SonicWall Netextender Reviews

I do a fair bit with the virtualized SSL VPN appliances to keep the VPN termination off of the firewall because it's a heavy load on the firewall. It also allows for better integration with so many customers being on the Microsoft 365 portal.

We can't do SAML integration/authentication on VPN clients that are loaded on the firewalls, but we can do that when we put them on VPN-specific appliances.

When we started to change from IPsec-type clients that were predominantly built right into the firewalls to this approach or deployment style for SSL VPN, the amount of time that our techs spent helping people with VPN issues was probably cut by more than half. It's a model that's easier to support. We have fewer headaches than we used to have when more of the clients were built into the firewalls.

The most valuable feature for the Netextender is the ease with which we can integrate it with SAML. This means that rather than needing to deploy other things like Duo, for example, for two-factor authentication and rather than needing to maintain and support server infrastructure for radius services, we can just integrate it with the Microsoft identity management that is already part and parcel with moving into exchange online.

It is stable and scalable.

It is also easy to install.

If we could do licensed pooling across multiple devices, it would make it easier to build more resilience into the solution in terms of multiple internet providers.

Right now, you have to load each license on to an appliance. You can't pool across multiple appliances. So, you end up having to do a lot of administrative work to recover if an internet provider goes down, and you cannot leverage it as easily into a DR solution.

I've been dealing with SonicWall Netextender in the current format for about five years.

The deployment model varies. Sometimes, the customers still have a server room, and sometimes, they do hosting with us. Increasingly, we're also starting to see these SSL VPN appliances being deployed in Azure.

It is a stable product, especially because more people have been working from home and have better internet providers.

We have had no problems with scalability within our customer base. Scalability becomes more of a question when you are dealing with accounts with 10,000 seats.

Our network engineers are very happy with SonicWall technical support.

The appliance is easy to set up, and it's become second nature for our temporary staff.

Cost wise, it would be a few hundred dollars for the base appliance with the first five clients. Then from there, your cost per seat depends on how many you're getting. It's a one-time cost, and then you have a few hundred dollars a year for the maintenance contract once you get the one-time seat costs out of the way.

Until such time as people start using web application proxies for everything, right from cloud services, SonicWall Netextender is the way to go. It will reduce your support costs and the amount of headaches, and it will allow you better integration with identity management coming from the cloud services and portals.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate this solution at nine.

NetExtender is for client VPN. Users can use it to connect through a VPN and remotely access the internet services. 

NetExtender works very well. I never had an issue with it, and it has been working well for me.

In terms of management, you have good control over the destination. You can use NetExtender to set the policy and the static route for a client. You can modify it based on what your client needs or can access. You have good control over routing.

SonicWall can be difficult for some people, but I don't find it difficult. Some companies provide a VPN client for free, but you have to pay for NetExtender.

I have been using this solution for around five years.

I can't say much about stability. I have multiple firewalls from the same company. If one firewall is down, I can connect to another firewall. 

I never had to call their technical support for NetExtender. In general, like every firewall company, it depends on who you're talking to. Sometimes, you get good support, and sometimes, you don't get good support, and you have to force them to do something more because they just keep on saying that it is not just this. It is also this and that. You have to force them to go in one direction. I have had the same experience with Fortinet.

NetExtender is easy to install. You go to the SonicWall website and download NetExtender. If you are not sure about the setup options, you just keep on clicking on yes. All the configuration is automatically done.

Its setup is done inside the SonicWall router. Some people don't like SonicWall because they find it too complicated, but I like it. You get more granular control on everything and have to do more things, which makes it complicated, but I prefer it being complicated. I don't like not having enough options. If there are 100 options, I will study them one by one and use them, but for some people, it can be too complicated when there are too many options.

You have to pay for its license. There are some other companies that provide a VPN client for free. When you buy NetExtender, its license is available for one, three, or five years.

I would rate SonicWall NetExtender an eight out of ten.

The solution is used as an enterprise infrastructure VPN.

We have our users connecting if they work from home, for example. We are using NetExtender for connecting our users to the office. 

The product is very cost-effective. For the price-sensitive market, this is a very good product for an SSL VPN solution.

The initial setup is pretty easy.

The product is very user-friendly.

The solution so far has proven itself to be quite stable. 

The documentation is excellent. They have a lot of detail and cover a lot of aspects of the product.

The solution is very easy to configure.

I'm not sure if the solution also supports the Mac OS. If it doesn't, that is something that could be very valuable.

There must be a multi-factor authentication enabled or integrated by default with it in order to be integrated with NetExtender.

I've used the solution over the last 12 months at least. 

The stability is good. It's a very reliable solution. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's quite good overall in terms of performance.

We have around 50 users on the solution currently. We've never tried to scale beyond that. Therefore, I can't speak to the scalability potential. It's not something we've actively explored. 

We've never had the need to reach out to technical support. For that reason, I can't really speak to how helpful or responsive they are. There isn't any feedback I could provide.

That said, there is a lot of documentation available, which would make it possible for users to seek out their own answers to problems if they needed to.

The initial setup was okay. Of course, it's important to get it right, however, once it is set up, the solution is extremely user-friendly and easy to manage. A company shouldn't have any issues with the process.

The deployment was pretty quick. It only took about two or so days.

The pricing of the product is good. It's quite reasonable for companies and easily affordable.

We pay a yearly licensing fee. Once you procure the license, it is attached to your SonicWall firewall. Therefore, you won't need to procure it or purchase it again and again.

We're SonicWall partners.

We're likely using the latest version of the solution.

I'd advise those considering the solution that, if they already have a SonicWall firewall, they can just procure the licenses and enable the work from home for their users.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.