SonicWall NSa Reviews

We have SonicWall NSa models including NSA 2600, NSA 3600, and 6600 firewalls in our environment.

We have used the Deep Packet Inspection feature of SonicWall NSa. We adopted a security package that included Deep Packet filtering and inspection, which helps us reduce unwanted traffic, spam, and attacks from the outside world.

We also used SonicWall NSa's Intrusion Prevention system. It was a complete solution on that box, functioning as a next-generation firewall and covering all features, including email security and every security parameter.

The automated breach prevention feature is very important for the overall security of our organization. I experienced this significantly when I was working with InterGlobe, a large organization that faced a malware attack involving ransomware. During that incident, two or three business units were attacked, and many servers and laptops became compromised. At that time, we were the only organization that remained secure with a zero infection rate. When we checked the log activities, that firewall had blocked many attacks. InterGlobe has been using that SonicWall product for almost ten to fifteen years because of this protection.

The CPU configuration for SonicWall NSa, based on my experience, is average. It should be increased somewhat because we are not always aware of the load under varying organizational working standards. Sometimes the workload is low, and sometimes it is high, with data flow increasing significantly inside the organization. At those times, the CPU spikes considerably, and due to that, the firewall response becomes slow. Based on my experience, SonicWall should increase the CPU level of that firewall.

We have been using SonicWall TZ for more than ten years because we deployed the firewall around 2013 or 2014. InterGlobe continues to use SonicWall firewalls to this day.

We experienced changes in network performance and latency with SonicWall NSa's SSL and TLS distributed decryption capabilities. When encryption was enabled with SSL, this caused some latency. However, configuration changes have been made that have reduced that latency.

Technically speaking, SonicWall NSa is very supportive and capable of handling everything from smaller organizations to big enterprise-level organizations on a model-wise or configuration-wise basis. All aspects are quite manageable, and many things have improved. The only drawback I mention is that when there is a load on that firewall, the CPU performance should be increased somewhat.

When we face any challenges or technical issues with the firewall, SonicWall support is always available to help us on an immediate basis.

Positive

We moved from Cisco to SonicWall. Before moving to SonicWall NSa, we evaluated numerous products, including POCs from Palo Alto, Cisco, and Juniper. We tested each firewall. Our first priority was looking for a high availability firewall with active standby configuration.

Installing SonicWall NSa was very easy because we were previously using Cisco firewall and Cisco ASA. We migrated from Cisco ASA to SonicWall NSa. The migration took hardly three to four hours for manual configuration. I completed the configuration and migration without taking any support from anyone. SonicWall NSa is very easy to use; the GUI is lightweight, making it very much easy to create firewall rules, policies, NAT policies, and to update security settings such as IPS, email, and geo-filtering.

We worked with SonicWall through a channel partner, specifically Dell India Services, which was our channel partner through which we procured it. We have a SonicWall account manager, and we are regularly in touch with them as well as with the Dell account manager.

SonicWall NSa has provided a return on investment in the long run, helping us achieve cost reductions. Our budget compared to Cisco and other products was significantly lower. We had budgeted about thirty lakhs, but after negotiating with SonicWall NSa, we saved almost ten lakh rupees in a year.

I am overall satisfied with everything, including the price.

Before moving to SonicWall NSa, we evaluated numerous products, including POCs from Palo Alto, Cisco, and Juniper. We tested each firewall.

I am familiar with SonicWall TZ. I have done a POC of TZ but I have not worked extensively with it. I have worked with the 2600 firewall and then the 3600. These are the models which we have worked with.

SonicWall NSa was an on-premises solution. The two firewalls which were in production, in the data center and on the LAN side, were both on-premises solutions.

We had a pre-decided budget under which we would purchase the firewall. All parameters including security, high availability, and budget concerns were covered with SonicWall NSa being implemented at that time. SonicWall NSa is a user-friendly product that is easy to configure, and it is easy for network personnel and firewall administrators to work with. Even the L1 team captured and learned this firewall effectively, helping us resolve all parameters related to high availability firewalls within budget-friendly costs.

I rate this review a nine out of ten.

On-premises

Other

My customers' main use cases for SonicWall NSa include having good bandwidth. It provides good bandwidth for enterprise customers with about 500 plus users in big organizations, making SonicWall NSa a beautiful product.

SonicWall NSa is a good firewall because it doesn't slow down user experience due to the technology SonicWall uses, which involves flash-based RAM and efficient processing times. It scans all networks and services simultaneously, ensuring optimal performance, while FortiGate uses RAM technology that has its own processing times and related issues.

I have had a chance to work with the Deep Packet Inspection feature in SonicWall NSa, which I admire as it is a very good feature for scanning.

