WatchGuard Firebox M390 review

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This reappraisal first appeared successful rumor 360 of PC Pro.

WatchGuard’s Firebox M390 shows that high-end security appliances don’t ever bid a precocious price. Targeting engaged SMBs pinch up to 250 users, this affordable 1U rack exemplary boasts a apical earthy firewall throughput of 18Gbits/sec, dropping to a respectable 2.4Gbits/sec pinch each UTM information services enabled.

A simplified licensing strategy makes it easy to negociate costs. We’ve shown nan value of a Total Security Suite (TSS) subscription, which enables everything WatchGuard has to offer. This includes gateway antivirus, anti-spam, web contented filtering, exertion controls, intrusion prevention services (IPS) and an precocious persistent threat (APT) blocker pinch unreality sandboxing.

You besides get WatchGuard’s estimation enabled defense (RED) cloud-based URL filtering, ThreatSync XDR for collection, relationship and automated responses to threat events, and DNSWatch to show customer DNS requests and artifact entree to known malicious domains. It has capable powerfulness to tally nan Cylance AI-based IntelligentAV malware scanning engine; nan aged dual-core Celeron successful nan M370 has been upgraded to an 8-core NXP LS2084A CPU.

There’s room to grow, arsenic nan beforehand description bay accepts modules pinch gigabit, 10GbE aliases 2.5GbE multi-gigabit ports. Note that nan PoE+ services connected nan multi-gig module will beryllium abnormal arsenic nan M390 doesn’t support nan required 54V powerfulness supply, which is only disposable connected nan M590 and M690 models.

The appliance is easy to deploy. Its web console wizard sorts retired nan LAN and WAN web interfaces and applies a guidelines group of firewall policies that see blocking communal undesirable web categories. We had already registered nan appliance’s serial number pinch our unreality support relationship truthful nan wizard grabbed our TSS characteristic cardinal and applied it.

Full position of nan WatchGuard Firebox M390

The Firebox M390 offers plentifulness of features for nan price (Image credit: Future)

The M390 tin beryllium managed successful standalone mode, but businesses pinch aggregate appliances will for illustration WatchGuard’s Cloud portal, which is included successful some nan Basic Security Suite (BSS) and TSS subscriptions. Two choices are available: you tin support section guidance and group nan appliance to nonstop its logs to nan unreality for distant monitoring and reporting aliases move it each into nan cloud.

Full cloud management is activated by allocating nan appliance from your relationship inventory and enabling it from nan section console. The portal steps done WAN larboard setup and applying caller admin passwords, aft which nan appliance disables section management.

Cloud configuration is elemental arsenic nan portal groups each information settings for nan appliance successful 1 page. From nan contented scanning conception you activate antivirus scanning, APT blocking, IntelligentAV and anti-spam policies for incoming SMTP, IMAP aliases POP3 traffic.

The web blocking conception covers botnet detection, IPS, larboard and tract blocks and discovery of Tor exit points. WatchGuard’s WebBlocker work is accessed successful nan contented filtering conception and offers 166 URL categories that tin beryllium allowed, blocked aliases group to show a informing page to users.

WatchGuard Firebox M390 dashboard and interface

The Firebox M390 tin beryllium managed locally aliases remotely (Image credit: Future)

Each contented select action argumentation manages some web entree and exertion controls. The second presents astir 1,300 predefined app and protocol signatures, pinch Facebook and X activities getting nan lion’s stock of nan societal networking category. They’re easy to apply; erstwhile creating firewalls rules, you simply take nan action argumentation you want to assign.

The portal’s monitoring page provides a wealthiness of accusation connected each activities. Graphs and charts are provided for unrecorded activity, traffic, detected malware and botnets, exertion usage, blocked websites, apical clients and overmuch more.

The Firebox M390 will entreaty to SMBs pinch a ample personification base. It combines beardown capacity pinch an unthinkable scope of information measures each astatine a competitory price. It’s easy to deploy and WatchGuard’s unreality portal delivers fantabulous distant guidance and monitoring features.

We besides rated nan champion anti-virus package for PC.

Tim Danton

Tim Danton is editor-in-chief of PC Pro, nan UK's biggest trading IT monthly magazine. He specialises successful reviews of laptops, desktop PCs and monitors, and is besides writer of a book called The Computers That Made Britain.

You tin interaction Tim straight at editor@pcpro.co.uk.

What is simply a hands connected review?

Hands connected reviews' are a journalist's first impressions of a portion of kit based connected spending immoderate clip pinch it. It whitethorn beryllium conscionable a fewer moments, aliases a fewer hours. The important point is we person been capable to play pinch it ourselves and tin springiness you immoderate consciousness of what it's for illustration to use, moreover if it's only an embryonic view. For much information, spot TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee.

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