RE: ISA Server or Firewall Appliance?

From: Nick Wells (nick_at_clandestineresearch.com)
Date: 11/17/05

  • Next message: Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers: "Re: What server hardening are you doing these days?"
    Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 23:33:00 -0500
    
    

    http://www.networkcomputing.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15000512

    Is the article I mentioned, you'll notice that it talks about ISA 2000, not
    2004. This is the article I remember, I sometimes get numbers mixed up
    though.

    This probably invalidates what I said earlier, but such is life when version
    numbers change. I believe these guys could be convinced to test 2004 if the
    demand was high enough, but I somehow doubt that'll happen.

    I do think ISA 2004 can stand up just as well as ISA 2000.

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Abe Getchell [mailto:mailing.list.spooler@gmail.com]
    Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 17:57
    To: Nick Wells
    Cc: focus-ms@securityfocus.com
    Subject: Re: ISA Server or Firewall Appliance?

    > 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/
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    

  • Next message: Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers: "Re: What server hardening are you doing these days?"

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