Grandstream GWN7000 Multi-WAN Gigabit VPN Router

The Grandstream GWN7000 is the original GWN router: a multi-WAN Gigabit VPN router with two WAN ports for failover and load balancing, four Gigabit LAN ports plus a fifth configurable port, and an embedded controller that manages a fleet of GWN access points without any extra hardware or licence.

Two WAN ports is the business case in one feature. Put the leased line or fibre on one and a backup connection on the other, and the site stays online through a provider outage — with load balancing spreading traffic across both the rest of the time. A 4G/LTE dongle in one of the two USB 3.0 ports can serve as a further fallback.

VPN is hardware-accelerated and speaks IPsec, PPTP, L2TP and OpenVPN, which is what links branch offices back to the main site securely over ordinary broadband. This is the veteran of the range — the current generation is the GWN7001/7002/7003 family, worth comparing before you standardise on either.

Key features

• 2 × Gigabit WAN with failover and load balancing — two providers, one network
• 4 × Gigabit LAN plus a configurable fifth port — WAN, LAN or VoIP as the site needs
• Hardware-accelerated VPN — IPsec, PPTP, L2TP and OpenVPN for site-to-site and remote access
• Embedded controller for GWN access points — no separate controller, no licence
• 2 × USB 3.0 — storage, printers or a 3G/4G dongle as backup WAN
• 1 million packets per second routing — headroom for a busy site
• Can be powered over PoE on one LAN port

Works with

• GWN7001 — the current-generation multi-WAN router
• GWN access points — managed from the embedded controller
• Grandstream switches — the LAN behind the router
• All Grandstream routers

Frequently asked questions

What does multi-WAN actually give me?

Survival and speed. Failover keeps the site online when one provider goes down; load balancing uses both connections while they are both up. If being offline costs you money, the second WAN pays for the router.

Do I need a separate controller for my access points?

No — the GWN7000 embeds one and manages GWN access points itself. On larger estates you can use GWN.Cloud instead; either way there is no licence fee.

Which VPN should I use?

For site-to-site between offices, IPsec is the usual choice; for individual remote users, OpenVPN is flexible and well supported. The router speaks both, plus PPTP and L2TP for legacy peers.

This or the newer GWN7001/7002/7003?

The newer family adds an integrated firewall feature set and is the one we would start a fresh design with. The GWN7000 remains a capable multi-WAN VPN router and the natural spare or extension for sites already running them.

Designing for failover? Call 0333 242 1314 or email sales@clisecure.com and we will map the two-provider setup before you order.