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Cisco RV110W review: Affordable small-business VPN option

Cisco announces a new wireless router for small businesses, the RV110W Wireless-N VPN Firewall, which offers a built-in VPN server and costs less than $115.

Dong Ngo SF Labs Manager, Editor / Reviews
CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and also writes about other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the world.
Dong Ngo
2 min read

The Cisco RV110W Wireless-N VPN Firewall router for small businesses
The Cisco RV110W Wireless-N VPN Firewall router for small businesses Dong Ngo/CNET

Generally, getting a VPN for your business that allows remote users to access the local network via the Internet as though they were physically at the office means you'd need a real server or a relatively expensive VPN router. It doesn't have to be that way anymore with the RV110W Wireless-N VPN Firewall that Cisco announced today.

This is a router designed specifically for small businesses of five employees or fewer. Its built-in PPTP VPN server is limited to supporting up to five concurrent remote users. The good news is that the router is very easy to use and it takes just a few clicks to get the VPN server up. Nonetheless, as expected, you'd need to be quite comfortable with networking to set up the VPN clients.

In addition to the built-in VPN server, the Cisco RV110W offers a comprehensive firewall and an advanced Quality of Service feature. All this is managed via a well-organized, easy-to-use Web interface.

The router has quite a few shortcomings, however, as it lacks support for Gigabit Ethernet and dual-band wireless. On top of that, its single-band 2.4GHz Wireless-N can support only up to 32 clients at a time. The router does offer guest networking, however, enabling a business to create separate Internet-only wireless networks for guests. It's also one of the few routers that are IPv6-ready, which is a good feature for a business since we're moving on from the old IPv4, as it is running out of addresses.

The new router is available today at an estimated price of less than $115. For more information, check out the full review of the Cisco RV110W Wireless-N VPN Firewall router.