Sonicwall VS Untangle

What on is liked more! Better

  • Total voters
    31
D

dashpuppy

Supreme [H]ardness
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May 5, 2010
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I am doing this to see & prove a point. Sonicwall Tz100 Vs a Untangle box.

what's gunna win ?

add your comments.
 
Unfortunately the Sonics are not the only garbage that is out there either. I forget the name of another brand that I know is just trash.
 
I am by no means defending sonicwall. But I would love to hear why they are just so garbage? Do you actually use the newer devices?
 
Nacho said:
I am by no means defending sonicwall. But I would love to hear why they are just so garbage? Do you actually use the newer devices?
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Yup,
P1040032.JPG


Hated it, couldent get the filters to work, the virus catcher to work. Installed Untangle and it worked 15 min later including install, and that was my first time using the Untangle.
 
On an equivalent CPU for CPU, Sonicwall wins. Untangle is a piece of software, not hardware.
 
I suppose it depends on which Sonicwall products you're comparing Untangle against, so we'll assume a router/firewall that would product a typical SMB network with full UTM features.

I voted Untangle...and I've had experience with Sonicwall quite a few times over the years at various clients.

The symantecs of software vs hardware, it's more of a gray area. Even hardware appliances, it's still an OS on the ROM firmware.

Featurewise, the antivirus and antispyware components of Untangle are more effective, especially when you factor in the Kaspersky add-on.

Spamwise, once you factor in the CommTouch spam booster with Kaspersky, Untangle is very strong with this for mail servers.

VPN wise, yes Untangle is a still a bit behind...for right now, with its OpenVPN. Wonderfully great for smaller setups and smaller WANs, Sonicwall has some more flexibility here, and has SSL VPN. BUT...there's a package coming for Untangle, will be a pay for one, introducing SSL VPN and much more flexibility with WANs. It will even have options quite similar to Astaros Red product.

Hardware, the "have to find your own hardware for Untangle" is a turn off for many people. However, Untangle did get back into the hardware area again by partnering with Dell to offer several appliances on their site now. And there are some specialized hardware vendors for Untangle, such as UntangleAppliances, which are great units. However, for smaller setups, where a small common router sized device is desired, Sonicwall still has the edge here. And you have the comfy reliability feeling of no hard drive in their appliances.

Plus SW has their wireless products with the WiFiSec security. Untangle won't get into wireless at all, so no comparison here.

Support..ahh here's the big one, Untangle wins hands down. I've called and worked with both. I dread having to deal with SW support.
 
Given the options I opted for Untangle. SonicWALLs are headaches in a box, man... Even the high-end units suffer from the same stupid problems as the TZ series.
 
I don't really like Sonicwalls either - I hate SonicOS and that is reason enough not to use them. But you can't say they don't perform. They are fast little buggers.

Untangle does many things better, but it's a UTM, not a better firewall - not by a longshot. Once you get past the stupid SonicOS interface, it's quite powerful and flexible - I just hate it. But it does perform. Untangle's firewall module is rudimentary at best.
 
I found it easy to navigate and work with untangle, Astaro a bit harder, but once i found out where things were and how it worked, i found it easy to setup & start using.


Sonicwall, well FUCK ME, things are all over the place with that software, it's not layed out logically at all.
 
I prefer untangle over sonicwall, plus the sonicwall tech support (or lack of) I have had problems with in the past
 
dashpuppy said:
I found it easy to navigate and work with untangle, Astaro a bit harder, but once i found out where things were and how it worked, i found it easy to setup & start using.


