A Powerful Open Source UTM: Untangle Gateway Reviewed

[Joona]

Thanks for the article. Just one thing is that m0n0wall is not a Linux-based firewall but a FreeBSD-based. It doesn't really make any difference in user perspective but just wanted to point it out.
[article link]

 

[scotty]

Wow, great article Stonecat! Well done.

It's too bad I'm not in the consulting biz anymore because I sure would like to give untangle a go. Maybe I'll do a backup of my pfsense config and give untangle a try at home, although as you point out, it's probably a little much for home use - but then again so is pfsense.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yeah I usually abbreviate with "*nix" instead of Linux. Dunno if the editing import fixed that with auto correcting or not.

 

[Bart]

Does untangle essentially do the same as pfsense? Or is pfsense more targeted towards the home user?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Does untangle essentially do the same as pfsense? Or is pfsense more targeted towards the home user?

PFSense wouldn't fall under the "UTM" category. PFSense does not have UTM features such as antivirus scanning, malware protection, phish and spam filtering, etc. I've not read about any plugins that give it those features either, such as the Copfilter add-on for IPCop.

PFSense is a great distro, I run it at home using an older P3 laptop...I love the QoS/Traffic Shaping features...which keep my online gaming smoother, Vonage VoIP calls have better quality.

It's a popular distro for the home user enthusiast..but they also have a good pool of IT guys that use it in the business area, good VPN features, captive portal, etc.

Meanwhile I continue to grumble on my measly 6 meg cable. Wow do I miss Comcast....I had them where I used to live, powerboost bursting up near 30 megs was nice.

 

[Unregistered]

Untangle Vs. Astaro

Hi all,

I've been using UTMs for a while and found Astaro a while back. It sounds like it's the same kind of deal as Untangle. I was wondering if anyone has tried both and has any input before I dangle my feet in the pool of Untangle, which would require me to install on my current UTM.

Thanks

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Hi all,

I've been using UTMs for a while and found Astaro a while back. It sounds like it's the same kind of deal as Untangle. I was wondering if anyone has tried both and has any input before I dangle my feet in the pool of Untangle, which would require me to install on my current UTM.

Thanks

I had intended on checking out Astaro last summer or fall....somehow the free home demo never made it to me, I got stuck in a loop of Astaro sales people calling me....so I gave up. "I just wanted to try out the freebie home one guys...stop calling me!"

This question has surfaced over on Untangles forums a few times...here's one of the threads, sure a lot of fanboys posting in it, but there are a couple of good detailed biased threads.
http://forums.untangle.com/showthread.php?t=1495&highlight=astaro
It's an older thread, Untangle has gone through 2x version releases since then (major changes/upgrades in SPAM filter, QoS has been added, etc) but you can get a good sense of things from taking a few minutes to read it.

 

[scotty]

I had intended on checking out Astaro last summer or fall....somehow the free home demo never made it to me, I got stuck in a loop of Astaro sales people calling me....so I gave up. "I just wanted to try out the freebie home one guys...stop calling me!"

This question has surfaced over on Untangles forums a few times...here's one of the threads, sure a lot of fanboys posting in it, but there are a couple of good detailed biased threads.
http://forums.untangle.com/showthread.php?t=1495&highlight=astaro
It's an older thread, Untangle has gone through 2x version releases since then (major changes/upgrades in SPAM filter, QoS has been added, etc) but you can get a good sense of things from taking a few minutes to read it.

+1, I called Astaro once for some basic info, and then they wouldn't stop calling me every month wondering if/when I wanted to purchase. The guy on the other end of the line was usually pretty nice, but they sure were trying to reel in a sale.

I haven't looked into Astaro for a while, but from the looks of it in StoneCat's article, Untange is very competitive. By default I would default to thinking the Untangle is the better product and Astaro would have to prove it's worth the premium price.