WatchGuard Firebox Reviews

We have multiple sites. We're in the wine business. Our corporate office is where we have accounting and marketing. Our executives are based there as is IT, HR, and payroll. That's where we have the big M200. We have five wineries that we support. Each of the wineries has a WatchGuard on it and we connect them with the business office VPN. 

We share files across our VPN and we also authenticate our users. Not all of our sites have file servers so we use the business office VPN to get them authenticated onto their machines. We also use that to go out and work on their machines if they have problems or we send files out to them and install software remotely, etc.

We also have 11 tasting rooms where we sell our wine, and each of those has a smaller WatchGuard in it. We support the computers that they use in the back office of the tasting rooms. We also support their iPads and the machines that they use to print off orders and FedEx labels and to do inventory stuff. 

We have two hospitality sites where we will take our distributors to talk to them and educate them about the wine industry and what we're doing in the industry. We provide them with internet while they're there. Some of our people will go to these sites to do retreats and planning. We have WatchGuards there to support them so they can get back to the files they need and get authenticated.

We're using a whole variety of models. We've got a couple of M200s, multiple 30s and multiple 15s. We also have about 15 of the AP120s.

The solution simplifies traffic management. It has features that let me automatically reboot the wireless access points on a weekly basis. For us, that has been really beneficial. Prior to that we had a range of different wireless access points and there was no way to have them all reboot. So people would just have bad experiences using them and we'd have to go in manually and reboot them. Once we started using the WatchGuard wireless access points, we just scheduled them to reboot automatically. 

Both the throughput and the fact that they support the two different radio frequencies have been great for us. It has paid for itself because we don't have to deal with them anymore. They're a set-it-and-forget-it type of deal.

The solution has saved me time, but it would be hard to come up with a specific amount of time. The bottom line is that I just don't have to deal with it.

• Among the most valuable features is the ease of use — love the interface — of both the web interface and of the WatchGuard System Manager.
• It's a stable platform. The devices are pretty rock-solid.
• Education: They do host regular webinars where I can go in and learn more about the product and new features.
  

Also, the throughput is good value for the money. Our corporate office is basically shut down [due to COVID-19]. We've got 100 people who have been working from home over the last month and we're using the SSL VPN connection to get in, get authenticated, to get to our files, update passwords, etc. The throughput has been good for that.

I'm impressed with the solution's reporting and management features.

If they could make the traffic monitoring easier that would be great. I don't use it that frequently, but I would like to see some improvements in the ease of use of that component, so it makes more sense. I know it's a technical component so there's going to be some difficulty trying to make that easier.

Also, if they could provide more examples in their documentation, that would help. Sometimes they will say, "Hey, go in and set this up," and it would be so much easier to do it if they put in a couple of examples and showed me. Imagine instructions on how to change a tire and the steps you go through. Give me some pictures or some examples of how you change the tire. Where do you put the jack so it doesn't tear up the fender on your car? I'm a person who loves looking at examples cause I can look at things and see how they applied them and then learn from them.

Even if they put in some snapshots and said, "Here's how this should look after you put this information in," that would help. It would be confirmation that this is accurate and this is going to work. 

Finally, when we did the split tunneling, as it turned out, that was an all-or-nothing, global setting. As soon as I did that it impacted everybody. What I was hoping to do was to set that up so that I could do a pilot group and, once it was working, I could turn it on for everybody. We needed to get it going and it was all-or-nothing. We did that on a weekend and it ate up my weekend time.

In my current position, I have been using WatchGuard Firebox since 2016. Prior to that, I was at another place and I used a WatchGuard for about 12 years.

The scalability is fine but we're not experiencing a whole lot of people using it. Our Seattle office is probably the one where it is used the most and the M200 is fine. Our corporate office has close to 70 or 80 people. And we're spread out nationwide, with people getting back into the corporate office to get files. We have our wineries where there are another 40 people or so. Some of them are smaller and would have 12 or 15 people. And the tasting rooms are typically three people.

We opened up two new tasting rooms in the last year and we've got two more that are going to be opening up and, in my requirements, I always put in WatchGuard.

For everything that I've dealt with, their technical support has been really great about helping out and helping me fix things. I just worked two weeks on a project to split our VPN tunnels out and the WatchGuard technical support guys helped me with that a couple of times.

WatchGuard was already installed here when I came onboard and that was one of the reasons I got hired. I'd had experience with WatchGuard before and I knew about the product and I could support it. They brought me in for that. And now, over the last four years, I've gone through and upgraded the hardware. The hardware was older hardware, it was out of date, so I went through an upgrade and got it back on a maintenance plan.

