Sonicwall TZ 170 Wireless - Opinions

Looking for opinions, good or bad about the Sonicwall TZ 170 wireless
router/firewall. Have a small-business client with 8 workstations and a
couple of wireless laptops where this certainly "looks" like a good fit from
what I've read. Have also talked with sales at Sonicwall and browsed their
moderated forums plus a lot of googling. Have not found any real negatives
but that's why I'm asking here too.....

Ordered the 10 license version with the Gateway AV service and a year of
24/7 tech support and will be installing it - or maybe sending it back -
depending on what I hear form some real-world users.

I did due diligence and really could not find a trend of anything negative
about it and since it's been around for a couple of years - it seems to be a
reasonable choice. Read several forums where the comments about it being
difficult to set up (those were expected) to it working as advertised. I'll
go thru the learning exercise and eventually get that figured out but I'm
more concerned with bugs or other design anomalies like it reboots, shut's
down the net, goes buh-bye for unknown reasons......???

The UTM feature is a real plus in this network since I can take off the
anti-virus software running on each workstation (no floppies) and hopefully
gain a small margin of speed for each. I expect a small hit on the internet
access due to the Gateway service but is it a noticeable hit on cable-modem
(2Mb/s) service?

One other related question. Anyone found a repeater that will work with
it - reliably? Have a small office (sheet metal covered room) that will be
100' from the router that I need to install an antenna on the outside of the
room and feed some CAT 5 cable to the laptop located in that room.
Theoretically any compliant repeater should do the trick but have you got
one that you know works? I'll have a clear line of sight to the repeater
from the TZ 170 location and the client does not want to run cable. This
laptop will also be placed on a cart and rolled around the shop outside that
room when needed.

Thanks you for your time and comments,

Bob S.

Re: Sonicwall TZ 170 Wireless - Opinions

BobS wrote:
> Looking for opinions, good or bad about the Sonicwall TZ 170 wireless
> router/firewall. Have a small-business client with 8 workstations and a
> couple of wireless laptops where this certainly "looks" like a good fit from
> what I've read. Have also talked with sales at Sonicwall and browsed their
> moderated forums plus a lot of googling. Have not found any real negatives
> but that's why I'm asking here too.....
>
> Ordered the 10 license version with the Gateway AV service and a year of
> 24/7 tech support and will be installing it - or maybe sending it back -
> depending on what I hear form some real-world users.
>
> I did due diligence and really could not find a trend of anything negative
> about it and since it's been around for a couple of years - it seems to be a
> reasonable choice. Read several forums where the comments about it being
> difficult to set up (those were expected) to it working as advertised. I'll
> go thru the learning exercise and eventually get that figured out but I'm
> more concerned with bugs or other design anomalies like it reboots, shut's
> down the net, goes buh-bye for unknown reasons......???
>
> The UTM feature is a real plus in this network since I can take off the
> anti-virus software running on each workstation (no floppies) and hopefully
> gain a small margin of speed for each. I expect a small hit on the internet
> access due to the Gateway service but is it a noticeable hit on cable-modem
> (2Mb/s) service?
>
> One other related question. Anyone found a repeater that will work with
> it - reliably? Have a small office (sheet metal covered room) that will be
> 100' from the router that I need to install an antenna on the outside of the
> room and feed some CAT 5 cable to the laptop located in that room.
> Theoretically any compliant repeater should do the trick but have you got
> one that you know works? I'll have a clear line of sight to the repeater
> from the TZ 170 location and the client does not want to run cable. This
> laptop will also be placed on a cart and rolled around the shop outside that
> room when needed.

So far, we do not have any complaints about the TZ 170 or the TZ 150.

You may be able to save a few bucks and go with the TZ 150 instead if
you keep the systems under 20. If you are planning to go over 20, then
I would get the 170.

moncho

Re: Sonicwall TZ 170 Wireless - Opinions

>
> So far, we do not have any complaints about the TZ 170 or the TZ 150.
>
> You may be able to save a few bucks and go with the TZ 150 instead if you
> keep the systems under 20. If you are planning to go over 20, then
> I would get the 170.
>
> moncho

moncho,

Thank you but from what I've read the TZ 150 is only good for 10 licenses
and was one of the reasons I went with the 170 (10/25 or unlimited). But
you indicate that the 150 can be licensed for more than 10. I must have
missed that. I doubt we'll go beyond 20 but yes, we will exceed 10 when we
setup some guest accounts later.

Appreciate your input.

Bob S.