SonicWall NSv (Firewall/Security/VPN/Router) - PAYG

My main use case for SonicWall NSv  involves the typical configuration for port shield configuration with HA mode. The implementation was very difficult for me, and I faced issues related to port shield configuration in HA. I am working on the implementation part and have completed multiple projects of SonicWall 2700, 4700, 4300, and multiple firewalls including 2300, 2700, and seventh generation firewalls. Additionally, I am also working on SonicWall NSM.

Currently, my main use case involves configuring the Azure  integration for multiple users and customers. Configuring Azure  integration is a good approach that allows us to implement with Azure AD .

In my experience, the best feature SonicWall NSv  offers is its stateful HA, which functions without any impact, ensuring a zero impact failover. This is an excellent feature in SonicWall NSv, and the management of security services is also very easy, which helps in capturing threats and unknown malware.

The stateful feature helps me on a daily basis, especially in critical environments, as customers do not need to experience any downtime during the failover. If any hardware fails, it can continue to work with zero impact failover.

SonicWall NSv has positively impacted my organization, particularly because we need to configure multiple policies for internet access or NAT and port forwarding. Configuring different policies is required, and we can see multiple options on a single page. After making changes, I have not encountered any issues; everything was working very well.

While I have not encountered significant challenges, during the configuration part, I noticed that some features, such as user-based policy for web filtering, are not available in SonicWall NSv compared to other firewalls. For dedicated users, we cannot allow a particular website category in a single policy, which is available in Sophos.

I find the features of SonicWall NSv similar to other firewalls, but I believe that application-based QoS policy is very important given the current environment. This feature should be available for application QoS as well in this firewall.

For implementation, I suggest that having a single page to view multiple options would enhance SonicWall NSv. Additionally, the report and logging part is challenging since identifying blocked websites based solely on default logging is quite difficult. Improved logging and reporting capabilities should be available on-box, including at least seven days of reporting and logs.

I have been using SonicWall NSv for the last three to four years.

In my experience, SonicWall NSv is quite stable when deployed on-premises, and there is no significant impact on the server. We have conducted multiple labs within our organization for testing as well.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate SonicWall NSv a nine. It offers very good features, and it is stable compared to other OEMs. For example, I can compare it to Sophos, which has experienced some hardware issues. SonicWall NSv is a robust appliance that has not failed during my five to six years of working with it, as I have not had to initiate an RMA for SonicWall.

SonicWall NSv software is very scalable, comparable to other OEMs. In comparison to Sophos, SonicWall has its proprietary OS, SonicOS, which enhances its scalability.

Customer support for SonicWall NSv is very good. Whenever I create a case regarding any issue, their support is prompt and effective, adhering to the SLA, which leaves our customers very satisfied.

I sometimes receive calls from our customers regarding issues such as firewall login failures due to firmware problems. We recovered from a firmware crash by logging in safe mode, performing OS upgrades, and reinstalling firmware, which solved the issue. This is the main outcome we have received from customers, and generally, everything works fine with the solution; it is indeed a very good solution compared to other OEMs.

As of now, nothing specific comes to mind that I can propose as add-on features for SonicWall NSv. If I receive any responses or suggestions from customers, I will certainly raise a feature request to SonicWall.

I chose a rating of nine out of ten for SonicWall NSv instead of a perfect ten because Palo Alto and Cisco firewalls excel in threat detection and analysis, which SonicWall NSv can improve. SonicWall NSv does a good job, but some threats that are captured successfully by Palo Alto and Cisco are sometimes missed in SonicWall NSv.

For anyone considering SonicWall NSv, if a customer does not want to install any hardware in their on-premises network, recommending SonicWall NSv is a good option. Most customers are using on-premises servers such as VMware or Hyper-V , making it a cost-effective choice.

From my end, I have shared all that I can for now. If I receive any further responses from customers or if any questions arise, I will ensure to suggest ideas and inquiries to our contact at SonicWall SE, with whom we are already in touch. My overall review rating for SonicWall NSv is nine out of ten.

My main use case for SonicWall NSv  is user management and protection.

I use SonicWall NSv  for adding users to our network and ensuring that security.

