Recommendations for Firewall / Web Filtering

[Iain.Faulkner]

+1 for Smoothwall UTM, had it in for about a month now, very impressed.

[Geek_of_HeathMount]

you could build your own, maybe with an ubuntu machine with squid and Dansguardian or something like Zentyal or IPCOp which has firewall capabilities and they all have HTTP Proxy Filtering and Throttling. Or you could go to eBay and find a cheap PIX515E, I got an old 505 off of there years back and I sold it and it's now being used on a council network.

Just looked at ebay and there are quite a few PIX515E's for sale, but how does a PIX515E compare to smoothwall UTM device. Should I go for the PIX or hold out for the smoothwall. I've got until the end of the week when I will be sitting down with the Bursar to ask for the money

[RTFM]

We went a slightly different direction and have a UTM300 firewall and an SWG1200 for filtering (so one box isnt doing both bits of work).

Still all Smoothwall and v.happy with it.

[tom_newton]

Just looked at ebay and there are quite a few PIX515E's for sale, but how does a PIX515E compare to smoothwall UTM device. Should I go for the PIX or hold out for the smoothwall. I've got until the end of the week when I will be sitting down with the Bursar to ask for the money

Cisco is a great firewall, but won't offer filtering. Also if you are new to Cisco you may find the learning curve a bit steep. It will do what you want out of a firewall tho.

[RabbieBurns]

we ended up going with these guys after trialling a load over a year.. Fortinet, Inc. : Network Security Appliance | Network Security | Business Network Security

works well, and the fact they had local support here in syd was the decisive factor.

[Geek_of_HeathMount]

Cisco is a great firewall, but won't offer filtering. Also if you are new to Cisco you may find the learning curve a bit steep. It will do what you want out of a firewall tho.

Not into steep learning curves, as I don't really have the time. So I'll look forward to your sales guy phone call on Tuesday.