The Intrusion Prevention System in SonicWall NSa is highly effective. I cannot specify metrics on how the feature helps to mitigate threats, but I have observed its effectiveness. IPS is fundamentally signature based, so the more good signatures you have, the more competent the IPS feature is, which is crucial in stopping malicious traffic.

I have experience with the automated breach prevention feature, which is also effective as it stops breaches from happening, complemented by behavioral analytics that makes this feature stand out.

I have not really seen any problems with SonicWall NSa on the technical front, but the quality of support is not that good.

The support is not up to the mark because the quality is lacking; however, SonicWall has been in the market for a while, so people are aware of its qualities, and being a cost-effective product, it is very good.

I do not suggest any features to be improved in SonicWall NSa as all existing features are good and the product is ready to use.

I have been working with SonicWall NSa firewalls since the first time it was introduced in the market in 2011.

My customers have not seen any network performance issues with using SonicWall NSa, while FortiGate does hamper network performance.

I have not seen any complaints regarding stability.

Regarding scalability, it's important to ascertain the customer's future requirements, as firewalls need to be sized according to their expected scalability, such as moving from 500 users today to more in the coming years.

There are no issues with scalability at all, but it requires your technical ability to understand the customer's requirements and size the firewall properly.

For technical support, I would rate it a five out of ten.

Neutral

The setup for SonicWall NSa is pretty simple with a beautiful dashboard that provides good insight, making rule setting easy enough for someone with minimal technical training. In contrast, FortiGate requires more time and experience for setup.

The deployment for SonicWall NSa is straightforward as it's a plug-and-play box.

I find SonicWall NSa to be pocket-friendly.

I recommend people check out SonicWall NSa before purchasing, as it suits the requirements and environment, making it a hassle-free product to deploy.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate SonicWall NSa a nine.

I primarily use SonicWall NSA as a next-generation firewall for network security architecture. It is especially used for securing business operations with networks of more than 250 people.

SonicWall NSA's most valuable features are its SD-WAN and a system RTBI that blocks all attacks. These features are crucial for securing the network, making them the most important to mention.

There are some aspects of the dashboard configuration or customization that could be improved.

I have been working with SonicWall NSA for about one year.

I would rate the stability of SonicWall NSA as eight out of ten.

SonicWall NSA is a scalable product, and I would give it a rating of seven out of ten.

SonicWall support is very helpful and responsive.

Neutral

I found the initial setup of SonicWall NSA to be straightforward.

I have a dedicated team of three engineers for the implementation.

Using SonicWall NSA helps my company save approximately 20% of operational costs in the long run.

I would rate the price of the product as seven out of ten.

Apart from SonicWall, I also work with WatchGuard.

I would recommend SonicWall NSA to others due to its stability, price, and scalability. 

Additionally, I would rate the overall solution as eight out of ten.

Hybrid Cloud

Other

I use SonicWall NSA primarily for data center and perimeter security.

When I switched from Fortinet to SonicWall, the number of network attacks significantly decreased. This change greatly helped in maintaining a secure network environment.

I find the simple licensing, a good GUI, and cost-effective throughput of SonicWall NSA to be excellent features. Also, real-time deep memory inspection is very helpful and has had a positive impact on our security posture.

I would like more free VPN licenses. It would be beneficial if they could enhance the analytics part. It needs to be more monolithic, and more details in the analytical tools offered would be appreciated since it is not yet mature. Integration with AI tools could also be an improvement.

I have been working with SonicWall NSA for four years.

The stability of SonicWall NSA is quite good. I would rate it a nine out of ten.

SonicWall NSA is quite scalable. I would rate its scalability around eight out of ten, meaning there are no issues, and it is pretty easy to scale.

I have had little need for technical support. When I did contact them, the support from SonicWall was excellent. I would rate them ten out of ten.

Positive

I previously used Fortinet and switched due to their unsatisfactory post-sale support and the high renewal costs. There were also concerns about data security, as Fortinet is a Chinese-based company, and we experienced network attacks while using Fortinet.

The initial setup of SonicWall NSA was very simple.

We initially used third-party consultants for the setup yet found it simple to use afterward.

SonicWall is much cheaper compared to Fortinet, particularly regarding renewal and licensing costs.

I recommend SonicWall for its good support, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. It is suitable for various sizes of enterprises.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

On-premises

I use it for security purposes. To secure our network from outside the network. It is our gateway security solution where we can identify and filter out all the networks that come from outside of our network. 

SonicWall NSa 3600 model has a very good user interface, and with its quick configuration modules, we can easily configure the tunnel, SSL tunnel, and even access rules as per our requirements. 

It has analyzer tools that allow me to analyze logs and user activity, and it shows the changes made by the system admin. As an admin, it's very good for me to analyze the logs and user threats, and see what is being blocked as part of my policy. It also shows real-time monitoring of my bandwidth and packet rates, and it helps me capture packets.

