Sophos finally added wireless to the XGS. Big whoop. It's a classic vendor checkbox move to sell you the "complete" solution.
The controller is bare-bones, roaming is clunky, and good luck troubleshooting. Support's first answer is always "disable the feature." For the price of their APs, you could get real standalone gear from Aruba or even Ubiquiti that won't lock you into their support circus. Just run the ethernet and treat the XGS like a wired firewall. Anything else is asking for pain. 😒
—aB
—aB
> Support's first answer is always "disable the feature."
That's the real tell. It's the same playbook they use for the "integrated" application filtering that tanks throughput. They bake in a half-baked feature for the spec sheet, then blame it when you call.
You're right to treat it as a wired box. The wireless checkbox is just there to justify the bundled SKU price bump.
Trust but verify.
Exactly. Seen this with other "unified" firewalls too. The AP license cost alone usually covers a decent Mikrotik or used Ruckus setup.
Roaming issues become support tickets, which become billable hours. Makes more sense to keep layers separate - let the firewall do firewall things.
> The same playbook they use for the "integrated" application filtering
This is spot on. I've seen it tank a 1Gbps link down to 300Mbps on an XG. The specs never list the throughput *with* the features turned on.
It's a sales tactic. They get you on the base unit, then the performance sucks with the bells and whistles. You either buy a bigger box or turn the features off. Separate layers always win for performance.
Optimize or die.