Firebox Vs. Sonicwall?

[Mellman]

We use sonicwalls at all of our clients that we do a new installation for. I've been very happy with them so far, easy to configure, seem pretty secuire for their price, and get the job done. We recently got a new client, and they are using a Firebox x700 firewall, this thing is a major PITA, and cost them about twice as much as a TZ170.

Any Firebox users out there? This configuration utility sucks...and the VPN configuration is also annoying...

ok /rant

 

[theorignalAMD Overclocker]

oh no no no.. we only use WG V series FWs and they are awsome. Ive used them at work for 2 years now probally and have become a master at them. We have an Core X700 at our data center, a V60 in the same data center but different rack, and lots of V10s around the midwest. Id say they are well worth the investment.

 

[blemoine]

we use an Instagate Pro from Esoft. we are very happy with it. we use it as an all in one type box. its a firewall, mail server, spamfilter, vpn server, and proxy server. we can add and remove services on the box using the administration interface. instead of buying the box from them you can just the linux software that runs on it and install it on your own hardware. give them a try. you can download a trial of the software at www.esoft.com

 

[Crusty]

I've got a Firebox III 700 at work. I love it! It's not the easiest thing to configure at first, but once you get used to it it's quite nice. Up until today I never had the need to setup a IPSEC tunnel on it. Having NO idea what to do, i was still able to get it up and running in 15 minutes It helped that I was using a Watchguard SOHO 6 on the remote end though. The best part was that I didn't even have to get out of my chair to get the tunnel up, and the SOHO was already at the remote location.

Our firebox handles ~140 clients across four different networks as well as having 3 IPSEC tunnels up 24/7 without breaking a sweat. One of the nice features of it is that it can connect to your domain controller for user authentication PPTP mobile users. Just yesterday I setup an employee with a brand new laptop and Nextel im240 wireless card. All I had to do was add him to the "VPN" group on the DC and setup the connection on his laptop. The VPN integrates nicely with the Nextel software. It's great for mobile users, they can get instant secure access to exchange and our point of sales software. Overall I am very happy with the Firebox

:thumbsup:

 

[Mellman]

hrm...i couldn't hate it more - perhaps I just don't like it because the people before us didnt set it up right - and i've had to spend the time fixing it.

It seems very picky about how things work, and not to mention its way overkill for this 5 person company. They didnt have it using the DC to authenticate, they used the watchguard client for their mobile users, and thus used the licenses. Rather annoying. We're fixing them up and having them use the watchguard endpoints for needed offsite VPN's and sticking to windows VPN with PPTP for now. working a little better...but was more of a hassle then it was worth..

 

[Crusty]

Well I guess what is nice with my department, is that whenever a change is made to the firebox it is completely documented, screenshots and everything. So now that we've setup one remote site with the vpn, it will only take 30 seconds to make teh changes + 30 seconds to reboot the firebox. I tried using the watchguard clients, but I was having some weird issues with it so I just fell back to the windows VPN and it works like a charm. Just make sure to have your DNS setup correctly

 

[Devistater]

I'm a n00b to net appliances in general, but I like the firebox x edge, x15 that I setup for a small non profit organization. I picked it in part due to advice here and elsewhere.
Pretty easy to setup and does all they need. Good documentation, nice thick manual. And lots of screenshots in the manual.

 

[TheToOTaLL]

I'm a convert to Sonicwall's as of late, notably of the TZ170. I don't know, it just seems as SOHO's & Firebox's are limited in what they can do in comparison to the TZ170. Only up side with Watchguard is no annual maintenance. I've spend plenty of time with both, and both my boss and I agree that in the future we're going to get our clients the TZ170 versus the SOHO or Firebox.

 

[DarkJuJu]

netscreen 5gt is great if you dont need pptp. WGs are soild, i am an engineer for both. If you have any config question i would be more than willing to assist you.