SonicWall TZ Reviews

We have multiple branches, and we have configured SonicWall VPNs for branch-to-branch connectivity through IPSec. I am also restricting websites to protect us from hackers, torrents, games, and other such things. I am using SonicWall TZ 400 series.

Most of the features are useful. It is easy to configure and easy to troubleshoot.

I can see the utilization of different networks, and there are also App control features. 

FortiGate has a client DNS in the firewall, but SonicWall doesn't have that. To create or configure a site-to-site VPN tunnel, we have to give a DNS name. Currently, we have to get the DNS name from a third party and then include it in SonicWall, whereas FortiGate has its own client DNS, so it provides a DNS name, and it does not require a third party.

There should be a graphical option to view the network utilization and bandwidth usage.

I have been using this solution for two years.

It is very stable.

It is scalable. We have 100 users of this solution. We might increase its usage in the future in about eight months.

Their technical support is good. They are very helpful. I would rate them an eight out of ten.

We were using ESET Antivirus for endpoint security. For firewalls, we were using FortiGate and MikroTik firewalls. FortiGate is fine, and it is helpful and easy, but MikroTik is not. It can't stop attacks from hackers.

In addition to SonicWall TZ, we are now using Cloud App Security from SonicWall for endpoint security, and we have Email Security from SonicWall for emails. In addition, we are using Capture Client from SonicWall for endpoint protection. All these solutions are very helpful, easy to configure, and easy to troubleshoot.

It was straightforward. It took five to ten minutes.

I would recommend this solution. We plan to keep using this solution. We have recently renewed our license, and we don't have any plans to use any other solution.

I would rate SonicWall TZ an eight out of ten.

We use this solution to secure our network environment. We have implemented it in other locations in our organization.

It's a good solution with good features.

It's a good product, but it's not a next-generation firewall. We are looking for a next-generation firewall and considering Cisco.

We require centralized monitoring of the network features, which they have but they are not to the level that we require.

The reporting is not good. Also, the historical configuration of the data or backup is not available.

To compete in the market, there have to be a lot of improvements.

We do not plan to continue using SonicWall TZ. We are looking for a replacement because we need centralized monitoring across the organization. It has been very difficult for us to manage the firewall as it is not managed centrally. This is the main drawback in our current scenario.

In the next release, I would like to see better scalability, easier installation, improved reporting, storage configuration, backup, and centralized management with reporting.

I have been using this solution for four years.

We are using the latest version.

It's a stable product.

It is not very scalable, which is something that could be better.

We have multiple locations and have implemented it in several.

At this time, we have 1,000 users on the firewall.

Technical support is good. There is no need for improvement.

We did not use another firewall previously.

The installation is not straightforward. But, through the GUI, there are features that you can enable to configure.

Forcepoint and Cisco are straightforward but there are many things to do with SonicWall.

For a first-time installation, it can take half a day to deploy.

We completed the implementation ourselves.

The license that we purchased is good for three years.

We have evaluated ForcePoint but we haven't used it.

We will be testing Cisco and Barracuda in our environment.

For small organizations, its' good, and I would recommend it, but not for medium or large enterprise companies.

I would rate SonicWall TZ a five out of ten.

Our clients use it for VPN, firewall, antivirus, and content filtering purposes. We have its latest version.

Content filtering and application rules are the most valuable features. It is also easy to configure.

Its pricing can be better. It is very expensive.

I have been using this solution for around ten years.

It is very stable.

It is scalable. I didn't have any issues with scalability. Our clients are small organizations with 20 to 40 users.

Their technical support is very good. I also like its documentation, which is easy to access.

Our clients have been using different solutions, such as pfSense, and they migrate to SonicWall TZ because it has more security.

Its initial setup is simple. The duration depends on the number of users and configuration, but it usually takes around 12 hours. We have three or four people for its deployment.

Its price is very high, which makes it difficult to convince the clients to buy this solution.

I would recommend this solution for implementing security. I am satisfied with this solution. It meets our expectations.

I would rate SonicWall TZ a nine out of ten.

The primary use case is to protect all of the internal users from cyber attacks.

The most valuable feature is the user-friendly navigation.

As compared to other firewalls, they should provide an unlimited number of users for the SSL VPN.

