ASUS ExpertWiFi EBG15 Gigabit VPN Wired Router, up to 3 WAN ethernet Ports + 1 USB WAN, IPS Intrusion Prevention, Layer 7 Firewall, Commercial-Grade Network Security, Remote Management with App

I am not an IT pro or networking expert. I just needed an easy-to-install wired router for my small home office, which has one or two PCs running at a time. This router fits the bill perfectly. This is a big deal because there seem to be very few routers that meet these simple criteria (wired and easy to install). In fact, as of this writing in September 2024, this is the only one I could find. It seems the tech industry has decided everyone using the internet at home wants wifi. And anyone who doesn't want wifi must be a networking expert. What they are missing is that there are some important reasons why a home user who is not a networking expert might prefer a wired router:- Faster internet speeds.- Superior security.- No additional radio waves bouncing around the house, a potential technical or health issue.Pros of this unit:- Wired only. No wifi capabilty without adding other components.- Plug-and-play simplicity, if that's what you want. Seriously, I simply plugged everything in and it worked flawlessly.- Fast internet speeds. Provided the highest internet speeds I've ever seen through a router.- Tons of advanced networking features if you need them. There are web and mobile interfaces you can use to access the well-designed online dashboard. Honestly, most of the settings there were over my head. It appears you don't need to use the interface at all if you don't want to.- Physical design is clean, simple, and compact. The case is metal, believe it or not, which I think is great.- Provides immediate connection when started up, unlike some other wired routers that reportedly take a few minutes to start delivering data.Cons:- It isn't designed for desktop use. Rather, it seems like it's meant to be screwed to a wall in a server room or something like that. I say this because it doesn't really have a "front", unless it's the top where the name is printed. There are screw slots on the bottom. Power input and internet connections are on opposite sides of the unit. For SOHO use (small office / home office), it would be nice to have all the wires going into one side and indicator lights on the other.- Confusingly, it has "Wifi" in its name. Apparently ExpertWifi is the name of the product line, which does include some wifi components. By itself, to be clear, this unit has no wifi capability.- It comes with a comically simple quick start guide that basically just says to plug everything in and then check out the user interface. A little more plain-English explanation for the non tech-savvy would be cool.All in all, after many hours of searching online and reading articles, I've concluded this router is in a class by itself: a simple, efficient, plug-and-play wired router. Thank you, ASUS!

Excellent router! Plugged it into Starlink, logged on via web browser, and within 5 minutes had it up and running. Connected the router to a Deco 9 mesh system and had a fast wireless system up and running. Didn't use the phone app because I find the small screen on phones hard to deal with compared to a laptop screen. The web browser based admin panel is intuitive and easy to use. I highly recommend this inexpensive router combined with a wifi mesh system for whole house internet connectivity.

This thing looks very “Enterprise Class” It has a very nice looking metal case, but its functionality is NOT Enterprise class.Since I own several devices that are made by companies of “questionable reputation”, I wanted to see if any of them are reporting data or telemetry without my knowledge.In other words, I purchased this to see where my network is accessing, or being accessed from.For starters you must agree to let Trend Micro monitor all your traffic if you want to enable the Traffic Analyzer. Then it shows the name of each connected client’s apps and the volume of data the Apps downloaded & uploaded. But not what sites those apps connected to.This model does not have any wireless whatsoever, yet contains a multitude of sections for Wireless setup and charts for 2.4ghz, 5ghz, 6ghz wireless, which are confusing and just wasted eye candy.Logging is definitely not Business grade, I wouldn’t even consider it “Consumer” grade.The General Log only shows logs that affect the actual router, like boot times, firmware updates, link up or down, etc but not connection logs.The connections tab includes a screen titled “This is the history log of active connections” which only collects logs while you have the tab open. There is no actual history log of connections kept during times when you do not have this screen open. This alone makes this NOT a commercial grade device.As an Information Technology manager, I would expect that Any device advertised as a “Gigabit VPN Wired Router” and “Layer 7 Firewall, Commercial-Grade Network Security” would NOT have a bunch of screens dedicated to wireless setup. I would also expect a history of connection logs as a primary or most important function of anything with the word Firewall in its title.If you consider Trend Micro to be trustworthy to monitor all your traffic and provide some level of protection, this might be worth the cost.However, for what I wanted, which was a record of connection history this device completely failed.

This router is great. It supports multi WAN failover and Link Aggregation Control Protocol-incredible. But do not use the phone app- it is a waste and locks down all the important controls- making the best and only way to interfece the advanced features the local web interfaces via IP or the startup page. There are many features worth the headache of resetting and deleting the Android app and starting form scratch. The one standout feature is the VPN-Wireguard VPN no less-support. It also support all the other VPN protocols you expect as well. You also get what seems to be a decent IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) and the ability to filter URLs and other "next gen" capabilities recently reserved ony for the high end business products. I love the product-the local web interface takes getting used to, but the Android app is just not good- do not bother or it will ruin an otherwise near Firewalla level experience but with even more VPNs supported (Wireguard!) and for much less. Overall a great product. Just avoid the app and login locally like any other routher and you are good.Great for cost sensitive cybersecurity people that are not interested in subscription models of other products. This should work for years.