NETGEAR ProSafe FVS124G - Manual (Page 135)

Router and Network Management 8-1
202-10085-01, March 2005
Chapter 8
Router and Network Management
This chapter describes how to use the network management features of your FVS124G ProSafe
VPN Firewall 25 with 4 Gigabit LAN and Dual WAN Ports. These features can be found by
clicking on the appropriate heading in the Main Menu of the browser interface.
The FVS124G ProSafe VPN Firewall 25 with 4 Gigabit LAN and Dual WAN Ports offers many
tools for managing the network traffic to optimize its performance. You can also control
administrator access, be alerted to important events requiring prompt action, monitor the firewall
status, perform diagnostics, and manage the firewall configuration file.
Performance Management
Performance management consists of controlling the traffic through the FVS124G VPN Firewall
so that the necessary traffic gets through when there is a bottleneck and either reducing
unnecessary traffic or rescheduling some traffic to low-peak times to prevent bottlenecks from
occurring in the first place. The FVS124G VPN Firewall has the necessary features and tools to
help the network manager accomplish these goals.
Bandwidth Capacity
At 1.5 Mbps, the WAN ports will support the following traffic rates:
• Load balancing mode: 3 Mbps (two WAN ports at 1.5 Mbps each)
• Rollover mode: 1.5 Mbps (one active WAN port at 1.5 Mbps)
As a result and depending on the traffic being carried, the WAN side of the firewall will be the
limiting factor to throughput for most installations.
Using the dual WAN ports in load balancing mode increases the bandwidth capacity of the WAN
side of the FVS124G VPN Firewall. But there is no backup in case one of the WAN ports fail. In
such an event and with one exception, the traffic that would have been sent on the failed WAN port
gets diverted to the WAN port that is still working, thus increasing its loading. The exception is
traffic that is bound by protocol to the WAN port that failed. This protocol-bound traffic is not
diverted.