WatchGuard Firebox Benefits

Luca Toni - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Security and Privacy at AD2000 Srl

We sell security and management services for our clients' structures, which allows us to provide visibility into events and the flow of actions taken by both the users and our company. We are pleased to have this tool within the Firebox toolset, as it enables us to show customers what is happening during an incident, as well as to continually monitor the structure.

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GT
Director of Information Technology at a recreational facilities/services company with 201-500 employees

The solution simplifies traffic management. It has features that let me automatically reboot the wireless access points on a weekly basis. For us, that has been really beneficial. Prior to that we had a range of different wireless access points and there was no way to have them all reboot. So people would just have bad experiences using them and we'd have to go in manually and reboot them. Once we started using the WatchGuard wireless access points, we just scheduled them to reboot automatically. 

Both the throughput and the fact that they support the two different radio frequencies have been great for us. It has paid for itself because we don't have to deal with them anymore. They're a set-it-and-forget-it type of deal.

The solution has saved me time, but it would be hard to come up with a specific amount of time. The bottom line is that I just don't have to deal with it.

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SR
President and Owner at Peak Communication Systems, Inc.

Firebox's reporting and management features have been very helpful to us. Unfortunately, we don't always have them turned on at the right time. That's something we have to be aware of. However, once they're turned on, they seem to do really well in identifying things across the board for us. We can usually hunt down problems very quickly and go from there.

The solution provides our business with layered security.

We do most of our services now as Voice over IP services. We do not do computer services. We have been able to slowly pair down exactly what we need to program within Firebox to give us the best quality of service for our customers. 

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Buyer's Guide
WatchGuard Firebox
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about WatchGuard Firebox. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IP
Country Head at LS Systems Philippines

The WatchGuard Firebox is excellent for ensuring the security of remote workers, making it ideal for organizations with distributed teams or remote workforce setups.

It manages network traffic, serving as a fundamental component of the firewall.

WatchGuard excels in reporting and monitoring capabilities, offering comprehensive options for filtering and querying data. Their centralized console simplifies management for organizations with multiple Fireboxes. Instead of logging into each firewall individually, administrators can access and monitor their entire firewall infrastructure from a single IP address.

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it_user976371 - PeerSpot reviewer
Operations Manager at DLL Technologies

WatchGuard Web GUI is one of the best consoles I have worked with. It makes each step very simple, while you can get granular too. It made the installation process extremely easy and simple for each step to program into the Firebox. The Firebox works well with other brands and also has the capabilities to use an SFP module to use fiber connections instead of Ethernet. We were able to remove over seven devices and replace them with two devices: Firebox M470 and Netgear M4300-96X. What a cost saving and less equipment to troubleshoot. 

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JG
IT Manager at WTS Media (Wholesale Tape & Supply)

The biggest way that it has advanced us is that when we started adding additional locations, it became surprisingly easy to do that, to create branch-office VPNs. When I was first tasked with that, I was overwhelmed with it. I thought, "This is going to be really difficult." But it was really simple. I've never actually done this, but they have the ability to program a box and ship it out there. It'll identify it by its number and just do the setup automatically. I've never been brave enough to just let it go automatically, but when I do get it in my office and set it up for the branch office, it's just a matter of just plugging in the right numbers. It works and it's very stable. That enables us to do some incredible things.

WatchGuard has been mostly cost-effective compared to other firewall systems that are out there, given the power that it has and the ease. I complain about the usability, but things such as how to set them up and how to set up the routing up are, at least, intuitive. So that's been invaluable. It's one of the reasons why I haven't moved away from them or been tempted to move away from them. These setups are very complicated and WatchGuard makes it very easy.

It does simplify my job in the sense that it's easy to set up a VPN. Setting up a branch-office VPN is rather simple, but when I have remote users, such as myself or remote salespeople who are operating out of their homes, I can use whatever solutions are out there; the software that makes it easy for them to connect. That avoids my having to go out and buy really expensive solutions like TeamViewer or LogMeIn. They are always clunky, always hard to navigate around in. With WatchGuard, remote users can pop in straight through the VPN and then RDP into their remote desktops. And everything works very smoothly and rather quickly. Anytime you VPN it's not super-fast, but it has been rather efficient and is a huge advantage. It makes my job a lot easier because I don't have to try to troubleshoot somebody else's TeamViewer account.

