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Get Tips for Scalable Security, Connectivity and Content Filtering
Discover how in this "Student Connectivity and Security report.
On-campus connectivity is critical, but when students take WiFi enabled devices home, can they connect to the internet? Is your network safe from a potential data breach?
Get this report from THE Journal to discover how to:
- Deliver internet access outside the classroom
- Practice your response to data breaches
- Safeguard private information
- Use state-of-the-art filtering to maintain CIPA compliance
- Extend filtering off-campus
Configuring a SOHO Firewall
After investing in a SOHO firewall for your business, it’s important that you configure it properly in order to get the most out of your purchase. The SOHO setup is much easier than you may think, so long as you follow the instructions correctly for the SOHO router configuration. Here at Sonicwall-sales, we are ready to support small and medium-sized businesses that are looking to improve their network security this year. Keep reading as we share our top tips for your SOHO setup to help make this process quicker and easier than you could ever imagine.
SOHO Network Setup
When you first purchase a SOHO firewall, you might be wondering what steps you need to take to complete the SOHO network setup. The good news is that there are many options to help you configure a small office router. The firewall in your SonicWall SOHO3 is capable of protecting your business for years to come, stopping anyone from accessing your internal network. Some SonicWall SOHO firewall products offer you the option to configure your IP address within the internal network. This allows some people to access a device without being allowed access to your internal network. Configuring a firewall SOHO is all about finding the right options for your business and setting it up in a way that will offer you the protection you need from potential cybercriminals.
Some SOHO routers have the option to configure the settings with a default DMZ server. From there, you add the IP address from the device, which would have access from the internet connection. Most SOHO routers come ready for use, so no extra configuration is needed from your side. This is why they are such a user-friendly product which can be trusted by individuals operating a business from their homes. With over 20 billion devices connected to the internet around the world, it’s more important than ever before to ensure you protect yourself. You never know when you could be the victim of cybercrime, but our team is here to reduce the chance of this ever happening.
Network Address Translation
One functionality that you’ll find inside most SOHO routers is the Network Address Translation functionality, which is often called the Source Network Address Translation. You will sometimes hear this referred to as the Port Address Translation, or PAT, which translates all the internal IP addresses to appear like they are one IP address when connected to the internet. This allows you to have up to thousands of devices within one internal network while still looking like it’s just one device on the internet.
You may want to add a port forwarding function to your SOHO router, which offers additional security. This can be talked about as Destination NAT or Station NAT, where you change the destination IP address for any inbound traffic. This can help to offer you extra protection when working online. You’ll also want to decide if you need to use the Universal Plug and Play option. This means you can configure your SOHO router at any time to other devices on the network, making it quicker and easier to make changes as necessary. These settings really help to offer you full control over your firewall, which is something any business owner will appreciate.
Quality of Service Configurations
While not every SOHO router is able to support Quality of Service configurations, when they do, you’ll enjoy far more control over the applications and the priority placement they receive on your network. This can be based on the priorities for the type of application you are using, the port numbers that are in use, the IP address, and any other settings you might want to configure. A SonicWall firewall offers you a great level of customisation for your business, which will help to offer you that extra level of protection we all need in this day and age. No matter how big or small your business is, it’s never too late to make changes to your security setup. Our team will be happy to recommend the best option for your business needs. We know the unique challenges that small businesses are facing and will find the right SonicWall firewall to assist you.
A SOHO firewall is an amazing investment for businesses of all sizes. Even small businesses should have an additional layer of security protection in place, which can help to set you up for success when operating your business online. Our team knows everything there is to know about SonicWall firewalls and can recommend which solution would be the best fit for your business. Contact us today to discuss SonicWall firewalls and any questions you have about configuring a SOHO firewall. We’ll be happy to support you throughout the installation and configuration process so that you enjoy years of protection in the future from this powerful firewall.
*** SonicWall enters an exciting new era ***
SonicWALL becomes a separate standalone company again, and we're pleased!
For more information, and an introduction from the new CEO - Bill Conner, see link below.
Firewall Migration Tool
SonicWALL have developed a migration portal to assist moving the configuration from an older SonicWALL firewall, or from some competitors product.
Generally, you can export a config (.exp file) from an older SonicWALL and import into a newer firewall with few issues. If you have problems you can use the migration tool.
If you are replacing a Cisco PIX/ASA, Check Point, Juniper, Palo Alto, Fortinet or Watchguard with a new SonicWALL this may help - although in a lot of cases you may want to manually configure from factory to check all is relevant.
SonicWALL Capture Advanced Threat Protection Service
Dell SonicWALL Capture, a cloud based service available with Dell SonicWALL firewalls, revolutionizes advanced threat detection and sandboxing with a multi-engine approach to stopping unknown and zero-day attacks at the gateway, and with automated remediation. Customers benefit from high security effectiveness, fast response times and reduced total cost of ownership.
