UTM devices are firewalls that have the ability to inspect traffic at the application layer and can provide proxy functionality. They lack features such as web content blocking, antispam, or other higher level content analysis. Traditional firewalls focus more on core port blocking and performance using packet filters and NAT. UTM devices aka Unified Threat Management. Some firewall features take a great deal of time and effort for the vendors to provide and may be well worth the purchase price.įirewalls generally fall into two main categories: 1. You have to be careful and do your homework. Firewall vendors have also tricked customers or quietly advertised features only for the customer to find out the feature he was interested in requires an additional purchase and yearly subscription. In an effort to gain market share and keep up with the competition, firewall vendors have continually added more features which have been both good and bad. Over the years, firewalls have gone from simple devices that block ports and IP traffic to fully functioning universal content management devices and everything in between. It is written based on my own personal experience and nothing more. This guide is also going to be brutally honest and not so politically correct so it may upset you, some vendors or others and all I ask is that you keep an open mind.
It’s very rare that the average IT person gets to program more than 1-2 firewalls so I hope this guide will help educate and be a starting point to select the right device or software for your network. Regardless, I am writing this article to shed some light on the firewall market and cast aside many of the myths and misnomers that exist in this market. Many vendors rely on big names to mask the shortcomings in their firewalls and others have incredible features with a terrible name, reputation or not enough marketing muscle. I also find there is quite a bit of misinformation out there about firewalls. A firewall is definitely not something you want to have a mediocre level of knowledge because your lack of knowledge can cost your company dearly. Firewalls are pretty easy to learn but the detailed nuances can be tricky to master. Or maybe it’s the fact that once people learn this complex piece of equipment, they don’t want to go through the learning curve on another device. Maybe it’s because they are such vital pieces of equipment and one mistake can ruin your job or network. I have started to use a semi-open source firewall you will read about below.įor some reason, firewalls provoke a very emotional response in people. Today, I still work for an IT company that has a security division and continue to support a wide variety of firewalls for businesses. I worked for an IT security company that programmed and supported almost every type of firewall out there and I was in the unique position to use almost every firewall made.
I have literally used almost every commercial firewall on the market at this point with the exception of a small handful. McCarthy can be reached at or at the SMS IT Group at 21. He has literally programmed and supported almost every major firewall brand on the market between his two security related positions. McCarthy has been programming and supporting firewalls for over 15 years. McCarthy is the Director of SMS IT Group in Los Angeles, CA. If we ever receive a response, we will be more than happy to evaluate.Ībout the author: Scott G.
We have reached out to Barracuda Networks and received no response to our requests to evaluate. If we ever receive response, we will be happy to review their devices. We have made a concerted effort to reach out to them without any response.
We have had no luck contacting them nor receiving an evaluation unit. We have received many inquiries to review Palo Alto firewalls.
Revision 2, September 2014 FOR A PDF VERSION CLICK HERE (CLEANER VERSION)