WatchGuard has saved me time versus having to manually help people with their remote connections. It saves me about ten to 15 hours a month of work, not having to do all that.

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Ronald Lewis - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Invest Barbados

The WatchGuard Fire Box has greatly improved the functioning of our organization, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, the use of VPNs was primarily limited to IT support. However, with the rollout of the WatchGuard Fire Box, all of our staff members in Barbados, Toronto, and New York were able to seamlessly transition to working from home. The WatchGuard Fire Box also provides a unified track for virus scanning, which enhances the security of our connections. Additionally, we have moved our email off-island, which has made the SPA filtering from WatchGuard redundant. Overall, the WatchGuard Fire Box has played a critical role in enabling our organization to adapt to the challenges posed by the pandemic and work efficiently from home.

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RA
Network Administrator at PT Lautan Luas Tbk

The solution provided us with site connections and internet policies.

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JB
IT Manager at a engineering company with 11-50 employees

With WatchGuard, I've got a lot of WebBlocker rules set up which help quite a bit, blocking a lot of suspicious and parked domains. Between WebBlocker, the Botnet Detection, the website reputation filters going, and IPS - which is one that is essential, but nobody really talks about a whole lot; between all those things working together, and even the antivirus, I feel our network is pretty clean. And if there is some suspicious activity, I think I have a better chance of being alerted to it. I've even been able to set up Application Control rules, so that something like Windows Update doesn't deplete too much bandwidth. There are whole bandwidth controls you can set up which aren't necessarily security-related, but they can help make sure that one particular function doesn't take up so much bandwidth that the users are affected. WatchGuard has layered security, but I also have other layers beyond that.

I wouldn't necessarily say it has simplified my job but I am very happy to have it. I'm very glad we went with WatchGuard. I was impressed with WatchGuard for a lot of other reasons like their education and training videos. They do a lot of little security announcements about what's going on with other companies in the industry, so that part has made my job easier. I wouldn't say it's made my job more difficult either. It has definitely made me feel more comfortable about the security here, but I wouldn't say it simplified things. We had a very simple firewall which was almost a small-business router. It had a little firewall screen with four settings on it that really didn't do a whole lot. So, I can't say WatchGuard simplified things for me. It's just we're much more secure and it hasn't overly complicated things.

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JW
IT Manager at Horizon Forest Products LP

The WatchGuard devices allow us to self-manage our network and our branch office VPNs. As a result, we've saved ourselves a lot of money, without compromising our security. It provides a much more economical and effective solution. We used to have an MPLS network which was a cloud-based firewall system and it cost us a small fortune every month. But when we implemented all these firewalls and got it all configured, up and running, we literally saved ourselves $10,000 a month.

It makes managing the network a lot easier. It takes care of our network for us.

Once it was set up and running, it began to save us time. It works, and we spend very little time managing it. We have very few issues with it. We might spend an hour a month managing it, if that.

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FC
IT Director at Wise Ally Holdings Limited

Firebox provides our business with layered security. Before implementing the firewall, we didn't have any control over application access. Now, by using the Firebox, we can control each staff member and department and what kind of application they're able to access on the internet, especially with the popularity of cloud SaaS systems. It has really reduced the degree of risk in accessing those unauthorized, and potentially risky, destinations. WatchGuard provides a pre-built database that can protect against gambling domains, for example. But the accuracy of that database still needs to be improved because, in many cases, the categorization of the website is not exact.

It has also helped with productivity. It reduces the time our networking staff spends implementing things. It has saved about 20 percent of our time. We're also doing more control than before, so we have made some effort to configure the policies, which was something we'd never done before. Previously, we didn't have any control, so we didn't have to spend time configuring or troubleshooting application control policies.

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HA
IT Manager at Yamazen Inc

We were using Websense before, for website filtering, and we had to configure the device to block and monitor. Then we would go to Cisco to configure the firewall ports and then we used antivirus software to protect that the gateway from viruses. So we were using three or four different security products. WatchGuard integrated into everything in one place, so it's much easier to configure.

