Re: Firewall recommendation

Scott,


"Scott M." <s-mar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ua%23Eg3l6HHA.2380@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
You also said, "That's entirely rubbish!" to Colin's comment. I am
reasonably certain that Colin knows that a consumer router is also a
"firewall" in some meaning of the term.

That's nice that you are "reasonably certain", but his statement is
contradictory to your interpretation of his meaning.


You are incorrect that Colin's statement is contradictory to my
understanding of its meaning. Why? Colin mentioned using the "...Cisco,
Watchguard and Netscreen/Juniper range of products." Anyone informed enough
to know that those products even exist is going to be well aware that a NAT
router provides BASIC firewall capability, and that most NAT routers sold
today also include SPI. I read his COMPLETE statement, not just the first
line, to make a judgment of his meaning. You apparently made your "That's
entirely rubbish!" comment in response to the first line of his comment.



The "us" to whom I refer is the 90% of people in this group who provide
the support answers to users' and other techs' questions. Most of "us"
would not use a consumer-grade firewall/router to protect our own
networks, nor would we recommend one to our clients, which in turn
prevents us from recommending one to an end user.

Well, I am part of "us" in that case and I'd challenge your 90% figure.
As I said, my 6 client business is running with a consumer router/firewall
and a software firewall.


OK, I guessed low at 90%, since your recommendation to use consumer-grade
equipment is the ONLY one I have ever seen in many years of watching these
newsgroups. There may have been others, but I have not seen one yet. So, in
my observance of these newsgroups, the figure would be higher than 99% in
favor of business-grade equipment being recommended.




I believe that in context, a small operation like mine
is quite well off with this solution. Since the OP did not indicate in
any way what kind of network he is working on, dismissing my suggestion is
unwarranted.


Wrong again, Scott. He did indicate that he was going to be using a business
operating system, not an XP workstation, and he mentioned that he is already
looking at SonicWALL products. When he mentioned using SBS and considering
SonicWALL, I immediately took that to mean it will be used for a business,
not a casual home user. In my professional opinion, ANY business using a
consumer-grade product to protect its data is taking a risk. If you choose
to risk your own personal data, that is one thing. To risk compromising a
business' data that may include confidential information on dozens of that
business' clients, is in my opinion, irresponsible to the business and to
that business' clients.


So, if the OP is a home user trying to protect his/her XP gaming
computer, a consumer-grade product would be fine. However, he/she
mentioned thinking about a SonicWALL or similar product to protect an SBS
network, hence the recommendations.

As I said, I use SBS and my consumer hardware/software combination is
perfectly suitable.


As I said above, if you choose to risk your own personal data, that is one
thing. To risk compromising a business' data that may include confidential
information on dozens of that business' clients, is in my opinion,
irresponsible to the business and to that business' clients. If your client
gets hacked and asks what you did to protect him, I doubt the client will be
satisfied with your answer.



Personally, I would not recommend anything to someone that I would not be
willing to use myself.

I wouldn't make a recommendation at all until I knew much more about what
the network was than has been provided. I also wouldn't dismiss a
possible solution for the same reason.


The OP mentioned SBS and SonicWALL. Those are clues that it will be used in
a business. Again, to risk compromising a business' data that may include
confidential information on dozens of that business' clients, is in my
opinion, irresponsible to the business and to that business' clients.

Just as I would not recommend installing SBS on an XP workstation, I would
not recommend a firewall designed for home use to be used in a business,
which the original post did indeed indicate by mentioning SBS and SonicWALL.
Yes, SBS will install and run fine on a Pentium III workstation with one
hard drive, but I would neither recommend, sell, nor support it in that
configuration. To do so would be irresponsible, just as recommending a
consumer-grade "home use" product as a firewall in a business is, in my
opinion, irresponsible.

You choose to support your clients one way, I choose another. We each have
our reasons, and I somehow doubt that we will agree on any points, so after
your reply to this post, we should let this one die.

Gregg Hill





Gregg Hill






"Scott M." <s-mar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ulQgmOZ6HHA.5160@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Please elaborate on what you consider to be a firewall. If you mean a
simple NAT router with an SPI firewall, then yes, one can be had for
under $200.

Yes, this is considered a firewall, hence my comments.

A business-grade firewall probably cannot be had for under $500-$600,
plus a UTM subscription.

Which is why I said: "You may not get an enterprise confugration..."

To which D-Link product do you refer? Most of us would not rely upon
consumer-grade products in our own businesses, much less in those of
our clients.

I don't know who the "us" is that you are referring to. But I run SBS
2003 for my small business and this type of product suits my needs just
fine. Also, I don't recall the OP discussing the needs of his "clients",
as you make reference to.

-Scott







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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Firewall recommendation
    ... that a NAT router provides BASIC firewall capability, ... would not use a consumer-grade firewall/router to protect our own ... networks, nor would we recommend one to our clients, which in turn ... my 6 client business is running with a consumer ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Firewall recommendation
    ... that a NAT router provides BASIC firewall capability, ... networks, nor would we recommend one to our clients, which in turn ... my 6 client business is running with a consumer ... OK, I guessed low at 90%, since your recommendation to use consumer-grade ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Firewall recommendation
    ... he knows that a consumer-grade router has a firewall. ... more probably a person trying to protect his business. ... recommendation of others are not necessarially the best or only choice. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Suggest firewall for Win98se+ICS(dialup)+NAV
    ... to go out and buy all new boxes capable of running Win 2000 Pro or Win XP ... |> either disable the firewall or otherwise change its settings. ... vulnerability in a small business environment is from the inside, ... Any disgruntled Win 98 SE user can obviously walk in and install something ...
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