EnGenius Cloud Managed ESG620 VPN Router review

REVIEW – I love how my home network performs, and I am sure that the reliability and performance are 100% because almost all of my network equipment is made by EnGenius. Some time ago, I upgraded my WAN bandwidth to 2GB/ 2GB up/down and immediately had the desire to upgrade my gateway to take more advantage of my new bandwidth. At the same time, I was hoping to replace my Netgear router with one from Engenius since I am tired of my Netgear routers failing and having to spend $700 almost every year to buy a new one. I am excited because I feel confident that this EnGenius Cloud Managed ESG620 VPN Router is exactly what I am looking for.

⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $799
Where to buy: Engenius website and Amazon

What is it?

The EnGenius Cloud Managed ESG620 VPN Router is a 2.2 GHz Quad-Core VPN Router with Dual-WAN (WAN1 SFP+ and WAN2 2.5 GbE), 8 2.5 GbE LAN (4 PoE+), 2 SFP+ supporting auto-VPN site-to-site and client, WAN balancing and failover, and stateful firewall. It features an effortless setup and delivers enterprise-level security and an end-to-end network solution.

What’s included?

• 1 x EnGenius Cloud Managed ESG620 VPN Router
• 1 x Power Cord
• 1 x RJ-45 Console Cable
• 1 x Rack Mount Kit
• 4 x Rubber Cushion Feet

Tech specs

CPU Processor: Quad-Core
Operating Frequency: 2.2 GHz
Memory: 8 GB
Storage: 16 GB
Network Ports (Copper Ports): 8 x 10/100/1000/2500 BASE-T, RJ-45 Ethernet ports; 2 SFP+ Ports
Console Port: 1 x 10/100/1000, RJ-45 Ethernet port
PoE+ Capable Port: 4 (802.3af/at) LAN (P1-P4)
Mounting Method: 1U Rackmount 13″
USB Interface: 1 x USB 3.0
Security Chip: TPM
Firewall (SPI Throughput): 9.5 Gbps
VPN Throughput: 1.7 Gbps
Max. TCP Concurrent Sessions: 1,500,000
Max. Concurrent VPN Tunnels: 300
Max. VLAN: 256

 

Design and features

• High-performance VPN Router designed for small and medium-sized enterprises
• Quad-core 2.2 GHz processor for greater speed and power
• Dual-WAN Fiber SFP+ and 2.5 GbE for maximum performance
• 2.5 GbE PoE+ to power up a Wi-Fi 6E AP, IP camera, or IP phone
• Multi-Gig and cellular WAN optimization with built-in load balancing and failover
• Enhance security with a high-throughput stateful firewall
• Effortless control with the easiest enterprise-level cloud management platform in the industry
• Auto-VPN with healing and NAT traversal for multi-peer SD-WAN setup
• Seamless and secure VPN Client, SecuPoint, to ensure hassle-free remote connections
• Robust and straightforward VLAN configuration for intelligent traffic segmentation
• Real-time visibility into WAN monitoring, VPN status, and network topology
• Passthrough mode for easy integration into existing networks
• TPM chipset to enhance the security level of the Router
• Intuitive and centralized device visibility from anywhere
• Touchless system maintenance and automatic updates
• Sleek, rack-mountable, compact design
• No licensing or subscription fees needed

The EnGenius Cloud Managed ESG620 VPN Router is a compact device that can be rack-mounted or used on your desktop. The front panel includes LED indicators for power, cloud connection status, and port activity, in addition to two 10G SFP+ ports (WAN/LAN), a 2.5G Ethernet port (WAN/LAN), two 2.5G Ethernet ports (LAN), and two 2.5G Ethernet ports that support PoE+. It also features a USB 3.0 port for WWAN connectivity, an RJ45 console port for direct management, and a reset button. The AC power port is on the back.

