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.
[ 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.
[ QUOTE ] 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.
[/ QUOTE ] As far as moothie goes dick morrel is gone now and the attitude is totally different. Smoothie has its good points..one being highly customizable.
[ 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.
[/ QUOTE ]
If it is so "unstable", then why is it running just fine at every single site our company manages? We're talking lots and lots of sites, all of which I either manage myself or oversee the management of. And then there are the locations we do consulting for, those are running just fine on v5 as well -- if they weren't, I'd have a bunch of network techs barking at me on a daily basis. Yes, there are issues, but they aren't show-stoppers, just inconveniences that have to be worked around until the fixes are out. There were some serious problems with the early releases of version 5, but those are gone.
As far as the decision by Astaro to push out the new feature in the 5.025 release, the assumptions being made in this thread are completely wrong. Astaro runs its releases on a schedule, and the new feature in 5.025 was mapped out a long time ago and has been in QA testing for some time. The new feature in 5.025 is NOT an indication that Astaro isn't fixing the current issues -- they don't drop the ball while they work on a new feature, they have a team of developers working on various things. Astaro is a company, not a couple of guys in a basement hacking out code. The assumptions being made in this thread are simply ridiculous.
[ QUOTE ] 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.
[/ QUOTE ]
There is a SERIOUS misunderstanding on this board as to how this all works, I hope I can correct it. Astaro, like most software vendors, runs on a roadmap. For example, when they released version 5 they had already mapped out a rough release schedule for features that didn't make it in the first cut. They know what they expect version 6 to be and they are working their way along a roadmap to get to that level. *Simultaneously*, they have developers working on bug fixes and releasing them as fast as possible after going through a QA process. THE RELEASE OF THE NEW FEATURE IN 5.025 IS NOT, I REPEAT, NOT AN INDICATION THAT ASTARO ISN'T WORKING ON FIXING EXISTING ISSUES!! You folks are reading way, way too much into this.
you think that you are a really nice guy?! let me ask you something - would you eat sh.. if it's for free or cheap enough with a lot of features? we're talking about the stability of asl and not whether it's cheap or not -> i'm a homeuser and i use it for free, well that's nice, but i think it's ok to get an answer what's going on with this product.
but it seems that you should better keep watching out the bargain-basements
[ QUOTE ] [ 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.
[/ QUOTE ]
If it is so "unstable", then why is it running just fine at every single site our company manages? We're talking lots and lots of sites, all of which I either manage myself or oversee the management of. And then there are the locations we do consulting for, those are running just fine on v5 as well -- if they weren't, I'd have a bunch of network techs barking at me on a daily basis. Yes, there are issues, but they aren't show-stoppers, just inconveniences that have to be worked around until the fixes are out. There were some serious problems with the early releases of version 5, but those are gone.
As far as the decision by Astaro to push out the new feature in the 5.025 release, the assumptions being made in this thread are completely wrong. Astaro runs its releases on a schedule, and the new feature in 5.025 was mapped out a long time ago and has been in QA testing for some time. The new feature in 5.025 is NOT an indication that Astaro isn't fixing the current issues -- they don't drop the ball while they work on a new feature, they have a team of developers working on various things. Astaro is a company, not a couple of guys in a basement hacking out code. The assumptions being made in this thread are simply ridiculous.
-Steve
[/ QUOTE ]
I stand by what i have near the beginning of this thread. It is not ridiculous to question the logic of adding features to a codebase with obvious stability rpboems. I am glad it runs for you just fine at everywhere you have deployed it....but a vast majority on these forums are not. It bothers me that you have to throw a 2.4 ghz p-4 with half a gig of ram at a piece of software to get it to run nicely. Even windows xp is not that demanding.
I have to once again disagree with you steve. Some posts here my be over the top but ..but i am standing by mine.
[ QUOTE ] [ 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.
[/ QUOTE ]
If it is so "unstable", then why is it running just fine at every single site our company manages? We're talking lots and lots of sites, all of which I either manage myself or oversee the management of. And then there are the locations we do consulting for, those are running just fine on v5 as well -- if they weren't, I'd have a bunch of network techs barking at me on a daily basis. Yes, there are issues, but they aren't show-stoppers, just inconveniences that have to be worked around until the fixes are out. There were some serious problems with the early releases of version 5, but those are gone.
As far as the decision by Astaro to push out the new feature in the 5.025 release, the assumptions being made in this thread are completely wrong. Astaro runs its releases on a schedule, and the new feature in 5.025 was mapped out a long time ago and has been in QA testing for some time. The new feature in 5.025 is NOT an indication that Astaro isn't fixing the current issues -- they don't drop the ball while they work on a new feature, they have a team of developers working on various things. Astaro is a company, not a couple of guys in a basement hacking out code. The assumptions being made in this thread are simply ridiculous.
-Steve
[/ QUOTE ]
I stand by what i have near the beginning of this thread. It is not ridiculous to question the logic of adding features to a codebase with obvious stability rpboems. I am glad it runs for you just fine at everywhere you have deployed it....but a vast majority on these forums are not. It bothers me that you have to throw a 2.4 ghz p-4 with half a gig of ram at a piece of software to get it to run nicely. Even windows xp is not that demanding.
I have to once again disagree with you steve. Some posts here my be over the top but ..but i am standing by mine.
[ QUOTE ] I stand by what i have near the beginning of this thread. It is not ridiculous to question the logic of adding features to a codebase with obvious stability problems. I am glad it runs for you just fine at everywhere you have deployed it....but a vast majority on these forums are not. It bothers me that you have to throw a 2.4 ghz p-4 with half a gig of ram at a piece of software to get it to run nicely. Even windows xp is not that demanding.
I have to once again disagree with you steve. Some posts here my be over the top but ..but i am standing by mine.
[/ QUOTE ]
Our company is one of the largest and most active Astaro partners in the United States. We've stood side by side with them at Networld/Interop in Las Vegas, we've had input to some of the improvements in the product, we are personally acquainted with much of Astaro's US management, and we have a hotline to Astaro support. You don't have to believe me, but what I am telling you is the truth. Astaro is by no means dropping the ball on fixing bugs, they're not risking destabilizing their product by adding this feature (isn't that really for THEM to determine?), and they are actively and voraciously working on closing out any discrepancy reports. And I will reitirate what I said before: ASL V5 is plenty stable for production deployment. I can also tell you that about 75 percent of the time, difficulties with the product can be traced to configuration issues.
