WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi Reviews

We have WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi deployed in the hotel industry in some schools, and we have it in other general business locations. We have a managed service practice. We sell clients a product and then manage it on a daily basis.

We like that WatchGuard works and integrates directly with the firewalls we use. We use WatchGuard firewalls as well. We get that single-pane view, and managing it over the cloud is pretty simple. One other thing we like is that we can use it as an MSSP appliance and pay for support monthly.

We use this solution to provide server and wireless device security to our customers.

The Wi-Fi security features of this solution have been great for our customers who need to strictly control access to their network.

We have also found the analytics individualization on the cloud controller to be great.

I use this solution at an airport, where I work in IT and telecommunications as an end user. 

The cloud analytics are a key feature of this solution. Once you create your profile, you plug the AP in and it gets all its attributes. You can reset an AP without having to pull out a ladder. If you need to push an update to it, you can do so. You can roll it back, you can see where users are in your facility and what they're having trouble trying to connect to. In addition, it puts all the users into their own VPN, which gives you security. All the security functions are built into it. You can take one AP from WatchGuard, and install it on a Cisco, Ruckus, or Aruba Networks AP, and turn it on as a WIPS and protect those clients.

It's all cloud controller based. I can have several sites and still see them all in that one pane of glass. All you have to do is take it out of the box, plug it in and you're ready to go. That's the beauty. So if you have multiple locations, it's easily managed. When you log into your console, you can sort by date and see what's coming up, you don't have to guess. If you want to check a budget report, you can see it all without having to look for it. They have an interface setting on their firewall and you can virtually plug any AP into it and be off, whereas other solutions are proprietary. 

Let's say you're running a hotel and you want Wi-Fi separated for guests and for your administration– you can manage this stuff with WatchGuard.

It is very easy to set up and get running. You can administer it from the cloud. I wouldn't say there are more advances over other solutions. But, you can set up different networks on them and it is pretty much something we need. You can put encryption on it too.

I have been using the solution for approximately three months.

The solution has been stable.

The Airport Authority is responsible for providing free WiFi at the Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport. There is no charge for the Free Public WiFi at the BHM airport. There are more than sixty APs and one hundred and twenty dual-band radios being used today, providing free WiFi to the traveling public. The WatchGuard Cloud WiFi system is easy to maintain and to make updates to the APs, with virtually no impact to the wireless users.

It is great to have a trusted wireless environment in a public free WiFi facility. WiFi is a must-have feature today at any airport. Some international travelers may not have activated cellular roaming for coverage with their cellular provider. So providing quality WiFi at an airport is paramount. Providing hi-speed trusted WiFi is great.