Not really.
My two gateway to gateway tunnels took maybe all of three minutes each to setup. As long as all the settings and options are the same on both gateways they just work. I did typo the PSK once, which created a few seconds of head scratching, but after looking at the real time logs on the other gateway and seeing a PSK mismatch error it was obvious. SSL VPN took a little while longer, maybe 10 minutes. Cisco doesn’t make AnyConnect easy to find, and I was unfamiliar with the process, but after reading a couple posts on their help forums I was able to get everything working like I wanted. A secondary WAN connection was plug and play. The router was already set up for failover with WAN1 being the primary and WAN2 being the secondary by default. Creating VLANs also takes a matter of seconds.
Every other firmware release, I do a factory reset. I have a backup of the config saved in case of an emergency, but I never use it. To go from factory defaults to fully customized takes me about 10 minutes to set up manually.
For my wireless access point, the only customizations I have done change the default IP/username/password and enable MAC address filtering. I keep the MAC addresses of all my wireless devices in a text document for easy copy/pasting. Besides my printer and phone, I do not use wifi for anything other than my smart speakers and IoT crap. Wifi is not that Important to me, and hardly any traffic goes over it.
Not sure why you seem to be against having business grade hardware in the home, and I don’t consider what I have to be all that impressive or highend. There is no micromanaging going on, not sure where you got that from. And yes, my user experience is enhanced. I have site to site tunnels set up so I can access work and my side gig without any additional software and perform offsite backups to my NAS with ease. Then use access rules so that only the static IP addresses of the servers in question can see my NAS. Dual WAN for instant and seamless failover if there is a cable or power outage. SSL VPN so when I take trips, I can connect back to home to upload pictures from my camera to my NAS from the hotel or wherever. If I ever get IP enabled CCTV cameras, I won't be getting a 'cloud' based setup from Nest or Ring. I will have my own solution with an NVR that is accessible over VPN. These aren’t totally off the wall things that I'm doing.
My two gateway to gateway tunnels took maybe all of three minutes each to setup. As long as all the settings and options are the same on both gateways they just work. I did typo the PSK once, which created a few seconds of head scratching, but after looking at the real time logs on the other gateway and seeing a PSK mismatch error it was obvious. SSL VPN took a little while longer, maybe 10 minutes. Cisco doesn’t make AnyConnect easy to find, and I was unfamiliar with the process, but after reading a couple posts on their help forums I was able to get everything working like I wanted. A secondary WAN connection was plug and play. The router was already set up for failover with WAN1 being the primary and WAN2 being the secondary by default. Creating VLANs also takes a matter of seconds.
Every other firmware release, I do a factory reset. I have a backup of the config saved in case of an emergency, but I never use it. To go from factory defaults to fully customized takes me about 10 minutes to set up manually.
For my wireless access point, the only customizations I have done change the default IP/username/password and enable MAC address filtering. I keep the MAC addresses of all my wireless devices in a text document for easy copy/pasting. Besides my printer and phone, I do not use wifi for anything other than my smart speakers and IoT crap. Wifi is not that Important to me, and hardly any traffic goes over it.
Not sure why you seem to be against having business grade hardware in the home, and I don’t consider what I have to be all that impressive or highend. There is no micromanaging going on, not sure where you got that from. And yes, my user experience is enhanced. I have site to site tunnels set up so I can access work and my side gig without any additional software and perform offsite backups to my NAS with ease. Then use access rules so that only the static IP addresses of the servers in question can see my NAS. Dual WAN for instant and seamless failover if there is a cable or power outage. SSL VPN so when I take trips, I can connect back to home to upload pictures from my camera to my NAS from the hotel or wherever. If I ever get IP enabled CCTV cameras, I won't be getting a 'cloud' based setup from Nest or Ring. I will have my own solution with an NVR that is accessible over VPN. These aren’t totally off the wall things that I'm doing.
