This red eye-catching unit is of metal construction was one of the only two units submitted that were rack mountable. Suited for mid-sized businesses or branch office, the Firebox 1000 has a large LCD on the front with four buttons for configuring the unit, 14 LEDs, 12 of which show either 10Mbps or 100Mbps connectivity for each of the six network ports. The other two LEDs show power and arm/disarm status. There are six network ports also on the front of the unit one of which is marked as external.
There is a console port on the front and a large flap/cover that opens to reveal a nifty removable 3.5in HDD bracket for future expansion. The rear of the unit has a power connector and a power switch. The installation is a little different to the other units on test in this review in that the operator must first load the application software onto a designated firewall administration system.
Once installed the software takes the user through a series of questions and uploads the configuration file straight to the firewall.
This is followed by a system reboot. The Administrator can then open the Firebox System Manager and connect to the IP address of the unit, then view its status etc. When you get to there you still have to configure the VPN tunnel. Setting this up is pretty much the same as with many of the other units.
You still have to set up your Phase 1 and Phase 2 settings and the only difference was the overall look and feel of the interface.
This whole process from start to finish took us somewhat longer than it did with the other units but we were still quite happy since it's quite an advanced unit.
The unit also provides firewall security, real-time monitoring and graphs that can be generated on a range of criteria. You can also buy several optional products that can further enhance the Firebox like WebBlocker which does content filtering, SpamScreen which screens junk e-mail and virus scanning.
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