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My 3 Months with Sophos

SophosNewby

I just had to vent with my feedback for what I had anticipated was going to be a good experience. For well over a year I researched new firewalls to replace our aging Juniper Networks appliance. After much deliberation I went with the Sophos XG210 in Oct 2017. Everything went very well with the product some minor issues but really a pretty good experience overall, it met our needs. Since I was new with Sophos and really with this style of firewall, I decided I should also have one at home, so I can practice making rules, changing settings and seeing the impact before rolling out on our company network, mind you all on my dime, not the company. Just before Christmas I ordered a XG85W, too say the least a terrible product, cost aside. Within 3 weeks I had gone thru 2 appliances was doing nothing but troubleshooting, simply wasting a lot of time. The solution, I had to spend an additional couple of hundred of dollars to upgrade to the XG105W, not I'm pretty close to being 1K out of pocket for a test unit. Its been running for 2 days now and seems stable.

All during this time some of our staff went to our China facility, low and behold SSL-VPN would not work at that location, ok with the issues China has and banning VPN's I needed to come up with a solution hopefully, setup IPSec VPN remote access. Since our previous Juniper ran this setup and it worked in China hope fully it will continue working. One thing with Sophos is their lack detailed configurations but its slowly coming, there is absolutely zero on setting up a working IPSec remote client other than the guide that simply explains the fields. Anyway I config the XG and purchase the Sophos IPSec software and license for one user. After days of screwing around, I am told IPSec and SSL-VPN cannot work together thru support, but then I am told it will so we have been working on why I cannot get this system to work due to a Sophos licensing error. Come to find out the Sophos IPSec client software doesn't work, I install Greenbow VPN and within 5 minutes I establish a remote connection thru IPSec. Now I can't access any of the network resources but those are my next steps.

Here is my problem, initially I thought I was buying into more of an Enterprise level products but I'm starting to feel like I'm back to consumer grade quality products that work but with no real reliability or level of confidence that I am using a quality product. To say the least I'm frustrated, and probably more at myself because I have always thought I do my due diligence and whats the best solution but now I'm so deflated with my decision to go with Sophos I'm not sure if I want to continue with the next steps of integrating more of their products. I definitely wouldn't recommend the product to any of my colleagues but the only saving grace has been I have had zero issues with the XG210 and its configuration. This is just my personal experience and my frustration talking.



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    I am in the same situation:  I evaluated and brought in Sophos to our company, starting with an XG210.  I have also found that the product mostly works but certain advanced functions are difficult to use or don't work at all.  I think your evaluation of being sold an enterprise solution but receiving something far less is accurate and applies to our situation as well.

    I've found working with the technical support team to be one of the more frustrating experiences of my 20 year IT career.  I'm not a rookie, so I've seen very effective products and support options.  in my opinion Sophos is not currently offering either of these.  

    For clarity, we are using 2 UTM products, various RED devices, and wireless AP units.  They have all presented amateurish-type problems: slow throughput, GUI not displaying accurate info, etc.

    I've even joined with my reseller to have a rather contentious meeting with our Sophos sales team regarding the poor quality of the products and service.  It was basically a presentation of the long list of items that simply aren't working at all.

    I'm continuing to battle with the products and apply updates simply because we've already invested in it.  But as soon as my 3-year support contract expires, I will be making a move out of the Sophos ecosystem.

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  • 0

    I am in the same situation:  I evaluated and brought in Sophos to our company, starting with an XG210.  I have also found that the product mostly works but certain advanced functions are difficult to use or don't work at all.  I think your evaluation of being sold an enterprise solution but receiving something far less is accurate and applies to our situation as well.

    I've found working with the technical support team to be one of the more frustrating experiences of my 20 year IT career.  I'm not a rookie, so I've seen very effective products and support options.  in my opinion Sophos is not currently offering either of these.  

    For clarity, we are using 2 UTM products, various RED devices, and wireless AP units.  They have all presented amateurish-type problems: slow throughput, GUI not displaying accurate info, etc.

    I've even joined with my reseller to have a rather contentious meeting with our Sophos sales team regarding the poor quality of the products and service.  It was basically a presentation of the long list of items that simply aren't working at all.

    I'm continuing to battle with the products and apply updates simply because we've already invested in it.  But as soon as my 3-year support contract expires, I will be making a move out of the Sophos ecosystem.

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