SonicWall TZ Reviews

The solution is used for firewall protection with our customers.

Stability is the most valuable feature of the solution.

The cost of the solution has room for improvement.

I have been using the solution for ten years.

The solution is stable.

The solution can be used for small, and medium companies as long as the organization has the budget for it. I recommend Cisco Meraki for enterprise companies because it works on the cloud and is more scalable.

The solution is expensive.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

I recommend the solution.

We primarily use the solution as a firewall. It's pretty much for content filtering and protection between points.

The solution works very well.

They seem to be protecting themselves, or, at least, I assume they are, when they ask you to go online to enable the device.

The solution is easy to use. The actual setup is pretty easy.

I've found the technical support to be helpful. With all of the specifics, whether it's VPN stuff or the Analyzer products, et cetera, I'll always call for help. 

I'm very comfortable with the product. I know enough to really get to where I need to be and then to get it right. For my customers, I can call and get help if I need to, and it's nice to have that option, however, I'm really quite comfortable overall with its functionality.

There was one complaint I always had in the past. Years ago, you always had to enable the device. You had to go online to enable the device. You had to connect and do that. That was always a thing in my mind: "Well, why do I have to do that? Why do I have to go outside of my network just to do that?" Now, it seems to be less of an issue. However, that's been something that has frustrated me. It's not fixed. It's still the same. It's just something I live with now. I wish you didn't have to go off your network to connect.

I would like the solution to build in more redundancy. I would hope that doesn't come with a price increase, however, it would make the solution that much better.

I've been using the solution for ten years at this point. It's been about a decade, therefore I'm comfortable saying that I've worked with it for a long time.

The solution is largely stable. The one thing I did notice was their VPN connectivity. It hadn't been upgraded for a long time - maybe even years. Whether they were doing stuff with it, I don't know. I just noticed this past last year, they came out with a new VPN client. However, before that, it was a long time. They seem to have sorted it now. I don't know if that means they'll go another extended period without updating again or not.

I haven't grown out of one before, and therefore I haven't really had to scale. In terms of their throughput, we got close on one once. The thing is, if I call an inside connection, he'll get me in touch with his inside tech, which is different from tech support and they'll do some numbers. What my throughput is, the bandwidth I actually have, what I'm working with, et cetera. I seem to be always under. I'm really not in the hundreds of users. It's typically under 100. I work with smaller organizations, and there isn't much need to scale.

I've dealt with technical support in the past. They've been good. I'm satisfied with eh level of support they provide. It's one of the selling points for me. I like to have products with good technical support capabilities.

Most of them were really sharp. I call with some questions sometimes, or I just want to set up a VPN between the buildings or something real quick and I just want to make sure I've got it right. They're just really great at assisting me. I'll say, "Look, am I missing anything?" And they'll look through and say, "This is good, but change this." Their tech support's been excellent. I'd give them a ten out of ten for sure.

I've worked with Symantec and Cisco. I haven't dealt with any Cisco in a few years. I did some Cisco and started to learn how to do certain tasks. I haven't really done much with them as my clients are a bit smaller. Cisco is an awesome product. They are likely the best on the market. However, as I recall, they don't really have a GUI and my clients don't need the size.

The initial setup is very straightforward. It's nice and easy. A person or company shouldn't have any issues with the setup.

I'm a reseller.

I tend to use the latest version of the solution. I go with whatever's happening. I'll upgrade when necessary when they go end of life. 

Although it is my understanding that they also have a cloud option, I tend to prefer on-premises deployments. If I need something, I will call my SonicWall rep.

I'd recommend new users try them. They have very good service and they're easy to use.

I'd rate them ten out of ten simply for the fact that I really haven't had any issues with them at all.

Easy to use GUI
VPN (Site-to-Site and Client-to-Site)
Gateway Security
Built in A/V options
Content Filtering

The site-to-site VPN allows for consistent communication between sites.

Upgrading the OS is easy and they alert you when an upgrade is available.

Content filtering and gateway security has help reduce visiting unwanted websites and attacks.