It could be improved in the reporting format. The way their analysis software is working, they need to improve their reporting. 

Second, I think they need to improve their security at the endpoint level, in the SD-WAN area.

Apart from this, the main drawbacks are their support and hardware failure. In our last four to five years with the NSa 3600, we have faced hardware failure two to three times. Even though they replaced the hardware, we still faced the issue.

I have been using it for four to five years.

It's stable, no issue at all.

It's scalable enough. We can scale according to our users, as their product varies depending on the user license. For zero to 100 users, they have another model. For 100 to 500 users, they have the NSa series. And for enterprise, they have different series.

The support was good from both our AMC team and the OEM. We get good support. I would give it a seven out of ten. 

Neutral

We just installed it for another location. It's a FortiGate, but it's a starting model for 50 users.

For the last four to five years, I've been using SonicWall, and I find the interface very exciting and useful compared to FortiGate. SonicWall has a few configuration modules that are very useful for beginners to configure policies or access, but I didn't find anything like that in FortiGate.

I don't have much experience with FortiGate, as we have only been using it for four to five months and haven't configured it much.  

We took the help of our implementing partner, CTPL Technologies, who helped us install and configure the firewall policies according to our business needs. 

It took two hours to implement it. 

We have AMC services to maintain SonicWall. Although we manage it internally most of the time, if there are critical rules or panels we need to create, we take help from our AMC team's expertise. 

The team will raise the issue to the OEM if needed.

I have seen an ROI in terms of both time savings and cost savings. 

The analyzer was one thing I wanted in reporting features, but our license expired. So for the last six to eight months, we haven't been using their reporting tools. We just use the protocol we have on the console level. We don't use any other separate tools.

The pricing is cheaper and good compared to other products in terms of both time and cost savings.

Overall, I would rate it a seven out of ten, with one being not satisfied and ten being very satisfied with the product. 

We configure it as a firewall and deploy it in our office. Normally, it's to block any vulnerabilities, cyberattacks, or malware.

Like for any organization, security is necessary. So, companies allocate a cybersecurity budget. 

It alerts the system if any vulnerability comes into our network, such as notifications. These have been most effective for protecting our network.

It also looks at VPN and site-to-site connections.

Live tracking of packets could be improved because there are some URLs or payment URLs that we need to block.

I have been using it for around eight months now.

I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten. I'd still like to easily understand the identity and access management.

It came with a license for 150 users. We have set up the device. 

We use it daily. We have to renew on a weekly basis. VPN, vulnerability, upgrades, and changes.

I am very grateful for the support. 

Positive

We used CyberOam [Sophos]. CyberOam couldn't integrate with our Sophos, and we were also at the end of life for the device. So we switched to another one.

I would rate my experience with the initial setup a ten out of ten, with ten being easy.

The basic installation is two hours. After that, to set up all the policies and groups, we need one to two days.

We had a partner.

NSa is not expensive, not high. It's at a moderate or medium level.

I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive.

SonicWall NSa utilizes AI to enhance its security features and threat detection. 

I would recommend to use it. My company also suggests it. Like, the DPI, and even the standard security, other ones. So we definitely recommend this model.

Overall, I would rate it a ten out of ten. 

On-premises

It's a very good firewall – user-friendly and easy to configure, set the policies, and manage. I especially like how it integrates with Active Directory. 

The next-generation firewall features, simple Pulse configuration, and excellent SSL VPN client are valuable.

The centralized console is great for managing multiple branches.  It's a very simple console to connect all three of our branches in the US and India. 

We connect through three firewalls in a single console and manage any policy. So, if we need to change a policy, the global admin can connect from anywhere and easily make changes.

Log usage is also very easy.

The threat prevention capabilities are very good. Preventing the latest threats is very easy. You can define rules, and it automatically alerts you. For example, if there's a sudden increase in malicious spam, it will notify you immediately.

Since SonicWall is a UTM, we have enabled all the features: antivirus, IPS, URL filtering, and content filtering. All of these features are working fine. The content filtering is very good, and we've seen a significant reduction in unwanted content in emails.

All of these policies are based on our organization's needs. We configure the policies that are best suited for us, and it's working well. We haven't had any security events in the five years I've been using it.

It offers good performance. 

SonicWall needs to work on SD-WAN. It's a very good technology, and they have started, but they need to catch up. 

SonicWall is very strong in SSL VPN. Nobody can compare to their VPN feature software.

Threat detection is getting better, and they should continue to develop their SD-WAN capabilities.

I've used SonicWall for the past 20 years. Whenever I've changed companies, I've recommended and implemented SonicWall. 

In my current organization, we use six SonicWall NSa firewalls.

It's already a very stable product. It's been in the market for over 15 years, with very good feature policies. Nobody has breached them since their inception. SonicWall has never been hacked.

I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.

