We sell the fortigates, they are hardware based and have some very good features for the money.
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I would like the firewall to be hardware rather than software based, due to hard drive instability.
I would like a firewall to do statefull packet insection.
I would like a firewall to do be a VPN Client/Server
I would like the firewall to inspect the contents of the packets for viruses and unauthorised applications. eg only Internet Explorer 5.0x is allowed out.
I would like the firewall to identifify computers by their MAC address rather than IP. eg I would like to have a whitelist of MAC addresses that are allowed to use the connection.
I would like the firewall to assign a DHCP address only to users on the MAC address WhiteList.
I would Like the firewall to cost under $US1000.
Or if no firewall can, what can get close...
Cheers,
Ice Raven
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I cannot think of a hardware router that will lock down your network at much as you want it to for less than $1000 just as tim said. It seems you don't want to go linux b/c of possible harddrive failure but you can get distros that can fit on a compact flash card such as Pebble Linux which can do exactly what you want it to do. This eliminates the biggest failures on systems which is the HD. Store the box in a nice, cool place and you'll be set to go for several years.
Since you can use an old box or build new one out of very reliable parts for under $400 dollars, that leaves you with $600 which would let you spend your money on other equiptment such as switches or more secure on wireless access points. (such as directional access points)
Good Luck!
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by: tim_holmanPosted on 2004-02-01 at 11:45:27ID: 10248035
Firstly, MAC address recognition is not particularly secure. You can configure most cards with a new MAC address or swap cards around to bypass this security, so it is not considered secure unless you tie it in with user authentication.
Secondly, I don't believe there's anything out there under < $1000 that would offer you application level accept/deny - eg blocking anything bar IE 5.0, unless you got hold of a Linux box and wrote your own...
There are, however, plenty of firewalls that will protect you against malicious code - be it executables, java, active X. This would be far more important than preventing anything bar IE 5.0 from getting out, as would protect all browsers of all versions.
I would recommend something like a Watchguard Firebox 500 - a little over $1000 ($1300) but worth the extra !