SMB Firewall: NetGear FVX538 vs. DLink DFL-700

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!

Re: SMB Firewall: NetGear FVX538 vs. DLink DFL-700

"Computrav" 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.

Re: SMB Firewall: NetGear FVX538 vs. DLink DFL-700

The FVX538 only filters a maximum of 32 URL keywords. How many URLs can the
DFL-700 filter? I downloaded the user manual, but don't see any mention of
a limit. We need the ability to filter a much longer list of URLs.

Best,
Christopher