Vigor2830 Series Preview
24/02/2011 3 Comments
Introduction
Since its inception, each DrayTek Vigor28XX that comes out has been highly revered in its domain. The latest of this series, Vigor 2830Vn has just landed on our desks, so let’s have a quick look at its features.
The original hardware of Vigor2830 series has improved significantly from its predecessors, and comes with some additional features from DrayTek.
So what’s the difference between Vigor2830Vn and Vigor2820Vn? Let’s take a look.
From Outside In
DrayTek has continued with the popular sleek Vigor2820 series housing so from its exterior, Vigor2830 doesn’t appear any different. The interior however, tells a different story.
Even from the initial login of the router, some of the new features are apparent.
LAN Interface
One key improvement of Vigor2830 series is that you can now configure up to 4 different subnets. Each of the 4 LAN ports has its own subnet in conjunction with VLAN rules.
WLAN Interface
Unlike Vigor2820 series, you can only set ADSL as your main connection, and Ethernet WAN or 3G USB as a second WAN for load balancing or failover. This is because it is highly unlikely a cable modem on Ethernet WAN would be set up with a 3G USB source as a backup connection.
The new DrayOS delivers even greater flexibility. With Vigor2830 series, you are allowed to set any of the WAN ports to be in always-on or in backup mode. This will be very useful when NBN becomes available, and the fibre connection can be connected to WAN2 through the ONT (Optical Network Terminals), with ADSL set up as a backup line. The software limitations on the Vigor2820 series don’t allow for this, as you can only set ADSL as the primary connection.
With the future network in mind, the Gigabit WAN will work perfectly with NBN fibre. However, if your router does not have a big enough memory to handle such speeds, performance will suffer, even if you have what you consider now to be a fast WAN interface. The new Vigor2830 series has increased the NAT sessions from 15,000 to 50,000 to cater for this.
User Management
User Management is another new feature of the latest DrayOS found in Vigor 2830, Vigor2920 and Vigor3200 series.
This feature allows you to self-manage your network’s Internet access. Each network user can create a unique login and create usage restrictions based on schedules or Time Quotas (length of usage). This also applies to wireless (WiFi) clients.
2.4GHz and 5GHz Dual Band
Vigor2830 wireless models (n and Vn) provide 2.4GHz and 5GHz Dual Band support to strengthen performance in the presence of interferences in the network environment. Note, you can only select one band at a time.
Other Features
Vigor2830 has inherited all the leading features from Vigor2820 series, including the Object-based Firewall, Applications CSM, URL Content Filters, Web Content Filters, QoS Bandwidth Management, VPN, VoIP, Wireless LAN and USB Applications.
Additional features Advanced Apps QoS and IPv6 are currently still in development but are likely to be released in future firmware updates.
Price and Release Date
We are currently waiting on DrayTek’s factory production queue for release. If everything runs according to plan, we should be able to release Vigor2830 series in late March or early April 2011. If we receive any updates from DrayTek Global regarding the release of Vigor2830, we will inform you via our twitter page, http://twitter.com/draytek. Prices are set as below:
- Vigor2830: $399.95
- Vigor2830n: $499.95
- Vigor2830Vn: $549.95
