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Comparing two wireless modems / firewalls

  • 19-06-2014 1:05pm
    #1
    jasonb
    Registered Users Posts: 3,313 ✭✭✭


    Hi there,

    I wasn't too certain whether to put this in this thread, or the Broadband one, so please move it if it's the wrong one.

    We have a couple of sites that are moving to eFibre. At the moment their set up is as follows:

    DSL Line - Netopia Modem (Bridge Mode and Wireless Disabled) - Sonicwall TZ180W Firewall/Wireless - PC (via Wireless USB Adapter).

    Out first two sites went to eFibre today, and I recreated the set up as above, so it now looks like this:

    DSL Line - Zyxel F1000 Modem (Bridge Mode and Wireless Disabled) - Sonicwall TZ180W Firewall/Wireless - PC (via Wireless USB Adapter).

    However, I wasn't that impressed with the speeds I was getting. I did some tests, and if I connect the PC wireless to the Zyxel F1000 Modem back in routing mode (i.e. I remove the Sonicwall from the setup) I'm getting 48Mb down and 19Mb up. If I add the Sonicwall back in again, and connect the PC wirelessly to it, I get 9Mb down and 8Mb up.

    So clearly the Sonicwall is slowing down the connection. The Sonicwall is actually part of a legacy solution (we used to have VPN tunnels between sites) that isn't needed anymore, so really it's only being used now as a Firewall and providing the site with a Wireless signal.

    So, after all that, my question is this! How does the Zyxel F1000 compare with the Sonicwall TZ180W? Is the Firewall portion of the Sonicwall vastly better than the Firewall that comes with the Zyxel F1000? Am I leaving us too exposed by removing the Sonicwall and depending on the F1000? And what's the Wireless Signal Range like on the F1000?

    Ideally I'd like to remove the Sonicwall so that we get the fastest speeds, but I don't want to do it if it reduces our security or wireless range by too much. We've no plans / budget to upgrade or replace the Sonicwalls.

    Thanks in advance...

    J.


Comments

  • #2
    gctest50
    Registered Users Posts: 9,605 ✭✭✭gctest50


    The sonicwall (should !) be doing things like inspecting packets on the fly, checking out files and so on.
    Lot of work for a little box to be doing - hence the speed drop.
    Our system ran out
    of CPU at about 27 Mbps. When we turned on all the TZ
    180W’s security services, throughput was about 9.7 Mbps, close
    to SonicWALL’s advertised speed of 10 Mbps.

    http://www.sonicwall.com/downloads/TZ180W.pdf


    Its a tricky situation, you'd need it or something similar more than ever these days - they won't catch everything but every little bit helps

    Do a quick estimate of how much an office-wide "outage" due to a virus attack would cost.

    There are a good few software firewalls around - better than nothing in the meantime

    Just install them on server/pc and put them in the chain

    https://www.untangle.com/untangle-ng-firewall

    http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-utm-essential-firewall.aspx


    .


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