Replacement firewall

[gaz350b]

Hi all we’re looking to replace our aging Cisco firewall, anyone got any recommendations?

[colly72]

We use Sophos UTM, really happy with it although looking to upgrade to XG in the next few months. Palo Alto also have very good reputation....

[MatthewL]

pfSense, Sophos, Watchguard cannot fault any of them.

[SchoolsBroadband]

you just can't beat a Fortigate v6 of FortiOS which has just been released is really really good

[mcolbourn]

As I think I have before I recommend Watchguard hugly never failed us yet (Its now going to go horribly wrong isn't it for me)

[AlanD]

I think you need to start by making a list of features you require.

 

Like whether it needs to Provide and integrate with web filtering. For example to make some websites work you might have to add urls and separeately create firewall port rules. With an integrated solution you might hope just to tick a single tick box for say Spotify,not write rules in several places.

 

And you need to thing about reporting..and the prevent strategy...useful if all reporting is together rather than separately for web and other other data access.

 

Whether you want reverse proxy because you host some web sites...or own...or web access to Remote Desktop services or whatever. And does that reverse proxy support SSO For users connecting to your services?

 

Whether you want BYOD integrated with Radius and firewalll...and whether you are going to host any dhcp and/or dns services on the same box...or want to have a stack of separate server boxes for each servuice.

 

And you will want to think about bandwidth. 100mb/s often isn’t enough for most schools..with 300mb/s or even 1Gb/s not rare...but delivering that through a firewall can be challenge. And if even if you gpfont have that bandwidth now...you probably with in 3 years...and don’t want to replace it.

 

And you might want to consider loadbalancing and redundancy between multiple ISP connections ...even if it’s a cheap fttc backup...and maybe you would want 2xfirewalls with failover support.

 

And do youbwant it to do packet analysis for antivirus? Anti ransomware for email traffic? And do you want it to prevent VPN traffic for rogue pc/laptop/BYOD device (good luck if you do...because modern VPN traffic is almost impossible to block)

 

Do you want layer 7 visibility? Do you want traffic shaping...to limit or create QoS filters ?And if so...are those only going to cut in when you reach your capacity apor is it going to throttle all your users annoyingly even when overall use is low?

 

My thoughts are that there is not nearly enough creative thinking going on i the minds of those that are still marketing firewalls based on clunky, free Linux based software...often charging a fortune for the resulting jumble of components in their solution.

 

And do you want it to integrate with you AD so that your firewall rules can be applied to AD groups..to ..for example...allow staff to do something that you might not want students to do.

[Jose]

We use Untangle here, no issues , we have 6 internet links and it shares them well

[mjk]

you just can't beat a Fortigate v6 of FortiOS which has just been released is really really good

 

I would definitely recommend a Fortigate. One of the best infrastructure decisions this school has made.

It will do your content filtering, unlimited VPN's, failover and QoS too.

[TIOAOA]

What sort of cost does one of these fancy fortigate thingys set me back (I cant deal with another sales call today)

[SchoolsBroadband]

that depends what functionality you want and at what speed. We are a Fortinet Gold MSSP so we can get you a quote for one, or you can use our hosted virtualised Fortigate firewalls if you take connectivity from us too which work out much more cost effective.

 

I'm just going into a meeting but will send you a PM later around your requirements if you like?

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[Wave9_Lee]

We use Sophos UTM, really happy with it although looking to upgrade to XG in the next few months. Palo Alto also have very good reputation....

 

We would, or course, second the vote for Sophos UTM. If you'd like a quote or more information, let me know.

 

cheers

 

Lee

[Net-Ctrl]

We're a Palo Alto Networks house. If you're open to their VM appliance the pricing is incredibly competitive, alternatively, on the appliance side, they now have their PA-820 and PA-850 solutions which are ideal for most EDU sites. If Palo could be of interest we can set-up a cybersecurity review where one of their boxes will sit on your site and record what your current solution may be missing etc. We can also run webexs, send product info etc.

 

We're here to help if needed.

[m25man]

I’ve been a SonicWall Advocate for many years and to be honest where they have been installed I’ve never had a security issue however,

When they were swallowed up and re-branded by Dell they suffered immensely in that they never really kept up with the trends.

AD integration was flakey and the management and reporting tools were poor so much so had to resort to 3rd party reporting to get any usable activity reports.

So when Dell gave up and they went back to being SonicWall again things began to improve again.

Trouble is they seem to have lost a lot of ground whilst floating around in the Firewall doldrums and making a comeback isn’t easy.

So recently we switched allegiances to Sophos XG.

Ticks all the boxes and on pricing they seem to be prepared to beat almost any vendor especially in the Edu sector at the moment.

 

Yes, SonicWall have responded with new models and features but it seems like they are having to fight the likes of a Sophos for every single deal at the moment so I guess that says something.

 

Whatever you think you might need, I would strongly advise you go and get a quote for an equivalent Sophos XG as an alternative option.

You can get a demo as a Virtual appliance and even a free version for home use from the Sophos website.

[karldenton]

We have had a Sophos UTM SG for 3 years now. It has been bullet proof. Will be looking to upgrade to XG next year.