Re: Cisco vs Adtran vs Juniper

* Matthew Elmore · * Mon Jul 21 09:19:54 2008

On Jul 18, 2008, at 10:49 AM, Eric Van Tol wrote:

I'm looking for some constructive feedback on **real world**
experiences
please...

We're split pretty evenly between Cisco and Juniper boxes and are
happy with both. It all really depends on the services you want to
sell or support for your customers, as each box can do different
things.

I've been using both these boxes for a while, the SSGs in particular,
so I'll chime in.
Eric is right, the WebUI for ScreenOS is not very good, but it's far
better than any of the interfaces I've seen on any other security
devices. It has its quirks, but it does get the job done.
I have no complaints about the SSG hardware, you get decent port
density across the line and 90% of the functionality you will want is
there out of the box with no additional licensing required (stateful
firewall, IPSec, all routing protocols, etc). Don't bother with the
Antivirus and Antispam on ScreenOS, it sucks and Juniper knows it. The
web filtering works pretty well, though.
They're very flexible with regards to interoperability with other
vendors (even Cisco). I've connected one to just about every vendor
imaginable and there is always a way to make it work.
If you're looking for a cheap router/firewall/VPN box, then the SSGs
from Juniper are the way to go right now. JunOS Enhanced Services
could make our lives even better too...
Both Cisco and Juniper offer great options for this. CPE from both
is typically very solid. Juniper has the added benefit of being
able to convert their J-series boxes to Netscreen SSG firewalls and
the cards are interchangeable between the security/J-series
platforms. Of course, this does cost you in license fees. NAT on
the J-series is a pain to set up and unfortunately, the default 256M
flash on them is just too small to support an easy JUNOS upgrade.

What he said -- with the J series you get JunOS and now JunOS Enhanced
Services, so you get a full-fledged firewall as well. No need to
convert them to ScreenOS (unless you need a feature that hasn't been
ported from ScreenOS to JunOS ES yet). The only thing I really don't
like in the J series is the lack of a non rack mount form factor. A
lot of small and branch offices don't necessarily have racks and it
can be cumbersome to convince someone they need a 19" wide noisebox to
be their router.
More on JunOS ES:
http://www.juniper.net/techpubs/software/junos-es/
Regards,
M