It has simplified my job. Before WatchGuard, we needed one person inside and two people outside to set up our network. Now I can do it by myself.

The solution has saved us 30 minutes to an hour every day. In terms of productivity, before WatchGuard we had given up checking the logs because there was so much information. But now, with its graphical interface, it's much easier to get the information that I need: the violations and sever errors are easier to pull out.

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ZR
Lead IT Systems Engineer/Solutions Architect at Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council

How WatchGuard Firebox improved my organization is that it provided a deeper level of traffic management. It allowed the company to more effectively manage the network traffic, which led to higher efficiencies across the network. Though FortiGate does a much better job of managing traffic, WatchGuard Firebox does it more efficiently.

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SM
Global Head ICT (CITP & MIE) at The Aga Khan Academies

In terms of users within the campus, the policy-based usage helps us where we allow something during the daytime, something after school hours, and something during the night. In terms of outside the campus, it helps us in monitoring our mail services. All our deployments are protected from external users.

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HC
Enterprise Architect at a wellness & fitness company with 10,001+ employees

I don't really worry about individual workstation security as much, anymore. I can depend upon the firewall to control incoming viruses, incoming attacks, bad port usage.

It simplifies my job because I don't have to worry about it on a day-to-day basis, the way I otherwise would. I'm not checking and monitoring each workstation on a minute-by-minute basis. I can check what's going on with the firewall and see how it's being used and where, and if there are any things coming through the logs.

I've built my process around the WatchGuard. I can't say it has saved me time because it's become the defacto process. I don't have anything against which to compare it.

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GH
I.T. Manager at a construction company with 201-500 employees

Like any other firewall, if it goes down, it's going to cause problems but these don't go down.

If I had to spend half my day fighting the stuff that it's keeping out, in that sense, it's increasing productivity. But if I was having to do that, I would find something else.

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Arkadiusz Charuba - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Specialist/Admin at a legal firm with 11-50 employees

The solution has benefitted us by offering a secure connection. We don't spend as much time analyzing when traffic goes somewhere. We have clearance capabilities. We see what happens in our network.

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GH
Network Administrator at a retailer

One of the main ways it has helped is that we use site-to-site VPN a lot, as well as remote access ACLs and client-to-VPN. Prior to WatchGuard, for example, we used to use Remote Desktop, which is not very secure, or RD Web, which is also not very secure. We installed the client VPN on everyone's remote computer and they can access our local area network. That is much better than using the other solutions. It's an improvement for the user and it's less risky for us. It gives us peace of mind that we're using the proper channels to access our network.

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JG
Network Administrator at Peace Bridge

We allow more outside vendors to be able to come in, then I could protect them. This is a way that I could leverage the solution which has improved business. It has made vendors coming from the outside able to get to resources that we can provide them without allowing them onto our production network.

We have the logging working along with the System Manager overview. This all seems very good to use and straightforward. It is where I look when I start since it gives me that sort of a single pane of glass for both firewalls.

It gives me Layer 3 and Layer 4 security. I don't know if it gives me the full Layer 7 security, which some other firewalls do. It might in new revisions of it. However, for what I need, it meets the sweet spot.

Having the VPN access helps productivity in the sense that people can get to resources anywhere.

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JR
Woodworker at Creative Woodworking NW

It protects me against malicious websites, as well as malicious downloads, as a perimeter anti-virus. I've also seen it blocking a lot of pings and different probes. 

A file wasn't opening on one of our mobile devices, so the owner said, "Hey, open it on your computer," and WatchGuard stopped it. I didn't have to try to remove a virus from my accountant's computer because WatchGuard stopped it. 

It has also saved me time by not having to rebuild because of damage to the network due to nefarious situations. Since I installed WatchGuard, it has probably saved me 20 hours a year thanks to increased uptime as well as not having any issues with viruses on computers. It's protecting my network and I don't have to deal with downtime.

It has increased productivity in security management.

I've also had very good uptake time. I would have to reboot my previous routers once a month or so or try to figure out what was wrong with them. With WatchGuard I've had zero problems. If I ever have an issue with connecting to the internet, it's always due to my internet provider.