Datasheet: SonicWALL Capture Advanced Threat Protection Service
Features
Multi-engine advanced threat analysis
SonicWALL Capture extends firewall threat protection to detect and prevent zero-day attacks. The firewall inspects traffic and detects and blocks known malware and intrusions. Suspicious files are sent to the SonicWALL Capture cloud service for analysis. The multi-engine sandbox platform includes virtualized sandboxing, full system emulation, and hypervisor-level analysis technology. It executes suspicious code and analyzes behavior, thus providing comprehensive visibility to malicious activity, while resisting evasion tactics and maximizing zero-day threat detection.
Broad file type analysis and no file size limitation
SonicWALL Capture supports analysis of files of any size and for a broad range of file types, including executable programs (PE), DLL, PDFs, MS Office documents, archives, JAR, and APK. Plus, it supports multiple operating systems, including Windows, Android, and Mac OSX environments. Administrators can customize protection by selecting or excluding files to be sent to the cloud for analysis, including by file type, file size, sender, recipient and protocol. In addition, administrators can manually submit files to the cloud service for analysis.
Block until verdict
To prevent potentially malicious files from entering the network, files sent to the cloud for analysis can be held at the gateway until a verdict is determined.
Rapid deployment of remediation signatures
When a file is identified as malicious, a signature is immediately deployed to firewalls with SonicWALL Capture subscriptions to prevent follow-on attacks. In addition, the malware is submitted to the Dell SonicWALL threat intelligence team for further analysis and inclusion of threat information into the Global Response Intelligent Defense Network (GRID) Gateway Anti-Virus and IPS signature databases and the URL, IP and domain reputation databases within 48 hours.
Reporting and alerts
SonicWALL Capture provides an at-a-glance dashboard and reports that detail the analysis results for files sent to the service, including session information, OS information, OS activity, and network activity. Firewall log alerts provide notification of suspicious files sent to the SonicWALL Capture service for analysis and results.
Seven Ways to Help Avoid A Ransomware Crisis
New 1 Year Secure Upgrade Promotion
We have today launched the latest promotion - the Gen4/Gen5 Secure Upgrade Program. This is for existing customers with older SonicWALL firewall appliances wishing to move to the current TZ400, TZ500 or TZ600 model.
These special models include:
1. The latest generation SonicWALL firewall hardware appliance
2. A 1 Year subscription to the Comprehensive Gateway Security Suite (CGSS)
CGSS incorporates: Gateway Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware, Intrusion Prevention Service, Content (URL) Filtering, Application Visibility & Control, BOTNET Control, DPI-SSL Support, GEO IP Support, advance replacement hardare, telephone/web support, software/firmware updates.
Dell Security Announces SonicOS 6.2.5 for Dell SonicWALL Next-Generation Firewalls
We are very excited to share with you the SonicOS 6.2.5 release for our 6th
generation Dell SonicWALL TZ, NSA and SuperMassive Next-Generation
firewalls. SonicOS 6.2.5 brings many new features that span across SMB,
distributed enterprise and high-end deployments. Further, SonicOS 6.2.5
simplifies support for Dell Security partners by offering a single
software platform for majority of the 6th generation Dell SonicWALL firewalls.
Highlights of SonicOS 6.2.5
- SMB and distributed enterprises are challenged by the diverse management solutions involved in managing the security, switching and wireless access points for their network infrastructure. With the new Dell X-Series switch integration feature, SonicOS 6.2.5 delivers a consolidated management of all network infrastructure including TZ firewalls, X-Series switches, SonicPoints and WAN Acceleration devices from within the TZ Series firewalls.
- Recently published 2016 Dell Security Annual Threat Report
highlighted the surge in encrypted traffic as one of the major trends
observed in 2016. With the need to address effective TLS/SSL inspection,
multiple DPI SSL Enhancementshave been added to the new SonicOS 6.2.5 release. Few of these key enhancements include but not limited to –
- CFS category-based exclusion/inclusion of encrypted connections for efficient standards compliance (PCI, HIPPA)
- Strengthened Encryption Methods (TLS 1.2, SHA256)
- Increased default Certificate Authority (CA) database
- Improved troubleshooting for encrypted connection failures with one-click exclude
- Finer granularity for encrypted connection exclusions based on alternate domain names (excluding youtube.com vs. *.google.com)
- Refreshed GUI for easy-to-use configuration of encrypted connection processing
- Increased SSL Connection counts for NSA and SM Series firewalls
- Unified Capabilities (UC) Approved Product List (APL) enhancements – Dell SonicWALL firewalls are now qualified for use by Department of Defense (DoD) agencies in the United States. Multiple enhancements including addition of new administrator roles, Out-of-band management, enhanced audit logging and IPv6 features were added to support UC APL certification that is now available for all customers running SonicOS 6.2.5.
