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Functionality
4.6
/5
367
Total features
57
2 categories
WatchGuard Firebox features
Common features of Network Security software
Sean P.
Computer Networking, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Their support has always been great. When we find an issue they're always helpful, even in diagnosing the issue as not being firewall related.
Easy to manage, subscription services are fantastic, purchasing is easy and above all we trust them to be secure!
Some stuff is not as easy to find depending on what interface you use. I like the desktop app, but some prefer the web gui. I wish the dimensions command server was a little less pricey.
Verified reviewer
Hospital & Health Care, 201-500 employees
Used daily for 6-12 months
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Its Ease of Use. Its simple to understand, very intuitive, and very easy to explain
not being able to edit the Protocol of a policy after its been created
Brett P.
Machinery, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 6-12 months
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Fantastic firewall for the price. Love the concept of on premise physical device over a cloud device. Great product for our needs.
Ease of use. Expandability with additional features and the ability to filter and watch ports and websites.
So far no problems with them at all. Just wish we had more time to delve into them further and had more time to train.
Stefanos S.
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 201-500 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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We really feal secure with our pair of Fireboxes. We really like the offered VPN solution, which enabled us to work remotely over the pandemic period. We like the fact that the Fireware is getting often updates and new features are added all the time.
What we like the most about WatchGuard Firebox is the many features it does offer.
What we like the least about WatchGuard Firebox is the way "Explicit Proxy" was implemented. Although this is a great feature, the fact that it is meant to be only used once per user does decrease its value very much. We were hoping that we would be able to set allowed destinations in the "Explicit Proxy", but the default destination is "Firebox" and can't be an FQDN or IP, etc. Also the NATing does not work with the "Explicit Proxy", as there is a second hidden policy after the "Explicit Proxy", which is the one that defines the IP Address of the traffic, which can't be changed as it is hidden. The "Explicit Proxy" was the main reason why we chose the first pair of Fireboxes (have upgraded twice already) but we were disappointed because of it. However even as it is, it is better than nothing, as when we had done our research there was NO other firewall offering this option!!! So we are still both happy to have the feature / but disappointed because we expected it to be better. We are still hopping the "Explicit Proxy" will be redisigned as this is a unique feature not found on any other firewall!!!
Tyler B.
Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Very reliable devices with quick turn around in rare cases of issues. Easy to setup and configure vs some other comparable devices. Multiple different supported VPN types depending on your need. Good UTM feature set.
Some of the security features can be obtuse to configure and analyze the logs from. Not an insurmountable issue but will take a little time to learn initially.
Joseph S.
Computer Networking, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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We enjoy our partnership with Watchguard. They helped us achieve Silver partnership and have provided excellent support for any issues that have come up.
The firewall vpn is great and ease of use for many of the subscription features. We are able to do content filtering, only allow certain dns servers, create blocked ports and ips easily and are comfortable with the network protection it provides.
There are sometimes issues with vpn that cause us to need to remove and recreate a vpn user on the firebox. System manager constantly has to be upgraded to configure the firebox. I would like to see system manager check for updates at launch so we do not have to manually update it.
Travis W.
Information Technology and Services, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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Support has always been great whenever I’ve had an issue, the trade up and or trade in programs are both very competitive to get you onto the WatchGuard platfofm. Call WatchGuard remains competitive in the space serves all of my clients needs while still remaining scalabale.
Competitive cost, ease of deployment and configuration, central management features
The lowest and models don’t have enough hardware resources to support a full UTM subscription, makes it difficult to deploy within smaller limited orgs.
John L.
Construction, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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I've been using WatchGuard firewalls for over 10 years and always had great support for the few issues I have encountered.
- easy to use interface through WebUI, management software, or Cloud management - real time monitoring with several views of different data to help troubleshoot traffic issues - full suite of security features that are set and forget
- log history can be annoying to go through
Stephen P.
Retail, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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The ease of setting up the Firebox was huge, getting us up and running quickly with the minimum of setup time. Since deploying the Fireboxes (we have 2) four years ago, there has been no real issues with them.
