Being an IT Consultant myself I can understand where he is coming from. While there are many solutions out there that will work and often times better and cheaper it's almost always a safer bet to go with something more "mainstream". If there is ever a problem and you pointed them toward an open source system running on a PC vs a "name brand" appliance with support, the consultant is often blamed for the decision to use that product even if the problem has nothing to do with a failure or limitation of the product.
Is it better? That's debatable, but I do like that the thing shows up in the mail and if you know what you are doing you are setup and running with everything done in a few minutes and it just works. And depending on what model you are talking about they are generally a tiny package the size of a small router that's quiet and uses little power. So yes in a lot of situations I do like them. On the Sonicwall question specifically, depending on the model and features you get, yes they can absolutely prioritize traffic a number of different ways. Including how you described by interface, so for instance all the VIP's plugged into a separate port get priority over everyone else. -Will From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of green bean Sent: Thursday, December 24, 2009 1:48 AM To: SCFN Group Cc: Richard Thompson Subject: [SCFN] SonicWall vs. m0n0 or pfSense Does anyone have experience with SonicWall? Why Is it that much better than m0n0wall or pfSense? Worth the price? We hired an IT consultant who recommended sonicwall, I suggested m0n0 or pfSense but he didnt like that idea. Our goal is to prioritize our internet bandwidth so that our company's VIPs get better internet speed. But m0n0 can do that, either by connecting them to a different ethernet card in the m0n0 computer and giving that nic card a bigger pipe, or by putting the VIPs on a virtual LAN [VLAN] with a bigger pipe. So what would be the great advantages of sonicwall compared to m0n0 to make it worth the price? BTW, our IT consultant also recommended we hire an employee of HIS company on site FULL TIME to manage our 42-computer network. LOL!
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