DrayTek’s Vigor 2927Lac router is ideally suited to SMBs and remote workers that can’t afford any internet downtime. It offers a wealth of WAN redundancy features with dual Gigabit WAN ports supporting failover and load balancing plus an internal 4G LTE modem with dual SIM slots for primary and backup connections to mobile networks - you can even use its USB port to add another 4G modem.
Network security is another strength as it provides a powerful SPI firewall along with application controls and optional web content filtering. It’s ideal if you have remote workers requiring secure access to network resources as the price includes support for 50 IPsec VPN tunnels plus 25 SSL VPNs and facilities to create 16 hardware accelerated IPsec VPNs.
The Vigor 2927Lac is even more versatile as it delivers concurrent 2.4GHz and 5GHz 11ac wireless services. What’s more, the router runs DrayTek’s Central AP Management (CAM) service which discovers and provisions up to 20 DrayTek VigorAP wireless APs with the next firmware upgrade allowing it to function as the root node in a meshed wireless network.
The router presents seven Gigabit network ports where the sixth can be used for LAN or WAN duties. Redundancy features keep on coming as two routers can be deployed in a high availability configuration where they share a virtual IP address and can be set to hot-standby or active-standby modes.
SMBs won’t have any problems deploying the router as its web console provides wizards for securing admin access, configuring internet access and setting up client or site-to-site VPNs. More wizards are provided for enabling the various optional security services and creating wireless networks.
Protection starts immediately as the firewall has a default security policy already activated which you can modify with other rules and filters that define traffic directions, sources and destinations, protocols and block or pass actions. Internet redundancy is equally easy to configure as you define multiple WAN connections and decide whether to have them running in active/backup mode or all active, where the router load balances traffic across them.
The basic URL filtering service uses keywords to block access to specific web sites. For more granular browsing control, DrayTek offers a free 30-day trial of the Cyren GlobalView service which allows up to 65 web categories to be blocked or allowed using profiles and if you like what you see, it only costs £21 per year to activate.
Application controls are free on registration and offer a list of over 130 apps and protocols, Categories are provided for Apple, Google and Amazon web services and if you want Facebook out of the office, just create an enforcement rule for it and block all further access.
Wireless services are extensive as each radio can present up to four virtual SSIDs each with their own encryption scheme. You can apply a schedule to each one to control when they are active, set upload and download bandwidth usage restrictions and apply station controls to limit client connections times.
Wireless hotspot services forward LAN and wireless clients to a web page with an acceptable use policy which they must agree to before receiving internet access. Even better, they can authenticate with their Facebook or Google credentials and the router can send them a unique PIN via SMS to the mobile number they enter in the landing page.
The Vigor 2927Lac router clearly shows why DrayTek is the go-to vendor for SMBs that want the best WAN redundancy. It delivers an impressive range of security features at a very affordable price and its integral wireless network and hotspot services make it even more appealing.
Product: Vigor 2927Lac Supplier: DrayTek Web site: www.draytek.co.uk Telephone: +44 (0)345 557 0007 Price: £355 exc VAT
