Hardware UTM firewalls

Though I currently have a ZyWALL 2 Plus (without antivirus etc.) in place (this unit replaced my Fortigate 60 which is still good), I think of buying one of those UTM appliances which do intrusion prevention etc.

Before I do this, I'd like to know from you experts whether do you recommend such a thing with the additional features over my "standard" hardware firewall such as URL scanner, antivirus IPS at all. These units are not cheap, and the annual license for the services comes at an additional cost, so if there's no big benefit, I'd better let it be I think.

Next question would be which unit (which vendor) in case you'd recommend it, there's a whole lot around (I think of Fortinet, Watchguard, Sonicwall or Snapgear in the first place)...

Andreas

 

Fortinet is a big player...I'm doing an accounting firm setup with a few next week.

Juniper is another brand I'm really starting to like..been working with their SSL appliances lately...have yet to try their full firewall on a client..but looking forward to it. Pricey..yes...but EXCELLENT support. I already prefer them over Sonicwall just on support alone.

Anyways..if it's worth it to you..depends on the features you need. What I like about UTM appliances is the transparent proxy features. POP3/SMTP/HTTP traffic all quietly gets scanned for viruses/malware/adware/spyware/spam. It's a great feature to put a mail server behind! Clients on your network have some web traffic protection.

If cost is a concern...I recommend giving a linux distro a shot..build you own. Take a mid range P3 or higher...512 megs of RAM, 2x NICs..and build one. I've built quite a few boxes for people...my favorite distro is "Endian"...which also sells a product.
http://www.endian.it/

A more popular one is IPCop...which by itself is just a popular linux router distro..but it has a big support community, and development.
http://www.ipcop.org/
There are many add-ons for it...and the one that adds UTM features is called Copfilter.
http://www.copfilter.org/

 

Thank you for the statement.

I think I found something unbeatable price-wise: Astaro private license; 10 Users, full downloads for IPS, Antivirus and URL filter at absolutely no cost - and I still got two small, older P3 PCs as well...

Of course, a small footprint (and fanless) appliance like a ZyWALL would be preferable, but the price, the price!

Andreas

 

Another fine product.

For the *nix distro routers I've built...I try to keep them on "small form factor" desktop PCs..such as Compaq/HP Evo sff models, or little Dell Opti 170 models. They'll usually come with an integrated Intel Pro 10/100 NIC...I'll slap in a 3COM 90X PCI NIC...great support/compatibility with various *nix distros.

 

Oh thank you i really.....

 

Errr...OK.