Good VPN Firewall?

macally · 30 Dec 2012 at 22:18

Can anyone please recommend a good VPN Firewall?

I have been looking at the Netgear FVG318 on ebay as they're only about £20 but are they any good?

I just basically need something to secure a network and to allow VPN access.

Thanks in advance

ecksmen · 30 Dec 2012 at 22:41

I've got no personal experience of that device, but I think you'll find it want have the throughput you desire. Internet connections recently have exploded with the available bandwidth leaving a lot of underpowered devices going for little cash.

Performance Features:
-Throughput: Up to 19 Mbps WAN-to-LAN, up to 1.2 Mbps for 3DES

^ 1.2Mbps is nothing...

bremen1874 · 30 Dec 2012 at 22:49

Vigor2830 or Vigor2920 (both rather more than £20 even second-hand).

The older Vigor2820 could be worth a look. The the bandwidth is lower, but still several times better than a FVG318.

macally · 30 Dec 2012 at 23:07

bremen1874 said:
Vigor2830 or Vigor2920 (both rather more than £20 even second-hand).

The older Vigor2820 could be worth a look. The the bandwidth is lower, but still several times better than a FVG318.

a bit out of my price range but thanks for the suggestions.

Shad · 31 Dec 2012 at 10:22

An FVS338 will do around 60Mbps WAN-LAN although performance (of any device) will be much lower for VPN traffic. The older Netgear devices need specific client software to connect (i.e. you can't use stock Windows stuff, I forget which acronym it is).

The newer SRX5308 will do higher throughput but as I recently experienced, it's not particularly reliable or stable and best avoided IMO.

If you've got some spare PC kit then I have to say I'm a big fan of running pfSense now. Easy to setup OpenVPN running over standard 443 SSL port which makes connecting remotely very simple.

iaind · 31 Dec 2012 at 10:43

macally said:
a bit out of my price range but thanks for the suggestions.

What sort of enterprise network are you securing that you can't stretch to £60 used for a 2820? :confused:

anything I don't mind · 31 Dec 2012 at 11:53

pfsense v2 has a great vpn feature. Not too difficult to set up and you can save client configurations directly from the interface which makes it easier. You can also find guides on youtube for pfsense, on how to set it up.

Pfsense is also very cool for many other reasons, check it out, just need a pc with two nics or you can buy a piece of hardware with pfsense already installed.

http://www.pfsense.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=50

RSR · 1 Jan 2013 at 16:43

I'd vote for using pfSense 2.0.2, if the hardware is available.

Also what are the bandwidth requirements etc.. ?

macally · 2 Jan 2013 at 17:22

iaind said:
What sort of enterprise network are you securing that you can't stretch to £60 used for a 2820?

Its a network on a budget for a friend's charity, it's not an 'enterprise network' as such and funds are limited. £60's not bad but I've yet to see any Vigor 2820's sell for that.

Thanks for all the suggestions to everyone. I've been informed that I can use the VPN features in SBS2011 rather than the VPN features on the firewall so don't actually need a 'VPN Firewall'.

I've bought a Netgear SRXN3205 to have a play with but would still like peoples advice as I'm new to firewalls, etc.

bremen1874 · 2 Jan 2013 at 17:38

Have you looked at the SBS2011 Remote Web Access features?

macally · 2 Jan 2013 at 17:49

bremen1874 said:
Have you looked at the SBS2011 Remote Web Access features?

yeah I actually use that at work but my friend just wants to be able to access files from the server on his pc at home.

bremen1874 · 2 Jan 2013 at 18:02

macally said:
yeah I actually use that at work but my friend just wants to be able to access files from the server on his pc at home.

For that I'd just install LogMeIn Pro, or something similar. If the job isn't important enough to justify the subscription costs, it isn't important enough bother with.