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What’s New in SonicOS 7.1.1

The SonicOS 7 operating system was already the most secure, versatile and easy-to-use operating system SonicWall has ever produced. But the latest release, SonicOS 7.1.1, offers improved security and performance, a superior customer experience and cloud enablement features.

These features are designed to provide a superior customer experience through ease of use, deployments, policy management and day-to-day operations. Here’s a high-level look at SonicOS 7.1.1 benefits:

Superior Threat Protection:

  • New CFS 5.0 engine ​
  • Advanced DNS filtering​
  • Secure boot
  • Enhanced filesystem security ​
  • Storage enhancements​
  • Virtual TPM​
  • OS hardening with new toolchain
  • Improved console application​
  • Maintenance key for both virtual and hardware firewalls

Enhanced Usability:

  • Firewall-managed Wi-Fi 6 APs​
  • More intuitive user experience​
  • Turnkey integrations with third-party NAC solutions ​
  • Storage enhancements​
  • Automatic firmware updates​
  • No more separate SonicOS and SonicCore upgrades

New Multi-Cloud Deployment:

  • NSv Bootstrapping​
  • Support for virtual TPM on-cloud firewall​
  • Token-based registrations
  • New driver and increased performance for NSv

SonicOS 7.1.1 Common Use Cases:

FeatureUse CaseBusiness Outcome
Wi-Fi 6 unified authentication and securityMSP requires the current SonicWave 621, 641 and 681 access points to be managed by SonicWall firewalls in order to avoid using multiple management solutions (for example, having to use NSM to manage firewalls and WNM to manage SonicWave APs)Ease of management and seamless integration with SonicWall wireless products
NAC integration, offering synergy between SonicWall and Aruba solutions and providing health posture telemetryNeed to apply enhanced user and device context (including role, device health and more) to next-generation firewall rules and policies for protection against unsanctioned traffic

Need to protect users on the network from threats such as phishing, malware and exploits

Need to stop unauthorized users and devices by implementing a single policy of authorization and enforcement for users and IoT devices across wired and wireless networks, up to the application level

Need to enable closed-loop attack detection via next-generation firewall and policy-based response with ClearPass

Enable enterprises and educational segments to integrate with their Aruba solutions and get more value from their Gen 7 firewall with Health Posture
DNS security that enables blocking websites at DNS layer without enabling TLS/SSL decryptionAdmin wishes to maximize performance by blocking bad websites at DNS layer without enabling TLS decryption.

MSP – Actively looking to help their customers avoid malicious domains

ISP – Wanting to safeguard against DoS and DDoS attacks

Enterprises – Wish to protect users without affecting user experience or speed

K-12 – Required to provide safe browsing experiences for students and staff while controlling what domains can be accessed

Government – To safeguard systems from malware and bad actors

Delivering DNS layer protection without the need to enable TLS decryption
Stronger content filtering solution with additional categories and reputation-based filtering​Defining which websites are malicious or undesirable within a web filtering gateway requires the use of static lists of known bad URLs and IP—which can’t keep up with websites and IPs with statuses that switch from benign to malicious and back very quicklyImproved content filtering capabilities for Gen7, resulting in more accurate website/URL rating
Secondary storage enhancements to support PCAP (Packet Captures), TSR (Tech-Support Reports) and LogsLimited primary storage space restricts the ability of diagnostics and troubleshooting on Gen 7 firewalls

Customer must purchase secondary storage to have additional abilities beyond just saving settings and image

Admins require logs, TSR and PCAP storing ability on the firewall

Added secondary storage so customers don’t have to purchase separate secondary storage

Enhanced diagnostics and troubleshooting experience

Enables logging and reporting on local firewall

Policy mode profiles for gateway antivirus and anti-spyware to simplify rule creations from security rule pageEnterprises require ability to have security profile for antivirus and anti-spyware when using policy mode in order to simplify security policy creation at layer 7Simplifies unified policy on enterprise deployments using 15700 and NSv firewalls
Virtual TPM and enhanced securityUsers require not just the OS but also the underlying kernel to be secureImproved security and performance
Automated SonicOS image upgradeMSPs require automatic SonicOS upgrade notifications so they can easily identify and schedule new OS upgradeOffers MSPs and others a more convenient user experience

The SonicOS 7.1.1 release is now available for installation on any SonicWall Gen 7 NGFW. Learn more about what makes Gen 7 our most secure, stable and scalable lineup yet, or reach out to your SonicWall partner or sales rep to upgrade today.

Is 802.11ax Going Away? And What is Wi-Fi 6?

The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced a change in the Wi-Fi naming standards. Yep. That’s right. The terms that you are now used to — like 802.11ax, 802.11ac and 802.11n — are being replaced with a much simpler naming scheme: Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 4, respectively.

