[ale] Cost of freedom

David Hillman hillmands at gmail.com
Mon May 16 13:47:06 EDT 2011


I didn't want to go with the Netgear box because I have been burned before
with the clunky way you have to set those things up, especially the VPN.
The VPN client for that FVS338 box is the worse thing I have had to deal
with in the last few years.  Why fuss with that when there are good open
source solutions, like OpenVPN?  Our previous Secure Computing device was
built using a Linux kernel and it was rock solid as a VPN device.  Not only
that, it was very flexible and easy to configure just about anything.  It
even had a serial console.  Unfortunately, those guys were bought over by
McAfee and it looks like McAfee will ruin a good thing.

I would prefer a device with OpenVPN built in, but unless you go with DD-WRT
or another router distribution, you aren't going to get that.  The world is
changing fast and people expect to be able to easily and securely connect to
their data from anywhere.  It looks like standardized, open solutions will
be perfect for that.

If I have to fuss with stupid license keys or jump through other hoops to
solve my connectivity problem, that's worse than spending extra time to
properly roll out the open solution.


On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 12:05 PM, Doug McNash <doug.mcnash at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 11:30 AM, David Hillman <hillmands at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> ...
> >
> > Why did we go with the Netgear box in the first place? Someone with
> control
> > over the purse strings thought it would be easier and faster.
> >
> >
>
> It sounds like you would prefer not to use Netgear and I have hear
> other people say the same but I am curious as to the reason why.  Why
> would folks want to avoid Netgear?  I have several GS108T (which BTW
> run linux) and some other metal box Netgear switches and have never
> noticed any problem.
>
>
> --
> doug mcnash
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20110516/eb88fc68/attachment.html 


More information about the Ale mailing list