SonicWall TZ Reviews

It is cloud-based. I am managing it from my HQ to centralize all the branches connected with it, point-to point. I'm using the SonicWall for the gateway. Certainly I'm using it for DLP and antivirus logging, and we are using SonicWall firewall for the mail filtering. Also, we can use SonicWall firewall just like on SD-WAN. We can manage all our branches through that central point from their patches.

We have a centralized firewall here and it will take some bandwidth just like a broadband connection, but with low bandwidth or mobility connection. Through that, we can connect from the HQ to all our branches on those devices, through that particular antennae. All the data transmitted from the corporate office to branch offices works smoothly on the low bandwidth.

Because it is a software-developed feature in SonicWall, we just maintain the main firewall. With the main firewall routing there, we can do connectivity point-to-point. On the low bandwidth we can connect to all the branches from my corporate office.

In terms of what needs to be improved, I would say better load balancing and data filtering. This way we have low utilization of the net from the corporate office to all the branches. This is the connectivity there. The traffic from the HQ to all the branches goes on the low latency so that connectivity is continuous and not dropped.

In the next release it should have both the failure and load balancing combined on there. Whenever there is a failure and whenever they are load balancing, it should auto-generate the traffic for any connectivity on there, so it will run smoothly. It should also generate the alert.

I have been using SonicWall TZ for the last 10 years. We're using the SD-WAN solution from SonicWall.

This solution is quite stable.

Scalability is more than fine.

We have around 500 users with connectivity on it.

We do have plans to increase usage.

Technical support is good, there is no issue.

I am comfortable with them all: SonicWall, Check Point, Palo Alto, Sophos. Right now, I'm using the Sophos 225 and 125 in my offices and have a XG 862 in all the branches connected from there. I work on that firewall installation and also the NetScaler on the Citrix. That's simply fundamental. There are some differences with the connectivity and ruling. The rule tab is the same.

I work on their Azure AD platform and also Exchange. On the Exchange, I am working on the O365.

I am also using Trend Micro, Symantec, and McAfee.

This technology comes with these different platforms and you go on the previous one from a couple years ago. The SD-WAN-only technology is not that common. It costs more from US, Canada and from that area of connectivity. It will drop the packet from there.

It has an easy setup. You can centralize all the connectivity. This OS is running with each and everything, and you can monitor it all from the centralized point.

I also give the support for Exchange, but this will take low bandwidth and low latency from any mobile connectivity, any internet, any low-bandwidth connectivity and work fine. But other products like McAfee and Symantec can support the Exchange.

It can take time for the synchronization of updating the devices. This depends on how many devices we have connecting from the portal and which devices they are working on. Sometimes, you have the scanning on there. So it will take that functionality and we can define for root causes on the other things. We can define according to policy. So this depends on the policy design. It also depends on that criteria.

On a scale of one to 10, I would give SonicWall TZ a nine.

Our primary use case for this product is for remote access to smart-building solutions that we implement.

I have found this solution to be easier to use when compared to other products, such as those offered by Cisco.

The most valuable feature of this solution is that it is easy to install and maintain.

The support for this product has to be improved.

With what I use, I don't really require any other features.

We have not had any issues with the stability of this product. We have additional sites, aside from the smart-building, and we haven't encountered any hardware failure.

In terms of scalability, it is scalable to a certain extent. The downside is that one of the models has fiber-optic connections, but the other platforms do not support it.

While the product is fine, I find that there is no support. We purchased a license renewal and have not been able to apply it, even though I have raised this relatively simple issue with them. The lack of support is having me look into other solutions to replace SonicWall.

The setup is very easy compared to other platforms, where with Cisco or Huawei you have to move from one application to another. I did not have the training, but for me, it was really easy to use. The implementation took a few hours. 

While every site is different, based on what I have implemented it takes just a single engineer to deploy and maintain this solution.

The product pricing is relatively good, compared to other products, including the licenses. However, if you do not get support then the cost of the outlay is not really relevant.

We use other platforms including those offered by Cisco and Huawei. I had been looking into small firewall solutions that are capable of handling fiber-optic connections, rather than just Copper. I didn't want to pay for the premium platform just to use fiber-optic connections. However, the capability is not there on smaller platforms, including this one.

We chose this solution because it is easier to use than others.

Currently, SonicWall is our primary solution. To me, it can no longer be the primary because if I need support then I may not get it. With other products, it is quite simple.

