Internet Filtering Appliances

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liquidtrance123

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 29, 2000
Messages
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We are looking to replace our aging iPrism and was looking at a few other solutions one being from Ironport and the S350 appliance. However I'm having some trouble finding much of a selection, I'm fairly new to the whole 'web filtering appliances' arena and the iPrism is the only one we've had in house.

My question is what are you using to monitor & filter websites for your users and how many users are you monitoring? I want to get an idea on other solutions I might have missed in my research.
 
One that I've setup for customers is Untangle. Low cost and very easy to configure.
 
Well, I don't have too much experience in this area really, but I've heard nothing but good things about Squid. Take a look into that, its very customizable.
 
Sonicwall is another option, but keep in mind there is an annual renewal for the filtering programs.
 
Using Untangle more and more myself...love it so far.
www.untangle.com
Run yourself through the Live GUI demo they have..so you navigate through the entire web admin demo.
 
atomiser said:
do you just use the community edition? or do you buy the commercial edition so you get proper support and ad integration etc?
Click to expand...

So far community....building confidence with a few clients before I go widespread....been approached to become a reseller for them.
 
sounds like a great way to get in on a new product!

i have to say, you are an inspiration to me - i would *love* to be in a situation like you, being my own boss, having a varied job etc. i hope myself to one day break away from the 'corporate machine'...!

edit: sorry for taking the thread a little o/t!
 
Smoothwall Express 3.0 with various mods depending on what I need a particular smoothie box to do

http://community.smoothwall.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=26

Great community support , easy instructions ..and very customizable

my main smoothie box at work is an Xp 1500+ w/ 768mb of ram running Dansguardian content filtering w/2 filter groups, adzap , Blackhole DNS mod , Advanced Web Proxy ..with various logging type mods and real time connection stats, a huge ipblock list blocking a whole slue of Chineese and Korean ip's .. with about 60 computers behind the box.

 
Use a Sonicwall if you have the money.

or

I use Ubuntu with Squid Proxy, Dans guardian for filtering and SARG for reading the logs etc. If you setup Ubuntu and webmin its all very very easy to do. Also if you use term you can view the logs in your terminal in real time.

I use DL360G1 with 256mb ram 1 x 800Mhz PIII 2 x 9.1gb 10K SCSI drivers and it works for about 30 users.
 
Will these solutions scale to a enterprise level? We're currently pushing maybe 800 clients over a 10-15MB circuit and we've already maxed out the 'midrange' iPrism. While the box has been rock solid up until now b/c of the extreme CPU load on keeping up with all the traffic I do not want to be tied to just one solution I'd like to see if there is anything better.
 
with most of the *nix firewall distros out there (Smoothwall, IPCop, Untangle ..etc..) you just need to scale the hardware to match the load .. build a beefier box for that big of load behind it .


 
have you looked at barracuda web filters? I have heard really good things about them. If they are anything like the spam filtering appliances, they should be great.
 
I've been using Smoothwall Express 3.0 for about a month or so now and it has been really good. Blocks offensive content and allows me to monitor where they are going when they are supposed to be doing school work, or on free time. It has a lot features when you get the right mods, Dans Guardian, etc.
Used a 1ghz Duron and 3x256mb ram with a 10gb Hard drive, have 4gb of web proxy aswell.
Run about 20-30 users.
 
I have used Astaro for a few different clients and also run the free version for myself and numerous friends/family with kids. They just came out with a web-filtering only box, don't have to pay for the firewall, IPS, VPN etc. I have nothing but good things to say about it. Integrates well with AD, can setup various filtering options per OU like with WebSense. Their support has been top-notch so far. I always like having a number to call if crap gets hairy. You can download a 30-day trial and install on a box to test out for a while before you buy.

 
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