Catastrophe strikes Blue Feather's 'net presence

[Bruce Lane]

	Murphy's having some real fun with me this week...

	It seems that the failure of the outside world to access Blue Feather's FTP site was only the beginning. Within a couple of hours after I started troubleshooting last night, I discovered that our entire domain, including mail and web servers, had disappeared from the 'net.

	The problem turned out to be (and I never saw this coming) -- our firewall/router! It had, apparently, decided that it was simply going to give up the ghost, and not give ANY indication in its (alleged) self-diagnostics.

	No amount of power-cycling has fixed it, so I am going to replace it. Post-haste, I would add. The original unit was a Watchguard Firebox II that I got as a freebie, but Watchguard's current products are way too expensive for my tastes.

	If anyone knows of a good, solid VPN router, in the $400-$500 (max) range, with at least the following features I would appreciate hearing about it. I'm currently looking at Zyxel (the Zywall 5) and Multitech (RouteFinder 830).

	--Must support 1:1 NAT mapping.
	--Must support at least IPSec VPN with 3DES or AES encryption, and the VPN client must be low-cost or included.
	--Preferably, should also support PPTP for when IPSec is blocked at the originating end (I've seen it happen).
	--Must be RACK-MOUNTED, as in it has rack ears or brackets. This is NOT negotiable.
	--The manufacturer must NOT, unlike Watchguard and Juniper Networks, nickle-and-dime its users to death for extra features.

	Thanks much, and I apologize for the hassles. I never saw this one coming...


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"