Thoughts & HEXUS.right2reply
As metioned at the beginning of this review, purchase justification syndrome would lead me to say this router is good, regardless of whether it really is or not. Setting those urges aside, it really is good.
The initial setup of the router was easy. The wizard makes sure of that, much like on any router with a half-decent web interface. However, Draytek manage to keep it simple where it matters, despite the router having a whole lot more in the way of features. Turn a feature on and most of the time it'll just start working, without the need for a reboot. Infact, we didn't find all that many settings changes that required a reboot.
There are a few areas in which Draytek's choices could be questioned. The DHCP server on the router seems to be on by default. This could cause a bit of fun on a network that already has a DHCP server. On the other hand, it's great for making setup easy. The thing with this router, though, is that when you look at its release notes Draytek seems to be on the case when it comes to improvements and new features.
Having used the router for a couple of weeks, it's had to put up with some terribly jumpy SNR. With dynamic IP addressing from the ISP, whenever the connection dropped (which, on a bad day, was quite often), the address was changed. This seemed to confuse UPnP at times, but other than that the router put up with it quite well and unlike the previous router used, UPnP didn't freeze the router up.
Hopefully our look inside a pair of routers proved interesting to you. It was certainly of interest to us to find both the similarities and differences between a £30 and £150 router. Both have exactly the same amount of CPU power, but packaged up into different chips, with different discrete resources at their disposal and different software, they become a world apart.
Draytek's Vigor2800VG isn't going to be for everyone. £150 is a lot of money for a router if all you have is two computers that browse the web and download e-mails. However, if features like VoIP, QoS, scheduling, content control, VPN and virtual-LANs make your ears prick, then it's well worth a look. Definitely one for the power users who want a sturdy piece of kit for controlling their Internet connection, and definitely a router up to the task of serving an office.
HEXUS Awards
In light of the Vigor2800VG's solid software and hardware, we're giving it the Exectutive - Recommended award.
HEXUS Right2Reply
We invited Draytek to read and respond to our article under the HEXUS Right2Reply initiative. A representative of the Draytek collective replied with the following
Dear Hexus,
We enjoyed your recent review of the Vigor2800VG. Clearly, Hexus is a site for the more technically informed user, hence the depth of the review, but it did have a very detailed account of real world usage, something that traditional magazine reviewers can't always do with many products to review at once and limited time. As with a girlfriend, you need more than one date to make up your mind :-)
We were delighted that you are personally so pleased with the product, as reflected throughout the review by your enthusiasm. We liked your conclusion that a router is more than the sum of its parts - a great deal of software engineering goes on to create the Vigor routers, all in-house by DrayTek engineers which enables us to be very adaptive to users' demands.
You mentioned about the DHCP server being enabled by default; we find this is essential for the majority of users who expect to connect up their computer and magically 'get' an IP address without having to learn how to. Far less people will have another DHCP server and if they do, they are most likely to understand what needs to be done.
We look forward to reading other reviews on Hexus!
Kind regards,
http://www.draytek.co.uk
We'd like to thank Draytek for taking the time to respond to the review.
HEXUS Where2Buy
HEXUS.links
Draytek.co.uk :: Product page
Draytek.co.uk :: Mikey's Guides
Draytel.org :: Bundled VoIP service
HEXUS.guides :: Port forwarding
