Fortinet for under $700 is an excellent, easy to use, ASIC based
firewall with (modest) IPS features in this range. Netscreen is another
excellent ASIC based firewall, almost identical to the Fortinet, still
within the $700 range, possessing more name cachet, but more expensive
than Fortinet.
Since security was one of your stated priorities investigate the
advantages of ASIC based security appliances over OS based security
systems. Look on http://cve.mitre.org/cve/. Search for vulnerabilities
against OS based security platforms (including Smoothwall and IPCop);
run the same search against ASIC based systems like Netscreen, Fortinet,
TopLayer and TippingPoint. The results are educational.
Know I make this recommendation with bias: I am a security engineer
with a US security firm and firewall vendor. Netscreen and Fortinet are
two of the ( 8 or so ) brands we vend; however, being ASIC based and
flexible, they are two of our favorites in many applications. They
should make you happy.
Good luck.
____________________________________________
Robert Synak, CISSP, CCNA, SCSA, MCSE
Security Engineer
ANITIAN ENTERPRISE SECURITY
3800 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Suite 298
Beaverton, OR 97005
503-644-5656 Office
503-807-4429 Cell
503-214-8069 Fax
www.anitian.com <http://www.anitian.com>
____________________________________________
________________________________
From: Randy Golly [mailto:randy.golly@comcast.net]
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 12:21 PM
To: 'Randy Opper'; firewalls@securityfocus.com
Subject: RE: Most secure small home office firewall under $700
If you are interested in an open source solution, check out SmoothWall
Express at http://www.smoothwall.org/
Converts an inexpensive PC that you may already have sitting around into
a very stable firewall. Have been using it for over a year on my home
setup.
If you need corp style of support, they do have a corporate version for
around $320 at http://www.smoothwall.net/
Not affiliated at all, just a user of their open source disto.
... RandyG
________________________________
From: Randy Opper [mailto:ropper@firstsecurityonline.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 10:02 PM
To: firewalls@securityfocus.com
Subject: Most secure small home office firewall under $700
Can someone let me know what company makes the most secure and strong
small office firewall.
Sonicwall looks good for about $500 but I know there are others.
It would be even better if the interface was easier to use.
I presently have a Sonicwall in one office and it works great but I am
not sure about how secure they are. I need strong securtity to protect a
machine that is running IIS. IIS is running a service for my business. I
need to secure the system from attack.
Any suggestions????
