Managed Firewall Protection

Firewalls, whether software or hardware based have become a need rather than a commodity for hosted infrastructure such as dedicated servers or virtual private servers. Any server which provides services to Internet clients (non-VPN) should definitely be protected by some form of firewall. Software firewalls such as APF can be excellent at deterring attackers. The problem with software firewalls is they rely on the operating system and the resources of your dedicated server in order to function. This reliance on system resources and the operating system can cause major issues and introduce additional points of failure.

For example if you are hosting a busy website on your dedicated server and you introduce the task of inspecting each and every packet which comes into your Ethernet interface, this could quickly exhaust the resources of your dedicated server. Another problem area can be DDoS attacks, if you are using a software firewall installed on your dedicated server to prevent DDoS attacks the server could spend most of its resources deflecting DDoS attacks. This can leave your web server without the resources to handle valid requests.

By offloading the firewall task to a dedicated hardware firewall you allow your server to use all of its resources to deliver your application to your customers. XLHost has partnered with WatchGuard to deliver their network security products to our customers. WatchGuard Firebox network security appliances combine ultra high performance without sacrificing the security of your dedicated servers.

XLHost believes that every customer should have access to a hardware security appliance, so we have two different pricing models to choose from: Dedicated hardware firewalls provide access to all Ethernet ports on either a WatchGuard Firebox x550e or a Firebox x1250e depending on your needs. Dedicated hardware firewalls can be managed by the customer or XLHost and include mobile-user/IPSEC VPN, full reporting (Syslog/SNMP), full control over DDoS settings and much more.

Some of the benefits that the x550e provide are:

Dynamic state-full packet firewall
Network Cloaking
Automatic blocking of source addresses which violate your security policy

Shared hardware firewalls include a single dedicated port on a WatchGuard Firebox x1250e managed by XLHost. This configuration offers the same wire-speed firewall performance as a dedicated WatchGuard Firebox. XLHost will configure the firewall to your specifications including packet filters and any service proxies you may want configured. The downside of shared firewalls is mainly that there is no reporting or VPN functionality available (VPN functionality is available ala carte via XLHost Advanced Services (XAS).

XLHost can also create high availability/fault tolerant Firewall configurations with no single points of failure.

The pricing for our Managed security solutions is:

Firebox Port - $30 per month
Dedicated Firebox x550e - $150 per month
Dedicated Firebox x1250e - $225 per month

For more information on the Firebox please visit the Watchguard website.

Contact if you have any questions regarding any of these offerings.