps RJ-45
- WAN Ports - 1 10/100 Mbps RJ-45
- Weight - 1.27 lbs.

ANTOnline offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : Too low to display Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Electronica Direct offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $155.49 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

PC Universe offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : Too low to display Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Platinum Micro, Inc. offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $159.54 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

A1Books offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $160.53 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

WonderElectronics offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $167.67 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Amazon.com offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : Too low to display Usually ships in 24 hours

DataVision Computer Video offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $169.99 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

SkyBox-USA offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $170.40 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

XP Passport offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $171.34 Usually ships in 2-3 business days

What our customer's say!

"Very Good Once You Get It Installed", This is a inexpensive alternative to a Cisco firewall/router for a small business that needs VPN. To prep for the install, I went to Linksys.com and got the latest firmware. Even with the latest firmware, installing the RV042 took much more time than initially anticipated: ATT DSL modem needed a hard reset and then placed into Ethernet bridge mode. The DSL modem would not function correctly when connected to the WAN1 port; had to use WAN2. Keepalive setting per ATT was incorrect. Needed to adjust MTU settings or FTP transfers would not work reliably. Finally got it working and set up VPN. Happy to see that RV042 includes built in PPTP server. This means that VPN clients can use the MS PPTP VPN client that comes with Windows. No need to install the Linksys VPN software on client PCs. Note that using RV042 PPTP, limits you to 5 VPN users. In summary, product is recommended only for someone with networking experience. Even then, be prepared to spend some frustrating time.

"Ok unit, terrible service", I own two of these, and had no problems getting vpn up and rolling, but after 1.5 years, I've had both units fail within a month of one another (both just started blinking warning - fried - both in different locations in the us), and fell in with linksys's absolute crap-poor technical support. I ended up finding it a better use of my time just to dump these units and replace them than deal with linksys's absolutely insanely bad indian technical support.

Here's the hard part. I replaced the first unit, and it fried to. So, I'm out 450 bucks, and then I call technical support, and they won't support the older units even though I have just purchased a new one, and want to charge me $35 bucks because one of the 2 units I'm trying to get vpn working with is "out of warranty" even though the one I'm trying to configure it brand new! What the heck? Not to mention the level of technical competency of the people I was on the phone with was next to nothing (total script readers), and they wouldn't listen to common sense - oh, and I got disconnected all the time.

As a VERY long time customer (almost from their inception), I'm never buying another product from them. They've made some very bad business choices, and their support and product quality has dropped to third world levels. I can't believe this is a Cisco company - they should be ashamed of their acquisition.

Do yourself a favor. Run away from Linksys.

"RV042 < RV082 < RV016", Before you purchase a RV042, check the RV082 and RV016 carefully - they are similar routers, but have different capabilities. Your needs may not be met by the RV042.

Also - no matter what model you buy - before you bein configuration first upgrade the firmware! failure to do so will result in disappointing performance!

"Why complain?", I've read a lot of negative reviews of this product - and have no idea what people want for their money anymore. Admittedly, the first one of these I got was a dud - kept slowing my bandwidth down to dial up speeds even with latest firmware, etc etc... the next one I got (RMA was very quick too BTW) works like a champ and have had no issues with speed like the last one.

The features of this things firmware blow the cheapy linksys routers out of the water. I love having so much control for so little cost.

I bought this for the redundant internet feature - NOT the VPN feature - but I have used the PPTP connection and it works like a champ. I don't think this router is given enough credit for the price - a fantastic product!

"No router can match this one", I have tested and used countless different routers amoung all the different brands and this is the only router I will buy. I currently have about 30 (thirty) in use amoung my clients all are rock solid.
Key points off the top of my head:-
1) Router is rock solid reliable.
2) WAN port is 100Mbit/s for new high speed internet lines.
3) Router is a PPTP server !!!!!! Amazing !
4) Router is a IPSec server and client.
5) etc.

