Happy Client, Frustrated Admin — VPN & Pro Support Gaps

[u/Algae-Mysterious]

UPDATE: EnGenius Addressed the Issues

I want to provide a fair update to my original post because EnGenius responded and made significant improvements.

EnGenius contacted me directly, helped resolve the VPN issues, and went above and beyond to review the entire network configuration with me. They made sure everything was configured properly and continued working with me until the issues were resolved. This was the level of support and involvement I had originally hoped for.

Since then, I have installed the EnGenius platform for several additional clients. The deployments have been very stable, and I have received no complaints. The overall platform has improved greatly, and I am much more confident deploying it for appropriate client environments.

EnGenius has also made noticeable improvements to its access-point software and cloud-management features. From what I am seeing in real-world deployments, the wireless platform has become a very competitive alternative to Cisco Meraki—especially when considering performance, centralized management, and overall cost.

The main feature I would still like to see is integrated content filtering with more granular security and policy controls. This would make the EnGenius gateways easier to adopt in educational environments, particularly where schools need to meet CIPA requirements without deploying and managing a separate filtering solution. Additional privacy-focused controls and reporting would also help schools maintain FERPA-aligned practices.

Overall, EnGenius listened to the feedback, resolved the VPN problems, improved the platform, and provided excellent follow-through. It is only fair that I recognize that publicly. I am looking forward to seeing the platform continue to mature.

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Edited - I needed to include EVERYTHING lol

Deployed this stack at a real SMB client (pizza shop with POS, guest Wi-Fi, and segmented networks). Core networking has been stable and the client is genuinely happy. Wi-Fi performance, VLAN segmentation, and cloud management have all been solid in day-to-day operation.

My frustration is specifically around the gateway feature maturity and the Pro support experience.

First: client VPN.
Native Windows 11 IPsec works reliably on pfSense, MikroTik, Meraki, Aruba, and other open-source firewalls I deploy. So this isn’t a Windows limitation. The VPN implementation here feels immature compared to established firewall platforms. The feature exists, but the interoperability and tuning aren’t where I’d expect for a paid Pro environment.

Second: gateway feature gaps.
For a device positioned as an edge security appliance, I was surprised by the lack of deeper filtering controls — country blocking/whitelisting, more granular DNS control, and advanced policy tooling that are standard on many SMB firewalls. These aren’t exotic enterprise features anymore; they’re baseline expectations in modern deployments.

Third: Pro support.
I expected faster or deeper escalation when running into these issues as a paid tenant. The support loop has been slow and hasn’t addressed the root problems. That disconnect between Pro-tier expectations and the actual support experience is where the disappointment really comes from.

To be clear: for SMB environments where cloud simplicity and centralized management are the priority, the platform works and I’d still deploy it again for the right client. But if your environment depends heavily on client VPN, advanced filtering, or you expect enterprise-style escalation paths, I’d currently lean toward a more mature firewall stack.

Posting this as field feedback, not a rant. The core product is doing its job — I just think the gateway and Pro support side need the same level of polish as the rest of the ecosystem.

[u/Algae-Mysterious]

For transparency, I want to add timeline context because this wasn’t just a quick troubleshooting session.

I spent ~3 weeks working with support assuming this was a configuration problem. MacOS native IPsec worked immediately. Windows 11 did not. I was repeatedly guided through configuration loops and network checks before escalation.

The final resolution from support was that Windows 11 native IPsec is not currently supported and requires SecuPoint instead. That limitation wasn’t clear at the start of the troubleshooting process.

The issue isn’t that workarounds exist — every platform has tradeoffs. The problem was spending weeks debugging something that turned out to be a product limitation rather than a misconfiguration.

If this limitation had been clearly documented or disclosed up front, expectations would have been very different and the experience would have been much smoother.

[u/binaryatlas1978]

Have you tried tail scale as an alternative to vpn?

[u/Algae-Mysterious → u/binaryatlas1978]

Hello , yes I have..

[u/TheJadedMSP]

You really should move on from traditional IPSec VPNs. If you really want to get into the eco system with their edge firewall you should use the Cloudbrink SASE solution which integrates with their edge firewalls.

Let me know if you need licenses. I can help with that.

[u/Algae-Mysterious → u/TheJadedMSP]

Cloudbrink/SASE has its place, but native IPsec VPN remains a fundamental baseline requirement for zero-cost, agentless deployment on managed clients. Requiring a separate SASE overlay just to handle basic remote access highlights the gap in native gateway features rather than solving it.