atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX Networking Sonicwall VPN/firewall. What do you think of them?

Hi.

I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with sonicwall VPN/firewall products. I am thinking of going in that direction.

What type of problems can you experience with them? Do they have packet loss, unstable, flaky, etc…? Is there anything to look out for?

Please let me know your experience good or bad?

Do you know if they have a per incident charge with tech support or if you are forced to do the expensive support contracts?

Thanks.

Fisher,

We use only Sonicwalls for our clients and they work remarkably well. The TZ170 is a very good product for the cost and the VPN work surprisingly well.

The only caveat to these are that they can be a bit more complicated to setup than something link Linksys or Watchguard.

We have about 40 of them in place and they are all used for site-to-site VPN. We one install with 2 Pro series and 4 TZ170's all connecting to each other and about 40 users connecting to these using the VPN client and we have had hardly any problems these.

As for support, I think they DO charge for it but not sure. We have never had to call them and if we did we are a dealer so its free for us.

For us there's nothing easier than a sonic wall or watchguard vpn setup. If you can point and click a mouse, go for it.

~r

Thank for the information. Seem like people in general have very nice things to say about these devices.

It sounds like its very user friendly with the point and click a mouse and the VPN wizards I see on the website. Seems like you don’t have to be a programmer in order to use them.

I like electronics that if they power on and are working, they will last you 10 years or if they are not going to work, have it happen from day 1.

Its horrible when you are dealing with something that is flaky and you think its working but you keep experiencing issues.

It sound like the sonicwall is a very stable and solid firewall/VPN device. Thanks for the vote of confidence on the sonicwall!

We maintain the entire suite of MIS Services when we we contract with a client. Everything from the phone system, to LAN, to CCTV system becomes our responsibiliity. The TZ170 VPN is the heart of how we make money. It's not uncommon for us to set foot on the client's site less than twice per year. Between DISA and the Sonicwall VPN technology we maintain most everything remotely. We even keep a dedicated workstation hooked to the phone system and access it via VPN & VNC to make changes remotely while still having the security of VPN.

The only real downside we've found lately is the lack of planning used by Sonicwall in laying out the design of the Wireless Services in the new TZ170 Wireless. There are some real issues with the wireless users being in a different subnet. It became such an issue that we have shut down wireless services in the TZ170 for our in house users and put them back on a different access point. For Guest Users it's fine, but the lack of NetBios and subnetting problems make remotely accessing the wireless machines much more trouble than it is worth. Our contact at Sonicwall in Research & Developement tells us there are no current plans to resolve the issue.

Huh?

I really dont understand this, but if what you are saying is true, it goes way beyond a lack of planning from their standpoint.

Just to clarify, you are saying that the wireless side is acutally seen as a different port (hence forcing you to assign it a different subnet). Are you sure you dont have something like AP isolation or internet only option turned on the unit?

~r

The wireless side is a 172.x.x.x IP Range and there is not a gateway that that allows a netbios to pass from the 192.168.x.x (or whatever you use) side.

For guest users it's ok, but for us it is just not a good application. Each wireless user (employees not guests) uses the Sonicwall VPN Client to establish an Office Gateway connection. That part is good as you're using VPN technology for your security which is preferable. You do run into some killer issues with some laptops getting a good connect after coming back from suspend mode, but that's a different issue completely.

Our biggest issue is for instance a wireless laptop user is having problems. They call our office and one of our techs tunnels to that campus via VPN. Then they use a remote viewing program to jump to the laptop in question. We know that laptop is named daveslaptop for example. The problem is that we can't get there by name due to the lack of netbios transfer. Now we have to log into the DHCP Server and look for Dave's MAC Address and find his IP Address. Now we've got to try and connect by IP which is a crap shoot at best with him being on the 172 IP Range (he gets a 192. address also, but that's another story). Other factors come into play, but we're a Sonicwall Preferred Partner and I can guarantee you we've been down every road possible with Level III and R&D. It's just a bad design. Even our Channel Support Manager agreed that we needed to go back to regular access points. We could come up with lots of work arounds, but no matter what work around you came up with, it would not work as seamlessly as slapping a Linksys or Cisco box back on the network.

Don't get me wrong, the TZ170 is a good firewall and VPN device. We've been using Sonicwall since back in the early SOHO3 days. Just don't ask your heart surgeon to work on a brain tumor.

I know Toshiba recommends Sonicwall, from what I've seen they're pretty good but more expensive than Linksys/Netgear/Dlink.

Good point Joe. Don't confuse the two. If you're just wanting a VPN device, Linksys will work well as Joe said. When you buy a Sonicwall you're buying a real firewall, not just a router type device, but it's well worth the money. We even run them on all our residences.

So would I, but my 2 year old says different. $$$