As the person who manages IT for the business, it saves me thousands of dollars.

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RM
Sr. Systems Administrator at a individual & family service with 201-500 employees

It is one of the layers of our security and it definitely does protect us from many attack vectors. Between the antivirus scanning, the blocking, and DNSWatch, it is protecting us from a number of attack vectors. It is also provides useful diagnostic tools for identifying and troubleshooting issues. A recent example was when a few LOB network devices were having issues which was affecting operations. ZazaThe ability to search the realtime and historical logs helped me to navigate, zone in, and identify the ultimate issue. It ended up not being the firewall, but fast access to the logs helped me determine and prove that to be the case.

Because of the way it's organized and the user-friendliness of the device, it does make my job managing the firewall profiles and security a lot easier. There's nothing you have to do through the command line. Being able to definitively know what the configuration is, visually, being able to edit it offline without affecting production have all been big time-savers for me. When I had to do two firewalls which had similar configurations it saved me at least 20 hours of setup work. Templates allowed me to create and define a bunch of objects once and use them in both places.

Overall, per month, Firebox will save me four to five hours, depending on if there's something I have to investigate.

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KC
Manager IT at a hospitality company with 501-1,000 employees

The solution provides our business with layered security. An example would be the intrusion protection on anything that is internet-facing. We host our own mail server and I regularly see that WatchGuard has swatted away attempts to get in from bad actors. I have to have that open because people have to connect on their cell phones. Obviously they have to send and receive mail. So I sleep a lot better knowing that something is watching the few things that I do need to present to the internet. I feel much better having something protecting and monitoring all traffic that passes through.

We have an interesting environment. There is actually a completely separate computer domain, an entirely separate network that belongs to a regulatory body. We work at a casino and our gaming commission has to be able to get into some of our systems and monitor some of our activities. Obviously we don't want them to just plug directly into our network, so we have created a DMZ where they can come into our network via the WatchGuard. That way, I get to see all of their activity as well and monitor what they can get to. We give them access to what they need and nothing more.

The solution also simplifies aspects of my job by having automated reports generated weekly, for review. I like the fact that they get delivered and I get to see the actual metrics of what the box is doing. The reporting features reassure me that it is working.

In terms of saving time, I have used Cisco firewalls in the past and I would say that it is easier to construct policies with WatchGuard than it is in Cisco, particularly Cisco's ASDM (Adaptive Security Device Manager). It probably takes about half the time with WatchGuard. Usually we're just modifying something, adding or removing somebody from a web blocker category. It's very easy to maintain.

As a casino, we have one site and that's it. There are no mobile workers. We usually don't have any remote access and we don't need collaboration tools because we all work in the same building. But now that we're trying to get some people to not come in [due to the Corona virus situation] and we're running on a skeleton crew, we are able to maintain productivity by leveraging the native VPN clients and access provided by WatchGuard. We didn't have to buy anything. We had all the infrastructure ready to go and then I slapped a policy together last Tuesday and we've been using it ever since. It was very easy.

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AH
IT Manager at a performing arts with 51-200 employees

It gives us a higher sense of security. There is an easier workflow as well.

I estimate that 50 percent more users use the WatchGuard VPN than use the SonicWall VPN tunnels. Those users are able to work on documents out of the site or increase their workflow and do work while they're onsite instead of doing it later. It saves us a couple of hours per person per week.

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JJ
IT Specialist at Art Students League

It has made firewall configuration really simple. It doesn't take years of training or certificates to go in and manage it. That's a big deal. We set up our firewall, operating as a VPN. It's bringing several networks together and it made that process easy.

In terms of my job, it's taken so little of my attention. I have worked with Cisco firewalls and they were complex. WatchGuard is easily understood and managed. It's easy to watch traffic go through the network, to look for ports that are closed or open, and to see what's actually moving through the network and what's not. It has made it easy to understand network traffic.

The learning curve is very small in comparison to the Cisco firewall. Within two hours, I was managing WatchGuard, whereas with Cisco it might have taken a month to accomplish that same level of proficiency. As far as the control of traffic is concerned, I spend one or two hours a week on WatchGuard, as compared to about eight hours with the Cisco firewall. It has freed up my time to do other things.