The VPN that is available in the new version is a bit bulky and slower in speed. It should also be easier to use.

The SD-WAN feature should be enhanced, similar to Fortinet FortiGate.

I have been working with this solution for six months.

We have just upgraded TZ to 350.

We are not able to use the VPN. It has limitations. It comes with a certain number of users and we have to spend a lot for VPN accessibility.

The technical support is not very good. There is a facility called Geofencing where you can block IP addresses or certain countries.

When contacting their technical support, the technical support said that such a facility is not available in this firewall.

Another issue we had with technical support was when we wanted all of our VPN users to be migrated from our old firewall to this firewall, but somehow, technically they failed to do it. We had to configure it manually.

The technical competency of technical support is a bit on the lower side.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We have two engineers to maintain and deploy this solution.

The price is fair.

If it is used for internal users, it is very good as a firewall. But if it has to be used for VPN, it will be a bit costly and the VPN may be bulky. 

Using the VPN is not recommended, but as a firewall for blocking threats, it's good.

I would rate SonicWall TZ a seven out of ten.

We use SonicWall for the connectivity it provides. We are customers of SonicWall and I work in network support.

The VPN connection is the most valuable feature for us. For me, it's all good - implementation and data tools are also good.

The GUI interface could be improved. It would make a difference if they could update that. 

I've been using this solution for three years. 

I've had some problems with the VPN connection but I think stability is good.

Most of our clients are small companies but the scalability is good. 

I've had good experience with technical support. 

The initial setup was easy for me. 

I also use Fortinet FortiGate and I prefer it to SonicWall. The difference is that SonicWall is a cheaper solution. 

I would recommend this product, I haven't had any problems with it. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

We primarily use the solution as a firewall. It's pretty much for content filtering and protection between points.

The solution works very well.

They seem to be protecting themselves, or, at least, I assume they are, when they ask you to go online to enable the device.

The solution is easy to use. The actual setup is pretty easy.

I've found the technical support to be helpful. With all of the specifics, whether it's VPN stuff or the Analyzer products, et cetera, I'll always call for help. 

I'm very comfortable with the product. I know enough to really get to where I need to be and then to get it right. For my customers, I can call and get help if I need to, and it's nice to have that option, however, I'm really quite comfortable overall with its functionality.

There was one complaint I always had in the past. Years ago, you always had to enable the device. You had to go online to enable the device. You had to connect and do that. That was always a thing in my mind: "Well, why do I have to do that? Why do I have to go outside of my network just to do that?" Now, it seems to be less of an issue. However, that's been something that has frustrated me. It's not fixed. It's still the same. It's just something I live with now. I wish you didn't have to go off your network to connect.

I would like the solution to build in more redundancy. I would hope that doesn't come with a price increase, however, it would make the solution that much better.

I've been using the solution for ten years at this point. It's been about a decade, therefore I'm comfortable saying that I've worked with it for a long time.

The solution is largely stable. The one thing I did notice was their VPN connectivity. It hadn't been upgraded for a long time - maybe even years. Whether they were doing stuff with it, I don't know. I just noticed this past last year, they came out with a new VPN client. However, before that, it was a long time. They seem to have sorted it now. I don't know if that means they'll go another extended period without updating again or not.

I haven't grown out of one before, and therefore I haven't really had to scale. In terms of their throughput, we got close on one once. The thing is, if I call an inside connection, he'll get me in touch with his inside tech, which is different from tech support and they'll do some numbers. What my throughput is, the bandwidth I actually have, what I'm working with, et cetera. I seem to be always under. I'm really not in the hundreds of users. It's typically under 100. I work with smaller organizations, and there isn't much need to scale.

I've dealt with technical support in the past. They've been good. I'm satisfied with eh level of support they provide. It's one of the selling points for me. I like to have products with good technical support capabilities.

Most of them were really sharp. I call with some questions sometimes, or I just want to set up a VPN between the buildings or something real quick and I just want to make sure I've got it right. They're just really great at assisting me. I'll say, "Look, am I missing anything?" And they'll look through and say, "This is good, but change this." Their tech support's been excellent. I'd give them a ten out of ten for sure.

