WatchGuard XTM 26-W review

In this exclusive review, we look at the new XTM 26-W which brings together a host of security features and adds 11n wireless plus rogue AP detection to the mix. This model represents the top of the XTM 2 family tree and claims a 540Mbits/sec firewall throughput and 75Mbits/sec with all UTM functions enabled.

The price we've shown is for the one-year Security Bundle. Along with WatchGuard's LiveSecurity updates and support, this activates IPS, web content filtering, anti-spam, anti-virus, application controls, HTTPS inspection and WatchGuard's own reputation enabled defence.

You can cut costs by starting with the XTM 25-W whichcosts 595 for the same one-year bundle. The only difference is its license restricts firewall and UTM throughputs to 240Mbits/sec and 35Mbits/sec respectively. If you need more bandwidth you will need to purchase a software feature key which turns it into an XTM 26-W.

Along with a dual band wireless AP, the XTM 26-W has five Gigabit network ports

Deployment

There are a range of deployment options with mixed-mode routing the most flexible as it allows each of the appliance's five Gigabit ports to be defined as separate interfaces. We opted for this mode and had the appliance up and running in a few minutes thanks to a wizard based routine.

Users new to WatchGuard will find initial configuration confusing as it uses application proxies for the various security services. However, you have an excellent selection of proxies including ones for HTTP, FTP, SIP, H.323, POP3 plus SMTP. Even HTTPS is included as standard.

Proxies are configured and then applied to selected network interfaces using firewall rules. To use the WebBlocker hosted filtering service, for example, requires a profile created which defines which of the 56 URL categories you want blocked.

Proxies are used extensively to control traffic and include the WebBlocker URL filtering service