Re: ISA Server or Firewall Appliance?

From: Abe Getchell (mailing.list.spooler_at_gmail.com)
Date: 11/16/05

  • Next message: Thomas W Shinder: "RE: ISA Server or Firewall Appliance?" 
    Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 17:56:38 -0500
To: Nick Wells <nick@clandestineresearch.com>

    > I've been using ISA 2004 on a box that's been facing the internet since it's
    > was released as a public beta. I've run other firewall "appliances" as well
    > as both m0n0wall and pfSense (pfSense is a variant of m0n0wall optimized for
    > use on standard PC hardware) and I've really found it to have the best
    > featureset. I also read an article on Network Computing or Windows Magazine
    > that put ISA2004 as one of the fastest firewalls, almost achieving "full"
    > 1000Base-TX speeds.

    Do you have a link to an online version of this article? I'd like to see
    their testing criteria. It's not that I don't believe you... well, yeah,
    it is that I don't believe you. You're just some guy on the Internet,
    after all.

    > I think ISA's real redemption comes from the hardware that it runs on,
    > standard (sometimes cheap) PC components. If you get a power surge on an
    > Ethernet card (because only in the engineer's dreamworld does the Ethernet
    > cable get it's on surge arrestor) and blow the card, there's a $20
    > replacement at the local computer store. On the other hand, you have the
    > sleek, integrated units that you have to throw away or RMA if something gets
    > zapped, and you won't be able to troubleshoot it to the same degree you'd be
    > able to troubleshoot an ISA server.

    Personally, I see this as a negative. That cheap $20 Ethernet card you
    mention being easy to replace is also more likely to go down do to a
    failure than something built with enterprise class components... not
    just with whatever parts came off the boat from <insert Southeast Asian
    country here> last week. The fact that ISA can run on commodity hardware
    means that it is more prone to a hardware failure, and that isn't
    acceptable in a high-availability environment... and who's business
    isn't these days?

    Abe 

    -- 
Abe Getchell
abegetchell@gmail.com
http://abegetchell.com/
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  • Next message: Thomas W Shinder: "RE: ISA Server or Firewall Appliance?"

    Relevant Pages

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