I recently got some demo equipment from TippingPoint to evaluate at my office, particularly their intrusion prevention system. This device may work for you, it may not, I simply have no idea because I never got a functioning device. The first one they sent out had major packet loss as soon as I turned on the IPS functionalist. After two days the sent out a new one. If that one was even plugged into the network (even in Layer 2 / dumb hub) mode, it dropped all packets.
I’m fair, sometimes things get broken in shipping or maybe you got a bad card but I wasn’t about to give them a third shot. After reporting the second device’s problems it took them a week to get back to me via email to get my address to send out a third device. By then I had already shipped all the devices back. If it takes them a week to get back to me without phone calls to tell me what I already know, it is doubtful that their support is up to par if I ever had a problem when this thing got into production.
It is simply not that hard to do rudimentary testing on a device for problems. Hint: if it drops packets, it’s broken. It’s much less hard for support to give you a courtesy call to let you know they haven’t forgotten about your failed and under-warranty device. In the end, they may write the greatest rules in the world, but their devices (or at least their testing of them) suck and their support is deplorable.
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Article comments
1 - JVD
I have evaluated and deployed TippingPoint's IPS devices (both the earlier UnityOne model as well as the newer TippingPoint model /* post 3com */) in two different production environments, both of which were quite large. If you configure them correctly (don't just turn every single filter on) they are amazingly fast. Their newer hardware version (the one that supports DOS) has really high new connection per second stats and they do really well with straight security and stress under load testing. I have seen packet loss, usually when their device is overwhelmed, but at over 75K new connections per second what wouldn't be. They are very simple to configure and manage, and their SMS is top notch. If you have the money, and the network requirements to match TippingPoint can't be touched. The comment about TP's support was a bit shocking as in both companies I was with I had nothing but amazing support (but I guess it does depend on who your SE's are) .. in my experience these guys are super smart. Again, different people have different experiences, but in mine TippingPoint is the best there is