[TriLUG] Slightly-OT: Firewalls

[John Broome]

On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 12:07, Chris Bullock <cgbullock at yahoo.com> wrote:
> We are in the same boat and have been looking at the Cisco ASA 5520 and the
> SonicWall E5500.  The reporting of the sonicwall is grabbing my attention, from
> a managing my users standpoint, it can tell me who/where and how long they have
> been on the Internet.  The built in outbound URL filtering of the sonicewalls is
> a plus for me also.  My cisco vendors are quoting me a webSense box to do that.
> My reason for going to a appliance platform is that it is openly supported.  We
> have used opensource firewall/vpn for over 9 years now, but frankly I am getting
> tired of the IT department calling me when support is needed.  I am hoping the
> point and click interface of the ASA or the SonicWall is my answer.  Another
> good thing about both Cisco and SonicWall is that if you buy their HA package
> you only have to put support on 1 box, even though you have 2.


Watch out for the "built in" stuff on a sonicwall.  all of the
reporting, outbound filtering, etc are add-ons with a yearly
subscription fee.