3COM OfficeConnect Internet Firewall 25

3Coms OfficeConnect Internet Firewall 25 is designed for the small business with 25 or less users. It has a single LAN output and WAN input, and is the only firewall reviewed that had 10Mb/s connectivity instead of 10/100. In this day and age 10Mb/s is not nearly fast enough, particularly for a firewall serving many users. However if youre using it for a single machine or very small LAN, it may suffice.

The firewall comes pre-configured so you can use it straight out of the box, but its worth configuring to your needs.The unit has a good, but very simple, configuration and management console backed up by a comprehensive user manual. Its also very easy to setup and configure. However, even though it was able to rebuke all of our tests it only featured very mild event reporting.

The installation CD also comes with a one-month trial of 3Coms OfficeConnect Web Site Filter filtering database (with downloadable updates) for restricting user access to sites. In the configuration panel you can select different categories to ban, from partial/full nudity to violence/profanity and gross depictions, as well as Net services and IPs.

At $1,111 the unit is a little expensive for a basic firewall, but this could be the overhead the trusted 3Com brand commands in the marketplace.