Review on Sonicwall TZ 180 Totalsecure 25 VPN 🔒 Gateway Firewall: Enhanced Network Security Solution - (01-SSC-6085) by Kobby Cagle

For those of you who are only familiar with various "consumer class" routers and firewalls ie most from D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, Trendnet, Belkin, etc. - You must know that SonicWall products are in a whole different class. The TZ 180 can do a lot more and does it much better than anything I've seen from the manufacturers mentioned above. The TZ 180 is the latest model in the TZ series and has a faster processor and some other advantages over the TZ 170. These are the two main differences between the TZ 180 and all consumer products. First, this firewall has a processor and hardware fast enough to literally dig into every packet of data and scan it for viruses, spyware, etc., while still keeping up. even with a very fast (10+ Mbit/s) cable modem connection. If you want to run a VPN, fast hardware also does a great job of encryption and VPN tunneling without slowing you down. By comparison, most consumer firewalls are toys. Second, the TZ 180 runs SonicOS, the same software found in more expensive SonicWall products. SonicWall has had many years to improve SonicOS and that is at the core of what they do. In all honesty, this puts the product-specific buggy firmware that D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, etc. use to shame. Anyone who has bought one of their routers or firewalls knows that they stop supporting firmware updates shortly after each model is discontinued -- sometimes as little as a year. So you are often left out in the rain with unfinished software. These companies also sell almost everything related to the network. Therefore, it is unlikely that they specialize in network security. This shows that SonicWall specializes in Internet and data security and that alone gives it a major advantage. SonicOS is way more powerful than anything I've seen from the companies mentioned above. Do you want to prevent certain computers on your network from accessing certain types of websites? Just a few clicks. Want to prevent email attachments with specific extensions? Light. Want to assign static IP addresses via DHCP based on MAC addresses? No problem. Would you like to scan every packet of incoming and outgoing data for all types of malware? Did. The same goes for limiting bandwidth for specific users, keeping very detailed logs, limiting concurrent connections, monitoring the active connection, having detailed firewall and routing rules in place, etc. The list goes on and on. SonicOS and TZ 180 have so much depth that it's difficult to cover everything in a short review. Even so, the setup isn't difficult with the wizards - easier, in fact, than most consumer products I've set up. There are nice touches like automatically reconnecting your PC and browser even if the entire network is changed from 192.168.xx to 10.xxx - something that has disabled half a dozen other routers/firewalls I've set up. The web interface is also significantly faster than most. The hardware is well made and hardly heats up despite the higher computing power. So the TZ 180 doesn't add to your electricity bill like other business-class security devices. Anyone who has worked a lot with desktop antivirus and antispyware software knows that these applications usually slow down your PC and cause various other problems. Firewall scanning for viruses, email and spyware saves you the trouble of running one of these invasive programs on your PC. This is a big thing! After a few weeks of use, my TZ 180 is absolutely stable. It doesn't require a reboot to set it up again (like many consumer models). You can set up almost anything in no time. It's nice that SonicWall VPN clients are licensed at the firewall for concurrent use. Some companies force you to buy clients with serial numbers for each remote PC. With SonicWall, clients are free and you can have as many clients as you like, but the number of simultaneous connections is limited to what you paid for. There are few things to complain about. You must first purchase subscriptions from SonicWall if you want all security features to continue working. It's not just about updating virus files. At the end of the subscription period, additional features will be completely disabled. The cost of around $10-$12 per month is worth it in my opinion given all the attacks and malware going on these days. It's not much different than having to buy annual plans for desktop security software (and probably cheaper if you have a lot of computers). In addition, as with most other business-class products, a fixed number of users is supported. The TZ 180 is available in 10 and 25 user versions. You can also later purchase more users for the 10-user model if you wish. At least the user restriction is enforced by the DHCP server - it only assigns my IPs you paid for. And finally, the default configuration is optimized for business rather than personal use. For example, by default the firewall is not in "Stealth" mode, so it responds (but still blocks) to requests from the public Internet. But it's just a mouse click to make it invisible. All in all, it's such a step up over consumer grade products that it feels like a bargain! It also comes in a wireless version.