Re: Secure Computing Sidewinder?

[Paul Hutchings <paul () spamcop net>]

On 10 Jun 2008, at 16:45, K K wrote:

> Up until last week, my employer was a Sidewinder customer,
> and I still run an unofficial user's group for the product :)
>
> We are moving off  Sidewinder G2 solely because of the price.  After
> having gone over five years without a serious security incident, my
> employer does not see the value in keeping "military grade" (their
> words, not mine) security, and wants to move to a more relaxed
> perimeter.

Yeah an interesting observation actually.

When I looked, replacing the ISA Server actually would cost more than  
a 210E.  Now granted the 210E is the baby of the range, but looking  
at the specifications, and considering that we wouldn't be doing  
stuff like IPS, Smartfilter and Antivirus, the specs look good enough  
for our user count/connectivity.

I've got the eval unit for another couple of weeks so I'm slowly  
going through all the options.  So far it's little things that are  
tripping my up like being able to have a rule where users access is  
authenticated against their AD account and they're granted access  
only if they're members of a certain group - it can be done but it  
seems a little kludgy.

I am also impressed with the Sidewinders credentials, I was googling  
and found a few links about "meshnet" where they're basically putting  
the things in tanks as firewalls for battlefield communications  
systems - I know companies like to exaggerate their credentials but  
that one does seem pretty impressive.

I also take the point about ISA Server basically being Windows with a  
firewall "bolted on", that's my perception too.  OK ours is behind a  
hardware appliance but I'm still quite mindful that it's an  
application plus an operating system that are, to all intents,  
maintained as two separate entities, and IMO the documentation on ISA  
server isn't great, and unless you're a huge company you can't just  
pick up the phone/email MS with a minor query etc.

Like I said I have a unit in our workshop on eval for a couple or  
three weeks, obviously I've read/am reading the manual, but if  
there's any "must see" features or anything I should really check out  
please do let me know on or off list.
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