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Need help picking a hardware firewall to put my two servers behind at a colocation site

I am in the processing of installing two new servers (Dell PowerEdge 1850s, Windows Server 2003) into a colocation site. All of our customers access our system through our website and there may be up to 50 at any one time. My partner and I need to be able to VPN in and we will also use remote desktop to manage the servers. Part of our site is a secure site (SSL) and we also have an FTP site. One server is our webserver and the other is a SQL Server that the webserver pulls data from.

We do not have any highly sensitive data on these two servers (not credit card numbers or anything like that).

The device must be no taller than 1U (1.75") and would preferably be rack mountable but that is not a requirement.

I need a firewall, router, switch, NAT . . . device to put these two servers behind. Our budget is a maximum of $1,000.

What are your suggestions?

Thanks,

Todd

Keith Alabaster

Ideal units would be the pix 515 or an ASA unit but even these are above your budget. You'll likely have to make do with some of the better soho type units.

Todd_Anderson

ASKER

I had pretty much come to that conclusion. Anyone have a suggestions (make and model is what I am looking for) based on what we are trying to do? Since I posted this question I talked to SonicWall and have been looking at the TZ170. What do you think of SonicWall?

Todd

Keith Alabaster

Excellent unit. I have heard some good reviews. Although many people have logged calls on EE regarding them, this is no different to Cisco, ISA, Juniper Netscreens etc. My understanding is that they do exactly 'what is says on the tin' and you cannot really ask more than that of anything. I do not believe they are blisteringly fast so when you say you could have up to 50 people on at anytime this may be a factor you will have to play by ear. Naturally, if they are all accessing online applications with heavy transfers, you may find you need to uplift this hardware to a more commercial device. Sonic has a good name in the market though.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

jabiii

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Todd_Anderson

ASKER

Anyone else have any suggestions or comments?

Todd_Anderson

ASKER

jabiii,

I posted my request for further comments just before your post came through. I'll take a look at your info now.

Thanks,

Todd

prueconsulting

The sonicwall product is a good product havent had any issues with them other than the normal noted ones that people point out but for 2 clients behind it you wont encounter any issues

Cisco PIX and ASA are great product lines and pretty much set and forget as far as putting them in place and letting them run. Its not uncommon to have Pix firewalls with uptimes in the years.

Todd_Anderson

ASKER

Thanks everyone. I have it narrowed down to three units. Which one would you vote for?

SonicWall TZ 170
Cisco PIX 501
Juniper NetScreen 5GT

Thanks,

Todd

Keith Alabaster

Over to you I think Jabiii :)

jabiii

Juniper 1st
Cisco close second,

I don't have any Knowledge of the Sonicwall, but just glancing at it's spec sheet it would probably do good to.

They will all do what you ask, it really comes down to the three P's for me. Preference and Performance and Product support ::)

Tx for da points, *splits some w/Keith*

If you had oodles of money you could look at Sidewinder or the SSG/500 series from Juniper ..00..

Keith Alabaster

Cheers Jabiii. I caught them and put them in my bank <grin>