SMB Firewall: NetGear FVX538 vs. DLink DFL-700

Archived from groups: comp.security.firewalls (More info?)

"Computrav" <tsolin@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1127846458.823376.77700@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> One of my clients is in the market for a straight-forward hardware
> firewall for their corporate office. Their office consists of about 5
> total employees. They run their own mail & DNS server and have a few
> other servers on their LAN, along with various client PCs.
>
> The main requirements for the firewall device I want include:
> - VPN support w/std encryption protocols
> - DMZ port(s)
> - DHCP Server
> - IDS features w/e-mail notification (even if basic)
> - Relatively easy to administer (web interface, only moderate
> networking knowledge req'd)
>
>
> I don't want to spend an unreasonable amount of money on the device
> (i.e., a nice Cisco PIX is out of the question). I've been reviewing
> products aimed at the SMB market and am currently leaning towards one
> of the following:
> - Netgear FVX538, ~$340.00 street price
> http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/FVX538.asp
>
> - D-Link DFL-700, ~$320.00 street price
> http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=327
>
> They both are very cost-effective and seem to have the features that
> would work well for their office. As mentioned above, I want one that
> has DMZ support, which rules out a lot of models in the SMB space
> (their mail & DNS server will end up in the DMZ). My experience with
> both brands have been good, although I know the general tone of Netgear
> is 'so-so'. The above NetGear device does have a great feature set
> though, but I'm ultimately most concerned about the overall
> effectiveness of the unit for it's intended job (as a firewall).
>
> I also looked at these and am somewhat ruling them out for the reasons
> stated:
> - SonicWall Pro 230 -- mainly cost reasons, price is ~$1,700
> - WatchGuard Firebox X500 -- mainly cost reasons, starts at around
> $1,800 and some of the features we want are add-ons which would drive
> the price up more
>
> Can anyone provide some comments on the above or would anyone care to
> suggest some other cost-effective alternatives to these two models?
> Both of these models are pretty new so the reviews online are hard to
> come by (I've found 1 or 2, but that's about it).
>
> Thanks!

http://www.fortigate.com

IMHO a superior product to everything mentioned above, cheaper than the
latter alternatives.

-Russ.