Today, Netgear released the ProSafe Quad WAN Gigabit SSL VPN Firewall (SRX5308), a business firewall appliance that, at $500, is priced for the small- to medium-sized business IT budget.
The SRX5308’s throughput is probably its most compelling feature; with an advertised speed of over 1Gbps and support for two different modes of load-balancing on its 4 WAN ports, Netgear wants to position itself as a speedy-not-spendy alternative to high-end enterprise firewalls.
In addition to the 4 WAN ports, the SRX5308 also has 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports for high-speed LAN access, one of which can be set aside as a hardware DMZ port if you have outward-facing servers.
Of course, saving a few bucks on a business firewall doesn’t mean much if you have to spend a few weeks learning how to set the thing up. Fortunately, most of the configuration can be done via ProSafe Control Center GUI or Install Assistant wizard, and a specialized IPSec VPN wizard is included to help with VPN setup. Also, it does support a command-line interface for the CLI pros, as well as remote configuration via Netgear software (sold separately).
The SRX5308 also pairs with Netgear’s ProSecure STM appliances to provide antivirus, anti-spam, URL filtering, and email security at your gateway, streamlining your network security needs.
Don’t forget to read up on more coverage of Netgear’s other SMB-oriented products, like the ProSecure UTM and ProSafe Wireless Management lines.