i am shure astaro team reads all posts, but i think they have not time to answer all posts. they invest the answer time in develop [;)]
Astaro-Report-Manager is an new feature to do a central reporting for asl-firewalls, e.g. you have to administrate a lot of, you can central see what happens. also you can correlate you data.
people draw conclusions based on the information they have.
As it stands there are three key facts:
Astaro make very little information available via this forum. Astaro has identified bugs in the firewall. Astaro are releasing new features in favour of fixes.
No matter how much you debate it these three facts are true.
In my opinion two things make this thread so popular.
Lack of information via this forum from Astaro and the simple undeniable fact of anyone who is interested in security (e.g. all here) that security devices and software should not have identified bugs with no impending solution.
Cap this of with users waiting eagerly for bug fix patches to fix the problems they "personally" are having and it is a recipe for bad relations.
In my opinion Astaro should:
Start a public bug tracker Dedicate some man power to these forums Release bug fixes until we have at least one stable V5 release
and then the prolem goes away.
If this is not possible then do what all big linux projects do... have a stable and devleopment branch.
At the end of the day it is lack of information that has caused this (which is one of many) threads.
I've been following this thread in silence, biting my tongue. But enough is enough, I've got to say something, and just let the chips fall where they may:
The beating up on Astaro in this thread (and some others) is unhelpful. If some of you think Astaro has issues, go use some of the other firewalls on the market -- none of them are perfect. There isn't a single piece of software or an operating system that doesn't have bugs that need fixing, and most companies just leave the bugs in and hope the users will put up with them. It seems to me that Astaro goes out of their way to make ASL the best it can be -- and they're doing a damn good job. Just go to the ICSA website and compare Astaro against all the other firewalls in the 4.0 criteria certified list -- most of them are dysfunctional toys compared to Astaro. There is NO DOUBT that ASL has some bugs that need fixing, but there is also no doubt that Astaro developers are chewing their fingers down to the knuckles and burning the midnight oil to get it right.
I apologize if my comments offended any individual -- I'm speaking to this whole thread in general.
I'm with OfficeDefender, You're getting about a million times more than you paid for. If you're a commercial client, use the support you're paying for. These forums are for FREE support for the FREE product you're using. Would you apply a windows service pack before seeing what other problems it creates. That the risk us "early adopters" run for being on the edge. If you're so offended that Astaro doesn't pay attention to this forum the way you think they should, try Smoothwall and Dick Morrell's attitude. We'll see you back here REAL soon.
OfficeDefender, I fully understand and agree with you in many ways but I have to say that releasing a new feature prior to a bug fixes was not a great idea.
Releasing new features before bug fixes may be Astaros policy but I do not agree with it.
I also agree that no piece of software does not have bugs.
But i reiterate my point, the ONLY REAL problem with Astaro is lack of information causing legitimate paying users to make assumptions that may ultimately be wrong.
As for Smoothwall do even go there... I too have been on the end of that terrible terrible attitude.
of course the easiest thing is to say -> "if you don't like it don't use it", but i think we all agree if we say that this is chicken .... and not really professional.
i can't belive that there are people out there (in the security business) defending products (security products) that are buggy.
and the best thing is that those become angry here, when they read negativ response from "home users".
sorry dudes -> i'm a home user but why shouldn't i tell the world that this software is not really usable at the moment??!
of course there are people out there (astaro partners, etc) who maybe think that they get invited to a cup of coffe by astaro for shutting up the home users mouths, but mine will stay open -> not with me dudes, not with me
[ QUOTE ] I've been following this thread in silence, biting my tongue. But enough is enough, I've got to say something, and just let the chips fall where they may:
The beating up on Astaro in this thread (and some others) is unhelpful. If some of you think Astaro has issues, go use some of the other firewalls on the market -- none of them are perfect. There isn't a single piece of software or an operating system that doesn't have bugs that need fixing, and most companies just leave the bugs in and hope the users will put up with them. It seems to me that Astaro goes out of their way to make ASL the best it can be -- and they're doing a damn good job. Just go to the ICSA website and compare Astaro against all the other firewalls in the 4.0 criteria certified list -- most of them are dysfunctional toys compared to Astaro. There is NO DOUBT that ASL has some bugs that need fixing, but there is also no doubt that Astaro developers are chewing their fingers down to the knuckles and burning the midnight oil to get it right.
