SOHO Firewall Appliance - Recommendation Needed

[Optical]

Hey all,

I'm looking for a decent FW appliance for a small business. It's doesn't have to checkpoint fw-1 but something that is easy to configure and secured enough to secure servers on the internet. The integrated router combos are just too way too weak. VPN support would also be nice.

Any suggestions?

 

[Boscoh]

I assume since you mentioned checkpoint, you've got a decent budget.

Netscreen 5-series and Cisco PIX 501/506E would be the two I'd look at, I've used em and they're both about as rock solid in every respect as you can get. There are others, like SnapGear and ServGate, but I haven't used em. Stay away from SonicWall if you expect to get any type of support - I hear theirs sucks, and that you pretty much have to rely on the user community for support.

You could look at a free linux distro like FreeSWAN, or Clarkconnect if you wana go the linux route.

 

[Optical]

The FW appliance device is under $1000.

 

[watts3000]

Check out www.astaro.com.

 

[Boscoh]

You can easily get a Netscreen 5GT or a PIX 501, or even a 506E for under 1,000.

What type of business is it? How many employees?

 

[cmetz]

PIX 501 or 506.

 

[mboy]

Yup Sonicwall supports sucks ass in a major way. I don't like my pro 200 and would not buy another.
I have a Snapgear SME 550 @ home which I simply luv (their support is very good too).
I would reco their SME 575 (adds DMZ port).
VERRRRY nice and feature rich for the $$$$$.

Some were worried about their support/Firmare updates since being acquired by Cyberguard, but they have released @ least 3 firmwares in the past 6 months so the support is def. still there.