firewall-wizards Digest, Vol 21, Issue 2

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Today's Topics:

1. Re: Anyone have any informed opinions on the
watchguardproduct line? (Jim Seymour)

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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 12:20:47 -0500 (EST)
From: jseymour@linxnet.com (Jim Seymour)
Subject: Re: [fw-wiz] Anyone have any informed opinions on the
watchguardproduct line?
To: firewall-wizards@listserv.icsalabs.com
Message-ID: <20080101172047.5D4EEE17F@jimsun.linxnet.com>

"Paul D. Robertson" <paul@compuwar.net> wrote:
>
[snip]
>
> Personally, I'm finding the Windows-only GUI more and more of a problem.

I've never liked GUI-only administration. IME, some operations are
well-suited to the GUI, some better-suited to a command-line and
scripting.

> Suddenly, if I want to make rule changes, I've got to boot up Parallels
> and XP- normally that takes getting out an external drive and closing
> other apps I'm working on to free up enough memory on my MacBook.

I don't even routinely use an i[3456]86-based system. My home machine
is a Sparc Solaris box. At work I'm on a Sparc Solaris box. If they
weren't Sparc Solaris boxen, they'd be '86-based 'nix systems of one
flavour or another.

I have a work-provided '86-based laptop that dual-boots Ubuntu Linux
and WinXP. The only time I run WinXP is in testing-out new/upgrade
app deployments for the desktops, or trouble-shooting an issue for an
end-user. MS-Win is only used for *one* network administrative
purpose: A "toy" RAS we have that has only a MS-Win GUI admin tool.
(*I* never would have bought it--it came as the result of a business
acquisition and I haven't been able to justify the cost of replacing it
with more suitable network hardware.)

> Is
> there any chance we'll see either a cross-plaform, command-line or
> Web-based GUI any time soon?

That might put Watchguard back on my list of solutions for
consideration--when the time came.

I remove network infrastructure products from consideration immediately
if they have only a MS-Windows-based GUI administration facility. In
fact: I tend to avoid products that are limited to GUI-based
administration. I'm a belt-and-suspenders kind of a guy. I like to
retain the ability to log in via dialup and telnet to my network
hardware. If an Internet connection dies I can still get in and deal
with my networks. If a WAN circuit dies I can still access the remote
location and trouble-shoot the problem from both ends. Etc.
Efficiently. Without the overhead of IP-over-creaky-dialup.

Jim
--
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End of firewall-wizards Digest, Vol 21, Issue 2
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