The web interface of the Firebox can be a little hard to navigate at time. The online forums help but not the most intuitive gui I've experienced.
Roger S.
Accounting, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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We’ve been using Ward firebox in our organization for over six years and really appreciate the scalability the features and support
The VPN and back office VPN work really well. We really use the intrusion detection, ddos prevention A lot.
Policy management and set up could be Better
Eugen F.
Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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I've been using and administering Watchguard devices for over 15 years now. I've used and administered others, SonicWall, Cisco, and more, but I will never recommend any of the others over Watchguard. In the 15 years, and something like 40+ individual devices I've administered, we've only had four with physical issues in all that time. Two of them were past end of life when they died. Wish I could say the same for the off-the-shelf routers our end users have.
Once you have a configuration for a device, you can deploy it to multiple devices, even of different models. With Watchguard System Manager software, you can edit a device configuration offline, without affecting the running firewall. You can even deploy it to a completely different model for testing before applying it to the final production device. This is my favorite feature of Watchguard! My second favorite feature is that you don't *have* to control the device from the web (Watchguard Cloud), but you *can* if you want to. I absolutely *hate* systems that make you use their cloud service for deployment. You know who I'm talking about.
It has a little bit of a learning curve compared to some others, though not as much as some of the bigger name brand systems.
Miek G.
Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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so far 12 Fireboxes deployed, and I love the central console. I have deployed 2 devices with the pre-deployment option and had a few issues, but each and every issue we have had has been swiftly dealt with by WatchGuard support.
Ease of deployment, remote live monitoring, Full feature set, cost, Central management, I loved the fact that I did not need to have a training course to figure out the Firebox.
I had to be that person, but.... I honestly do not have any gripes.
Alex S.
Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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very satisfied since over 20 years of usage for all my customers
Simple and logically to administer, Use of System Manager for offline management of full configuration and write it up to Firebox in one step - so I have a backup of every change and never need to mind the steps for configuring changes to get in the right order! Authpoint is a grate product for MFA for VPN!
Maybe the red color, but that is really not any harm at all - else than this - maybe the partner model, that you only get higher discounts on purchasing if you are a bigger partner.
Koen C.
Computer Networking, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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My overall experience with WatchGuard Firebox is highly positive. I appreciate its comprehensive security features, including advanced threat protection and robust VPN capabilities, which ensure secure and reliable network connectivity. The centralized and intuitive management interface simplifies policy creation and monitoring, making it accessible even for users without deep technical expertise. However, the higher cost could be a drawback for smaller businesses, but the investment is justified by the enhanced security and performance it provides. Overall, WatchGuard Firebox delivers a powerful, scalable, and user-friendly solution for network security needs.
What I like most about WatchGuard Firebox is its comprehensive security suite that combines advanced threat protection, high performance, and ease of management, providing robust, scalable, and user-friendly network security solutions.
What I like least about WatchGuard Firebox is its cost, as both the initial investment and ongoing subscription fees for security services and updates can be relatively high, potentially posing a challenge for smaller businesses with limited budgets.
Alexander W.
Insurance, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Overall, our experience has been excellent
It works like an enterprise system and gives us confidence that our system is secure while operating in a worry free way. With MFA Authpoint as a companion, to the appliance, we cannot think of any better protection other than e-mail training which we also do.
We had problems in deploying but once done everything worked fine.
Sylvain B.
Cosmetics, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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I'm quite satisfied with the product in general. When I look at the competition, they don't necessarily have the same features that I use, which reassures me to stay with Watchguard.
The various analysis services (IPS, AV, Webblocker, etc.) update themselves, so you can trust the product and have peace of mind.
The commercial policy that forces you to use the Cloud (Wifi) and you get the impression that they're making their product obsolete with the latest update.
Long Yin M.
Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Affordable price, it is good enough for small business.
Simple and easy to use Fast boot up time Simple licensing structure for subscription features
lack of feature or limitation comparing with others, e.g. multi VRF, multi system (context), support of NAT and SSL decryption even in bridge mode ...
diego p.
