9. Wrap Up

I think it's safe to say that Nexland's pro800Turbo is no longer the only dual-WAN router game in town, but also that the FR24 is not its equal. A key difference in the Dual WAN aspects of both products is that the pro800Turbo treats the two WAN ports more as equals for both failover and load sharing, while the FR24 primarily uses the WAN1 connection and only switches in WAN2 under certain conditions. The second key difference is that the FR24 lacks the pro800Turbo's dual serial COM ports that support an additional level of auto-failover to dialup or ISDN connections. Let's also not forget the usual assortment of troubles that most new routers have as they get banged on in the real world. The pro800Turbo has more than a year of "mileage" on it, while the FR24 is just starting down the learning curve.

All that said, the FR24's speed, SPI firewall features, and below $100 price make it worth at least a look, given that it's about one-fifth the price of the pro800Turbo. And even if you don't use the second WAN port, it's not a bad single port router either!