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Professional protection for small and mid-size enterprises

Puzzle

Article from ADMIN 63/2021

By Tobias Ortner

To what extent does the Untangle NG Firewall, where apps come together like pieces of a jigsaw, meet customer criteria for protection, usability, price, and support?

Founded in 2003, US manufacturer Untangle Inc. offers a security solution in the form of NG Firewall [1] tailored to networks in small and medium-sized enterprises (or larger companies with many branch offices). The idea is to empower small companies in particular to achieve a security standard that is otherwise only available to far larger companies, with the integration of successful open source applications combined with an easy-to-use and flexible user interface.

Untangle Firewall is available as a free version with limited capabilities, or admins can purchase individual functions or the complete range of functions as commercial products.

The Untangle NG Firewall can be installed on various systems, and the manufacturer offers hardware appliances, but you can also put together your own system according to your individual requirements. However, you do need to pay attention to the hardware requirements. Alternatively, you can install the software as a virtual appliance for VMware or as a virtual machine (VM) for Hyper-V. Additionally, deployment in the cloud is supported on Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure.

Firewall Structure

The basis of Untangle NG Firewall is a hardened Debian Linux, which is responsible for managing the network interface cards, routing, network configuration, and other basic services. On top of this operating system sits the Untangle VM, a Java VM within which the various firewall functions run. These functions are encapsulated in individual apps (applications) and can be (de)activated as required.

Traffic arrives at a physical network interface card, and the operating system forwards it to a virtual interface within the Untangle VM, where it is processed in a rules-based session. The firewall then forwards the traffic through another virtual interface to the appropriate physical network

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