Firewall Review: Watchguard Technologies' Firebox X2500 Tops the List

In a review of eight firewall systems, Watchguard Technologies' Firebox X2500 received the highest overall marks, beating out competitors like Nokia's IP260 Security Platform and Symantec Gateway Security 5420. The Firebox X2500 excelled in configuration and management, effectiveness, performance, reporting, and logging, while also receiving high marks for features and pricing. The reviewers praised its ease of setup and robust routing and authentication capabilities, making it a top choice for remote security architectures.

Key Takeaways:

Watchguard Technologies' Firebox X2500 received the highest overall marks, with excellent marks for configuration and management, effectiveness, performance, reporting, and logging.
EdgeForce M30 was the most economical product, while VPN-1 Edge and Express Next Generation had the lowest price/performance rating.
Only Firewall 1200 4.1.3 got sub-par marks overall, particularly for its feature set.
Firebox X2500 was very easy to set up and offered robust routing and authentication abilities.
Firebox 2500 lacked support for external certificate authority certificates.
EdgeForce M30 and Symantec Gateway Security 5420 lacked support for internal certificate authority certificates.
EdgeForce M30 also did not support self-signing certificates.
All products offered NAT functionality and routing functionality, while all but ZyWall 70 offered high availability firewall mode.
The reviewers worked with a full spate of routing and authentication abilities in Firebox X2500.

Statistics:

Firebox X2500 received 4.5 out of 5 marks for effectiveness.
Firebox X2500 received 4.5 out of 5 marks for performance.
Firebox X2500 received 4.5 out of 5 marks for reporting and logging.
Firebox X2500 price/performance rating was highest among the reviewed products.

Sources:

Watchguard Technologies' Firebox X2500 product page
[1] Reviewers did not provide specific sources for the review