Re: Anyone have any informed opinions on the watchguardproduct line?

[jseymour () linxnet com (Jim Seymour)]

"Paul D. Robertson" <paul () compuwar net> wrote:
>
[snip]
> Personally, I'm finding the Windows-only GUI more and more of a problem. 

I've never liked GUI-only administration.  IME, some operations are
well-suited to the GUI, some better-suited to a command-line and
scripting.
 
> Suddenly, if I want to make rule changes, I've got to boot up Parallels 
> and XP- normally that takes getting out an external drive and  closing 
> other apps I'm working on to free up enough memory on my MacBook.

I don't even routinely use an i[3456]86-based system.  My home machine
is a Sparc Solaris box.  At work I'm on a Sparc Solaris box.  If they
weren't Sparc Solaris boxen, they'd be '86-based 'nix systems of one
flavour or another.

I have a work-provided '86-based laptop that dual-boots Ubuntu Linux
and WinXP.  The only time I run WinXP is in testing-out new/upgrade
app deployments for the desktops, or trouble-shooting an issue for an
end-user.  MS-Win is only used for *one* network administrative
purpose: A "toy" RAS we have that has only a MS-Win GUI admin tool.
(*I* never would have bought it--it came as the result of a business
acquisition and I haven't been able to justify the cost of replacing it
with more suitable network hardware.)

>                                                                    Is 
> there any chance we'll see either a cross-plaform, command-line  or 
> Web-based GUI any time soon?

That might put Watchguard back on my list of solutions for
consideration--when the time came.

I remove network infrastructure products from consideration immediately
if they have only a MS-Windows-based GUI administration facility.  In
fact: I tend to avoid products that are limited to GUI-based
administration.  I'm a belt-and-suspenders kind of a guy.  I like to
retain the ability to log in via dialup and telnet to my network
hardware.  If an Internet connection dies I can still get in and deal
with my networks.  If a WAN circuit dies I can still access the remote
location and trouble-shoot the problem from both ends.  Etc.
Efficiently.  Without the overhead of IP-over-creaky-dialup.

Jim
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