Firebox SOHO

A firewall/router from WatchGuard designed for a Small Office or Home Office. It is very similar to any other router you could find at a computer store - the Linksys, D-Links, SMC, etc with more features like logging to syslog, VPN support, and advanced NAT. The unfortunate thing is that the majority of small/home offices don't need this stuff. With the Firebox SOHO (including VPN option) being up to 8x the price of a cheap one, it probably isn't worth it for most SOHO applications.

My last big beef with WatchGuard is that when you get the box, you get absolutely no documentation, only a card that tells you where to go on the internet to get documentation. This page actually tells you to print out the entire PDF installation manual because obviously you won't have internet access as you are installing the new router.

The SoHo is a very nice idea only it is a pain to set up with no experience, and it is virtually impossible to figure out how to reset it, especially since most of their online knowledge base is accessible only after registering it.

The SoHo is basically a small red box that looks very much like a hub, only it has one WAN port and several LAN ports. You would normally drop the SoHo in between your router and switch/hub or instead of your switch/hub. It’s setup is all web-based and the box comes preset with an IP you type up in your browser. (Which makes things extremely complex once you change the SoHo’s IP and your browser keeps refreshing the old page)

Some of the SoHo’s advanced features can be activated only by registering them via the Internet which is pointless, time consuming and unexplained in the documentation.

The only reason I can think of anyone would install a SoHo is if they are running a bigger FireBox II at a central office and would like to connect via secure VPN

the SoHo is manufactured by a company called WatchGuard who offer 24hr support and also a service called “Live Security” which seems as useless as the rest of their products.