The best features SonicWall NSv offers are its user-friendliness and ease of access.

SonicWall NSv is user-friendly and easy to access due to how it is generally set up.

SonicWall NSv has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to scale growth without having to constantly reinvent our processes.

SonicWall NSv has helped us scale growth and avoid reinventing processes by providing us with latency visibility, showing us how many people we can add and how we can scale through that capacity.

I do not have anything that comes to mind regarding how SonicWall NSv can be improved.

I have been using SonicWall NSv for probably the last six months to a year, and I have used similar solutions in different companies throughout my career.

SonicWall NSv is stable.

SonicWall NSv's scalability is scalable and very easy.

The customer support for SonicWall NSv is good.

We switched between a couple of products before SonicWall NSv, and I was always more satisfied with SonicWall NSv.

I evaluated other options before choosing SonicWall NSv.

I would advise others looking into using SonicWall NSv to use it as it is helpful and helps businesses do what they need to do while giving them the protection that they need.

I would rate this product a 7 out of 10.

I primarily use SonicWall NSv  to protect cloud servers. I created firewall rules, check traffic, enable IPS, and use it for VPN access.

My main use case was securing the cloud server. I use SonicWall NSv  to control incoming and outgoing traffic and to block threats in the cloud.

In one setup, I had to deploy SonicWall NSv on Azure . I created a virtual machine from a SonicWall image, assigned a network interface, and connected it between the internet and the cloud servers. After deployment, I configured basic firewall rules and NAT. In another setup, I configured SSL VPN  for remote users. I created user accounts, assigned them to the VPN group, and configured the portal. The user connected through the SonicWall NSv VPN client and accessed the cloud server securely.

The best feature SonicWall NSv offers is its simple and clean interface that makes it easy to create rules, check logs, and manage security, even in the cloud. The IDS and IPS features work well and block common attacks, scanning attempts, and malicious traffic before it reaches the cloud servers. SonicWall NSv manages very stable VPN connectivity, as seen in the SSL VPN  example where remote users can connect securely to cloud resources without issues.

There are many features available, including application control features that can detect and control applications in the traffic. This helps block unnecessary or risky applications. Additionally, SonicWall NSv supports NAT and routing very easily, which is important for hosting applications in the cloud. The most valuable aspect is that it is lightweight and flexible compared to other cloud firewalls, and you can scale the VM size up or down based on your needs.

SonicWall NSv has reduced the risk of attack, which is very impactful for any organization, especially larger organizations. With IPS and threat protections enabled, the risk of attack and malware on cloud workloads is reduced significantly. You can have centralized management where you control everything centrally, giving you one place to manage all cloud security rules, VPNs, IPS, and monitoring. This makes management easier for the IT team. Since it is a virtual firewall, you do not need physical hardware, which reduced costs and removed the hardware maintenance effort. It has improved cloud security, reduced attack risk, allowed secure remote access, saved hardware costs, and made management simple for the IT team.

There is minimal room for improvement, perhaps one to two percent. The reporting and analytics should be improved. The reports could be more detailed and easier to customize.

I have been working in my current field as a network security consultant for more than five years.

SonicWall NSv has been stable in our environment. We had no major downtime. From user feedback, it has been rated around eight to nine out of ten for stability.

One challenge was the initial setup. Some options were not very clear in the beginning, so it took some time to configure everything properly. The second challenge was performance. When the traffic increased, we had to upgrade the VM size, otherwise it would slow down. Performance totally depends on the VM size.

Customer support for SonicWall NSv is excellent.

One challenge was the initial setup. Some options were not very clear in the beginning, so it took some time to configure everything properly. The information provided was very knowledgeable and very helpful.

The return on investment was approximately five thousand to eight thousand dollars in savings.

The licensing cost was a bit higher compared to other options, but it is negligible.

SonicWall NSv is very helpful to deploy and manage. Everything can be managed easily and it is very simple, so I cannot justify switching to other options.

My advice is to select the correct VM size. There could be a little bit of improvement regarding the VM size selection to ensure optimal performance. My overall rating for this product is eight out of ten.