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MS
Ingénieur - Traitement des eaux /Mécanique de procédé at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees

WatchGuard Firebox was able to help our organization during the pandemic as we were obligated to work from home. We were working remotely, so the VPN feature of WatchGuard Firebox allowed remote work.

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DE
Network Administrator at Niedersächsischer Turner-Bund e.V.

We have the ability to use it for connecting to our terminal services, then to the Fireboxes, so we can create user-based policies, which are very important at this time. We can control who has access to management servers and machines that are not for general use by users.

We use a normal packet server. We are also using a proxy service and IPS, so all features are possible with these devices. We have seen many attacks from specific IP addresses that were all blocked. Most times, these were IPS traffic port scans. All this traffic is normally blocked from our side.

The solution simplifies my business. Normally, for administration, we are using Watchguard System Manager on Windows since it's easy to create new policies. In a short amount of time, you can create new policies based on new requirements. For example, in the last few months, many requirements changed due to the coronavirus, adding the use of new services, like Office 365, and eLearning tools, like Zoom.

With Firebox, the monitoring is good. On the Dimension servers, I can see where the IP addresses send and receive a lot of the traffic so I can analyze it. I am also able to see where attacks are coming from. It's good to see visually what policies are most in use and which traffic was blocked. Its easy to visualize policies. The dimension server shows which policy is used and the data flow through the firebox.

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JM
IT Director at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees

It helps keep unwanted traffic from coming in, or traffic from going out that we don't want to see out there. If we have unwanted traffic coming in, traffic that we don't need as a facility, then we would be opening ourselves up to security problems and vulnerabilities. It helps because malicious attacks coming in are things I don't have to worry about. So far the WatchGuard has done a good job at blocking all that.

In terms of simplifying my job, the simplest device is one that you can put in place and not have to worry about it. That's the WatchGuard. It's there, it's working. I don't have problems with it so it's "out of sight, out of mind."

It also saves me time, by doing what it's supposed to do. I don't have to mitigate problems that it allowed through. I couldn't tell you how much time it has saved me. It really would depend on what kind of problems I might experience.

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RP
IT Manager at INSULATION DISTRIBUTORS, INC

It saves us a lot of money over MPLS connections, about $125,000 per year.

WatchGuard provides us with one of our layers of security. The HTTPS proxy is where a lot of things get trapped.

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WN
IT Officer at a manufacturing company with 1-10 employees

WatchGuard Firebox has improved our organization one hundred percent from before we started using it.

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EK
ICT Manager at a maritime company with 11-50 employees

WatchGuard Firebox improved our organization by acting as a firewall, with all the specific components of one. If you have an antiviral solution, you can see how many were blocked; from where they were blocked; what the statistics are on the areas that the attacks came from; and if there are attempts, or if they do get through the firewall, where they came from and where they went. You know exactly what to look for, to see if there is any kind of penetration inside your system, or if anything has been compromised, and you can take any measurements against these threats. 

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RM
Owner / CEO at Midwest Technology Specialists LLC.

I had a client that was saturated with RDP, remote desktop attempts, while using a standard low, consumer-grade firewall. Putting in WatchGuard allowed me to drop a lot of that traffic and reduce a lot of load on their otherwise poorly performing Internet connection.

Reporting PCI and HIPAA compliance reporting, firmware updates, cloud-based firmware updates all make for visibility within the client site much easier. I can provide comprehensive reporting on user activity and user behavior which goes along with user productivity. It has excellent mobile SSL VPN capabilities that have allowed for very rapid deployment of remote workers during our current situation.

As a whole, it has a very low requirement for ongoing interaction. It's very self-sufficient. If properly patched, it has very high reliability. The total cost of ownership once deployed is very low.

It absolutely saves us time. All firewalls can be deployed with a very basic configuration in a reasonable amount of time. The uniform way in which WatchGuard can be managed allows for the deployment of much more comprehensive configurations more quickly. When it comes to troubleshooting and identifying any kind of communication issue, they use a hierarchal policy layout. It allows you to manipulate the order of precedence, simplifying troubleshooting by tenfold. Compared to a competitor, I spend less than 10% of the amount of time on WatchGuard that a similar task would take on a Meraki, a FortiGate, or a SonicWall.