Logging helps track down issues bandwidth hogs.

I would love to see a more detailed logs and filtering.

Wireless versions have week signal strength in comparison to other wireless routers.

5 years

Absolutely no issues with stability. I try to reboot them every 6 months to a year for good measure, but not because I have to.

Most of the TZ series are for small to mid size office. I would not recommend these for large to enterprise solutions. I do use one currently for a small community school of 250 students with no issues.

I have not worked with their customer service.

Excellent customer service. Very knowledgeable.

This has been a great solution and have never bothered trying anything else. I do have a few Cisco ASA installs, however the cost is a bit higher and more complex to implement.

Setup is quite straight forward. There are some deeper more complex setups that can be implemented. These more complex setups can be achieved through their support or a quick google search.

I personally implemented the solution.

I like to think that the TZ series has the best bang for the buck. Full of features and options that you need to control security with out breaking the bank. Perfect solution for smaller businesses.

Sonic Wall has an a la carte pricing model. There are many features and options that you may not need or want and therefore no need to pay for them

The only problem with this model is that it does now use a yearly subscription model. Although the router itself may be less expensive than other competitors, you may spend more in subscriptions.

Product support will require a yearly maintenance.

I only work with SonicWALL TZ and Cisco ASA.

Sonic Wall OS is very easy to use but still has all the options and features you need to implement your security.

I was a technical consultant, and I was helping clients out. I've had two clients. Both of them have had SonicWall, and both of them have gone through upgrades.

It does what it says it is going to do.

The user support could be improved because you have to go outside to get that kind of support.

I have been using this solution for five years.

We haven't used it. We've had to go outside and get technical support through a third party.

I would rate it an eight out of 10.

We use it for protection. We're about two versions behind the latest version.

It does exactly what it says on the tin. It is good for protecting the business from being compromised. Its port protection is very good.

It could probably be more user-friendly, and it could be more scalable with releases and subscriptions.

I have been using this solution for a few years.

Its scalability is not bad. It could be more scalable with releases and subscriptions. 

We have about 200 users.

I never needed their support.

I can't remember the old solution we had, but it was no good. So, we went to SonicWall.

It was a long time ago. From what I recall, it was pretty straightforward.

For deployment and maintenance, we have a technical team of around five internal people.

We have to pay yearly. Its licensing can be improved, and they should provide more features, such as AV, email filtering, and so on with the basic subscription.

There are a lot of products out there, and I don't have that much experience with any other product. If I have to buy a new product, I would probably review and do a comparison with SonicWall. 

Overall, I don't have any issues with the product. I like this product. It is very good. I would rate it an eight out of 10.

We are using a server for all our details, and we are accessing data from multiple countries. So, we needed a firewall.

We are using the SonicWall TZ400 model.

It has been helpful in many ways. We can see the bandwidth usage for users and how they have used it. From time to time, we get complaints that the server is a bit slow, and we then go to the reporting part to check the bandwidth usage for each user. It has also blocked a couple of viruses.

It is very user-friendly, and there is no problem in using its interface.

Its reporting can be improved. Currently, we cannot directly get the user names. It only shows the IP, which makes it a bit confusing because we need to use the IP to find the user. If we could directly get the name of the user, it would be better.

Its licensing should be improved. We would like to get the reporting part along with the license, without having to purchase it separately. It would be good if they combine both of these.

Its scalability can also be improved.

We have been using this solution for about two years.

It is a stable solution. There is no doubt about it.

Currently, we have 17 users in our country with access to the firewall. We have given them a VPN connection to the firewall to access some of their data.

It is more suitable for small businesses. It would be useful if they can improve its scalability so that even big companies can use it.

Whenever I needed any kind of support, the local partner gave me the best possible support. Their support was extremely good.

It is a bit expensive. We have to purchase the license and the reporting part separately, which makes it a bit pricey. This is the main reason why we have thought of moving to another firewall. It would be good if they combine both of these.