I apologize if my comments offended any individual -- I'm speaking to this whole thread in general.
Steve.
[/ QUOTE ] I have to totally diasgree with you OD..ASL may be ISCA 4 certified and that's all well and good but right now for many users the software while secure is so unstable it is unsusable. Astaro needs to fix the codebase(i have been saying this for a looooooooooooooooooong time) and get it stable before releasing new features. No Astaro bashing..just the facts.
It was the whole Dick Morrell and Smoothwall thing that made me turn to Astaro years ago. Since then I have not looked back.
However speaking from experience, ASL is the BEST firewall I have encountered. I use on a daily basis (and have to suffer with them): Netscreens, Symantec (Raptor/Enteprise) Firewalls, Cisco PIX, Mandrake MNF, Smoothwall, Checkpoints, and Nortels.
I dare you to find one product for the same pricepoint that offers nearly as many features!
Even though I do have occasional issue with any of my 7 ASL installs, a simple email to support usually gets the problem taken care of right away. AND that is without me paying any extra for support.
If you ever get the chance to talk to any of the people who work @ Astaro, you would understand exactly how busy they are. I have met and talked with a few of them, and they are some of the nicest people you could know.
I really hope those of you who are bashing them for not doing this, that, or whatever, are at least paying customers. If you are a home user, put up with it or leave the nest. There are many other products out there for piddly little home users.
i can't belive that there are people out there (in the security business) defending products (security products) that are buggy.
[/ QUOTE ]
Uhm.. if none of the security products on the market had bugs, then why would every vendor release patches, updates, etc?
And what about people running something like Symantec or Checkpoint or even MS ISA server on an extremely buggy OS like Windows? That doubles the trouble for a firewall.
So don't act like Astaro is the only product with bugs in it.
I use almost every single feature included in ASL, and I have had very few problems with any feature. Maybe it is because I run them on decent hardware, and not try to make it run on a Pentium 200 or some old crap like that?
i can't belive that there are people out there (in the security business) defending products (security products) that are buggy.
[/ QUOTE ]
Uhm.. if none of the security products on the market had bugs, then why would every vendor release patches, updates, etc?
And what about people running something like Symantec or Checkpoint or even MS ISA server on an extremely buggy OS like Windows? That doubles the trouble for a firewall.
So don't act like Astaro is the only product with bugs in it.
I use almost every single feature included in ASL, and I have had very few problems with any feature. Maybe it is because I run them on decent hardware, and not try to make it run on a Pentium 200 or some old crap like that?
[/ QUOTE ]
you know what is hilarious about this? MOST of the users reporting problems are on p-4' 2.0 ghz and up and athlon xp's..many(maybe not most with at least 256 or more of ram and 20-100 gig drives. Hardware is not the issue.
i can't belive that there are people out there (in the security business) defending products (security products) that are buggy.
[/ QUOTE ]
Uhm.. if none of the security products on the market had bugs, then why would every vendor release patches, updates, etc?
And what about people running something like Symantec or Checkpoint or even MS ISA server on an extremely buggy OS like Windows? That doubles the trouble for a firewall.
So don't act like Astaro is the only product with bugs in it.
I use almost every single feature included in ASL, and I have had very few problems with any feature. Maybe it is because I run them on decent hardware, and not try to make it run on a Pentium 200 or some old crap like that?
[/ QUOTE ]
you know what is hilarious about this? MOST of the users reporting problems are on p-4' 2.0 ghz and up and athlon xp's..many(maybe not most with at least 256 or more of ram and 20-100 gig drives. Hardware is not the issue.