Anything that predates 802.11n isn’t officially getting a name change. This move from Wi-Fi Alliance is aimed at making it simpler for manufacturers and consumers to understand and use the technologies. Along with the new names, they get new logos as well. However, from a regulatory and specification standpoint, the names still retain its techy naming scheme: IEEE 802.11.

“For nearly two decades, Wi-Fi users have had to sort through technical naming conventions to determine if their devices support the latest Wi-Fi,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance, in the official announcement. “Wi-Fi Alliance is excited to introduce Wi-Fi 6, and present a new naming scheme to help industry and Wi-Fi users easily understand the Wi-Fi generation supported by their device or connection.”

New Wi-Fi Naming Standards

  • Wi-Fi 6 identifies devices that support 802.11ax technology
  • Wi-Fi 5 identifies devices that support 802.11ac technology
  • Wi-Fi 4 identifies devices that support 802.11n technology

Source: Wi-Fi Alliance

According to a new study by the Wi-Fi Alliance, the global economic value of Wi-Fi will reach $1.96 trillion this year and increase to $3.5 trillion by 2023. To keep up with the proliferation of Wi-Fi devices, it is essential to introduce technologies to keep pace with the changing tides. One of the most talked about wireless technologies in the recent times is the 802.11ax standard, or Wi-Fi 6.

What is Wi-Fi 6?

Wi-Fi 6 is currently deemed the future of Wi-Fi. Why? This is because it introduces significant wireless enhancements over the current Wi-Fi 5 technology.

With the rise in the number of devices and bandwidth-intensive applications, one of the biggest challenges we face on Wi-Fi networks is poor performance. In addition to having high, system-wide throughput, it is also essential to ensure high performance on a per-client basis, specifically for high-density use cases.

This is where Wi-Fi 6 could greatly improve performance, concurrent connections and business productivity. The significant benefits introduced by Wi-Fi 6 include:

  • Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) Wi-Fi 6 introduces OFDMA, which is an enhancement over orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), a technology that is used in Wi-Fi 5 and dates back to the 802.11a era. OFDM allows only one transmission at a time. OFDMA, in comparison, divides a channel into resource units to allow multiple communications simultaneously.With Wi-Fi 6, each resource unit can be as low as 2MHz and as high as 160MHz. This enables multiple data transmissions across multiple devices at the same time, improving overall network efficiency and capacity. Doing so allows frequencies to be divided into smaller subcarriers so that traffic can be coordinated to serve more packets from more devices, increasing the network’s capacity.
  • Upstream and Downstream Multi-User Multiple-In Multiple-Out (MU-MIMO)
    With Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2, MU-MIMO was restricted to only downstream communication, whereas Wi-Fi 6 adds support for MU-MIMO in both upstream and downstream communications. Previously, only the wireless access point (AP) could transmit data to clients simultaneously. Now, clients can transmit data simultaneously back to the AP.
  • 1024 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)
    Wi-Fi 5 supports 256 QAM, while Wi-Fi 6 can support 1024 QAM. This denser modulation enables a speed burst of more than 35 percent. This boosts Wi-Fi performance and is most effective for users closer to the access point.
  • Target Wake Time (TWT)
    This mechanism enables AP and client devices to coordinate wake times when devices need to be awake. Doing so improves efficiency, reduces contention and enables power-saving by identifying times when the devices will be awake to send or receive data. This is especially useful in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, leading to significant power-savings for battery-powered devices.
  • Enhancement to 5GHz and 2.4GHz Frequency Bands
    Unlike the Wi-Fi 5 standard that introduced enhancement to only the 5GHz band, Wi-Fi 6 introduces enhancement to both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Data speed of up to 9.6 Gbps is possible with Wi-Fi 6. Enhancements offered by Wi-Fi 6 boost average per-client performance by up to four times in comparison with Wi-Fi 5. In addition, Wi-Fi 6 is backwards-compatible with older technologies like Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 4.

Solving Challenges with the Wi-Fi 6 Wireless Standard

Wi-Fi 6 is designed for IoT and high-density deployments, including stadiums, universities, shopping malls, transportation hubs, where there are large congregations of people.

At this point in time, Wi-Fi 6 technology is still being amended. The finalized draft is expected in late 2019. Until the standard is finalized, it is not advisable to purchase Wi-Fi 6 products.

In addition, there are no real-world clients to benefit from the Wi-Fi 6 enhancements. Let’s face it, even the latest Apple iPhone XS doesn’t even support Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2. The time is right to expand your network on Wi-Fi 5, as it still gaining traction.

SonicWall offers cutting-edge Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 access points to address the growing needs of Wi-Fi 5 devices. To learn more about how you can securely expand your network, click here.

Executive Brief: Securing the Next Wave of Wireless

Wireless connectivity is ubiquitous in today’s mobile, global economy. Wireless devices range from smartphones and laptops to security cameras and virtual reality headsets. Businesses need to recognize and address their need for high quality, performance and security across wireless networks and endpoints.