We were a small business at the beginning, and we did not think of allowing all of our countries to access the server, but now, we need to give everyone access to the server. We are thinking of moving to a firewall that would be better than this.

I would rate SonicWall TZ a 10 out of 10. It is a good product.

We have multiple branches, and we have configured SonicWall VPNs for branch-to-branch connectivity through IPSec. I am also restricting websites to protect us from hackers, torrents, games, and other such things. I am using SonicWall TZ 400 series.

Most of the features are useful. It is easy to configure and easy to troubleshoot.

I can see the utilization of different networks, and there are also App control features. 

FortiGate has a client DNS in the firewall, but SonicWall doesn't have that. To create or configure a site-to-site VPN tunnel, we have to give a DNS name. Currently, we have to get the DNS name from a third party and then include it in SonicWall, whereas FortiGate has its own client DNS, so it provides a DNS name, and it does not require a third party.

There should be a graphical option to view the network utilization and bandwidth usage.

I have been using this solution for two years.

It is very stable.

It is scalable. We have 100 users of this solution. We might increase its usage in the future in about eight months.

Their technical support is good. They are very helpful. I would rate them an eight out of ten.

We were using ESET Antivirus for endpoint security. For firewalls, we were using FortiGate and MikroTik firewalls. FortiGate is fine, and it is helpful and easy, but MikroTik is not. It can't stop attacks from hackers.

In addition to SonicWall TZ, we are now using Cloud App Security from SonicWall for endpoint security, and we have Email Security from SonicWall for emails. In addition, we are using Capture Client from SonicWall for endpoint protection. All these solutions are very helpful, easy to configure, and easy to troubleshoot.

It was straightforward. It took five to ten minutes.

I would recommend this solution. We plan to keep using this solution. We have recently renewed our license, and we don't have any plans to use any other solution.

I would rate SonicWall TZ an eight out of ten.

It is a multi-setting tool. We have about 50 users at any point in time. So far, we haven't had any problems.

We use the content filter and the SSL VPN: 

• The content filter has increased our productivity, especially during working hours. We don't have users spending time on social media during working hours. This means productivity is good. 
• Then, when the guys are offsite, they are still able to work without taking any breaks due to the SSL VPN that we use.

We use the content filter quite a lot because it's an office setting. During working hours, we like to censor the sites users can visit so it increases productivity. Therefore, the content filter has been good for us.

We have been using the SSL VPN as well, because most of our people do travel. They go for rest and recuperation approximately every six weeks, and they are offsite for about 10 days. More often than not, they need to login, or get onto shared drives, to do some work.

SonicWall Analyzer needs a different license. It would be good if Analyzer would be part of the stock license, so even if a layperson is getting the device, he or she doesn't forgets about ordering the Analyzer because it's already there. 

This is what we realized that over the last few months. We tried to pull some analysis, and without the Analyzer, we couldn't. Now, we are in the process of buying the additional license. It would have been better embedded from the beginning.

It is very stable with no issues. The firewall has been up for the past 35 days non-stop. It's performed great. It has performed as it should perform.

Scalability is fine. Our needs do not vary regarding scalability. They are constant. We have about 50 users.

We used it on one occasion. It was quite straight forward. We have a 24/7 support service option. The people who provided support were very efficient.

The main company has been using SonicWall for awhile. When we setup our local office in Ghana, we decided to use what was being utilized in the main office for the local office.

The initial setup was very straightforward. The wizard was helpful. It took less than an hour and a half to set it up and have at least the basic functions apparent. The primary set-up took less than two hours, then we were up and running.

SonicWall has authorized distributors in our country. They have about two or three distributors in the country, so it makes it a bit easier. What we do is to request a quotation from these distributors, then we do a value for money analysis and see which one of them is giving us a competitive price.

Getting licenses in our country, Ghana, is not easy. Though, once we have them, adding them is quick (about a day).

Overall, the cost is great.

No, because we chose SonicWall because they are on our main company's vendor.

We did decide to go with SonicWall TZ instead of SonicWall NSA, because the SonicWall NSA is bigger and more costly.