I'm thinking of getting one of these for the house but before I splurge the nasty amount of money it cost's I was wondering if any of you whom have or have used one would care to say if it is any good?

Yes, I know overkill for a home install tbh but the reasons behind it are purely because I no longer live in the UK and I was going to use the vpn function so I can view all the channels I miss online using my UK IP.

Assuming watching the channels is just a TCP issue then I'm not sure the SSL VPN side adds much. IF you are limited to using just port 80/443 at the non UK end then yes it may be an option with caveats.

We added one to the network because engineers are often off-site and restricted to "Web browser" only access, where that is not a consideration an IPSEC or even PPTP VPN will probably be quicker and that really could be an issue with streaming.

That said the device is very nicely made and works well, what I can't give is a total recommendation on is the SSL VPN side as it relies on Java/DirectX on the cleint so more processing happens and it just seems a bit less efficient of "bits passed". That's not a criticism of the Vigor just an observation of SSL VPN in my limited experience.

You could try another route, use an old PC and install SME-Server, add openvpn, (or the built in PPTP), cost just a little time to set up and two modes to test.
If it were not for corporate policy we'd use OpenVPN, quick efficient open source goodness.

The 2955 is a good robust router, perfect for many uses, just not sure the SSL VPN specifically is suited to your requirement (but the other inbuilt vpn's might)

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EDIT
Just looked back at the OpenVPN instructions on SME-Server site, forgot there was quite a bit to do even though with SME the instructions are normally very good and forum helpful. I'd have to say may be forget that option unless you have a bit of Linux experience, its not hard (if I can do it) but probably not something to try on day one. http://wiki.contribs.org/OpenVPN

Cheers for that

Had thought about another machine, but it's my mothers house and she hates leaving electrical items on so that option never really started.

It's not really a TCP issue as such, more of a speed issue vs the older vpn formats - currently now I pay for a package from Identity Cloaker which is a great bit of kit and itself uses OpenVPN and as that runs through the web I basically get my isp speed on the connection compared to maybe 100kb (if I'm lucky) through a vpn to my 2820 in UK.

Makes the downloading from Sky and viewing iPlayer etc much easier, but obviously I want to cut out the costs in paying for such a service. Yeh there are free services, Expat Shield etc, but they don't work with all sites..

What about DD-WRT then?
Silent router bells whistles and OpenVPN.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/OpenVPN

I just don't see the SSL vpn being good with the streaming.

The machines I've tried it on are a few years old so some current beast may be fine.

I new someone who used a slingbox in some far east country to keep the UK based granny amused with homeland TV, only trouble was the relatives got unhappy when granny many thousands of miles away forgot and changed channels...
They got a second telly..

You need to supply a cup of coco or strong coffee with that guide ^^

Will have a read later..

Happen to have a spare WHR-HP-G54 here, bless the sister in posting two too me

Yeah might be worth looking for a "how I dun it" specific to your hardware.
I've got one of those WHR-HP-G54 sat here but with Tomato on ad I don't think that does OpenVPN (Oh wait just noticed TomatoVPN listed on http://omegadelta.net/2010/10/12/whr-hp-g54-running-openvpn/)

Another link that may be worth a visit http://omegadelta.net/2010/10/12/whr-hp-g54-running-openvpn/

Probably a bit off topic for this forum, if you do try just make sure you really know what version of router you try it on. I have some some Buffaloes with less ram so they need a lesser version.

===disclaimer===

Just checked the forum rules here and have probably stepped outside them. They are pretty good on here but I probably should PM the links.

I don't recommend using other hardware except for testing/education and trying third party firmware is just asking for trouble, unless you're happy throwing your hardware away or spending multiples of the value in time trying to fix it don't attempt it.
Vigor has been my router of choice for many years simply because you don't need to have a degree in tinkering to use them securely and the feature set to cost blows most things out of the water.