I've worked with Symantec and Cisco. I haven't dealt with any Cisco in a few years. I did some Cisco and started to learn how to do certain tasks. I haven't really done much with them as my clients are a bit smaller. Cisco is an awesome product. They are likely the best on the market. However, as I recall, they don't really have a GUI and my clients don't need the size.

The initial setup is very straightforward. It's nice and easy. A person or company shouldn't have any issues with the setup.

I'm a reseller.

I tend to use the latest version of the solution. I go with whatever's happening. I'll upgrade when necessary when they go end of life. 

Although it is my understanding that they also have a cloud option, I tend to prefer on-premises deployments. If I need something, I will call my SonicWall rep.

I'd recommend new users try them. They have very good service and they're easy to use.

I'd rate them ten out of ten simply for the fact that I really haven't had any issues with them at all.

Our company provides consultancy services. We are resellers and integrators, and we implement this solution for our customers. I'm a systems engineer.

The solution is important for the main security program of our client companies. 

I like the site categorization and application controls, and I also like the anti-spam feature.

The user interface could be improved. Another issue is that part of the company strategy is that once the license expires, the company blocks features and things slow down. It would be nice if they would provide a free version for small companies. Most companies here in Brazil either don't have the money or their culture is cost-oriented so they don't make large investments in security. They prefer products which are less expensive such as open, source-based firewalls. Having access to a free version would mean that we could create an awareness within the company about the importance of these solutions. Because of the dollar rate, the product is quite expensive for us, whereas in the States it's affordable to spend a few thousand dollars on a solution. 

I've been using this product for six years. 

The solution is not very scalable. We often have to change the appliances. That's the downside on these kinds of projects because it then requires the company to make an additional purchase. Our clients usually have up to 400 users each. 

We don't like the technical support much. There is a long wait time to get a response. 

We also use Fortinet for our clients and we prefer that solution. Fortinet has a better user interface that's easier to use with no hardware charges. It's a more expensive solution but you get what you pay for. The graphical user interface is not so easy with SonicWall. Sophos also has a better user interface.

The initial setup is complex and takes a few hours. It really requires specialized technicians. If the user interface was easier it would be a little less complex to deploy. It means they need to contact companies like ours, but maybe they need to improve their in-house support. 

We think SonicWall is a good product. Sometimes the technicians don't have the expertise to deploy and there can be issues with appliances that are not sized correctly and the appliances get overloaded and it slows down the network. It's not because of the solution, it's the lack of experience.

I would rate this solution a six out of 10. 

We are using this firewall with content filtering and other features. 

We are able to block whatever we want to block by using this product. It provides all required security features, such as content filtering, VPN, in one box. Before switching to SonicWall, we had specified all required features.

It could be made more user friendly.

We have been using SonicWall products for around ten years. Specifically, we have been using SonicWall TZ for the last five years.

It is a stable solution.

It is fine in terms of scalability.

Their technical support is good. For technical support, sometimes we write directly to SonicWall, and they provide the solution. We sometimes also contact our vendor for support. 

We used GajShield previously. The product went down once, and the GajShield team was unable to provide the support. That's why we replaced the product. 

Its installation is very easy. It took around four hours to install it.

Implementation was done by me with some help from the vendor. I also manage this solution and use it on daily basis. We have an AMC contract with SonicWall, and we renew it directly with them. 

Its pricing is okay as compared to other solutions.

We have been using this product for around ten years, and we are very comfortable with this product. I would recommend this product based on your requirements. 

I would rate SonicWall TZ a nine out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for its firewall capabilities.

The best thing about the product is the very good threat prevention output.

The dashboard needs to be improved.

They can work on the GUI part of the solution. Currently, it is a little bit complicated as compared to other competitors.

Each uplink is quite a big and complicated sort of tool. Other products, like Checkpoint, are so-so, however, they are better. Fortinet is a good example of one that is very good and easy to use.

I've been working with the solution for four to five years.

The stability is excellent. We find it to be reliable. We haven't had any issues at all.

We consider growing the solution based on the company's needs. We work with different sizes of organizations. We try to project out what a company will need, not tomorrow, but three years down the line, and build for that on day one.

We do this due to the fact that it's not exactly scalable. We build it bigger so organizations can grow into the solution quite a bit. Users are restricted by the model of the firewall, so if you choose something that's too small, it won't be able to meet your needs and you'll have to start over and trade up to a bigger model.

