Smoothwall Alternative - Suggestions please.

[FN-GM]

Hello,

 

I am sick to the back teeth of Smoothwall so I am looking to move our 5 schools over to something else.

 

I am looking for something that

 

1. Have IPv6 Support

2. Seamless filtering of Chromebooks

3. Radius authentication like Smoothwall.

4. Capitve portal

5. AD group based filtering

6. Good filtering.

7. Good Tech Support

8. Decent reporting

 

Can anyone suggest anything please?

 

Thanks

[mjk]

We moved from Smoothwall to Fortigate.

I think it was a very good choice for us and has solved a stack load of problems that we experienced with SW.

The only minor problem with your list is 8) the reporting is decent but you have to write your own SQL queries which are complex and time consuming. Everything else about it is A+++ including the price which was a lot cheaper than SW for us.

[ADMaster]

I use Iboss, I know their good on most points...

1. I'm certain they have support for IPV6, but my core is still IPV4 so not bothered.

2. Chromebook extension pushed via admin console.

3. I have it connected to NPS

4. yes you can force login via webpage if they are not picked up my other means.

5. utility installed on each DC reports back log in info / group info. You can also alias groups. This allows me to map one filter group to multiple AD groups.

6. Better then what we had before in some areas, but they all have their pros and cons.

7. Always had good support.

8. I have no idea what the reports are like compared to smoothwall. I can filter the logs by IP / username etc. The one item I miss is I lost bandwidth reports in a recent update. I have an open case with them.

[Net-Ctrl]

Palo Alto has launched some new EDU bundles on their 800 series range, they're starting at £5k which includes the PA-820 with the URL and Threat Prevention licenses and support for 1 year. There are other combinations available. Will still be out of budget for some sites, but worth a look. Out of all the firewalls our engineers have used/installed, the PANW range is their favourite

[Wave9_Lee]

Hi FN-GM

 

Sophos is worth a look. XG v17 is out shortly, and 17.5 next year with some really interesting features. When are you looking to change?

 

If you'd like a chat or demo, let me know,

 

kind regards

 

Lee

[karldenton]

Sophos UTM. Either SG or XG.

Can also get a cloud based one from certain companies so you just need a small XG at each site and do centralised filtering

[Blue_Cookeh]

Hello,

 

I am sick to the back teeth of Smoothwall so I am looking to move our 5 schools over to something else.

 

I am looking for something that

 

1. Have IPv6 Support

2. Seamless filtering of Chromebooks

3. Radius authentication like Smoothwall.

4. Capitve portal

5. AD group based filtering

6. Good filtering.

7. Good Tech Support

8. Decent reporting

 

Can anyone suggest anything please?

 

Thanks

 

Sophos UTM SG and XG fits all those. SG was *wonderful* to manage, XG not so much but it's getting there!

 

They provide trials/home licenses you can use to setup a VM based UTM if you want to have a play.

Edited October 10, 2017 by Blue_Cookeh

[FN-GM]

Sophos doesn't fit requirement 2. The ways they filter Chromebooks are via Radius WIFI connection or Captive Portal. They are no suitable.

[rogerdnixon]

We use Securly (the paid for version) which filters all our devices. Parents like it on our 1:1 Chromebooks as it works offsite and they can login and see what the little darlings have been up to and modify the offsite policy for their child (within defined parameters). All authentication is done via G Suite - on Chromebooks its seamless. On PC/BYOD - they get forced to sign in with there school accout before they can do anything.

 

Firewall - we use the community version of ClearOS (well four in separate instances).

 

Securly reporting is pretty good and its dead easy to use. You can give safeguarding staff access to look at student activity and leave them to it. Does not currently support IPV6 - some maybe not for you - but might be worth considering if you are a big G Suite user (as we are).