Re: RE: What firewall for small medical research lab

[daryl.adams () hotmail com]

Hi Bill/ Alice, et al.

Like Grand Pa said, "cheap is good, free is better." I'm not sure that applies to security hardware though. You might 
go back and revisist your risk assessment for your environment, maybe that'll give you some additional justification 
for this security expenditure to boost you up into a low cost, quality solution. I think the total management and 
maintenance cost of a freeware solution alone will be justification enough. I'm not sure what your userbase looks like, 
or what kind of bandwidth requirements you have, but if it were me, I'd give serious attention to the Netscreen product 
line, the NS5GT is very robust, low cost, it scales well, is low cost, low learning curve, and will address at least 
some issues with application layer filtering that may be an issue for you now or in the future, beyond a simple packet 
filter. If the 5GT is too small, you might have a look at a 208. Dependant on your purchasing procedures, you may be 
able to leverage EBay to get a bargain. 

Rgds and G'Luck.