Smoothwall UTM1000

[Homeland]

What configuration is needed to set up a UTM1000 for firewall and web filtering,

We are about to order it but they want £600 to do the install and I cant see it would take that long so just wondered what is involved and weather or not I could save the school the £600.

[kmount]

Having just set one up myself it's not difficult but I'm sure mine isn't set up as well as their team would set it up so I take that as it is.

 

If you want it done properly or if you have a network with different requirements (VLANs, mixed filtering levels, BYOD etc) I'd definitely pay the cash and get it done properly and use it as a great example to ask lots of questions and really get comfy with the tech.

 

For me it's a lab set up so it's not big deal to flatten it and do it again if I've done something stupid.

 

Lots and lots of functionality deep in those menus too, I'll be talking to the guys there again soon to explore further.

[Homeland]

We currently don't have anything special setup with the firewall etc but we have a situation within our LEA where they have washed there hands of us and we have to fend for ourselves, I am hoping that I can learn from the install and do other schools at a lesser rate hence bringing in finance for our school.

[kmount]

In that case I'd definitely want to take advantage of a day of a decent engineer to pick up on the best practices.

[Chris_]

£600 sounds pretty reasonable. We paid more than 3 times that for ours to be installed by RM.

[Edu-IT]

If you have the £600 to spend, it's definitely worth it. You'll probably find it includes more than just setting up the UTM too. Ours gave us some training on how to use the UTM which was very helpful as the appliance does a lot and it's good to be shown around it.

[Homeland]

The £600 is the installation only the training is an additional £500.

[Edu-IT]

I guess it comes down to whether you have the £600 to spend and whether you're confident enough to set up the UTM. It's not difficult to install, if you have a relatively simple network as mentioned above, so there's nothing stopping you from doing it. I mean you could attempt and then if you don't get anywhere I'm sure you could then pay Smoothwall to do it? There's lots of people on here to help you too.

[Homeland]

Where not actually buying it through Smoothwall as its cheaper through a third party and I think its one of those pay for the install when you order or that's it cenarios.

[Sylv3r]

I wouldn't class it as difficult, but if you were to set it up yourself it's going to take quite a bit of tweaking to get it working exactly how you want. I guess at least if you pay the £600 to Smoothwall you let them know your requirements and they will set up the system exactly how it needs to be.

 

As the system does so much, documenting it fully would be an absolute nightmare. I guess you could always give it a go yourself and if you can't set it up then you have the option to pay the £600.