SonicWall TZ Reviews

This was for a small business with roughly twelve 5x8 employee users. This is not a healthcare client but they do value their security.

We bought a T115 which was working fine, but when we went to renew the contract, it jumped to twice the amount. I asked why and was told the two-year-old model was being discontinued. My option was to upgrade to a SOHO or TZ. Not only was this a waste of money, but it also made me look bad.

SonicWall does have the best ease of use I've encountered in my limited experience. It's easy to set up.

The hardware is outdated and very slow. They are far behind Sophos and even FortiGate when it comes to hardware.

Firewall protection from the internet.

It allows us to be a little bit less worried about what's coming in and it does the same for our clients too.

It's sophisticated enough without breaking the bank.

I would like them to make the interface a little bit easier to use so you can find out where in the heck you're going instead of having to go to 15 different places to get something installed.

It's very stable.

For the small clients that we're using it for it has quite a bit of capability. We don't need anything more.

Technical support is very good. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time to get to them, but once you get to them they're pretty good.

Important criteria, when selecting a vendor, are that the product has

• to be one that my small clients can afford
• the capability of doing what needs to be done
• good quality and good technical support

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.

It is used as firewalls are normally used and performance has been outstanding. We've been very happy with it. 

It has provided the necessary security, that's what it's there for.

I really don't know. I'm not really an IT person, per se, but I would say number one is the protection available, and then ease of use and flexibility. Those would be the top three.

I'm not an IT guy. What I will say is that the market seems to be going to a cloud-supported, new generation of firewall products. I think that's probably going to be important to us, the next time around.

It has been, to the best of my knowledge, trouble-free.

We haven't used tech support, at least, not that I'm aware of. We outsourced all of our IT stuff. They may have used it, but I'm not aware of anything.

We've used nothing but SonicWall, up until now.

I would say the most important criterion, when selecting a vendor, is probably the technology utilized.

The one we've got now is five years old. The next generation with the cloud-based signature and operation... I know SonicWall has what they call Capture, which is advanced threat protection type stuff. I think that is probably what we're going to be looking at next.

There are certainly a lot of options out there, and there are a lot of good options. I would say, stick with a name brand, whether it's SonicWall, or Check Point, or Palo Alto, or Cisco - any of those. You need to stick with a big name brand that is at the forefront of things.

The main features are support and security.

We have several locations, each with a VPN to a central office. SonicWall provides each location with its own security and provides our company with the ability to centralize our servers so they can provide applications to all the locations and users.

The SonicWall is somewhat misunderstood due to its being a lot more complicated to use and set up. A simpler interface would help this issue.

We have been using this solution for four years.

There were no stability issues.

I would give technical support and rating of 8/10. Most of the time support is with foreign staff and can be hard to understand.

We have not used a different solution since I have been with the company.

The initial setup was somewhat complex. The interface can be a little hard to get used to and understand.

It is not cheap, but it is probably one of the best secure firewalls. You get what you pay for!

Shop around and make sure you need this level of security. Have lots of time to get to know this device because the rewards are plenty.

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.

Easy to configure. Good for any organization.

Always saves time for any implementation. IT guys never have lots of time for R&D in some live box.

Content filtering, Load balancing. Bandwidth management.

5 years.

Never.

Once.

No issues.

7/10

9/10

Technical support and it wasn't fit for our organization.

Never, it's so easy.

Fortigate

The MSSP partnership program is valuable, but is still too expensive. The devices are not as good as others, but the price and business model are attractive.

We were focused on traditional service provider model, so if one customer ask us to implement an NGFW, we look for the best solution for the client within the market. After getting in contact with Dell Spain, they proposed us to become MSP partner, so we consider to improve our business model to MSSP model.

Support is not as good as should be. An NGFW is supposed to use all the functions, so they must be considered as a must. If you switch on all of them, the system is working under the spected figures...

I have done a benchmark for around two months. The 500 is still working after benchmarking. We were looking for a solution for a law firm to be able to communicate in a safer mode.

The figures are not valid when you active all the functionalities. So, an office with only 15 workstations is not able to work with a TZ500, which is supposed to be for up to 40 workstations.

They are stable if you are not very demanding, if so, they become unstable.

I don't think they are designed to scale, but I haven't tested it.

6/10 - they are not providing the same support level as before.

I haven't used it, but they have contacted me several times to offer their help.

I was looking for the best solution for my customer and I found a better one after implementing SonicWALL. I have been a user, administrator and certified architect of Cisco, Checkpoint, StoneSoft, Fortinet, Sophos, Juniper, and most of them are focused for massive environments, not for SMEs.

It was straightforward, but I had to make a few changes to adapt it. However, every installation is different so, you need to adapt.

It was an in-house implementation.

I didn't choose this product.

Consider Sophos solution or maybe Fortinet if you don't need the Sophos extra features.