I've been doing a lot of small office installations recently, and have been exclusively using the Symantec Firewall/VPN 100 and 200 appliances (4/8 port switch, broadband router, plus firewall). Their default config has everything locked down tight, they provide NAT if required, and have VPN pass-through enabled by default-- something critical to the installations I've done, since the majority have been branch office to home office connectivity over VPN. All models have a serial port which lets you connect a dialup (or ISDN) modem for automatic failover to dialup if the broadband connection goes down. You can also use these appliances as VPN endpoints to connect LANs in multiple locations. The 200 and 200R models have dual WAN ports allowing you to simultaneously run two broadband connections and either load balance between them, or designate one as primary and the other as fail-over secondary-- meaning you as a home user can connect both cable and DSL, or in a commercial setting bring in a cable or DSL connection to use as a backup if your T-1 goes down. This can be a godsend if you rely heavily on high speed connectivity.
Price for the 100 model is around $350 online (I've bought from microwarehouse.com and costcentral.com) and around $650 for the 200 model. >I run a small internet business from my home. Originally I was using a >combination of a Netgear FR318 and a copy of ZoneAlarm Pro on each system >connected to the LAN. The Netgear firewall keeps breaking down, third time >this year already. Can anyone recommend anouther hardware/software firewall >solution? > > > > >
