I can't say enough about how awesome our Barracuda is overall. The bad reviews you see may reflect the pre 8.x version released this summer, it was a dramatic change for that product.
Pro's 1) It's list of 'unknowns' is very manageable so you can block unknowns. Blocking unknowns is HUGE at stopping phishing attacks. Only Iboss comes close in a manageable list of unknowns that I have seen, but I have not seen them all. Many don't even allow you to block unknowns their list is so bad. Blocking unknowns was a mandatory feature for us and it has killed multiple phish attacks in the 5 months we have had it. 2) Very easy to set up and manage and I have pretty complicated needs for authenticated, unauthenticated, guest wireless, different levels for AD filtering and mobile. 3) In line app filtering and SSL inspection. 4) Excellent reporting. 5) If you suck it up and buy the instant replacement you can get a new unit every three years as part of that subscription. It isn't free but it's a fixed yearly cost for hardware refresh. 6) Tech support rocks. On initial setup you have a dedicated higher level Eng. that makes life easy. Con's 1) Expensive if you have a bigger pipe, the bigger units get pricy fast. 2) You don't really add a website to a category, you whitelist it. I don't like that because if it later goes rouge it is whitelisted. It's a long shot but possible. I understand that may be fixed. 3) Log space is a bit small, you have to syslog if you want much more than 6-8 months history and then it gets ugly trying to sift through that. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stefan Jafs Sent: Wednesday, December 3, 2014 11:52 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [NTSysADM] Firewalls / Web filtering I'm going around in circles trying to make a decision on a new Firewall and Web filtering appliance. We currently have the SonicWall NSA240 * 2 for HA and iPrism for Webfiltering. We have increased our speed on Rogers fibre to 200 / 200 Mbs, the SonicWall is only 100 Mbs. Also the iPrism can't handle our 300 + users any more, delays when trying to open a web page. So I have been looking at Cisco ASA, upgraded SonicWall, Barracuda, Fortinet and Sophos SG 330. Cisco - looks very complicated to setup and $$$ SonicWall - probably ok with a separate Web filtering appliance, easy to install can upgrade current configs. Barracuda - looks good, Googling and reviews not so good. Fortinet - looks ok Sophos - looks good on paper and I already have Sophos endpoint protection, leaning towards this solution. Anyone that can give me real hands on recommendations? Thanks __________________________________ Stefan Jafs
