I'm on the lookout for a new router. I have now a Sonicwall TZ170W and would like to know what else I can get that will do certain stuff. I will possibly be selling the Sonicwall, but not sure. I may decide to use it with the new one.

If anyone can help consult with me and find a device for me, if I buy it and end up keeping it then I would want to return the favor via pay pall or something. I just would be so gratefull I'd want to return the favor.

The reason I would like to look at something else is because every once in a while I just do that. I have some issues with Sonicwall and that is another reason. Some of the features are not working correctly and it seems Sonicwall doesn't care because they have refused to make it work better in the problem area. Also the TZ170W is sloooooooooow when using any of the security on it. I've got an 8mb/768 connection and when turning on even one security service such as the content filter, virus protection, IPS etc it looses half my speed so I'm running half as fast or even slower. This is a reason I want to check out something new.

I'm not interested in any of the soho dlink/linksys etc routers found at comp usa etc because I know none of them can do anything I'd like. Far as I know nothing like that can. They're all way to plain and cheap a$#.

I would like these features and they are not in any paticular order. I can not give a price range or anything because I don't have one right now.

1: It needs to have a good uptime of weeks and months, not days etc. It needs to tell you this in the UI too.

2: It needs to support my internet connection speed even with the security features turned on etc.

3: Bandwidth logging and monitoring. This will tell you how much in mb and gb etc total output and incomming data amounts and it should show what port/protocol such as http port 80, port 119 nntp and so forth. So like a total of 46gb incomming and port 80 used say 20gb, email ports use say 4mb or whatever and port 119 used say 30gb or whatever.

4: Content filtering which will allow you to select categories and keywords/domain urls to block and allow etc. This would be a subscription service probably since it allows you to select from different categories like porn, violence etc.

5: p2p blocking which would also be with the above content filtering I suppose. So you turn on p2p blocking it would block all the p2p stuff so no one could use them.

6: The ability to set up user accounts so a user has to log in to use the internet. User limits as well such as the user is allowed only so much data use per day week or month, doesn't have to be that specific tho. Once that user got to that limit their throughput is throttled or they are denied internet access. time lmits too. This whole #6 feature would be nice, but is not necessary.

7: Built in gateway anti virus protection.

8: Built in IPS and spyware/spam protection. IPS for sure at the least though, the others not necessary, but wishfull.

9: Email you the logs which will show all the attack attempts etc plus bandwidth use and so forth.

10: Wireless would be nice, but not 100% necessary. I can get a seperate WAP for that if needed.

11: 4 port 10/100 switch.

12: Easy to use interface and easy to set up rules etc in the UI. One thing I will want to do is block access to certain internet ip ranges so people on my network could not connect to that ip range online.

13: 24/7 tech support and hopefully they would be good and stand by their products for fixing things and making things better.

14: Regarding bandwidth monitoring/logging that would have to be accurate and also monitoring where people go would need to be accurate too. So if you go to www.microsoft.com 1 time instead of telling you that there's been 40 hits it would say 1 hit. My sonicwall tells you the top 25 web sites, but is not accurate at all. They count images and links or whatever else. If I go to microsoft.com 5 times it might say I've been there 50 times. For bandwidth monitoring and logging it would have to be accurate as well. My sonicwall is highly inaccurate. I'd download from usenet nntp say 40gb of data yet the Sonicwall says I've done much less etc. For any thing the sonicwall is not accurate.

15: SNMP would be nice.

I know this is a huge list and very demanding, but please bare with me. I would be extremly gratefull to anyone that can help. Thank you all.

I have a Cisco 7606 with one sup 720, it is equipped with one WS-X6748TX, WS-X6748-SFP, and a WS-C6509-FW-VPN-K9 and it will only cost you about $90000.

ya ok whatever that is and means. funny dude. not.

Try Clarkconnect Community Edition with an old computer and a network switch. It's free and great.

http://www.clarkconnect.com

I have and they have a problem with reporting as well. It goes to 2gb only and goes to 0 after that for bandwidth. It's not too bad other then that.

If you don't build one using something like ClarkConnect you are going to spend some money. We use a Watchguard firewall with most of the features you require. It lacks the wireless and switch but otherwise would fit the bill. You should probably be looking at a Peak model or an even higher end one. I have found them to have excellent uptime (mine is going on 4 years other than updates) and good reporting (though I didn't buy the full package this time). Its one weakness in my opinion is needing their software to configure it. I wish it was web configurable instead.


Good luck,


I also like the commercial Smoothwall products but have limited experience with them.

Smoothwall also probably won't do logging like I'd like plus it cost alot of money I think. I also don't have a spare pc.

actually it was quite funny really


the cisco comment (and price) pretty much sums up your situation.


either pay a bunch for a enterprise type (cisco) router... or roll up your sleeves and set up your own .nix type router/firewall solution.


you might look at something like ipcop

or some sort of combination of commodity boxes ... maybe say m0n0wall + a transparent proxy (Squid/Dansguardian)

basically with what you want the choice comes down to pay a bunch of money or invest some time setting up OSS .nix solutions.

Is there anyway to look at the Cisco 7606 UI or anything that does what I would like?

I think ClarkConnect/Ipcop type thing comes close except just a couple of issues. Those might be fixable, but I don't know yet.

I'm glad people find this humorus because in a way it is, but it's just things I'd like.