Assembly, Installation, Setup

Setting up the EnGenius Cloud Managed ESG620 VPN Router is straightforward. To start, I connected it as a device on my network via a LAN port, and used the “Cloud to-go” EnGeniua app to add it to the network and enable it. Once that was successful, I connected the WAN1 SFP port to a Media Converter, which I needed between the WAN1 port and the Ethernet port on my Modem, unless I wanted to use the second option to assign the first LAN port as a WAN2 port. I wanted access to all 8 LAN ports for LAN connectivity, so I used the SFP+ WAN1 port. It is important to note that if you want to use this device not as a router but as a pass-through device, only the SFP+ WAN1 port works for WAN connectivity in this mode. Since I wanted to replace my Netgear router, I use it in Router mode. It was that simple for the initial connectivity. I then logged in to the EnGenius Cloud via my desktop PC and finished the configuration and customization.

Performance

The EnGenius Cloud Managed ESG620 VPN Router is an enterprise-level, high-performance, cloud-managed SD-WAN gateway tailored for small and medium-sized enterprise environments. The device can be placed on a desk or shelf and is rack mountable. It is designed as a powerful device and is more powerful than the ESG510 I reviewed. It is powered by a 2.2 GHz quad-core processor, 8 GB of memory, and 16 GB of storage, and with my network being possibly bigger than many small and medium-sized businesses, it can easily manage my demanding networking tasks.
Its connectivity includes eight 2.5 GbE LAN ports, four of which are PoE+, dual-WAN support (SFP+ and 2.5 GbE), and two SFP+ ports. The versatility of the ports provides high throughput, redundancy, and the ability to power devices like Wi-Fi 6E access points, IP cameras, etc.

I have not yet had the time to focus on and configure the Firewall. However, I have successfully transferred my VPN access using their dependable and robust SecuPoint VPN client that provides a throughput of 1.7 Gbps. According to the specifications, the VPN supports up to 1.5 million concurrent TCP sessions and 300 simultaneous VPN tunnels.

My network is not an actual enterprise network, and I am not taking advantage of the many other capabilities like a stateful firewall throughput of up to 9.5 Gbps, robust policy rules, port forwarding, VLAN segmentation (up to 256 VLANs), and a TPM security chip for enhanced hardware-level protection. advanced SD-WAN features such as WAN load balancing, cellular failover via USB 3.0, dual-WAN failover preferences, and more. This works with the EnGenius Cloud platform, which provides centralized management from anywhere. It offers real-time visibility into WAN status, VPN connections, network topology, and the health of devices. EnGenius is great at keeping up with firmware updates and automatically scheduling them when they least affect my network. There is no subscription fee to use the cloud unless you want the PRO version, which goes beyond what I mentioned.

In summary, the EnGenius Cloud Managed ESG620 VPN Router excels in delivering enterprise-grade performance, security, and manageability in a compact, rack-mountable form factor. The combination of powerful hardware, advanced SD-WAN and VPN features, and effortless cloud management makes it an excellent choice for organizations seeking to modernize their network infrastructure while minimizing administrative overhead and maximizing reliability.

Final thoughts

The EnGenius Cloud Managed ESG620 VPN Router is exactly what I wanted as the next upgrade for my network. It performs well, manages the traffic of the dozens of devices I have (sometimes over 120 simultaneously), and makes it easy to manage and tweak the performance, assign channels and frequency bands, etc, via the EnGEnius cloud dashboard. This is another winner from EnGenius.

What I like about the EnGenius Cloud Managed ESG620 VPN Router

• The simple and sleek design
• The variety and versatility of the ports
• The ease of installation
• The automated software updates
• The performance
• The wide range of capabilities

What needs to be improved?

• The online support via the Cloud Dashboard could be better

Price: $799
Where to buy: EnGenius website and Amazon
Source: EnGenius provided a free sample for this review. EnGenius did not have a final say on the review and did not preview it before it was published.

Check out these other reviews!

• EnGenius ECS1528P Cloud Managed 24-Port Gigabit PoE+ Switch review
• EnGenius Cloud Managed ESG510 1.6 GHz Quad-Core Security Gateway review