* The Reviewmeister looks at ZyWALL 70 from ZyXEL
Continuing our tour of dual WAN routers, let’s check out the ZyWall 70. Called an Internet Security Appliance to emphasize features beyond routing, the ZyWall 70 is one of 11 different routers that ZyXel calls an appliance or a gateway.
Continuing our tour of dual WAN routers, let’s check out the ZyWALL 70. Called an Internet Security Appliance to emphasize features beyond routing, the ZyWALL 70 is one of 11 different routers that ZyXEL calls an appliance or a gateway.
Installation involved booting clients to accept IP address information from the ZyWALL 70 box to start configuration. Screens are clear and laid out well, with a menu down the left side and page tabs shown clearly on the active page. The electronic manual is long (713 pages), but that includes hundreds of pages devoted to the console connection and old-fashioned (and somewhat painful) terminal command interface and command syntax.
You can set up a DMZ, but there is no separate Ethernet port for it. Traffic for the DMZ system(s) gets separated by IP address. While this works, a specific port is always appreciated to avoid confusion and limit port-specific configuration chores. Default traffic rules allow connections between the DMZ and the WANs in both directions, and only allows outbound traffic from the LAN to the DMZ. Traffic from the DMZ to the LAN is blocked unless rules are added to allow access, which is the security configuration we expected.
Managing the ZyWALL 70 is relatively simple because of its clear Web management application interface. The Home page shows status for each type of connection (LAN, WAN, WLAN, and DMZ) with buttons that display statistics, DHCP table, or VPN status with one click.
Security controls include the firewall, certificate controls (trusted certificate authorities and trusted remote hosts), RADIUS support, and a complete content filter option. The firewall uses Stateful Packet Inspection with denial-of-service protection. Firewall rules are simple to create, with check boxes and 44 services predefined for easy control. Time of day controls for firewall rules are also included, providing a fairly complete and workable security control situation.
The ZyWALL 70 allowed us to specify the WAN1 port for all outgoing SMTP traffic, but required the use of console commands outside the regular management interface.
Bandwidth management includes options to define classes and provide extra bandwidth to certain classes, such as VoIP or video. Engaging the priority-based scheduler allocates extra bandwidth to configured services, such as VoIP, while the fairness-based scheduler tries to keep things more even between the service classes, and adjusts easily with a mouse click. This approach also makes it easy to configure symmetrical or asymmetrical WAN links. The ZyWALL 70 installed easily, provided great port flexibility with four DMZ ports, included plenty of firewall detail and supports an optional wireless PC Card. But forcing traffic, such as SMTP, to a particular WAN port required console commands via Telnet.
For the full report, go to https://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/0913rev.html