If a TZ series can handle 500 users, and a company currently has 200 users, they'll be able to scale up, technically speaking, to about 300 more users before they hit their threshold.

Basically, the scalability is not infinite. It's quite limited to the capacity of the model itself.

We've never dealt with technical support. We've managed to handle any issues ourselves, in-house. I can't speak to the kind of service they provide.

I also have experience with Sophos XG.

I find that there aren't too many differences between firewalls, as everyone has the same platform and goals.

The initial setup is not complex. It's very straightforward. We found it to be quite easy.

It may take a while to deploy the solution, at least here in Haiti. It will take longer than a few hours. Depending on the client, it can take anywhere from a day or two to up to ten or 15 days.

It's all dependent on the customer side. What will define the length of time will be is the mobile policy they want to implement on the firewall. That depends on the customer.

You only need one person to deploy and maintain the solution.

We're resellers. We handle the implementation for our clients.

We use this solution ourselves, however, we also deploy it for our clients. We're resellers.

We're using the latest version of the solution.

I don't know if I have specific advice, as each customer is different and has different needs in terms of security. It depends on their policies and how they want to implement them. There are almost endless amounts of policies that can be added to the solution.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We are an MSP and Sonicwall partner and have installed virtually every model, from the TZ 150 during the old days, up to the new TZ 500, TZ 600s and NSA series. I've been using SonicWall for many years and it's still a major part of our solutions for many of our customers compared the optional product lines that we sell. I previous owned an IT firm for 30 years and recently merged with a larger organization where I focus on customer security and guidance. 

Sonic has been very progressive, continually updating their product-line and service offerings to stay current with, and ahead of the evolving security landscape. Again, they have consistently developed great solutions for both the SMB and enterprise market which has enable our support team to leverage their expertise with Sonicwall across our entire client base.

The most valuable features are the ease of setup, ease of management, integration, the VPN integration andnet extender which is part of their remote access, and functionality. Overall, they've been very effective and it's an affordable product. 

Not relating to this product specifically, but I think overall the company needs to think more broadly about security continuity across the entire security spectrum and integrate more security options with their solutions, like Cisco is doing. They need identity management products and DNS solutions to really complete the line of security. Because of the whole management system, there could also be improvement to their GMS, which is a system allowing you to manage an entire fleet of their firewalls via a central pane of glass. Today as more organizations as forced to working from home and the security perimeter is now the home, businesses need more affordable and scalable systems to manage and monitor numerous devices, more easily and push out updates through essential platforms.

I've been using this solution for over 15 years. 

I find it a very stable product and company. We really have not had problems with functionality or support. The ability to meet customer needs and implement security features, as well as just the reliability of the hardware itself has been very good over the years.

Scalability is good but once you buy the product itself, you're limited to what that particular device can deliver in terms of throughput and add-on features. You can easily add on additional functionality through various software/licensing, but it can't scale up more than the product's physical limitations. To address this, Sonicwall does have an upgrade program to enable organizations to capitalize on any investments made in training and management tools.

Obviously they have a dedicated support team for firewalls in general, unless you get to the bigger enterprise products. That's a different team. We find that whenever we have problems, we can get to somebody within a reasonable period of time.

We also provide CISCO solutions our clients where it may be a better fit.  The decision on which solutions to use can be influenced by either existing infrastructure and/or the experience and resources the customer may have inhouse.  Additionally, product feature-set and customer needs play the biggest role in determining what is the best fit for the customer.

Initial setup is quite straightforward via Sonicwall's GUI.

I can't talk about specifics, but purchasing the product is an upfront capital expense for maintenance as well as for the product itself so I can't amortize that down to a monthly or annual figure because the products are also very diverse in price depending on the usage or the package that you get. There are a very broad number of products within the TZ series from the very low end to the medium range. You've got many different models to choose from at different price points. On top of that, you've got the maintenance agreements that are relatively priced based on the product, so that is a variable too. I know that they are very competitive in pricing compared to other solutions on the market.

It's worth looking into this solution. It's a very competitive product in terms of pricing, performance and features. It's definitely worth evaluating, especially for small to medium size businesses, branch offices and home. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.