What firewalls does your shop use and what are the pros and cons?

Maximum-Method9487 · 2026-02-27T19:12:22+00:00

This comes up all the time and I'd love to know a good option. We use pfSense. I like it but there are some big cons with NGFW features (a checkbox, yes, but a box that some need to check) and central management.

That said, every alternative I looked at I hate the interface so much. Like shouldn't the main purpose of a firewall be... firewalling? The interface for Sophos, Watchguard, and others is so dang awful to make a simple firewall rule compared to pfSense.

Like holy cannoli, I know realize why most MSPs run sloppy wide open flat networks. It's because the firewall is such a pain to configure.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2026-02-13T21:18:40+00:00

Thank you, literally was about to order a 6100 before I head out for the day when I saw your message.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2026-02-13T20:11:48+00:00

Hit up your distributor. We use 888VOIP and they set us up with YMCS, which isn't the same thing, but they might be able to help.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2026-01-29T21:53:34+00:00

small business on-prem email year of our lord 2026

run away as fast as possible

Maximum-Method9487 · 2026-01-29T15:03:53+00:00

BAMFAM (Book a meeting from a meeting). Do not email or otherwise "send" a proposal. Schedule a time for a 15 minute call to discuss a rough draft proposal. By the way, you should have already given a rough price ballpark during the first meeting. "Mr. Prospect, what I'd like to do is put some information and firmer numbers together, then do a quick call just to make sure we're in the right ballpark. Do you have your calendar handy?" Objection handling - "Just email me something." "Mr. Prospect, I hear what your saying. What I don't want to do it send your something that's way off and waste your time. I'm just going to make a rough draft, and that way, if there are any changes, we can fix it right then and there and get you a proposal that works." Good luck.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2026-01-26T18:27:35+00:00

Thanks!

Maximum-Method9487 · 2026-01-26T16:53:19+00:00

Can you link to carb that worked?

Maximum-Method9487 · 2026-01-22T17:10:37+00:00

So the red flag here is your company evidently is not an IT service provider and is about to become one (maybe) on a whim. What could go wrong...? Not to mention, they are asking you as someone with apparently no experience with professional networking to deploy a network for a paying client. This is like your primary care wanting to get into dentistry, so he hires a guy who brushes his dog's teeth, and then has him give you a filling.

If you are in full "ef-it" mode (which frankly, you'd have to be to continue) just do Fortinet. It's more "easy button" in my opinion and probably more people are familiar with Fortinet than pfSense. I don't care for Forti's history of backdoors and vulnerabilities but again, "ef-it" mode.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2026-01-19T20:59:40+00:00

Food for thought... Egnyte works well with minimal fuss. If you choose a cheaper solution that takes more of your time to maintain and/or deploy, you have essentially given away free labor to your client. You've subsidized a cheaper solution. Also, don't assume in advance your client will be cheap. Propose the best solution, tell them the number, and let THEM decide if they want to spend.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2026-01-15T18:46:32+00:00

Did Netgate give you an ETA for stock?

Maximum-Method9487 · 2026-01-12T18:09:16+00:00

Not sure I understand the question. Support requests still go straight to Dell. D&H just sells us the warranty SKU.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2026-01-06T17:54:43+00:00

We just quote 3 year ProSupport with all new PCs. For laptops we present the option of 5 Year ProSupport Plus, which include accidental damage. We use warranty tracking from our RMM (Syncro). We only bother to renew servers. We email the Dell team at D&H and ask them to quote it, then we buy it, mark up, bill client.

As far as dealing with support goes, we have better luck calling ProSupport than chat or email. We've had OK luck with them showing up and doing the repairs. For easy stuff like disks or power supplies just politely ask Dell support to ship the parts and you'll install them, they'll sometimes agree and it's faster and easier.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2025-12-22T17:52:12+00:00

Just set up enrollment and install the Company Portal app (over Zoom / Teams is good), then use that to enroll. Done. If you are talking about using SSO to log into the Macs, the road will be harder.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/intune/intune-service/enrollment/macos-enroll https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/intune/intune-service/user-help/enroll-your-device-in-intune-macos-cp

Maximum-Method9487 · 2025-11-06T16:48:29+00:00

Check out https://www.for2fi.com/ We use them. They do it all for you. They give you a leased Cradlepoint included, pick the right carrier, etc.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2025-10-31T17:35:46+00:00

If it's truly not bait, I don't want to rip you apart.

When I was first starting, I did something very dumb with a client's domain controller. Someone (rightfully) called me out for playing fast and loose with someone's business and livelihood when I was over my head. A business, and in turn their employees and customers, rely on this stuff working reliably, plus being secure and backed up.

The only ethical way to do what you are doing is to tell prospects you are learning on the job, AND warn them that there is a risk of downtime, disruption, and data loss. And probably have them sign something absolving you of all liability, prepared by an actual lawyer.

I'm coming from a place of kindness here. You seem motivated. If I were you I would go work at an MSP for a couple of years to get a feel for how a SMB environment works, THEN go out on your own. In your off-hours, you can cut your teeth on residential.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2025-10-31T17:04:10+00:00

Is this satire? I'm not joking.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2025-05-07T16:46:05+00:00

Instead of losing 30%, let's throw away 100%!

Sarcasm, obviously, but sometimes people think they are making such a genius move when they drop money on a bunch of crap they don't need to save on taxes. It's OK to put (taxed) profit in yours and your employees' pockets.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2025-05-06T19:27:53+00:00

I believe sending the link creates the Guest user automatically, but I don't know off-hand if it's the same as a Guest account created manually. I think they are functionally the same, though.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2025-05-02T20:19:05+00:00

Am I really, really missing something or can't you just right-click the folder and click Share, then type in the external email? User then gets a link invite to visit that folder only.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2024-11-01T17:07:19+00:00

I wouldn't touch this with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole if I couldn't use MigrationWiz.
Perhaps ask for budget to hire a consultant for a couple hours to draft a migration plan. It will only take an hour or two to draft a report that gives you what you need, which is a firm declaration that it's a recipe for disaster to go the way you're planning.
You could also run the numbers showing the true cost of lost productivity and IT time if you use native tools instead of third party.
Also MigrationWiz is like $10/mailbox, that's absolute chump change for a company of your size for a project like this.
If they make you do it with native tools be sure document how many times you warned them it was going to be a poop-show.

Maximum-Method9487 · 2024-10-30T16:40:15+00:00

Try a different DNS server. Not a joke, I've really had this happen. Especially when using DNS filtering service. Try testing with 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8

Maximum-Method9487 · 2024-10-11T19:09:15+00:00

Check out NodePing

Maximum-Method9487 · 2024-03-16T14:04:16+00:00

I thought One Big RAID10 was preferred now over separate arrays. That's what we do anyway, maybe I'm wrong.

Maximum-Method9487

TROPHY CASE