The FortiGate-200B-POE appliance from Fortinet combines multiple security components, including intrusion prevision system, stateful-inspection firewall, anti-malware, anti-virus, anti-spam, web filtering, IPsec, SSL VPN, WAN optimization and SSL inspection. This appliance can be customized based on four separate threat subscriptions, including anti-virus, intrusion prevention, web filtering and anti-spam services, which allows for deployment flexibility.
The initial deployment of the FortiGate is done by connecting it to the network and accessing the web-based interface to do some basic configuration. There is no setup wizard for this appliance. The setup is done by following a few steps in the quick-start guide. After the steps are complete, advanced configuration is necessary to finetune the appliance. The tool can also be configured from a command line.
This appliance has come a long way since we first reviewed it several years ago. The biggest improvement we find is the interface itself. The FortiGates of the past had a very cumbersome management interface that made administration quite difficult. We found that the new interface, even though it uses the same basic navigation structure, is much easier to move around in and we found it more intuitive.
Documentation included a short quick-start guide and then a few other PDF guides, including an administrator guide. The quick-start guide offers step-by-step initial configuration instructions using both the web interface and the command line. The rest of the guides offer in-depth configuration and management information. All guides included many screen shots and step-by-step instructions.
Fortinet offers 90 days of eight-hours-a-day/five-days-a-week support at no cost included with the purchase of the product. After 90 days, additional support can be purchased at various levels, including 24/7 or eight-hours-a-day/five-days-a-week support. There are also free support resources available on the website, including a knowledge base and product documentation.
At a price starting at $3,495 and moving up to $4,995 fully loaded, we find this product to be a good value for the money. We found it to include a good amount of functionality that was easy to configure.
