Quwery about firewall software

[Karl Auer]

On Sun, 2015-11-15 at 14:42 -0700, compdoc wrote:
> Some people have been using the internet long enough to know something about
> consumer gear. 

Indeed. I've been doing it since 1992, including thirteen years in
network management, supporting thousands of users of consumer gear.

Yes, lots of consumer gear dies. So do general purpose computers. It is
cheaper, faster, and simpler to replace consumer gear. So use it when
you can.

In an enterprise situation, where you have complex requirements and
staff to set things up and maintain them, roll-you-own solutions mate be
appropriate. Even then, however, an appliance is generally a much better
idea. There's a reason Cisco, Juniper et al have a market.

For the home user or small business owner - even the skilled home user
or business owner - an appliance is almost certainly the right way to
go.

> Sure, there are exceptions and MikroTik has been around a long time, and
> they produce great gear and code. I wouldn't call them 'consumer' grade. 

No - they are better. But the COST the same as consumer grade stuff.
They are even at the low end of that cost range.

> They have a great set of features. But no antivirus, or Intrusion
> detection/prevention, or country block functions.

As I believe I said, if there are pfSense features you want, use
pfSense.

> MikroTik does provide great support, which is a valuable thing to some. 

Really? In my experience their support absolutely sucks. Glad yours
differs.

As I said, perhaps we should agree to disagree,

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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