In working with our WatchGuard vendor, they're the ones who emphasized that we should be getting off of Remote Desktop Protocol from Microsoft because it was being hacked so badly. They're the ones who said that WatchGuard has this SSL VPN and it's free, so they just configured it and away we went.

For me, the setup is straightforward. Part of that is that I've just done it so frequently. On average, deployment of these devices takes me about 15 or 20 minutes. I know what I've done on other machines, so I just do the same thing again on new ones.

For deploying them to distributed locations, we order from our vendor. When it arrives I get it authorized on our account, go in and set up some basics, and set it up so I can get to it remotely. Then I ship it off. I've got some hands-on people, operations people, at the winery who will take it and start to plug it when they get it.

For maintenance of the solution there are three of us on the IT team.

The fact that they're reliable pieces of equipment is part of the ROI. I know when I go back into it, it's not like it's going to drop how it's been programmed. 

It also has a great function for my needs because I work remotely to many other places in Idaho, Eastern Washington, New Mexico, etc. I know I can get into that box remotely and it's going to have the configuration that I set up.

I'd love it to be cheaper, but as long as long as they're being fair with me, it's a good value.

I've never had a need to evaluate other options.

Take a good hard look at it. The interface is pretty easy to work with. The devices are consistently good. It has a lot of features and the boxes are hard-working. They just work.

I recommend WatchGuard to people when I'm at industry trade shows when anybody asks me. I think it does provide me with layered security, but I don't spend a lot of time looking into that. It's just part of my total solution package. The value that I get out of it is consistent management. It's a good product. Whatever kind of additional security they provide to me is just a bonus.

My primary use case is for my network security even when I am out of the office.

WatchGuard Firebox has improved our organization one hundred percent from before we started using it.

I have found the DNS Watch feature for intrusion and prevention response and APT Locker most valuable to me.

I would like to see more training become available for us. I would like to see the port conflicts improved.

I have been using WatchGuard Firebox for the past five years.

The stability is good.

There is excellent scalability and we are using it at full capacity.

The initial setup is quite complex and difficult, especially for first-time users. You need to go on the website and study it before you start using the policy manager. Once you start using the policy manager it becomes easier.

We used a third party and the deployment time takes less than ten minutes.

The return on investment is that it saves us a lot of time from intruders creating problems.

The licensing can be a one-time purchase unless you need the extra services for example twenty-four seven support.

I did try pfSense and FortiGate and decided WatchGuard Firebox was what I needed.

I would rate WatchGuard Firebox a nine on a scale of one to ten.

I'm a system administrator and we have a partnership with WatchGuard. 

The solution has a useful traffic monitor. You can check if the packet in the unit works and analyze the proof quickly. It's very easy to use and provides good security. 

We've found that sometimes the solution is not easy to understand and we need to bring in some specialist assistance. 

I've been using this solution for two years. 

The solution is very stable.

We haven't needed to scale so I can't comment on that. 

The support is good but we've had some difficult situations because not everyone in support is good when it comes to specific problems such as VoIP. 

We previously used Cisco but there came a time when we needed to move to a more updated product. 

The solution is difficult to implement without a specialist, especially the first time. It requires an IT technician. It's become easier for us to deploy ourselves now that we've had some experience.

Licensing costs are very reasonable and paid annually. If you need additional options they can be bought separately. 

I mainly use Firebox for SSL, VPN, internet proxy, site-to-site tunnels, and intrusion protection.

Firebox's best feature is the access portal.

Firebox would be improved with integration for endpoint protection solutions.

I've been using Firebox for three years.

Firebox is generally stable, with only some glitches here and there, and its performance is okay.

Firebox is scalable.

WatchGuard's technical support is okay, but they could do more to push knowledge so the customer could solve their own problems.

Neutral

The initial setup was straightforward.

We used an in-house team.

Firebox is priced reasonably.

I would give Firebox a rating of seven out of ten.

We use Watchguard as a firewall and a VPN.

WatchGuard has improved our security.

The most valuable features are the VPN and web blocker security.

An area for improvement is that when we use a web administration link, there is no security.

I've been using WatchGuard for the past five years.

Watchguard is stable.

This solution is scalable.

The technical support is very fast - when we raise an incident, we get a solution in no time.

I previously used FortiGate.

The installation was straightforward and took between one and two hours. I would rate our experience with the initial setup as four out of five.

I installed this solution by myself.

We're currently renewing our license on a three-year basis. The licensing costs are comparatively lower than other providers, and I would rate the pricing as five out of five.

I would give this solution a rating of eight out of ten.

