I need a recommendation for a hardware firewall appliance.  Here are
my requirements:

„X	Must be very easy to use
„X	Must be able to turn NAT off and just use it as a firewall for a
bunch of machines with static IPs
„X	Must be managed over a web site (like the linksys and sonicwall
units)
„X	Must be manageable from the outside in a secure way (e.g. https)
„X	Must have VPN (10 simultaneous streams) with good VPN client
software (or use Win xp/2000¡¦s built in VPN client)
„X	Must be able to do port forwarding and have at least 10 mappings
(map 10 different ports to 10 different internal IPs)
„X	Must have a assignable DMZ (where we can switch which computer is
the DMZ from the outside).
„X	Be nice if it was inexpensive, but not a hard requirement
„X	Did I mention, Must be very easy to use!

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

---

Request for Question Clarification by mathtalk-ga on 25 Sep 2003 04:51 PDT

Hi, sherpaj-ga:

It might be helpful for you to explain what "shortcomings" you see in
using one of the easily configured units like the Linksys
router/firewall/NAT.

You mention being able to turn NAT off and "just use it as a
firewall".  I'm not sure how this differs from using NAT with
preassigned "static IPs".

You also ask about VPN clients.  Since this is essentially a software
component that runs on the local and remote computers, it has no
direct bearing on the firewall appliance that I'm aware of.

Clearly there's a learning curve to master if you want finer control
over the firewall process than the simple Linksys interface supports,
but that I suspect is precisely where "very easy to use" will require
clarification.

regards, mathtalk-ga