SonicWall TZ is an entry to mid-tier NGFW for small to mid-sized companies. It is a Unified Threat Management solution, with additional native decryption and deep-packet inspection capabilities.
$329.60
Untangle NG Firewall
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Untangle NG Firewall is an open-source firewall and gateway security platform. It offers a free core firewall platform with paid add-ons, and a cloud-based management platform with a variety of deployment options for smaller teams.
Good price for scope of functionality Challenge for those that are not highly technical Many options within Firewall Setting that need to understood to maximize use of the device. Would be nice to see some sort of configuration wizard to assist in configuring unit.
Midsized business is where I have used it. Have used it to connect to other Untangle boxes across town and in other countries with NO issues and works with MS Domains across these VPN connections. Probably less appropriate for small home networks or large businesses.
management is confusing has many items that could be improved to facilitate the work to the network administrator
in the diagnostic tool I would improve the response times, that is, if a ping test is required, it should be quick, since in cases of failures it is sought to minimize the impact as much as possible.
each function has a different license item, I would place a single license package for all team functions
Getting your license file moved from one firewall to another can be tough at times... but support is great if you need it.
Ability to upload reports to a portal versus getting them emailed would be best (some reports can get 100+ Mb depending on all the bells and whistles).
Overall the new interface is very logical and easy to navigate. We did struggle at first coming from the older interface and finding our way around the new. But our new users found it very simple to find what they were looking for. One negative we do all struggle with is packet cpature not always being clear how its set/what is being monitored. this could do with more information on teh intial page instead of having to look for it
Once you get to a competent technician the support experience is better. But I have found that the lower tiers of support are very slow to respond (like 1 email per day) and you typically have to re-explain yourself a couple times before they get it. I have not used Phone support, and that may be a better experience.
The phone support reps are highly competent and native-English speakers. big plus vs some other vendors with difficult to understand or less knowledgable support engineers.
SonicWall and WatchGuard are both fine appliances, but I am accustomed to the Barracuda NG. The Barracuda Control Center is so powerful and useful that it beats out the other two. SonicWall does a great job of dividing up firewall rules and NAT policies, but this is a preference among engineers.
I could never come close with these two products to the level of functionality and security I have with Untangle. Simply put, there is absolutely no contest. In addition, the cost of these other solutions was many thousands more than the academic cost for Untangle. Many times have I experienced threats and inappropriate content passing through these other products. All of that was stopped the moment I implemented Untangle, even before I started to customize the settings.
Easy setup and implementation made ROI easy to achieve. An Untangle HA solution is 1/2-1/3 the cost of a comparable Cisco/Checkpoint/Palo Alto solution.
non-business internet usage has nearly ground to a halt.
SD-WAN integration made it easy to connect branch offices quickly without complicated IPSEC configuration.
