Nexland Pro800turbo Internet Security Appliance

The 800turbo router from Nexland is a solid cable/dsl router that supports two broadband connections and unlimited IPSEC VPN outbound connections. The 800turbo performs load balancing on your outgoing requests (where appropriate) splitting the traffic between your broadband connections. The built in 8 port switch allows for a great deal of LAN expansion before needing additional hardware. Even without the dual-wan connection, the Nexlan does a good job of standing above its competition by offering advanced features like MAC address based security, advanced PPPoE support, a user defined MTU, a backup serial modem/idsn connection and more.

Installation

Installation went very well thanks to the included 64 page manual. The manual is well written, comprehensive and easy to follow. A generous use of screenshots made the process even easier. Download the manual here (3.3Mb pdf) ftp://ftp.nexland.com/pub/media/ProAll_Manual.pdf

Two WAN ports?

The 800turbo has 8 LAN ports and two WAN ports. The 2 WAN ports make this beast unique. This router allows you to utilize two separate broadband connections or alternatively, a single connection with multiple IP addresses. Surfing the web becomes much more responsive and downloading large files interferes less with streaming video and other bandwidth hogs. The 800Turbo would also be appropriate for a small office that has grown out of the bandwidth available on a single DSL line. A second DSL line could be added to both increase available network bandwidth and increase network efficiency.

Limitations of Connection Teaming

Because of the way Internet protocols work, downloading a single large file or watching a single streaming video still happens over only one of the WAN connections leaving the other connection free to service other requests. Connection teaming is perfect for operations that create many network connections (like web browsing) but does not do much for operations that utilize only a single connection - like downloading a file or video-conferencing. Still, the snappiness of web browsing makes this a great solution.

Cable modem with multiple IP's?

If you are a cable modem user that has multiple IP address, you might be able to use the 800turbo to speed up your web browsing. The key is to use two IP addresses that are on different subnets. Your bandwidth is not actually increased but the increased network efficiency makes web surfing seem twice as fast! (DSL may or may not work the same way because both IP address' are probably on the same subnet)