[itdiscuss] Firewalls

[Kevin Brunson]

Bill
I think a lot of people miss out on the advantages of having separate management software.  With web-managed firewalls, you typically make one change at a time, and then submit.  That makes it easy to see the effects of one change, but difficult if you need to make large-scale changes to a firewall.  For example, if you change ISPs and are issued  a new IP scheme.  With a sonicwall, you wait until you know the new link is working, and then you go through and change the LAN addresses.  Then you change the rules, routing tables, etc.  It might take you an hour or more of downtime to get everything configured, depending on the complexity of the ruleset, and then you just hope that everything is working right.
With a watchguard, you make a copy of your config file called "newISP", make all the changes, get it just the way you want it, and when the ISP says its go time, you save the new config file over and swap the cable.  Done.

But I hate to get into a discussion of "what firewall should I use" when I don't know much about the size and complexity of your network.  All of this seems pretty fruitless until then.


1.        How many users?

2.       Do any work from home?

3.       Any remote offices that share server resources?

4.       How much bandwidth do you have?

5.       Any other info that seems relevant?

From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of blloyd at buskercom.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:09 AM
To: discuss at itdiscuss.org
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Firewalls

I'm working to replace an old Watchguard that is no longer supported.  The main thing I don't like about it is that you have to load software on a PC to manage the configuration.  I would much rather just login to the device itself.  Have they changed that at all?



Bill Lloyd
IT Manager
[cid:image001.jpg at 01C944A6.D70097D0]

2567 Athens Hwy.
Gainesville, GA 30507
Phone: 770-417-1604
Fax:     770-417-1747
Cell:     404-379-6963

blloyd at buskercom.com
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From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of Jeffrey Thompson
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:58 AM
To: IT Discussion Forum
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Firewalls

Watchguard has done well for network firewall and web filter for me.

On Nov 12, 2008, at 9:32 AM, Lee, Jason wrote:

I think I would disappoint those around CITRT (Mainly Justin Moore) if I didn't say Sonicwall's lineup has been rock solid and cost effective for us.

- jason

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