Food & Beverages, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 1-2 years
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a good experience, the passage from the old firewall was easy, thanks to out partner
Lot of options, ease of configuration, i love the vpn security with 2 factor autentication. A lot of log available
VPN: on android should be an official vpn app real time monitoring: not very easy to monitor
Ian A.
Medical Devices, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Great! Support is very very helpful. They reach out within minutes most of the time.
Support is amazing. Very quick to assist as well as go above and beyond what they normally do.
The Alias use. It is complicated and difficult to train users/techs. After they understand that process it is very easy.
David L.
Information Technology and Services, self-employed
Used daily for 1-2 years
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Overall, my experience with these machines has been very good. On the rare occasions when I need to make config changes to one of them, I can do it remotely from the comfort of my home. As I stated before, once configured correctly, these boxes just sit there and do their job. And on the rare occasions when something doesn't seem to be working as it should, Watchguard support is there to get things back on track.
I have several of these boxes deployed at different customer sites, and despite the fact that I have diverse customers (manufacturing, insurance, trading, etc) with different needs, these machines work well in every one of their environments. What I love about these machines is that they are rock solid; once you get them setup and running, they just do the job day after day. At some of my customer locations, we monitor every packet in and out. I have written Powershell scripts that parse the logs every night and email me a snapshot of what happened, alerting me to anything unusual. Honestly, the most exciting thing that has come from this is that I found what appeared to be a memory leak causing the kernel to glitch, but when I opened a support case on this issue, they already had a fix available for it. We just downloaded the update, applied it, and kept on going.
While I understand the planned obsolescence (i.e. - Product reaching end of life), this is what I like least about these units. Replacing one of these units involves administrative time, and going on site to replace the old unit with the new one. On the plus side though, one can easily export the configuration of the old unit and import it into the new one and be up and running in no time.
Stewart L.
Computer & Network Security, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Like I mentioned, I feel like my experience with Watchguard is pretty vast extending 20 years. It seems to me when we'd use in the early days there were very few options for firewall (and frankly the enterprises they were going into had a completely different security posture then we do today). Now it like there are so many options, but its easy for may to go with Watchguard with such a proven Cybersecurity track record.
We love that fireboxes have a very good windows management program, Watchguard System Manager. Some of the beauty of it is believe it or not at its core design and workflow, it has not really changed all that much. But various time a month or there are feature updates. Which have definitely brought a lot of great features over the years. You can still manage via web portal but the program it powerful for administration.
Cons? After deploying and more over administering Fireboxes you'll hate working with other Firewalls/Routers. That, being said if you've never used one it may take a bit of commitment and possibly even a Watchguard Support call. But dont worry (especially if you got the Total Security suite) the Support services experts are great and patient.
Michael D.
Banking, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Overall experience has been great. We use them for client access VPNs and they are so much easier to work with than the Ciscos we used before.
Very easy to setup and manage. They are also really stable.
I don't have any cons with this product, it handles our functionality perfectly.
Emanuele A.
Packaging and Containers, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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The products are reliable and the failure rate is really low. As a campus firewall it is more than fine. It is losing some competitiveness by comparing it to other competitors when installed as a perimeter firewall
Simplicity of use and ease of operation. The hardware is affibable and diagnostics in case of problems quite simple. The configuration is the same for all models, and the continuity between hardware and software is excellent
In my opinion, development has lost some steps in recent years. There is still a lack of clear level 7 policy management and a lack of counters to understand which policies are being used or not. The new cloud console is not ready and not a viable path for large entities
Stephane L.
Construction, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Very good performance VS price. Easy to set up through web access or Watchguard System Manager. Fast and effective technical support when needed.
Nothing negative to say about the product or service.
Dwight J.
Consumer Electronics, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Its a solid firewall. Doesn't have 2 or 3 or even 4 versions of "current" Firmware due to many bugs (looking at you Fortigate!). Tech support is very good and responsive when you need it.
Easiest firewall policy editor around (still could be even more intuitive) vs. the competitors.
Would like the following features added: * Speed Test right from the firewall. * More granularity to viewing packets in the Traffic Monitor * Logging of firewall policies to be enabled by default * Recommended settings to be highlighted or chosen for you by default