For any new projects that I'll be working on, I will not be using SonicWall. This is simply a business decision that is based on my experience. I am responsible for the design, implementation, maintenance, and moving forward with the customer. If I am not happy then I cannot implement the solution because it will not help me in the future.

To be honest, when it comes to integration I would rate this product a nine out of ten. But, because of the lack of support, overall, I can only rate it one out of ten.

We use the solution to control and protect access between our various locations.

With this solution, our facilities are able to act as one, easily sharing resources. 

It protects against intrusion while allowing needed access. 

It needs more robust self-help documentation along with examples and things to watch out for. 

We have been using the solution for more than ten years.

The stability is great.

The solution works well.

Positive

Nothing is as robust and complete as SonicWall devices.

The initial setup was fairly straightforward and is particularly straightforward when upgrading.

Our implementation was done in a combination due to locations.

We have seen a 100% ROI. There are no intrusions. 

It was chosen by an IT support company.

Try it, you'll be glad you did, as you'll find a new peace of mind.

This firewall makes up part of our security solution.

The most valuable features are security and technical support.

The pricing is of this solution is high and could be reduced to make it more competitive.

The monitoring is a little bit confusing.

I have been using SonicWall TZ for three years.

We have had no problems with stability.

This is a nice product in terms of scalability.

The technical support is good. If I call on the helpline then a technical person will assist us.

The initial setup is very easy. If a person knows some networking and about access levels then they will be able to configure it.

The price is high compared to some other solutions.

My license is about to expire and I am currently searching for a new solution. As we expand and open new offices, I am looking to change the whole setup.

In summary, this is a very good product and I recommend it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

I find the security we are able to do with the policies to be valuable. The monitoring is valuable as well.

Full monitoring obviously needs to be improved. We need full monitoring covered under the security licensing. The license should include reporting and monitoring. It shouldn't be an add-on, it should just go along with it. They should also make the monitoring easy to manage. Sometimes we need reports. We need some live monitoring decisions on how it's going down. We should take the live report from the SonicWall itself. I want to display the report under our monitor so I can monitor firewalls outside our area.

It's very stable and working fine.

The solution is very scalable. We don't plan to increase the usage right now. We have sufficient coverage. We don't plan future deployment.

I've had a good experience with technical support.

We haven't been using a different solution previously. We were using some antivirus software and some firewall software. We decided to implement SonicWall because it has good support and a good reputation in our area.

Initially, the setup is not so straightforward but we managed to make it work. Deployment was not so fast. It has initially taken two days, then after that, an hour or so. You only need one person for deployment.

Initially, we could only implement with the support from the reseller but then afterwards we handled it by ourselves.

I've seen great ROI since implementing it.

We considered many products, and afterwards, we found SonicWall to be the best solution.

We're using a variety of different models. The solution is very simple and works great and is working fine in the regions that are here.

I would rate the solution a nine out of 10. If it had better reporting functionality, I would give it a 10.

The primary use is for protecting the internet for client-to-search sites. We also use site-to-site VPN, and it segregates the traffic.

We are an integrator and a solution provider. We implement this and other solutions for our customers.

The most valuable features are the UTM, site-to-site VPN, and client-to-site VPN. The site-to-site VPN allows us to connect between the branches. We also use the global VPN client and the local VPN client.

I find most of the features are useful.

In some places, we face problems, especially in the client VPN portion. There are certain places where we are not able to contact. We don't have the lease line, static IP addresses, or dynamic IP addresses. This is an area of concern.

Another thing which I don't like about SonicWall is that it tries to bypass the resellers. That is not good. SonicWall suddenly calls the client, goes to them directly. That is not a good thing.

They should consider working a bit more on their ransomware application.

The solution, once it's configured properly, is unbreakable. The only thing is that on the dynamic DNS we are facing some problems. Fortinet is doing much better, compared to SonicWall because they have their own data center and the dynamic DNS is working better. It provides a much better and more stable VPN. This is dependent upon third-party servers. If their server is down then we're finished. We depend upon them, and we have to wait for some time. This is a big problem.

Scalability-wise, with most of the mid-range solutions, there is no scalability. If you want to upgrade, you have to upgrade it. One good thing about SonicWall is the modular nature of the product. That means you can buy whatever part of the solution you want. That is one beauty of it. If you don't want IPS, you don't have to buy the IPS. That option, that's much better than anybody else.