Take my word for it - don't waste your time and money with anything else. There is nothing else on the market to touch this product in this price range.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"VPN support improved", I purchased the RV042 about one year ago and like everybody else I had my share of troubles getting the VPN to work. For a number of reasons I put the RV042 on the shelf after a few months, and I just put it back in service a few days ago.

After upgrading the firmware to 1.3.7.10 I noticed PPTP server in the VPN menu bar. Sure enough, after setting up a username and password, I can now VPN directly from XP to the router - on need for QuickVPN. Got it configured today, so I can't vouch for the long-term stability of the VPN feature (and firmware upgrade), but so far so good!



"Built in self destruct", Our company bought two of this model in 2005 for our new branch office. After we set them up, it works just fine. We didn't use any of the advanced features at that time. After reading the user's guide and online forum at the Linksys web site, we found out that there are a battery inside the router that is NOT user replaceable. You need to send it in for replacement. Sure enough, we now have two routers that can't retain any configuration settings. They all reset to factary default all of a sudden, one after 1 year, the other after 1 and half year.
Also note, we updated one of the router to newest firmware, which prevents any kind of connection from the internet. Needless to say, my boss is really crossed with me because I was the one recommend the model.

"I should have listened to the bad reviews", I read the bad reviews of the RV042 and ordered it anyway figuring that a company like linksys/cisco would fix such glaring problems quickly, bad assumption. As a software quality assurance engineer I'm pretty tech-saavy but after two days of wrestling with the QuickVPN, I could still not get it to work. The problem is one of documentation, their information on troubleshooting the QuickVPN is not helpful at all which is too bad because otherwise the product appeared first rate. The web configuration interface is very intuitive and easy to use, I was able to get the basic router/firewall working with my custom firewall rules in a few minutes.

If you do go ahead and buy the RV042, I would suggest that you plan on hiring someone who has used the RV042 before to configure it for you.

The firmware version of my RV042 was 1.3.7.10 and the version of my QuickVPN client was 1.0.39. By the way, when you review products like this it is very helpful to readers to include the version numbers so they can see if the problem may have been fixed.

"My best ever experience with Linksys", I spent a while looking for a good VPN router. They seem to be really hard to find. I don't know if it's because they are generally difficult for the average user to set up and use or if all of the consumer-grade VPN routers really are such low quality. I've been very disappointed with Linksys products in the past, and I wasn't really considering Linksys from the beginning. But I looked around at several sites with user comments on various VPN routers, and the Linksys RV042 was the first one I found that had more positive reviews than negative reviews.

It's more expensive, to be sure, but I think it has been worth the money. I have had absolutely no trouble with it in the first month that I've had it. Setting up a VPN seems to be a fairly complicated affair for the uninitiated, and I don't know how this one compares with any other. I bought VPN Tracker from Equinux Software (I'm using a MacBook) to use as the VPN client. They provided step-by-step instructions for setting up the router and the software, and it has all worked very well.

Speed seems to be good. Download speed (router to remote client) was close to the advertised speed of my cable service, so the router doesn't appear to be slowing things down that way. I haven't had a really good test of upload (remote client to router) speed yet, but the files I have uploaded moved pretty quickly.

One thing that really surprised (and pleased) me was an unadvertised feature: secure (https) remote management. Other routers, specifically from NetGear, advertise this feature, but Linksys did not. I knew that remote management was possible, but I didn't know I could connect via secure http until I started setting it up. That was a nice surprise! Of course, if you've got a VPN set up, you can manage the router "locally" through the VPN. But if you're not using a VPN, it's nice to be able to get into the router management knowing that your user name and password are secure. The only limitation on the secure remote management is that you can't change the management port like you can with the "unsecure" remote management. They don't really tell you that, and it took me a few minutes to figure it out. But that's a small thing.

"Just couldn't get it done", I'm sure it would work well somewhere, just not for our small business. I put it behind an ADSL router and used it to authenticate PPPoE. It was a bear to get it set up this way and when it finally was, it worked for about 2 weeks and then just disconnected. After hours on the phone with tech support from Linksys and the DSL Router people, nobody could help. While it connected, it did work very well, it just did stay up. Too Bad.