Wrap Up

It's been awhile since I spent time with a Sonicwall product and I'd forgotten what a pleasure it is to work with SonicOS-based devices. I guess one really can't expect the feature set of a consumer router to be the comparable to a product costing many times its price. But a few days with the TZW have served as a good reminder of how little the user interfaces of consumer products have improved over the past few years. Sure, the admin screens may have gotten a little more pleasing to look at, but ease-of-use remains just a catchphrase and decent logging and monitoring features still a gleam in some product manager's eye (somewhere... I hope!) in consumer gateway-land.

On the other hand, the average home user would probably raise holy hell if Linksys, NETGEAR or any of the other guys tried to charge $115 for a one-year "8 X 5" support contract, without which they wouldn't even be able to download firmware updates, never mind access email or phone-based support!

But all that considered, I think small businesses and even well-heeled consumers may just have had their prayers answered. The TZW provides an easy-to-use way to both securely connect a couple of locations and support bullet-proof wireless client connectivity. And it does it all in a way that doesn't require a degree in rocket science to set up! But be warned... once you try the TZW, you may never be able to go back to the cheap stuff again!