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JR
Network Administrator at Advanced Software Designs

The only thing that we care about is that we're kept safe from any attacks. That is important. The VPN is very secure and that's of huge importance because we have remote users who depend on it to do their jobs. So that's crucial.

The improvement it's provided is to our security. We don't have issues with rogue access, with people coming in here, or having access to our, data who shouldn't. That is huge, of course.

The solution simplifies my job. I don't even have to think about it. Everything is set and I leave it alone. And it just does its job. I would estimate it saves me at least 20 hours a month because I don't have to worry about things. It's set and it just runs.

WatchGuard has increased productivity because our VPN is stable. It's up. It doesn't go down. We used to have an issue with remote connectivity but that's no longer a problem. Having a VPN is very big for us.

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MA
Technical & Pre-Sales Manager at GateLock

The Firebox is developing most of my client's infrastructures, starting from internet access and its amazing protocol-oriented proxy policies. It also has a deep understanding of the packets, meanwhile the most powerful HTTPS inspection features.

It is supported by the VPN, either Branch office or mobile users.

In addition to its impressive extraordinary DNS security, it has an access portal, which is a feature for publishing web applications, cloud applications, or even publishing internal RDP and SSH. 

https://www.watchguard.com/wgrd-resource-center/2019-nss-labs-ngfw-group-test

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GT
Prepress/Systems Manager at a printing company with 51-200 employees

WatchGuard Firebox made it so that I can connect to my remote offices without having to set up every computer to connect to our headquarters. Now, the remote offices can all just login to their system and work as if they are here at our headquarters.

The throughput and performance are excellent. I have never had a problem with them.

The solution provides our business with layered security. It gives us the ability to prevent traffic from coming in on certain ports and the ability to navigate certain traffic to different locations, not letting it just come into my system and do whatever it wants to do.

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JL
Information Technology Specialist at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees

One of the things that it has done is we have been able to start cutting down on extraneous web traffic. We make sure that our bandwidth is being used for business functions rather than for downloading or streaming media files.

It very much simplifies my job. Before we got the WatchGuard solution, I was doing everything on a per machine basis. All of the security, firewall, and port security had to be done on the front-end before anything could go out. This could take hours to days depending on the system being used, and then it would have to be in the IT department getting provisioned. Now, the provisioning goes more toward what types of software are needed. We have it completely unified across locations with a security standard through the WatchGuard systems due to the roles that we've set up for the organization. We just set the same roles in place, then we are able to ensure that everything is uniform across all locations.

Productivity, especially within the IT department, has increased due to the time that we used to spend on each machine can now be spent on the network level. This allows us to turn our attention to other tasks, such as creating in-house systems, so we can roll out changes faster and be more responsive to the needs of our business.

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MS
I.T. Co-ordinator at National Lotteries Control Board

The main benefit for us is the ability to manage the VLANs. It allows us to monitor types of traffic and to actually review and determine what traffic we want to allow and deny. It also allows us to modify the categories of restrictions that need to be applied.

It has also simplified some of the processes that we have. For example, we were having some issues in identifying where most of our bandwidth was being used up, which devices and which users, and what they were using the bandwidth to do. Were they watching videos or were they looking at some other bandwidth-intensive site or application? We have been able to determine user behavior on the network.

We are quite happy with the Firebox. It really helps us with the ease of managing firewalls at other locations. It has really helped us save time by not having to go to other locations. We have devices at two smaller offices, where we don't have IT staff. It has allowed us to remotely manage and update the firewalls at those locations. It's saving us at least four hours a week.

I don't think it has helped improve productivity in terms of efficiency, but it has enabled us to improve the security of the network. We don't have to worry as much about where the users are going. And if a user was blocked, it will let us know why they were blocked, what category of trip was being blocked, or what policy it was blocked under. Even if our staff is going to a legitimate site, but the site is under a wrong category, it allows us to put that site on our exemption list to allow it.