Sonicwall, well FUCK ME, things are all over the place with that software, it's not layed out logically at all.
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Their SonicOS has stuff all over the place, it can be a cluster to configure, but it's a powerful little device. Like someone said, get it configured the right way and they are not bad at all
 
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Untangle wins for me. Even though it is more resource intensive, its easier to manage and easier to get up and running than a SonicWall box that's for sure.
 
calvinj said:
Their SonicOS has stuff all over the place, it can be a cluster to configure, but it's a powerful little device. Like someone said, get it configured the right way and they are not bad at all
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Agreed, I hate the gui on the sonicwalls, but I also hate untangle's ui so sonicwall gets my vote just based on GMS.
 
aaronearles said:
Agreed, I hate the gui on the sonicwalls, but I also hate untangle's ui so sonicwall gets my vote just based on GMS.
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I'm slowly getting use to the GUIs, but have played with both untangle and sonicOS. I don't think I could just put in an untangle box in my place of business and get away with it. I Also don't use GMS
 
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, like everything else, you just need learn the product.

IMHO, for a SMB environment, the price point for Sonicwall's, and the ability to centrally manage a fleet of installed devices PWN Untangle
 
boatasiaus said:
IMHO, for a SMB environment, the price point for Sonicwall's, and the ability to centrally manage a fleet of installed devices PWN Untangle
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Hmmm...but Untangle starts for..."free" with the "lite" version. Price point suddenly changes sides. ;) Cost of hardware? What's worked for me at many clients....as a small business replaces computers, more often than not there's a workstation being taken out of production. Slap in a new hard drive (65 bucks) for good measure, slap in a 2nd NIC (usually piles and piles of spares);....perhaps a bit more RAM (again..usually plenty of spare).presto! Price point advantage?

Untangle is aimed at SMB, central management isn't that much of a big deal. It's your edge router/firewall...you just need the web admin. For deploying and managing WANs...a new product is almost ready similar to Astaro Red. ;)
 
Been installing and using Sonicwalls for years- about 10 I guess. Have dozens and dozens of them at client sites. Of all of them, only ever had 2 fail- both were the prior generation of TZ's- a TZ180, and a TZ150. That being said, we've only ever used these little units at owner's houses, and tiny offices. I don't have a problem with the interface.

The new OS Ehanced being shipped on virtually everything is more complex, but it is also pretty powerful, and can be configured for virtually anything you can imagine. People complained that the older UIs weren't customizable enough. People complained they wanted the OS enhanced, not as an options, but as std. so they could do whatever they wanted. Now people complain the UI is too compicated for them. LOL

I think people just like to complain.
 
twwabw said:
Been installing and using Sonicwalls for years- about 10 I guess. Have dozens and dozens of them at client sites. Of all of them, only ever had 2 fail- both were the prior generation of TZ's- a TZ180, and a TZ150. That being said, we've only ever used these little units at owner's houses, and tiny offices. I don't have a problem with the interface.

The new OS Ehanced being shipped on virtually everything is more complex, but it is also pretty powerful, and can be configured for virtually anything you can imagine. People complained that the older UIs weren't customizable enough. People complained they wanted the OS enhanced, not as an options, but as std. so they could do whatever they wanted. Now people complain the UI is too compicated for them. LOL

I think people just like to complain.
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No not a complaint, the units just suck ass!
 
Well I put my vote in for Untangle. I've got it set up on a little 1U system. dropped 2gb ram in it that I had scrounged together from various drawers. And As of about 10 minutes ago I now have my younger brother's connection throttled and porn free!!!!

Shane
 
Hallis said:
Well I put my vote in for Untangle. I've got it set up on a little 1U system. dropped 2gb ram in it that I had scrounged together from various drawers. And As of about 10 minutes ago I now have my younger brother's connection throttled and porn free!!!!

Shane
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Congrats, another brother screwed and deprived of porn POOR guy LOL!

What did you do to throttle his connection ?
 
dashpuppy said:
Congrats, another brother screwed and deprived of porn POOR guy LOL!

What did you do to throttle his connection ?
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I didnt say I'd deprive him of porn. But I just dont want him going to every virus/spyware riddled site on the internet. Trust me, I've got plenty I can supply him with. All virus free.