Actually, we do not use WatchGuard Firebox, we just sell and sometimes deploy and install it for the customer. We usually set up a few basic policies then give it to them to continue on.

The features that I have found most valuable are the FireWall features. The management side of WatchGuard is quite easy because it supports two ways to manage it - by the web and the other one they call WatchGuard systems manager. I used to be familiar with WSM only, but they improved their GUI in the web browser and now it is much easier to do it within the web browser.

The other feature is the side to side VPN. We have a bank client and they use a WatchGuard device for their headquarters and other WatchGuard devices for their branches. Setting up those IP's and VPN's was quite easy because the relay was at the branch office where the VPN resides. So that was quite handy to set up.

In terms of what could be improved, I would say their web blocker feature. It is still quite a confusing setup, especially when you want to filter out a particular category for granularity. For example, you do not want to filter Facebook but you do want to filter Facebook games only. It can be done, but the process to do it is very confusing.

We have seen other products like Sophos, Checkpoint and Palo Alto that were much easier to set up their web built setting than it is with WatchGuard. So aside from all other features, including the VPN security policies, the only feature that is quite confusing is the web block feature.

They could make the web blocker much easier to set up.

In terms of scalability, they have models like the 5,000 series and 6,000 series. We have not reached that yet. We are only a small company and our customers are only small and medium businesses. So no enterprise companies yet. But I think if we need a bigger box, we would go with the 5,000 series.

Right now we're only at about 200 hundred users. Sometimes we are trying to push for the 300 series or 500 series, but not yet.

We require a staff of one or two for deployment and maintenance.

I think technical support is okay. When I log a case, they usually respond within a day. Then, if they need to do some things for the client, they are quite flexible and do it based on the client's schedule. So no problem with the support. They are good. So far all our issues we have raised, and we have large cases, have been resolved. So their tech support is quite good.

We switched because WatchGuard is cheaper. An old product that we previously sold was quite expensive, especially the security renewal after every year, but WatchGuard offered quite a competitive price and in a bundle that was much easier to understand. Cyberoam, for example, was quite complex to set up under licensing. Cyberoam was bought by Sophos. So we switched to WatchGuard for the price.

The main highlight is price. The client has quite a tight budget so we can offer much more with WatchGuard.

Setup was easy because the manual was there and it was quite easy to connect to a particular port. It's very understandable. Setup was very straightforward, nothing complex.

Deployment could take only a few minutes or up to an hour and we can already set up a few basic policies. But the thing that drags longer is teaching the client to use it and to set up their own security policies. Sometimes they don't have enough experience at setting up WatchGuard, it's still new to them. But maybe after a few hours of lectures from us they get it. We still continue to support them after initial set up, for example if if they want to set up a policy we can assist them with that.

I have seen a return on investment, especially for the client. They have less problems in the bandwidth because the users are not going to unnecessary sites. So productivity should be better. Clients would not be tempted to browse unnecessary sites, games, download movies, because there is a firewall with restrictions in the policies. So therefore, the users would be performing at their best.

The box costs 180,000. One third of the price of the box goes to the yearly renewal fee, around 50 or 60, for the basic. There is the advanced feature which is half of the box, but the basic is quite enough for most of our brand, which is why we have not used the TDR yet.

And the response comes free for the advanced features and advanced licensing.

The advice I would give to anyone considering WatchGuard Firebox is that it is a good product, despite what they say about it not being in the Gartner quadrant leaders. It performs well. It's fast. The only downside would be the web filtering side of things. If the client wants a good web filtering device, they have to go to another vendor, but just for Firewall IP and VPN, I think WatchGuard will be good.

I'm not saying that the web filtering for WatchGuard is really bad, just confusing. Some clients don't want to do something that's confusing for them, they prefer something easy, but if they can live with a little confusion, then it's okay. But it is good to have a good partner, someone like us, in case the client has a problem setting up their policies, especially in the web filtering, we can help.

Speaking on behalf of the client, I think they are okay with the solution. They are still continuing to use it past a year already, and they continue to renew. They are satisfied with its performance and what it is capable of doing.

On a scale of one to ten, I'll give WatchGuard Firebox an eight.

We provide the solution to our customers. It's primarily used for security.

The reporting aspect of the solution is what is most valuable to us.

The solution is very easy to configure.

The product has been very easy to use.

We've found the stability to be very good.

The scalability is excellent.

The pricing of the product is reasonable.

We've been in touch with technical support and found them to be very helpful.

There are many fantastic features.

Often, customers don't end up using a lot of the features.

They should move more towards integration with other OEMs such as web application firewalls, et cetera. There should be better integration and a way to configure multiple vendors into the same data center in order to offer more flexibility. 

