Which entry-level/Multi-WAN/Firewall router or appliance vendor do you resell/distrib

I Know that Cisco, Juniper Network, Mikrotik are one of the best and popular vendors of networking equipment.

Besides the well-known vendors mentioned above do you guys use, provide, resell or distribute networking equipment from least popular or unknown emerging vendors out there. It could be providers of entry level routers or firewall routers/appliances vendors like Sonic Wall, Fortigate and others I am not aware of.

The company that I am with is distributing Cyberoam security appliances and other vendors that provide entry level and Multi-WAN routers, switches, etc. So I just wanted to find out if anyone here works for those kind of company and if they are experts with those products and to know if network engineer or someone in the networking field should expect to come across such companies and if most or all the company you worked for specialize in Cisco equipment period?

I am curious to to hear your experiences on this. Thanks.

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Comments

kohr-ah

We use fortigates. A lot of them. I think they are great firewalls once you get over the learning curve.

pevangel

I work with Palo Altos and we sell them as well. They are great firewalls and have great routing capabilities.

Snow.bros

So are you getting training on these product and what kind of training (Take a course, watch training videos or onsite training), are you certified to support these products?

kohr-ah

My work lacks very hard on the training department and the fortinet certification program I have no interest in as I am not a reseller.

Most the ways I have learned are they have a great documentation system that is very straight forward. They also gave us a fortinet 90d for us to have that is not company owned for me to learn at home (which I use as my home firewall)

pevangel

I had a bit of training. Watched a few videos and attended training session with PA. Most of the stuff I just learned from working with it and searching How-Tos online.

I have their accreditation but never went to take the CNSE. It's not my main focus so I haven't taken the time to study for it.

TLeTourneau

I often recommend Watchgaurd in the SMB segment. Good products that are relatively affordable and easy to use.

muneebkalathil

How about pfSense ??

Levithan

haha, i like this

has anyone deployed them commercially?

TLeTourneau

Watchgaurd? Yes, several times to several clients.

kohr-ah

When I worked at the MSP we saw pfsense once in a while on smaller clients but we would never deploy them. Fantastic firewall though for that purpose or home/vm lab

muneebkalathil

pfSense will be great for Small - Medium .
In our college, pfSense is the main gateway for 2 LAN about 100+ Systems and few Wifi Access Points.

One of my project is to Package & Sell pfSense Commerically ...

pfSense - Open Source & Free

joelsfood

I see a lot of pFSense and Sonicwall among my small-medium clients.

Snow.bros

I hear you saying that learning these products isn't your main focus or it's not that interesting to learn which makes me question the importance of learning about these products because the company is selling them and you have been hired to support the services that company offers to their customers and there are many reseller companies out there, so how important is it to get familiar with these products career wise or is it something that the company that you work for should worry about because I can see these product or this type scenario don't get talked about as much as Cisco products or Juniper product but some of us do come across such companies that sell these products that we are unlikely educated or have experience about.

joelsfood

Certification/training from Cisco, Juniper, etc applies across multiple jobs. Certification in something like Sonicwall is really only worth it if your company needs it for your VAR/partner status, as it really won't help you do your job or find new jobs (based on fact that their documentation is pretty good, so learning it won't help you vs just looking things up as needed). Just my .02, and obviously the path I've found, looking to the left at my cert list.

creamy_stew

Fortigate. Love the hardware/software. Probably the best bang for the buck.

Support is so-so, though. Compared to Cisco TAC, it's a joke. I rarely use it, though.

pevangel

I've learned enough that I can support it but I haven't put in the effort to go after the certification. The partnership with other vendors are a bit different than Juniper/Cisco that requires certain amount of people to have certifications. We are Gold Partners for a product that nobody in the company has a certification for, so there's really no push for us to get them.

The certification for those products also doesn't give you much personal gain because you don't have much competition. I put in the name of those products I support in my resume and that's enough to get noticed. Not many other people have those credentials especially the products we support/sell that are used in the ISP and Optical Transport realm only.

kohr-ah

@Snow.Bros

I have learned that the main name certifications are what is recognized on my resume which is why I don't get the ones like Fortinet. The time and effort dont give me a valid return investment I have a very good understanding of the product and fixes to support them however.

The other thing too is a lot of this stuff carries over to other products. Fortinet cli is basically juniper with some changes. Policies are rules on other firewalls, etc. We use Cisco ASA, Checkpoints, and Fortinets at my work each one has its quirks but in the end it helped knowing one to give an idea where to find a solution in the other.

Even if my company had Palo alto I wouldn't get certified in them because I simply don't see a request for that certification ever around here. Would I read the books or even the cert books? Sure to gain the knowledge from it.

When I did managed services we had to get certified in off products because if we didn't the company wouldn't get the premier support contract from the manufacturer for warranty purposes etc.

@creamy_stew oh good Odin. I can't agree more about the support

oxymoron5k

My old job used Mikrotik exclusively. They are a very good brand and they can handle just about anything if you can learn how to configure them!

Snow.bros

I am not a Mikrotik expert or engineer yet but my boss and manager are quiet impressed With the product, it's used as much as Cisco products in our environment. I thought it was one of the popular products out there but judging by the response guess I thought wrong.

--chris--

We use/resell Cyberoam (Sophos brand). Their support is by far the best of the SMB firewalls and the interface is more intuitive. Only a moderate increase in price over a WatchGuard or SonicWall (+20%).

The biggest selling point for us is their support. I can raise a tech and have them remoted in/troubleshooting in less than 15 minutes almost everytime. I have never been told to put an email in and wait for contact (Watchguard) or to wait for escalation (SonicWall). They will even work on other vendors firewalls if its got something to do with their product. I botched the local ID in a IPSec tunnel last week, the CR tech took at a look at the config of the other vendors firewall and pointed it out then made the change for me.

TR4V1STY

I work for a small 'MSP' in a semi-rural area. We use Sonicwalls for all of our new small business clients.

I found Sonicwall's GUI quite confusing. The way all of the 'objects' are organized is very weird to me. I like MS ISA server's interface (now known as Forefront)

eansdad

TR4V1STY wrote: »

I work for a small 'MSP' in a semi-rural area. We use Sonicwalls for all of our new small business clients.

I'm in the same boat except that I've deployed a ZeXel USG60 UTM and manage a Sophos UTM and Untangle box. We also have some clients that run ASA 5505's but we don't really ever need to do much with them.

DPG

We usually stick to Check Point 61000's for our SMB customers.

creamy_stew

DPG wrote: »

We usually stick to Check Point 61000's for our SMB customers.

Yeah, they're alright if you don't need to do too much IPS/AV stuff

/creamy

rsutton

We use Meraki for entry level multi-WAN firewalls. They are great.

ThePrimetimer

At my MSP, we are moving towards SonicWalls. I don't mind them at all. The more you work with them, the better you'll get at configuring what you need to. I'm scheduled to go through their certification due to the fact that we are moving exclusively to them for any future clients. We have had the random clients that use ASA 5505s, Fortinet, Meraki, Cisco 800, WatchGaurd.

My preference is on the SonicWalls as I enjoy their GUI. The worst have to be Meraki for me. Just feels like there is items that are not configurable on them when you need them to be. However, I will give kudos to their support. Quick response and resolution. SonicWalls support was pretty good. The 5505s you just set up and go, end of story.

The best is when you on-board a new client and asses their equipment to find that they are running Linksys or NetGear based home routers for legitimate business use cause there is absolutely no reason to spend any money on these things.