>We are an insurance co of about 50 employees. we are currently running a Novell 3.12 LAN.
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>We may be upgrading to a Windows 2000 server.
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>We want to get a Firewall.
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>Can anyone please give me advice as to hardware and software options for a firewall.

I'll add my ante to encourage you to stay with Novell. NetWare 5.x is a robust networking environment, easy to install and runs fairly maintenance free. eDirectory (the directory services feature formerly known as NDS) gives good file server security and central management. We use a separate server with Novell's BorderManager for a firewall. BorderManager also includes Web caching for improved Internet access speed and works seamlessly with your existing eDirectory. There is also a third party product available called Guinevere that uses McAfee's virus database to perform email attachment virus scanning.

I'm IT Director for a financial services company, so you can imagine security is high on our list of critical services. Our client computers are Win95/98/NT/2000 and use the Novell client software. We run many different off-the-shelf apps and our own investment tracking software in VFP without a problem. The only W2K server we have online runs SQLServer with a very light connection load and we seem to have to reboot it about once a week because it loses its network connection.