I would rate technical support a seven out of ten.

We did use a previous solution, but the client wanted to switch. 

The initial setup was complex. It is not so straight forward. It's not tough like others, but still, they can improve on it.

Deployment takes, depending upon the concentration, anywhere from half a day to two days, depending upon the password you need to deal with for all the configuration. If everything is not the same, like you have UTM features and all those things, it may go up to one day, depending upon the configuration. If the training is also added into it, two, three days including training and assistance.

We are a reseller. I've been doing this for three years. I set up most of the firewalls, and we work with the company and also we have direct end users. We work as a consultant for other IT companies.

For deployment, in terms of staff, the maximum you need, depending on the project, would be two to three people. Sometimes it will be enough even to use one or two people. A lot of that depends on requirements. 

License renewals come in around $35,000 to $45,000. That's the retail price.

When it comes to marketing this type of solution to customers, we try to focus more on the Fortinet side. However, if they are already invested in a solution like SonicWall then we continue with the same thing.

If the client is using SonicWall, we use SonicWall as well, for reliability. If they're using Fortinet, we try to use the same thing and try to minimize the cost, that's how we work.

In terms of advice, I would say that you have to look at the entire solution. There are certain things which SonicWall cannot do. SonicWall doesn't support ADSL because of security reasons but sometimes you need it, you want a little bit, you need to have that option to be working. Unfortunately, that option is not there, but sometimes you need it. Therefore, you have to evaluate the requirement.

Also, sometimes the quality is not so good. We have trouble sometimes with SonicWall. Unfortunately, sometimes the normal way of getting into the remote connectivity doesn't work because it's on a data correction. Or we only need to get into another specific connection. SonicWall doesn't support this connection. If we can't access the VPN we can't establish a check with the VPN. There was an incident like that and we had to take another break and then finish the product. You have to evaluate all this and then implement it. It's not possible to just not do something because SonicWall cannot. If it's for security you have to do it, there is no other option.

I would rate this solution between a six and seven out of ten. More work can be done on the servers, and the VPN areas also. It's a little bit confusing on the route side. I think the routes need to be cleaner, better. 

Configuration of firewall policies is very easy. I would say its interface gave me the ability to step into firewall and routing. Also I find using the SonicWALL for Site to Site VPN's is extremely easy, in particular, if you want to have VPN fail-over. HA is another good feature. Only because its the most competitive in the market as they give you an HA unit at a reduced cost.

Being a simple to deploy product means you can quickly and effectively implement a secure network

Since the acquisition of SonicWALL by Dell, I have not seen much in the way of improvements. Probably the key area to improve are as follows

• Better Mail Security (Spam in particular)
• Some improvement in Application Detection and reporting
• Its reporting tool (Viewpoint/GMS) is probably still in need of much improvement.

The death for SonicWall for us unfortunately is the Dell acquisition. You end up competing with Dell for the sale of SonicWALL and then anything else IT related. They don't work with IT partners.

I've used SonicWALL NSA for five years.

No issues encountered with deployment.

The only stability issues I have encountered is the reporting tools' ViewPoint/GMS. I have seen those virtual appliances fail to the point of needing to rebuild.

The NSA side of things is extremely stable as is the HA functionality.

You need to know the environment to ensure the unit you deploy suits. One negative about the SonicWALLS is the spec sheets for their numbers seem to be quite "optimistic". I used to divide by two to get an idea.

I haven't dealt with customer support.

Pretty good, they are more than happy to get into the details of any issues and assist in resolving them.

This became the de-facto firewall for us.

Initial out of the box setup is very simple as it provides wizards to get you up and running and you can build your firewall on top of those wizards.

When SonicWall was SonicWALL we dealt with a very good vendor team. Since going to Dell it just went downhill.

We have seen many cases where installing the SonicWall has helped with security threats or just for safe user browsing

Setup cost is the hardware, configuration and installation. Once its installed, you don't need to refer to it much.

Just map out the connection requirements.

Our customers use the solution for its email security features.

The solution provides good network security services.

The solution's price could be better.

I have been using the solution for a few months.

It is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution.

The solution's initial setup process is straightforward.

Our customers purchase the solution's license. It is expensive compared to Sophos.

I recommend the solution to others and rate it as a ten.