It has also really helped us with our management and to monitor internet usage. Our department is just three people and it has made it very easy for us to manage.

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AS
Network Administrator at Abona Deutschland GmbH

I wouldn't say that Firebox has improved the way our organization functions, but rather that it protects our organization.

The solution identifies attacks on our services and, as a result, directs our attention precisely to the cause of the problem. As we are not actively watching the traffic ourselves and we completely rely on Firebox to alert us instead, the solution saves us about 30 hours per week.

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TS
Computer Programmer at Crestwood Inc

We do have some technicians and some design center salespeople who call in. This is best usage that we get out of the solution.

We don't host our website internally anymore. We used to host our website and it did help with that, getting everything set up. We have just recently removed that and gone to a third-party. But, that was something which was very useful, setting up our internal website and NATting IPs.

The solution has increased productivity with our outside salespeople being able to connect into their computers and use those remotely.

We are able to limit where users can go, what they can do, and what they can access, so they are not wasting time doing things that they shouldn't be doing. It does help to save time, e.g., limiting Facebook. 

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AR
Owner at Thermioninc.com

It roadblocks most everything, as far as viruses and stuff like that, from getting into my network and does a good job of that.

If there is any conflict, the reporting feature will kick out all types of information, which is great.

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MD
COO/CTO at a pharma/biotech company with 11-50 employees

I discovered the WatchGuard T-70 could still keep the data near the 1 gigahertz data speed, without compromise on the security perimeters being active simultaneously.  I got that information through my subscription with IT Central Station.  The WatchGuard T70 does not come with WiFi capabilities, offering flexibility for what WiFi devices you prefer.

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RL
Technical Consultant at Rainbow Security

I can say that it has been defending our organization. There are from ten to one hundred attacks per day to our IT forum and our email server.

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DV
Manager

We can implement it very easily. There are some standards that we can explain to our colleagues. It is easy to maintain the same type of installation at various customer locations. It is easy to pass on the information to our team about how to implement it in the same way.

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JS
Network Admin at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
  • It allows us to access the outside world.
  • It keeps us safe from external threats coming in.
  • It allows us to have remote access.
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GS
Network Engineer at Vanderburgh Police Department

We used to have Cisco and Cisco was pretty cumbersome. I actually still use Cisco, but I like WatchGuard for the features it has.

It provides us with Layer 2 and Layer 3 security.

If it didn't work we wouldn't be able to get to the internet and that would be a terrible thing.

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GP
System Analyst at a transportation company

It gives our business layered security. Attack vectors it secures for us include denial of service attacks, people spoofing our network, as well as preventing malware from getting in — the typical attack vectors. We're satisfied with it overall.

Also, there was a phishing scheme going around a while back. WatchGuard caught it and we were able to mitigate it. That was very good. It keeps us from not having to worry about our network being under attack. It keeps us secure.

It saves us on the order of three hours a month. The solution just works.

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CW
Engineer/Technician/Owner at Paramount technologies

This solution has provided ease and speed of rules. It has unparalleled troubleshooting with excellent reporting.

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PE
CFO at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
  • Efficient to setup, run, and maintain. Saving man hours and cost in the process.
  • The client is easy to use and stable.
  • Simple to backup settings.  
  • Simple to move settings between WatchGuard boxes.
  • The GUI is easy and intuitive.
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Surjith Cs - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr.System Administrator at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

WatchGuard has improved our security.

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JP
Principal at a consumer goods company with 1-10 employees

The way it saves me time is that there is no maintenance. Once we set it up, there's nothing else for us to do on a regular basis. It might be saving me about an hour a month.

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SJ
VP IT at a real estate/law firm with 51-200 employees

It protects us from viruses and intrusions.

It has also saved me time, about an hour per month.

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SS
Technical Support at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees

The reports are detailed. Rather than showing the IP address for a query, such as "who is the most active internet user", it will show their name and the specific activities that he or she is browsing on the internet.

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CM
Chief Technology Officer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

I’m a reseller. The solution is among the top-three solutions in our portfolio.

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Buyer's Guide
WatchGuard Firebox
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about WatchGuard Firebox. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.