Solid performance and security at a good price
September 03, 2020
Solid performance and security at a good price
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with WatchGuard Network Security
We use WatchGuard firewalls across our district. It is used at all our sites to provide internet as well as access to our internal network. Initially, these were used to connect sites with a residential internet connection as well as a Layer 2 connection to our main office. This was done to provide cheaper and faster internet through the residential connection and using a slower Layer 2 connection. Recently we have been moving to VPN from our schools to the main office and dropping the expensive Layer 2 connections.
- Provides plenty of computing power and bandwidth for the price
- Fairly simple to add new policies
- Really simple setup for WatchGuard to WatchGuard VPN
- No policy grouping/looks messy with large number of policies
- Difficult to access/read logs
- Support is not easily obtained/wait for support can be long
- Allowed for faster, cheaper internet connections while maintaining Layer 2 connectivity at minimal cost
- Allows internal network connectivity though VPN eliminating costly Layer 2 connections
- Policy templates save time by making changes on multiple devices at once.
We worked with CDW Canada on purchasing the right devices and had some help with the initial setup. The help with basic support in implementation saved a lot of time by helping with configuration issues.
The WatchGuard Network Security device has drastically simplified our licensing and device management and purchases. Before WatchGuard, we had multiple services and hardware that needed to be managed and licensed separately. We had one device for spam management, one for website filtering and reporting, one for VPN, one Internet firewall, and one DMZ firewall, and two for website proxy. It has also allowed more reporting, bandwidth monitoring, and other services we did not have available before.
Fortinet FortiGate device was considerably more expensive and contained very similar service offerings. The need to configure another policy for every separate interface combination, even though they were the same underlying policy and needing to configure some items in multiple areas was quite a nuisance. The advantages of Fortinet--predefined IP groups, solid web interface, and good support--just couldn't make up for its shortcomings.
WatchGuard Network Security Feature Ratings
WatchGuard Network Security Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed Support understands my problem Support cares about my success | Slow Resolution Difficult to get immediate help Slow Initial Response |
No - Basic support is usually more than adequate most of the time. The problem with basic support occurs when an issue that you consider high severity, affecting internet usability for users, is classified as low severity by WatchGuard. Low severity issues can take multiple days to resolve.
We were having an issue with authenticating users on their devices. Some devices were showing different user names, even though the person had never logged onto the particular device. This caused issues by allowing students to access websites only staff should be able to access. The WatchGuard support agent was able to get us a pre-release version of the software that fixed the issue fairly shortly after reporting the issue.