The SonicWall Pro 2040 is an appliance-based wireless security manager. The device also doubles as a firewall, a content management appliance, a strong authentication device, and it also supports the 802.1X protocol. The Pro 2040 allows for configuration and management of SonicWall SonicPoints. This device provides simple management of the wireless access point by only requiring a small number of wireless configuration settings.
The management of SonicPoint devices uses HTTP and SSL connections to the management interface that resides on the Pro 2040. Each SonicPoint is added to one of a configurable number of SonicPoint groups. These groups provide the configuration settings that the SonicPoint access point will use. The Pro 2040 was able to detect rogue access points. The options included with the Wireless IPS component of the Pro 2040 was a bit underwhelming, but the features included are very easy to administer.
Setting up the SonicWall Pro 2040 hardware was a breeze and there was no need to use any command line interface since almost every option is available through the web interface. The most challenging part of the SonicWall installation is the registration and firmware upgrade.
SonicWall has outstanding documentation, mostly available from the website, which features demonstrations and configurations for common environments in a Flash-like environment.
The support options for the SonicWall device are standard for what is seen in the industry. Options include 8-5 and 24/7 email and phone support.
SonicWall Pro 2040 is at the low end of the price spectrum for products tested in this review. When combined with the larger number of features, it appears to be a great solution for the small- to medium-sized enterprise market.
