Warning! Possible Flame bait.

That site is simply duplicating what is on the M0n0Wall home page.  This was 
the reason I decided to get involved in the first place.  When I read about 
it I thought that it could compete with some commercial solutions that I was 
deciding on purchasing.  So I downloaded it, load tested it and then pen 
tested it.

Just for the record, I use the M0n0 to manage and secure wireless hotspots. 
I wouldn't choose any commercial grade package over this one because they 
just are not "AS" reliable. I have spent more than $10,000 USD and better 
than 6 months wasting time on 4 different commercial solutions that have ALL 
failed miserably including Cisco.

As a consultant I also manage commercial wifi and security solutions for 
many customers and they just don't stay up and running error free like the 
M0n0. In fact I had one  M0n0 system online for 6 months! High utilization 
Cisco APs need to be rebooted every couple of weeks at best.  The only 
reason the M0n0 went down was due to a faulty mainboard which was quickly 
replaced by just swapping the CF card.  Now granted the system was offline 
for about a week because I was on vacation,  the time to repair the 
situation when I returned was about 10 minutes while I fetched a 
screwdriver.

As for my two cents, the reason I feel more companies don't start using 
something like this, without their technical support guy/gal cramming it 
down their throat, is because of perceived value.  If someone doesn't pay 
anything for a solution the perceived value of the solution is $0.  Since it 
is considered "worthless" they won't use it because it translates literally 
to meaning "worthless" even though it's a great product or service.

We've all seen this before where a company buys into an absolutely HORRIBLE 
product and pays $50,000+ for it.  They will struggle to cope, manage and 
rely on that company's tech support to keep patching, replacing and 
upgrading the systems.  Why?  Because it cost $50,000!  Then they think that 
they couldn't possibly get rid of a solution that cost that much.   And no 
one really wants to admit to being stupid in the first place.  That's why we 
suffer the little management constantly and continually.

How do I know this to be true?  I can sell M0n0Wall's like nobody's business 
if I charge something like $5,000+ per custom installation and configuration 
with a management contract.  I have tested price points and they simply 
don't go for anything that is in the couple hundred or couple thousand 
dollar range. So go out and sell it with a high price tag and you will be 
surprised by how many clients actually start to consider it over a PIX or 
Nokia box. Perception is everything.

BTW don't ever do anything for free for a client. Now there are certain 
exceptions to this but I have learned this by the example above.  The value 
of the service will be regarded as $0.  So you will constantly be called in 
to do things for free and never really see a pay day because the client will 
never be satisfied with your "worthless" service.  I'm sure more than a 
couple of you can relate to this while running your own companies.

- David


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jayden Phillips" <trainguy77 at shaw dot ca>
To: <m0n0wall dash dev at lists dot m0n0 dot ch>
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2005 5:43 PM
Subject: [m0n0wall-dev] M0n0wall and enterprises firewall


> This is interesting how people think that m0n0wall is a enterprise 
> firewall
> I think we should shoot for the enterprise level.
> http://linux.hangar.ro/node/269
>
> jayden
>
>
>
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