Comparison Zyxel ZyWALL USG FLEX 200 vs Zyxel ZyWALL USG FLEX 100

— Desktop. Desktop routers include routers that do not use special rack mounts and are suitable for placement on any suitable surface — a table, shelf, etc. Although there are quite advanced models among desktop devices, however, most of them have relatively simple functionality and are designed for use in small networks where an abundance of equipment is not required.

— Rack mounted. Routers that are standard installed in a telecommunications rack are usually 19 "standard (although technically many of them can also be used as desktop ones, albeit with less convenience). Racks are used in extensive networks that require a large amount of equipment; accordingly, routers of this type in general, more powerful and advanced than the desktop, and are designed primarily for professional use.

— To the mast. Installation on a mast or other vertical structure — a tower, a pole, etc. Quite a rare form factor; It is mainly used in waterproof models designed for the possibility of working outdoors. Mobile network capable devices in this category may have a directional antenna to improve connectivity.

The number of standard Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45 network connectors provided in the device design.

As the name suggests, these connectors provide data transfer rates up to 1 Gbps. Initially, Gigabit Ethernet was considered a professional standard, and even now the real needs for such speeds arise mainly when performing special tasks. Nevertheless, even relatively inexpensive computers are now equipped with gigabit network adapters, not to mention more advanced technology.

As for the number of connectors, it corresponds to the number of network devices that can be connected to the "switch" directly, without the use of additional equipment. At the same time, it is worth noting that in some "switches" individual connectors of this type are combined with optical SFP or SFP +. Such connectors are marked "combo" and are taken into account both when counting RJ-45 and when counting SFP / SFP +.

The number of ports designated as WAN by the manufacturer. They are intended for wired connection of the device to the Internet or other external networks (to solve some specific problems).

The number of USB ports provided in the design of the router. USB is a universal interface used in computer technology to connect peripheral devices for various purposes. One of its uses is to connect a 3G modem (if provided, see “Data entry (WAN-port)”), but this is not limited to this: in fact, the options for using USB ports directly depend only on the capabilities specified in the router firmware. So, in some models, you can connect a flash drive or an external hard drive to this connector — to update the firmware or even organize an FTP server directly on the router. And for other peripherals — printers, cameras, etc. — USB connection can be used to work as network devices (however, such functions are rare in standard firmware).

Performance of a Firewall type device (see "Type") in intrusion prevention mode.

Intrusion protection is carried out on the same principle as the general processing of traffic by a firewall — by checking the received and transmitted data. However, the principles of filtering are somewhat different: Firewall cuts off certain types of traffic, preventing them from reaching network devices, while intrusion protection allows all traffic, but checks it for suspicious activity. Actions upon detection of such activity can be different: in some models, protection only notifies the administrator about the attack, in others, it independently takes retaliatory measures. Anyway, fine-grained traffic inspection is more resource-intensive than running a firewall in normal mode, which is why the performance in intrusion prevention mode is inevitably lower than the overall performance of the Firewall.

Note that this parameter is specified for optimal conditions — in particular, for those types of traffic that do not require a large amount of resources for scanning. So the real throughput of the firewall will inevitably be lower than the claimed one, and when choosing according to this indicator, it is worth taking a certain margin — at least 10 – 15%.

Performance of a Firewall type device (see "Type") in intrusion prevention mode.

Intrusion protection is carried out on the same principle as the general processing of traffic by a firewall — by checking the received and transmitted data. However, the principles of filtering are somewhat different: Firewall cuts off certain types of traffic, preventing them from reaching network devices, while intrusion protection allows all traffic, but checks it for suspicious activity. Actions upon detection of such activity can be different: in some models, protection only notifies the administrator about the attack, in others, it independently takes retaliatory measures. Anyway, fine-grained traffic inspection requires more resources than running a firewall in normal mode, which is why the performance in intrusion prevention mode is inevitably lower than the overall performance of the Firewall.

Note that this parameter is specified for optimal conditions — in particular, for those types of traffic that do not require a large amount of resources for verification. So the real throughput of the firewall will inevitably be lower than the claimed one, and when choosing according to this indicator, it is worth taking a certain margin — at least 10 – 15%.

The performance of a device of the Firewall type (see "Type") when operating in VPN mode — namely, when building a virtual private network using a firewall as a VPN server. It is indicated by the maximum volume of traffic that the device can process per second with such a connection.

For more information about VPN in general, see "Basic Features". Here we note that in this format of operation, the Firewall must additionally encrypt the transmitted traffic and decrypt the received, which creates an additional load on the device. Therefore, throughput in VPN mode is inevitably less than the overall performance of the Firewall (see above). It is worth choosing according to this indicator with a certain margin — at least 10 – 15%; this will give an additional guarantee in case of abnormal loads.

As for specific figures, VPN bandwidth up to 1 Gbps is considered relatively small, more than 1 Gbps is considered high.

Power consumed by network equipment during operation. Knowing the indicator of energy consumption, you can, for example, calculate the battery life of equipment from an uninterruptible power supply or choose a suitable “uninterruptible power supply”.