Flex H, a rant

MarkoD

We're still running on USG series firewalls in multiple sites because FLEX H series is unstable and we didn't buy USG FLEX (non-H) series because they will eventually become EOL devices in the near future (IMHO) since ZyXEL will focus on the newest H line (that's what companies do).

I've been monitoring these forums for a while now and you guys have my deepest sympathies working with the H-series.

If I would guess, ZyXEL decided to implement a completely new OS (makes sense) but released it too early and made us all beta-testers. It reminds me of Microsoft, who let go all the testing team and outsourced it (from India) and tried to use AI-driven automated testing for Windows 10-11, thus making users betatesters and this also explains why Windows 10 needed a lot of fixing to become production-ready (Windows 11 is not yet there, but making progress).

So I guess something similar happened at ZyXEL - some old-but-knowledgeable employees got ditched, maybe uOS development got outsourced to a different company/country, perhaps the QA team got ditched and oursourced? I guess we will never find out, but I think a lot of people will either switch to another vendor or wait a couple of years to buy another ZyXEL firewall.

ticsystems

If the flex 200h and 100h seem unstable to you, the 700H are a disaster... Having to disable UTM services to avoid blocking. The CPU is constantly at 100%.... Random reboots.... I have 3 and in no case is it a production Firewall. Not even with 1.30 is it functional.

DanniKool

You are absolutely right ticsystems.

Sadly we have a 700H in production and with another 700H in standby mode to implement to HA when firmware developed. I've been in constant dialog with Zyxel support for almost a year now to solve various issues. Firmware v1.30 has some hughe in and outgoing internet delay issues. If R&D team doesn't solve this ASAP within the next few days, we will replace this product with an older model or another brand. We've had it!

ticsystems

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/comment/71471#Comment_71471

I downgraded to 1.21 because of internet issues. I thought it was just a firewall bug.

ESupport

Thanks for the feedback DanniKool and ticsystems. We are planning to give the new H-Series a new try next year but from what i hear the stabilityissues aren't remotely resolved and that's nearly a year later. I'm so disappointed. I would really use the new hardware (faster, SFP+, openvpn) but with the current state of µOS we will still wait. Zyxel, FIX THIS.

Trilogy

I just purchased a Flex 700H without reading these forums. 🙂 Reading it now, I feel quite lucky about the time I've chosen to migrate from my also well-working ATP 500. Two days after migrating, so far I've only had minor issues with the Flex 700H. The device and services including UTM seem to be running fine. I'm happy with it. I already started configuring with firmware 1.32(ABZI.0) so maybe that makes a difference.

ticsystems

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/comment/78231#Comment_78231

ticsystems

ticsystems

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/comment/78231#Comment_78231

1.32 has random reboot issues. I had to disable IPS today because CPUs 1 and 2 were at 100%.
It's a high-traffic scenario 700H can't handle it.

Trilogy

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/comment/78237#Comment_78237

Yes I can't speak to that. I don't have a high-traffic scenario. Thank you for sharing.