- Firewall Sandwich support and Wire mode VLAN translation features provide flexible and scalable solutions for datacenter deployments
- Gateway Anti-Virus Detection Only Mode to support deployments where traffic containing viruses are logged but not blocked.
- Flexible DPI actions for administrators to exclude/include traffic by protocols/DPI service/Application rule action.
- Botnet Source identification in AppFlow Monitor to quickly view the individual user of IP address associated with the detected applications.
- Wireless DFS Certification for FCC U-NII (Unlicensed-National Information Infrastructure) to ensure compliance for all customer Dell SonicWALL wireless appliances (SonicPoint ACe/ACi/N2)
This is exactly what our partners and customers are asking for. Our partners are active in the SonicOS 6.2.5 beta and are looking forward to all of these rich features to provide even greater security to their customers.
“We are excited about the SonicOS 6.2.5 release because it delivers the ability to control the most crucial elements of your network from a single pane of glass. Customers can now manage the Internet Security Appliance, Secure Wireless Network, and Network Switching from a single console. This is great news for customers and IT administrators, as it simplifies administration and support. This is a big gain for distributed enterprise as well, as this release also allows each of these components to be controlled from the SonicWALL Global Management System. Western NRG is excited to have this functionality available in our own GMS instance, where we support hundreds of our customers' Dell SonicWALL’s,†said Tim Martinez, CEO of Western NRG, a premier Dell SonicWALL Partner.
With the SonicOS 6.2.5 release we have made huge strides to make the life of a security officer easier to do more with less and reduce the complexity of network management. All of the important enhancements of this release are available at no additional cost to customers with valid support contracts for Dell SonicWALL Next-Generation Firewalls or Unified Threat Management appliances. SonicOS 6.2.5 firmware is available as an Early Availability release onwww.mysonicwall.comfor customers with a valid support contract.
SonicOS 6.2.5 is available on the following platforms:
- SOHO W, TZ300, TZ300 W, TZ400, TZ400 W, TZ500, TZ500 W, TZ600
- NSA 2600, NSA 3600, NSA 4600, NSA 5600, NSA 6600
- SuperMassive SM 9200, SM 9400, SM 9600
SonicWALL Capture Advanced Threat Protection Service
Multi-engine advanced threat analysis
SonicWALL Capture extends firewall threat protection to detect and prevent zero-day attacks. The firewall inspects traffic and detects and blocks known malware and intrusions. Suspicious files are sent to the SonicWALL Capture cloud service for analysis. The multi-engine sandbox platform includes virtualized sandboxing, full system emulation, and hypervisor-level analysis technology. It executes suspicious code and analyzes behavior, thus providing comprehensive visibility to malicious activity, while resisting evasion tactics and maximizing zero-day threat detection.
Broad file type analysis and no file size limitation
SonicWALL Capture supports analysis of files of any size and for a broad range of file types, including executable programs (PE), DLL, PDFs, MS Office documents, archives, JAR, and APK. Plus, it supports multiple operating systems, including Windows, Android, and Mac OSX environments. Administrators can customize protection by selecting or excluding files to be sent to the cloud for analysis, including by file type, file size, sender, recipient and protocol. In addition, administrators can manually submit files to the cloud service for analysis.
Block until verdict
To prevent potentially malicious files from entering the network, files sent to the cloud for analysis can be held at the gateway until a verdict is determined.
Rapid deployment of remediation signatures
When a file is identified as malicious, a signature is immediately deployed to firewalls with SonicWALL Capture subscriptions to prevent follow-on attacks. In addition, the malware is submitted to the Dell SonicWALL threat intelligence team for further analysis and inclusion of threat information into the Global Response Intelligent Defense Network (GRID) Gateway Anti-Virus and IPS signature databases and the URL, IP and domain reputation databases within 48 hours.
Reporting and alerts
SonicWALL Capture provides an at-a-glance dashboard and reports that detail the analysis results for files sent to the service, including session information, OS information, OS activity, and network activity. Firewall log alerts provide notification of suspicious files sent to the SonicWALL Capture service for analysis and results.
Important update on SonicPoint support on the SOHO & TZ300 models
Dell SonicWALL have made a significant change to the number of supported SonicPoints on the SOHO and TZ300 models. Initially, both of these devices would support 16 SonicPoints but have now be amended to support 2 & 8 respectively. In the case of the SOHO this appears to be from firmware 5.9.1.4. If running 5.9.1.3 and below you can still run up to 16 SonicPoints.
