I’ve had a bit of extra time on my hands lately, so I’m going to write some reviews on the software that I’ve used and have an opinion on. The world today is an unsafe place and it doesn’t stop on the Internet. Good fences make good neighbors and good Firewalls make a good Internet experience.
When I’m looking for good software I start with what’s popular. I figure that a bunch of people can’t all be wrong, plus the more users the more resources for help. I also look at who’s second in the market, you know what they say, “were number two, so we try harder”. Then for me I have to factor in the cost, if I’m trying it out I don’t want to pay for it if I can help it. I few years ago I was looking for a firewall vendor that I could grow old with form a relation ship with, someone I could trust and maybe more importantly someone I could afford.
I found Astaro. Astaro first got my attention because they run on Red Hat Linux, an OS I’m familiar with and trust. They also offered a firewall appliance or just the software. My thinking was, the software is Linux and can run on must any hardware. That’s fantastic if I have a failure in the future I can use old PC’s for the hardware. The clincher for me, they offer a free Admin, home use license, good for ten years. There are limits to the Home License, like only 10 users. But that was perfect for me to test in a lab environment.
I started with Astaro v4, at the time it was very good for me, now there on version 7 with many important updates. Some of the features, network security, web security, mail security, VoIP security, site to site VPN, remote access, and great logging and reporting tools.
Astaro not only has software but they have firewall appliances in many sizes. For the large enterprise with multiple firewalls, they have a Command Center with live real time monitoring of all the devices.
Visit their web page for a live demo.
