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Posted by Somebody. on October 13, 2005, 10:57 pm
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> I've recently agreed to do some development and test work for a
> non-profit organization, and am configuring my home site as a full
> internet site. In discussing this with my upstream provider's
> networking honcho, who is also my neighbor, we identified "a better
> firewall" than the D-Link DI808-HV I'd been using, and he is very high
> on Fortinet. However, his operation is primarily Windows, and I am
> 100% Solaris 8/9 running on Sun Ultrsparc hardware, currently a 4-node
> setup.
>
> Looking over the current hardware firewall scene, Cisco offers the
> PIX 501, which is a bit limited for my needs, and the next step up is
> the 515E, which is much too big and expensive. Similarly with Sonicwall,
> I was underwhelmed by the TZ170 (against the PIX 501), and their next
> step up is the PRO-2040. Anyway, I decided to look at Fortinet, and
> it looks as though their model 60 might be a good box for me to
> consider.
>
> I put in a call to Fortinet sales, after looking at their website and
> identifying at least one item (their remote managment client) that was
> Microsoft-specific. I'm awaiting a definitive answer from their
> technical people on Solaris compatibility (i.e., how much longer is
> their exception list) before considering their box any further.
>
> I don't know anyone else besides my neighbor who is running Fortinet
> appliances----everyone else has Ciscos, and there is a part of me that
> says "don't gamble---buy a 501 and live within its limits for a year or
> two, then replace it---there is sure to be something better that isn't
> $2K+ or Windows-targeted by then." The other half says that for a
> couple hundred more, I can use the Fortigate 60 added
> capabilities---if it will run with Solaris, and is as good as they
> claim.
>
> While nobody ever got fired for buying Cisco, I'm retired, and doing
> this just to keep my hand in, in a very rural part of the country, and
> feel a bit blessed to have high speed internet access from a local
> provider. I think I'm this outfit's only Unix-based customer. And
> I'm really wondering which way I should jump. I'm not going to spend
> a lot of time and money on buying even an el-cheapo windows consumer
> mox and learning how to use it (which I already know is a nasty affair
> for a Unix guy), and 45 years in the computer business was enough.
>
> So my question really is whether to gamble on the Fortigate 60 working
> well for me, or just settle for the Pix 501?
>
> Hank
What remote management client -- it's browser based. Any browser that can
handle java should be fine. It's not dependant on your OS in any way.
If you're talking about the enterprise manager, that's for managing fleets
of firewalls, which you're not doing.
There is a log program you can buy that's windows based, but your favorite
solaris syslog program will work fine.
You can quiz me offline or here about the FG -- I've done *lots* of work
with them, and I'm a big fan.
-Russ.
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