atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX Networking Sonicwall VPN/firewall. What do you think of them?

As to the topic at had I think many of you would be interested in Cisco's new ASA 5505. The 5505 is to replace the PIXs 501-505 and has fully functional 8 port switch that is capable of VLANing and Trunking. Two of the ports are 802.3af PoE. For small customers this is truly a "ONE BOX" solution. To see all of the features go to https://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6120/prod_models_comparison.html
for more information.

We use these at the company I work for, Overall they are very easy to setup and I haven't had any problems with them at all. I am currently linking our new office together with our main server via VPN. Its a first for me, but sure is fun

The only downside is buying licenses can get really expensive. The lowest price I found for a 10 user Global VPN license was around $225, this is rather a good price considering that 1 license costs around $35.

Overall, a very good brand of router, but rather pricey if you want to fully open them up.

Ed :thumb:

Well I replace about 5-10 sonicwalls a month, they are crap. much better to get a pix 501 IMHO.

I always use Pix 501 and 506e. I've got about 10 of them in my server room. I'm actually shopping around for a SonicWall TZ170 to replace 2 of the Pix at my customer. The reason being is that Pix 501/506e don't support Dual Wan which is what the customer is requesting. The only solution with Cisco is to go withthe 515. The 515 is over 4xxx$. The SonicWall is 7xx$. There's also Fortigate 100A that would do the job but it's in the 2xxx$ range I believe.

Replacing 5-10 sonicwalls a month is pretty weird. I had to replace only 1 single Pix 506 that blew after a power surge but that's about it. I would be pretty surprised there are that many defective SonicWalls.

im just going to chime in here. IPCOP is a free linux based firewall/vpn that runs on a PC, we have replaced sonicwall with it on multiple client sites in a pinch and found ipcop works better, offers orange and green card capability as well as plugins like roadwarrior VPN and Dansguardian content filter

PIX 501 is ok for small sites, 506 a bit better. Both of which will be EOLed very soon to be replaced with the ASA product line. If you have either or have customers with them dont let smartnet run out. If there is a lapse after EOL date they will not be able to buy smartnet on them. The last I checked the smaller ASAs to replace the 501 and 506 were not available. I dont have alot of experience with SonicWall but as stated the PIX 515 and 525 are golden IMO