The manufacturer EnGenius has recently launched its first security gateway (router with integrated firewall), the new model is the EnGenius ESG510 and it has really powerful hardware, but the most important thing about this new device is all the features that we have available at the software. This new equipment is aimed at small and medium-sized companies, it has management completely in the Cloud, ideal for also configuring the manufacturer’s professional switches and APs. Do you want to know everything this new team is capable of? Below, you can see its main features and usage scenarios.
Main features
Currently we already have the EnGenius ESG510 model on the market, the manufacturer’s first model in the range of security gateways with really powerful hardware, but in the coming months we will also see models superior to this (ESG520 and model ESG620), with better hardware, more ports and more speed on your ports. Of the current model we already know all the details and technical details.
The main features of the ESG510 is that it has a Quad-Core processor at a speed of 1.6GHz. It has a 2.5G Multigigabit port for the Internet WAN, we also have another 2.5G Multigigabit port that can work as LAN/WAN (we have Dual-WAN) and another two 2.5G Multigigabit ports for the LAN network specifically. We also have an RJ-45 console port for local administration tasks, and a USB port that will allow us to connect a 3G/4G or 5G modem to have a third Internet WAN in case the first two fail.
Another very interesting feature is that the first LAN port of this equipment is PoE+, this means that we will be able to power a device directly via Ethernet, such as a professional access point, without the need for a PoE switch in the network. Thanks to this feature, we can provide WiFi connectivity with a professional EnGenius AP to this gateway, in case we only need a single AP in our company. Inside this gateway we have a TPM chipset to improve device security.
The EnGenius software allows us to configure all the options in detail, in addition, we have management from the Cloud to easily configure the entire network from scratch and integrate this device with EnGenius Wi-Fi switches and access points. Thanks to management from the cloud, we will be able to carry out a unified and highly advanced configuration, with continuous monitoring of all the devices on the local network, regardless of the number of computers on the professional network. Of course, this equipment has a powerful SPI firewall, we have VPN services, we can configure a captive portal with authentication on an external RADIUS server, and even configure complex VPN architectures directly from the cloud.
When we configure EnGenius Cloud, we have the possibility to configure different locations, for example, each location would be a company, and within each location we can configure different networks. In the following diagram you can see what the network architecture of this security gateway would look like within the network, and this device works like a professional router with extensive configuration options. Of course, cloud integration is seamless, and we can roll out specific configurations that apply to all teams.
We must bear in mind that this ESG510 is not the only security gateway that the manufacturer is going to launch, but that two other new models are planned, as we can read on the manufacturer’s official website. Next, we leave you a summary of the hardware characteristics of the other two models that are currently planned:
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EnGenius ESG520: This device has a powerful Quad-Core processor at 2.2GHz speed, it has 4 2.5G Multigigabit ports and a total of 2 SFP+ ports at 10Gbps. Of course, we have the possibility of configuring several Internet WANs to load balance or failover the connection.
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EnGenius ESG620: This device has the same Quad-Core processor at 2.2GHz speed, but it incorporates a total of 6 2.5G Multigigabit ports and a total of 2 SFP+ ports at 10Gbps. In this case, we will also be able to configure several Internet WANs without problems.
Now that you know the technical characteristics and options available in the software, we are going to show you several usage scenarios where we can get the most out of this device.
Usage scenarios for this security gateway
The first scenario where we can use this gateway is in any small and medium-sized company that needs a router with extensive configuration options, with the possibility of configuring Dual-WAN, either with load balancing or connection failover, in addition, the possibility of having a third WAN through a 3G/4G modem is perfect so that the local network never runs out of Internet connection.
In this first scenario, we can have two WANs with a maximum speed of 2.5G for each of the ports, ideal for high FTTH speeds in the office or company. Regarding the LAN, we can use one of the ports for the intranet of the company, where all the equipment will be connected, and another of the ports we can define as DMZ where we will have the web server, FTP and other similar services that most companies have. Of course, we could also configure VLANs on the LAN port, to connect a managed switch and segment the local network with VLANs. We must bear in mind that it is a professional team, so we have any usual advanced option.
Today any company makes use of VPN tunnels, either to communicate securely with other companies, or for workers to connect remotely to company resources securely. EnGenius security gateways are the ideal solution to communicate offices or headquarters in a secure, fast and really simple way, because all the configuration can be done in the Cloud to later apply it to the different gateways that we have registered. By having a 100% management in the cloud, we will be able to activate the VPN tunnels in a few clicks so that clients connect to us, this allows companies to create connections without as much complication as happened in the past.
If you are going to use the VPN services of the security gateways, you should know that EnGenius Cloud continuously monitors that the tunnels are up and running correctly, in fact, if we have several gateways connected to each other via VPN, it will be able to automatically update the related parameters with the tunnel in case the WAN IP address changes, or a port changes on one of the devices. In this way, the VPN is automatically repaired so that the VPN network is always available.
Finally, another use case is to use this security gateway in “passthrough” mode, adding data monitoring and security protection, but without affecting the configurations with the original router provided by the operator. In this way, we will not have many routing functions, but in certain scenarios this feature is essential to avoid having double NAT and problems related to ports.
As you can see, the cloud-based EnGenius solution is very complete, secure and easy to manage directly from the web or with the smartphone app. Remember that if your company has several offices, you will be able to communicate with each other very easily with this solution, without the need to carry out complex point-to-point VPN configurations.