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Untangle NG Firewall

Score9.3 out of 10

19 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Untangle NG Firewall?

Untangle NG Firewall is an open-source firewall and gateway security platform. It offers a free core firewall platform with paid add-ons, and a cloud-based management platform with a variety of deployment options for smaller teams.

Categories & Use Cases

Key Features

Learn about the best (and worst!) features Untangle NG Firewall has to offer, as determined by TrustRadius' reviewers.
Based on 19 ratings of Untangle NG Firewall's features
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Top Performing Features

  • Active Directory and LDAP

    Integration with Active Directory and LDAP directories

    Category average: 8.4

  • Firewall Management Console

    Either command-line or web-based interface for centralized control and management

    Category average: 8.1

  • VPN

    VPN's implement encryption and anonymize IP addresses

    Category average: 9.1

Areas for Improvement

  • Proxy Server

    A proxy server changes your IP address and masks the origin of your network traffic

    Category average: 8.5

  • Visualization Tools

    Visualization tools present administrators with data on applications traversing the network, who is using them, and the potential security impact.

    Category average: 8.1

  • Reporting and Logging

    Custom and summary reports, and log files enabling analysis of security incidents, application usage and traffic patterns

    Category average: 8.2

Reviews

What users are saying about Untangle NG Firewall.
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Excellent SMB Firewall

Incentivized
Verified User
Executive in Information Technology (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Untangle NG Firewall serves many purposes for our clients including comprehensive firewall, easy to configure VPN, fast routing, and internet filtering.

Pros

  • Secure firewall
  • Easy to use VPN (with OpenVPN)
  • Active directory connector with 2fa for VPN is very easy to implement
  • Fairly intuitive internet filter
  • Great support

Cons

  • Only issue is that the device limits are anemic. Far too low for most SMBs in an iot era.

Most Important Features

  • Firewall
  • VPN
  • Filtering

Return on Investment

  • Excellent resource for our clients makes us look good
  • Fair margins leading to an additional recurring revenue source

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Proxmox VE

Other Software Used

1Password

Untangle Your Network to Safeguard Your Students

Incentivized
Bryce HollandView profile
IT Director in Information Technology at Legacy Christian Academy (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • Multiple security apps (Web Filter, Virus Scanner, Bandwidth Control, Application Control, SSL Inspection, IDS/IPS, Threat Prevention, etc) all work together to provide a multi-layer security approach.
  • The logs and reporting are detailed and extensive. That can sometimes be overwhelming, but also invaluable once you know how to use them.
  • Untangle is much, much more than "just" a web filter. The academic discount is completely worth what is provided.
  • Of course, Untangle support is very good. Their community forums are also very strong.

Cons

  • These areas of improvement have already been submitted to Untangle for review. One of them is the ability to filter by user groups the login access used by the Captive Portal app.
  • This is always under improvement, but working on the reports to help them to not be as overwhelming to new users. Also the ability to have a dedicated reporting "dashboard" for specific users, especially if parents request that information. It can be done, but it isn't that easy to set up.
  • Finally, due to recent academic developments, the ability to expand an existing Untangle appliance to the cloud for cloud-based filtering would be amazing for schools. That is easy to say, but obviously more difficult to achieve.

Most Important Features

  • Constant updating and ScoutIQ to address new threats
  • Performance and security
  • Academic pricing

Return on Investment

  • Improved performance and security with the existing Internet connection
  • Significant cost savings over the previous solution
  • Guaranteed CIPA compliance for student protection

Alternatives Considered

Barracuda Web Security Gateway and Cisco ASA

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365)

Awesome Firewall

Incentivized
Matthew IngramView profile
Owner in Information Technology at Ingram Computer Services (1-10 employees employees)

Pros

  • Security
  • Reporting

Cons

  • Support documents a little vague.
  • Interface can be confusing.

Return on Investment

  • Feel more secure on my own network.
  • Feel more confident on my client's network.

Alternatives Considered

Ubiquiti Networks UniFi and pfSense

Other Software Used

Zabbix

Honest opinion

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • VPNs.
  • Access Control.
  • Location Control.
  • Web Filter.
  • Proxy.
  • Threat Prevention.
  • Firewall.
  • Application Control.
  • Reporting.
  • Active Directory/LDAP connections.
  • Intrusion Prevention.
  • Ease of use.

Cons

  • Documentation.
  • More access to logs via Web UI.

Return on Investment

  • Protection across remote access working. With 10% of staff trying to access unsecure websites whilst on company machines when working remotely.
  • Protection from increased DDoS and other attacks to our system.
  • Reliability, the Hosted server has had a 98% availability since November 2019 with the 2% downtime being during system updates.

Alternatives Considered

pfSense and Fortinet FortiGate

Other Software Used

Nmap, HAProxy, Icinga, Grafana, Cisco Umbrella, Packet Tracer

Great product, flexible and intuitive

Incentivized
Ken ThomasView profile
Systems Technician in Information Technology at Preston Memorial Hospital (201-500 employees employees)

Pros

  • Web filtration works well and is very easy to manage. The interface is intuitive and makes dealing with end user issues quick and easy to resolve.
  • Bandwidth control is a nice feature that quickly lets you determine where the offending bandwidth consumer is.
  • The reporting feature is rich and the emailed reports help you determine any potential problems that may need to be addressed.

Cons

  • Probably the documentation, the online tutorials could be a little more up to date and clearer.

Return on Investment

  • The positive is the savings in time the IT department has recouped by not having to continuously clean and maintain end point computers. Not to mention helping end user use their time more wisely by not wasting time on non-work related web activities.
  • The only negative is complaints from end users about the restrictions.

Alternatives Considered

Barracuda Web Filter