Firewall Appliance Question

My Firmware is V1.5_13. Is that old? It's the latest I can find.

Don't tell me you're beginning to realize how irrelevant certification is? Do you still think it isn't a firewall?

I think that the FR as tested qualified as a Firewall appliance under specific tests with specified exceptions.

I think that certification is vital in providing a base set of protection methods/services that indicate a device is actually capable of protecting a network as described in the certification description.

Why did you say it wasn't, then? Just curious.

I don't. Certification makes ignorant people feel good, like the HR people who hire based on certification over experience. I've been on both sides of that fence, and have seen competent people passed over in favor of people who were mostly ignorant and certainly incompetent, but who possessed paper certification.

Because, under the very strictest of definitions, it's a firewall, but considering all that it failed, I 'personally' don't consider it as a viable option.

No, there are two different things there, let me explain:

Hardware/Software Certifications: Test based against a known given set of conditions (specified and documented) and ensure that a given result is given consistently (specified and documented). The certified results are expected to be repeatable in the field under the same testing situations. Most end-user tested appliances that have passed certification also pass end-user testing.

People: Certifications mean that at one time (any unknown point in time), some way (through unknown learning methods), based on some testing facilities methods (which could be different from facility to facility), that a person was able to take a test and pass it (based on whatever the passing criteria was at that time, which is no longer documented). There is no expectation that the results could reliably be repeated at any future time. Many individuals certified do not pass individual testing by qualified people in the same work.

Which has nothing to do with an appliance being able to repeat it's tested conditions.

By making the comparison you indicate that you don't understand certification or it's goals.

Certification is a starting point, it gives us a base set of known conditions and results, without which we would have to perform our own testing which may not be as accurate and leave holes in our methods.

My guess is that your guess is wrong.

The section which states, "The following problems were discovered during testing ***AND ADDRESSED BY NETGEAR INC.***?

Or the "Conclusion". Or are you going to recant about this certification business?

It is the version that I am using. Like you, I can't find a later version.