Netgear, the appliance hardware vendor to the SOHO market and small business, is now going for the slightly bigger fish with the FVX538. Anyone familiar over the years with Netgear's consistent quality devices will not be disappointed with the FVX538.
The traditional dark blue and no-fuss sturdy steel chassis are still there. While not 19in, this device comes with metal "ears" which attach to the side, enabling it to be mounted in a 19-inch rack. It also comes with small rubber feet which can be attached to use in the comms closet or it can sit on top of the server.
There are two WAN ports, an eight-port 100Mb switch, and a Gigabit port. It has an internal power supply with a standard IEC connector, so there is no nasty power packs to try and plug in just to have fall out whenever someone goes near it.
Administration and configuration is done via a familiar Netgear browser interface. While the interface can appear cluttered, a short time with it will soon alleviate apprehensions -- particularly given the well laid out help in the right-hand frame. Comprehensive Web support is also available at the bottom of the left-hand frame.
Both WAN ports support PPPoE. WAN ports can be configured with automatic failover (rollover) or load-balancing modes. There are relatively comprehensive logs and alerting facilities -- syslog and e-mail are the primary methods.
Overall, this firewall would provide a very sturdy gateway for branch/remote offices. The WAN port functions are very good and for businesses connected with ADSL it could even replace their router, and enable options such as failover or load balancing.
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How can you test all firewalls and leave the marketleader out ? All these are toys ! :)checkpoint rules