We've been working with the solution for about seven to eight years at this point. It's been a while. 

The stability of the solution is very good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's quite reliable in terms of performance.

We've found the scalability to be very good. There are no limitations. If a company needs to expand it, they can.

We've contacted technical support in the past. We've found them to be very good. They are helpful and responsive. I would say that we are quite satisfied with the level of support we've received.

The pricing of the product is pretty good. I would describe it as fair. It's not overly expensive.

One of our customers wanted us to compare this solution against Azure Firewall to see which would be better. We're still looking into that.

We are resellers.

I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten. It's a pretty fantastic solution overall.

We are using WatchGuard Firebox for defense of our internal infrastructure.

I wouldn't say that Firebox has improved the way our organization functions, but rather that it protects our organization.

The solution identifies attacks on our services and, as a result, directs our attention precisely to the cause of the problem. As we are not actively watching the traffic ourselves and we completely rely on Firebox to alert us instead, the solution saves us about 30 hours per week.

The most valuable features are WatchGuard’s antivirus, traffic protection, and ease of configuration. I also appreciate their traffic analytics. 

After conducting several tests I found the antivirus is working very well. Additionally, they have a very interesting feature, DNS WatchGuard, which is checking DNS requests for phishing, among other things, and it has caught a lot of unwanted attempts and attacks.

Regarding the management features, the interface is user-friendly, and the instructions are well documented. There is a fast learning curve and everything is intuitive and understandable.

It also provides us with layered security. Firebox protects our traffic, as we have numerous Web Services that are external and which are a priority for us to defend. We don't use the rest as much.

I haven’t dug deeply into the reporting features yet or if they are working well. However, I have generated several reports and there was too much unnecessary information, in comparison with the reporting features in the Sophos firewall. Sophos' reporting is more readable and easier to configure. Having said that, reporting features were not very important for us when selecting a solution. What was important were other types of functionality that WatchGuard Firebox was able to meet.

In addition to the reporting features, I would suggest they work on an SSL VPN gateway.

We have been working with WatchGuard Firebox for about one year. Initially we got an M200 model and then switched to an M470 in a cluster.

In terms of the stability, everything is perfect. We haven’t experienced any issues.

The solution scales intuitively and quickly with any internet, meaning the solution’s protocols support any internet configuration. The connectivity scales in any location.

We could scale it to several companies with up to 100 employees and up to 1 Gb of traffic.

I would rate WatchGuard's tech support at the highest mark of five out of five. I was very pleased with them. We were working with them on the software licensing and opened some tickets related to technical issues. In both cases, they resolved the issues promptly and without unnecessary back-and-forth, unlike when working with the support teams of other vendors.

Before Firebox we used a Sophos firewall. We switched because the WatchGuard firewall offers a broad set of features and parameters that were lacking in the Sophos firewall. Additionally, the WatchGuard solution was cheaper.

WatchGuard has a comprehensive antivirus system included in the firewall and that was important for us. Sophos’ antivirus features were weak, in comparison.

The initial setup was medium in terms of the difficulty of some aspects, such as initially understanding the logic of their security policies. It took several hours to acquaint myself and to fully understand things. The whole deployment took about three days.

We initially had an implementation strategy, but it was adapted according to the recommendations and specifications of WatchGuard.

In terms of the technical aspects, I am the only who works with this solution in our organization.

Initially, we purchased the Firebox just for us but, as of today, we have deployed it to two or three other companies. The client sent us project specs with necessary internet configurations for each device, as well as the physical locations. We replicated their infrastructure in our test environment, configured each device according to their specs, and shipped the device to them. The client then connected the device with a cable to the ports outlined in our instructions and everything worked the first time.

During the deployment we worked closely with WatchGuard’s tech support team and they were very speedy in their responses to us.

The price of the solution corresponds to the quality and the feature set offered. There are no additional costs to the standard licensing fees.

Before selecting WatchGuard Firebox, we evaluated the Cisco FirePOWER firewall and, in comparison, Firebox is much easier to use.

Also, WatchGuard’s solution, in terms of the cost-per-value ratio, is very balanced.

My advice would be to try this product.

As for the throughput, at this point it is hard for us to evaluate it because we don’t have heavy traffic, or at least we do not experience the traffic throughput specified for this model. Our inbound and outbound traffic is 1 Gb and the M470 handles it very well, not even stressing its components.

When it comes to the solution’s Cloud Visibility feature, they need to improve on the reporting. But in terms of the logs, it gives us very good visibility.

Overall, I would rate the solution a strong eight out of 10.