Netgear ProSecure UTM9S review

Netgear's new UTM9S has plenty of network security features for SMBs and some interesting expansion options too. In this review, Dave Mitchell finds out if it's the most versatile ProSecure appliance yet.

IT Pro Verdict

The ProSecure UTM9S is a good choice for small businesses that want a low-cost UTM appliance that doesn’t skimp on features. You will need a ReadyNAS appliance for the new logging and quarantining features, but the extra expansion modules make it very versatile and our lab tests show that its anti-spam performance is good.

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Negear provides basic IM and P2P app controls and these have been augmented with five extra services for blocking the iTunes Store, Rhapsody, QuickTime Player, RealPlayer and Winamp. You also get options for blocking other services including GoToMyPC remote control sessions.

The appliance supports a wide range of authentication methods and you can force users to login to the appliance before being allowed Internet access. A global web access policy is enforced, but this can be customised using exception rules assigned to selected domains on the appliance. Rules allow you to either block or allow specific web categories, applications or file extensions for a domain.

The Flash-based reporting tools give a good overview of all activity and security threats.

The monitoring section's Dashboard includes counters for all the new services as well as Flash-based real time threat and network traffic graphs.

The monitoring section's Dashboard includes counters for all the new services as well as Flash-based real time threat and network traffic graphs. These include counters showing the top detected threats for all security modules and you can generate HTML reports from the web interface and email them out.

The ProSecure UTM9S is excellent value thanks to its useful range of security features which performed well. The UTM9S is available with a one-year subscription for a very reasonable 307 ex VAT with a full three year subscription only pushing this up to 517 ex VAT.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

The ProSecure UTM9S is a good choice for small businesses that want a low-cost UTM appliance that doesn’t skimp on features. You will need a ReadyNAS appliance for the new logging and quarantining features, but the extra expansion modules make it very versatile and our lab tests show that its anti-spam performance is good.

Chassis: Desktop Memory: 512MB RAM Flash storage: 2GB Network: 6 x Gigabit Ethernet (4 x LAN, 2 x WAN) Expansion slots: two Anti-virus: Sophos Anti-spam: Mailshell URL filtering: Commtouch Management: Web browser Options: Wireless-N module, £33; VDSL/ADLS2+ module; £61 (all ex VAT)

Dave Mitchell
Dave Mitchell

Dave is an IT consultant and freelance journalist specialising in hands-on reviews of computer networking products covering all market sectors from small businesses to enterprises. Founder of Binary Testing Ltd – the UK’s premier independent network testing laboratory - Dave has over 45 years of experience in the IT industry.

Dave has produced many thousands of in-depth business networking product reviews from his lab which have been reproduced globally. Writing for ITPro and its sister title, PC Pro, he covers all areas of business IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, network security, data protection, cloud, infrastructure and services.

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