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Posted by on February 27, 2007, 3:04 pm
If you were Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options > On Feb 26, 3:25 pm, barn...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > I work at a small software company (25 employees) and we have limited
> > IT support (other than ourselves). We have limped along with consumer
> > rated firewalls (Linksys), but now realize the importance of improving
> > security and stability. We frequently use our Internet connection to
> > move large files related to our business (some files ~500MB) every
> > day. Also use for VPN access, customer portal, etc. No sensitive data
> > like ecom.
>
> > I am looking at the Watchguard x55e. Any other suggestions?
>
> I can speak from experience that the Watchguard series has been hit
> and miss for several of my clients over the years. Their more recent
> offering have been decent but recent we lost a pair after a system
> outage (planned.) When we brought them back up our Firewall gurus
> complained that both units lost all of their config data. I haven't
> had an problems with Cisco products in general and quite frankly even
> an IPTables driven linux derived firewall has worked quite well
> (assuming you have staff that can manage it.) Based on my product
> notes the Firebox Edge x55e scored a B based on our last round of
> product evals. Not bad for the price.
>
> The key question to answer is how much protection can you afford; and
> from there get the best product for the price range. I'm sure many of
> us could reccomend quite a few nice security products but reality
> defines that you can only get what you can afford.
>
> If the Watchguard x55e fits into you budget, it seems like a very
> decent product for a small office solution but useability is the key.
> If a firewall is difficult to configure, then it's useless no matter
> what features it has. As a business you should purchase your products
> from a vendor willing to give you a good 15-30 day return policy or,
> depending on where you are, ask for an evaluation unit. This also
> provides a good test to see if your configuration can be backed up and
> restored to the unit you eventually purchase easily (don't send the
> eval unit back until the production unit is up and running.) Any
> decent vendor shouldn't have a problem with providing an evaluation
> unit. If you cannot find a vendor that will do that, see if you can
> contact Watchguard directly and ask if they have a demo unit they can
> ship you to try (Expect a deposit or shipping fees). A business'
> security is not to be glossed over nor should a firewall solution be
> implemented without a proper evaluation.
> Another option for a small business would be to see if you can find a
> managed firewall vendor and see what products and service they offer.
Thanks for the direction. It was very helpful. Any chance you could
recommend specific alternatives to the Watchguard?
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