Fortinet provided a very sleek black and silver number. At the front of the 1RU unit there are eight Ethernet ports (four internal, two DMZ, and two WAN), two USB ports, a console port, and a power LED. Also on the front there is a small backlit LCD and four buttons used for navigation around. The rear houses a small fan, a power switch, and an IEC power socket. Construction of the unit is excellent and the quality of workmanship and design is great.
The operator can select and set the IP addresses for the internal and external interfaces. Once on the network from the inside, the administrator can point a browser at the designated IP address using HTTPS and access the administration console.
A possible concern is that the default admin password is blank, however, one would assume in this day and age most security administrators designated the task of configuring the company firewall would immediately set a secure password.
The console itself is well laid out and very easy to navigate and manage. Primary actions are performed using the menu system on the left hand side. There is also a neat shortcut menu at the top of the screen enabling the administrators/operators to access a few helpful items, such as a Java console session to the CLI, (yes, for those hardcore CLI techs out there the Fortinet 200A can be accessed through a console), another handy shortcut is one to a basic setup wizard.
A plethora of software add-ons are available for licensing -- the box we were shipped had spam, Web and virus filters as well as intrusion and prevention systems.
Filtering and reporting is quite comprehensive, of particular note is the granularity with which one can configure the log filter, exporting various events and logs to different logging/reporting systems as needed.
Overall, a very refined and developed system, certainly worthy of shortlist for trial and evaluation. It is relatively straightforward and easy to use -- as a security appliance should be.
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How can you test all firewalls and leave the marketleader out ? All these are toys ! :)checkpoint rules