I just set up QOS, put my bandwidth limits in on the external interface, and then just throttled everything coming in on his port. Since the unit im using has 4 Intel NICS built in it was easy to seperate him off from everything else hardware wise. That way i didnt have to screw around with any funny rules or IP addresses or any of that jazz.
 
Hallis said:
I didnt say I'd deprive him of porn. But I just dont want him going to every virus/spyware riddled site on the internet. Trust me, I've got plenty I can supply him with. All virus free.

I just set up QOS, put my bandwidth limits in on the external interface, and then just throttled everything coming in on his port. Since the unit im using has 4 Intel NICS built in it was easy to seperate him off from everything else hardware wise. That way i didnt have to screw around with any funny rules or IP addresses or any of that jazz.
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so you have 4 ports, one in and 3 out's right ? is he directly connected to one of those cards ?

HUMM! I should be doing this, separating my server from my home network, Does each nic card get a different subnet / ips ? I would like to separate my server's from my home network for sure.

J'
 
dashpuppy said:
so you have 4 ports, one in and 3 out's right ? is he directly connected to one of those cards ?

HUMM! I should be doing this, separating my server from my home network, Does each nic card get a different subnet / ips ? I would like to separate my server's from my home network for sure.

J'
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You can set it up any way you want to i think, but YeOld would be the one to ask about all that.

I'm only using 2 at the moment, 1 in and 1 out. he likes to saturate my connection with Youtube vids and other BS while im playing World of Warcraft. And that just won't do. So, in addition to keeping him off the pron sites I can now throttle him as I see fit, Considering that I pay for the internet connection and all. And we have a very crappy connection to begin with, only 1.5mbt down. So spanning him down to 1/3-1/2 of that makes ALL the difference in my gaming.
 
Destonomos said:
sonicwall is the biggest piece of shit on networks
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I came here to say this.

Qualifier: I used some older one which were garbage, migrated to other stuff and never looked back- but it appears that I'm in good company by most of the comments in this thread.
 
Only have experience with TZ200. Kinda complicated getting custom ports opened up at first. After about a week the internet would go down. Only a power cycle of the router fixed it. This would happen for weeks while trying to get support to figure it out. Ended up getting a second one for failover.
 
mckrooz said:
Only have experience with TZ200. Kinda complicated getting custom ports opened up at first. After about a week the internet would go down. Only a power cycle of the router fixed it. This would happen for weeks while trying to get support to figure it out. Ended up getting a second one for failover.
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Kinda bad when you NEED a failover because your primary router won't work.
 
Between the 2 I'd go untangle although I wouldn't recommend putting in anything less then a sonicwall tz200.

I got stuck supporting a bunch of old tz-170s and have put in a few new sonicwalls since then. Overall while they are not the best they can make a quality product. I perfer their support over cisco's in the smb market as well. Both have crap support though.

Untangle is a good product. I have a few sites with them up and running. Really comes down to what features you need and which one has the best options for them.

I will say I think untangles pricing on even the standard version is high. If you can get by with the free one great, for the price of support on the standard one really should at least look hard at smb devices from sonicwall, cisco, etc.
 
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swatbat said:
Between the 2 I'd go untangle although I wouldn't recommend putting in anything less then a sonicwall tz200.

I got stuck supporting a bunch of old tz-170s and have put in a few new sonicwalls since then. Overall while they are not the best they can make a quality product. I perfer their support over cisco's in the smb market as well. Both have crap support though.

Untangle is a good product. I have a few sites with them up and running. Really comes down to what features you need and which one has the best options for them.

I will say I think untangles pricing on even the standard version is high. If you can get by with the free one great, for the price of support on the standard one really should at least look hard at smb devices from sonicwall, cisco, etc.
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I do agree 100% on the untangle pricing, I looked at the pricing for standard and was like. "Holy shit!? Really? Seriously?". Free version is great stuff and standard even better but man, If you need the pay features you REALLY pay for them. But, such is the case with many enterprise level products.
 
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