SonicWall NSa Reviews

At the organization I used to work for, this solution was used as the primary perimeter firewall. We had 11 sites. Each site had a firewall that sat behind a router and did all the filtering.

The security features we pretty good. The antivirus and items of that nature were quite helpful to have.

The web sourcing was very good. 

The stability was very good.

We found the installation to be pretty straightforward.

Sometimes I found the GUI and some of the features a little bit hard to navigate, as opposed to Fortigate, which is much more user-friendly. 

What Fortigate has which SonicWall doesn't, is the per rule natting. SonicWall only does the central mapping. If they could include something like per rule natting it would be better.

I've used the solution for about three years or so.

The solution was very stable. There were no bugs or glitches. It didn't crash or freeze. It was reliable. There were no breaches.

The solution was quite scalable. If a company needed to expand it, it could do so.

We had 300 or so users at our organization using the product.

I do not work for the company anymore. I can't speak to their plans for the solution and if they plan to increase usage or not. 

I had experience with support in the past and I found them to be helpful and responsive. I was very pleased with their level of assistance.

I'm currently using Fortigate now. I switched companies and this company uses Fortigate.

The installation process isn't too difficult. It's pretty easy and rather straightforward. A company shouldn't have any trouble with the initial setup.

The time it takes to deploy depends on the company, however, I recall it only took about an hour or so at our organization. Physically, you might need help with the actual setup, however, for the most part, a person could handle it alone.

I was able to handle the process myself. I did not need the assistance of a consultant or integrator. 

Our organization would pay for a license every two to three years.

I was a customer and an end-user. I never had a professional relationship with SonicWall.

I would recommend the product to other organizations.

I'd rate the solution overall at a seven out of ten.

Our primary use case is as a corporate firewall, and to provide security for the network while allowing connectivity between multiple sites. We also use it as a VPN gateway for multiple users via SSL.

Our old firewall was running as HA (High Availability) on two different but identical rack mounted servers. Moving to SonicWall allowed the company to move to one unit, yet accommodate more connections because it had sixteen ports and handled fail-over better than the old firewall solution.

Compact 1u, 1/4 depth size. 16 x 10/100/1000 Mbps ports, fibre ready. Management interface that is relatively simple to figure out.

I feel that the SSL VPN client software needs a lot of improvement.

It's for firewalls and content filtering. It performs pretty much faultlessly for us.

It does what it says it will do; it works and it's pretty reliable.

• Content Filtering
• Sandboxing

The only thing that we would want would be single-pane management, which it has, but the GMS is not very good. It's purely the management of multiple devices for multiple customers, that's the only thing that it's lacking.

It's very stable.

It's very sclable.

Technical support is very, very good.

The setup is straightforward. I'm a fully-certified SonicWall engineer. I have had all the training.

It does everything that they say it does. It works.

The most important factors when choosing a new solution are

• price
• functionality
• security of the device.

I would rate SonicWall a 10 out of 10. It's the only firewall that we predominantly use for our customers.

The NSA 2400 is used as our edge device. We subscribe to two services.

• Comprehensive Gateway Security Suite
• Anti Spam Service

The ability to configure the appliances for efficient usage.

• Content filtering
• Anti-Spam
• URL blocking
• Bandwidth management
  

• Content filtering reduces the load on the available bandwidth and restricts employees from using distracting websites on the job, which leads to more productive hours.
• Anti-Spam reduces unwanted mail on corporate exchange services.

After-sales support and hands-on training facilities are poor or not available in my country. Improving these will help users like me optimally manage and administer this solution.

We are a managed service provider and SonicWall is our primary firewall. We offer this solution to customers as part of a rental program, as well as sell them outright.

The most valuable feature is the Global Management System. This is the driving force behind why we continue to use it.

Having to deal with too many lower-level people in technical support means that it takes longer to resolve issues, so escalating support tickets should be faster.

I have bee using SonicWall at this company for nine years, although it was SonicWall TZ prior to SonicWall NSA. This company has been using it for longer than that. I also have experience with SonicWall that predates my time here.

SonicWall is very stable.

I don't think that scalability is a pertinent criterion for firewalls because they're hard-coded by the ASICs that go into them. When we rent a firewall to a customer instead of selling one, that customer has an upgrade path available. In this regard, it is scalable because we can switch them to a larger model if they outgrow it. Otherwise, it's limited by the ASIC.

The technical support from SonicWall is good. However, if it were easier to access where you were not stuck in a queue of people and forced to escalate problems it would be a bonus. 

The initial setup is straightforward.

Overall, this is a good solution and it's doing the job we need it to do. By in large, we don't have any complaints. There are always things that can be easier, but it's doing the job.

My advice for anybody who is implementing SonicWall NSA is that you can't be an expert on every brand. This means that you should pick a model, learn it very well, and build relationships with the support people at the vendor.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Our network has 150 users. We have two internet connections, an IPsec VPN, a DHCP server, a DMZ, WiFi, access controls and a load balancer, and two appliances with HA.

It is a good product, but very modular and with native resources which are much lower than its competitors. 

• Web filter
• DHCP
• Monitoring capabilities
• IPsec VPN and other security controls
  
• Integration with the active directory and other security controls (IPS and IDS).

• Load balance algorithms
• Resource usage graphs (throughput, connections, external accesses, and the possibility to export the content of the address object).

Additional resources are too expensive.

We have been using the SonicWall NSA firewall to keep our network safe.

The most valuable features are that it is reasonably-priced and works well.

Over time, this solution is becoming more complicated, and when I need support it often is not available. I would like U.S.-based technical support.

VPN functionality needs to be improved. As it is now, I need to combine another SSL VPN with my firewall. I want it to be done very easily. 

I have been using SonicWall for fifteen years.

The stability of SonicWall is fine.

I have had SonicWall for a really long time and I have had people help me to set it up, although I have always understood what has been done. As it has been updated, it has become more involved and more complicated, and things have moved around so I have to spend time finding where things are in the newer versions.

I have been looking at Fortinet and am learning toward it to replace our SonicWall. The main reason that I am switching is that we need something with a built-in VPN.

From what I have learned to so, Fortinet is more expensive but easier to manage.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

• SSL VPN & Application Control
• SSL VPN is important since several people are mobile and need files to access the server in the office. This is convenient, since they don’t need to go back to the office just use the SSL VPN.
• Application control is important to limit the users in the office from consuming bandwidth such as downloads by torrent and games. This also protects us from malicious applications such as anonymous proxy.

• Creating site to site VPN for HQ
• Branch via satellite connection for the branch

Access management port: This needs improving by SonicWall firmware.

We have been using the solution for three years.

We did not encounter any issues with stability.

We had a scalability issue.

Level-3 technical support is good.

We switched because of stability issues when turning on the UTM feature.

The initial setup was simple.

Pricing and licensing are competitive for this product.

We evaluated Sophos, Fortigate, and Stonesoft.

If you looking for a simple site-to-site VPN, stable UTM feature, and easy SSL VPN setup, then this solution is OK.