Scalability is very easy. You can upgrade online from the 2650 to a higher version if needed. You can scale it. It's very good.

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. I have worked with more than a hundred customers.

I have attended many international events for SonicWall. My organization also uses SonicWall.

The customer service and support are excellent. It is 24/7, and we have a support center in India.

The deciding factor in choosing SonicWall over other security appliances included its scalability, ease of operation, and support.

The initial setup is straightforward. It's the only firewall after Check Point that we found to be very user-friendly. Check Point is enterprise-level, for up to 2,000 users, while SonicWall is best for smaller businesses.

You create an admin user and start accessing it from anywhere by connecting a VPN client. You configure policies based on your organization's needs, like giving connections to a certain number of people or allowing social media access only after 6 pm. You can also configure multiple ISPs for failover. We have application load balancing, etc.

The deployment model can be both on the cloud and on-premises. 

The return on investment is very good.

For medium-sized businesses with 1,000 to 2,000 users, I definitely recommend SonicWall. It's very user-friendly and not too costly compared to other products on the market. It offers the best value for the price.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

Hybrid Cloud

SonicWall NSa serves our company's needs in threat management and security operations.

My company can't connect directly with SonicWall's support team, making it an area where improvements are required.

I have been using SonicWall NSa for five years. I am a customer of the tool.

It is a very stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Around 50 people in my company use the tool.

I use the tool on a daily basis.

As per SonicWall's policy, we first have to raise the ticket with the solution's partner, and then, after that, they will raise the ticket with SonicWall's support team. The customer cannot directly connect with SonicWall's support team. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

I have used Sophos. I chose SonicWall because it is a user-friendly, easy-to-access, and easy-to-manage tool.

The product's initial setup phase is very straightforward.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The solution can be deployed in a week.

The product's deployment phase was completed with the help of the tool's partner.

Our purchase team does the tool.'s procurement part.

SonicWall NSa has been most effective in protecting our company's network with the CFS policy and app-based policy.

My company has not enabled or activated SonicWall NSa's deep packet inspection performance.

If I calculate SonicWall NSa's impact on incident response times, I would say that it just needs 24 hours.

I have not tried using SonicWall NSa's AI features.

I recommend SonicWall NSa to others.

I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

On-premises

We use SonicWall NSa as a firewall to protect our branches. We use the solution for intrusion prevention systems (IPS), intrusion detection systems (IDS), and networking. We have VPN connections with our data center and other branches.

SonicWall NSa is very easy to configure. For example, it's very easy to give internet access to a user. We have configured groups, and I can remove and add them whenever required. We use SonicWall NSa for authenticating MAC (media access control) ID from the PC.

SonicWall NSa's reporting could be improved.

I have been using SonicWall NSa for three years.

SonicWall NSa is quite a stable solution. We faced some issues regarding the VPN connectivity. Sometimes it drops, but it also depends on the box on the other side.

SonicWall NSa is not a scalable solution because we are using small boxes and can't scale them. For example, the solution works fine if it's for 20 users. The moment you add more than 20 users, it becomes slow.

Around 20 users are using SonicWall NSa in our organization. The solution is used extensively, 24/7, in our organization.

SonicWall NSa's technical support is quite good because they respond and solve our issues whenever we call them.

Before SonicWall NSa, we previously used Cyberoam.

SonicWall NSa's initial setup is very easy.

Our networking team deploys SonicWall NSam in one or two days. Just one network engineer is required to deploy and maintain SonicWall NSa.

We have seen a return on investment with SonicWall NSa.

Compared to Fortinet and Cisco, SonicWall NSa is a cheaper solution. You have to pay additionally for IPS, which is not part of the solution's license.

I use the latest version of SonicWall NSa.

I would not recommend SonicWall NSa to other users compared to Fortinet or Cisco.

Overall, I rate SonicWall NSa a seven out of ten.

On-premises

NSa is mostly provided to customers who want to secure their perimeter. It is positioned for users above 100.

We are SonicWall partners. We propose NSa to our customers and do integrations with the firewall.

The ease of configuration is excellent. NSA has logging, alarm features, and a very useful knowledge base available on the SonicWall community site.

Certain features like SD-WAN are sometimes confusing to configure. One important feature that should be provided by default is SSL VPN, without needing a separate license.

I have used SonicWall for the past ten years.

The stability is very good. Wherever I've deployed it, there has been a zero RMA.

For scalability, I would rate it nine out of ten.

Technical support was good. The response time and quality were satisfactory.

Positive

The initial setup is simple.

Pricing is reasonable. I would rate it seven out of ten.

We did evaluate Fortinet. Both SonicWall and Fortinet are on par with each other. The choice depends on the customer's existing setup and usage of SD-WAN.

I would recommend the product to other users. I'd rate it nine out of ten overall. 

On-premises