free780 Posted October 14, 2015 Posted October 14, 2015 However you can have bloxx configured so that it doesn't do the SSL interception on a byod vlan. However most schools won't want to do this.
Opendium_Steve Posted October 15, 2015 Posted October 15, 2015 A common setup we see is certificates installed on student BYOD devices, and a separate "visitor" network that doesn't require a certificate. The normal BYOD network can decrypt encrypted web traffic for filtering and auditing purposes; the "visitor" network doesn't decrypt traffic, so doesn't provide anywhere near the same level of filtering or audit logging. Whether staff are treated similar to "students" or "visitors" depends on the school's policies - both ways seem pretty common. As well as improving filtering, decrypting the traffic allows systems to analyse the keywords students have been googling for, etc. and give staff a heads up about any worrying stuff like self-harm, radicalisation, etc. so they can follow up, so this isn't just the traditional "blocking porn" stuff.
hyb80 Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 Just read that Bloxx is going EOL. https://blogs.sophos.com/2015/11/04/bloxx-end-of-life-got-you-down-upgrade-your-web-security-with-sophos/ Which is a shame as we are in the market very soon for alternative web filtering.
Opendium_Steve Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 Which is a shame as we are in the market very soon for alternative web filtering. Look on the bright side - at least you know Bloxx isn't an option before you look for a new filter. A few schools have just signed up for multi-year contracts with Bloxx and are now quite concerned that development will probably stop and support go very downhill.
internetuser Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 The claim that support will not change, and development is on going for the next Bloxx UI (to get rid of silverlight) but cant confirm if it will see light of day. The company that bought them is going to offer a cloud based webfilter option at some point and offer existing customers an upgrade route. Really hope support doesn't suffer as they have always being spot on.
Opendium_Steve Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 The claim that support will not change, and development is on going for the next Bloxx UI (to get rid of silverlight) but cant confirm if it will see light of day. The company that bought them is going to offer a cloud based webfilter option at some point and offer existing customers an upgrade route. Really hope support doesn't suffer as they have always being spot on. I'm pretty dubious about them offering existing customers an upgrade route, given that they didn't announce an upgrade route when they made the end of life announcement. Their announcement essentially boiled down to "go find another product from someone else". To be honest, the whole thing seems a bit odd to me - if Bloxx's products were profitable, it doesn't really make a lot of sense to completely cut that side of the business, and even less sense to do so if they hoped to retain some of those customers for an upcoming upgrade path. I know they have said they will honor their contracts, but there is a big difference between keeping on improving a product that will be sold for years to come, and just doing the work required to support a dead-end product. It remains to be seen how well they do things going forward, but I certainly wouldn't want to be tied into a long contract with them at the moment - the risks are just too high. From what I understand, they're also being a bit tight lipped about what will happen to the UK staff, and their partner companies were also taken by surprise by their announcement so I suspect it'll take some time to regain trust.
internetuser Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 I do find it strange to buy them and effectively kill the product. The time scale indicated was 18 month plus for the new product from the new owners, to be honest I do not even think he knew what was going on.
jonnykewell1 Posted November 9, 2016 Posted November 9, 2016 Hi All, I have just started at a new school today which uses bloxx and wondered if you had heard anything about support for SSL inspections being stopped as part of the end of support? Any help / update would be great thanks? I have read that the support is ending here, should we be gearing up sooner rather than later for a new product?
Opendium_Steve Posted November 9, 2016 Posted November 9, 2016 Hi All, I have just started at a new school today which uses bloxx and wondered if you had heard anything about support for SSL inspections being stopped as part of the end of support? Any help / update would be great thanks? I have read that the support is ending here, should we be gearing up sooner rather than later for a new product? I don't see why they would stop, but I imagine updates to the filtering criteria (URL lists, keywords, etc) have either ceased or will cease at some point soon, so the longer you stay with Bloxx, the more and more our of date your filtering will get. In particular, you're going to be failing your safeguarding obligations if you aren't getting updates to the IWF and Home Office block lists.
Edu-IT Posted November 9, 2016 Posted November 9, 2016 Hi All, I have just started at a new school today which uses bloxx and wondered if you had heard anything about support for SSL inspections being stopped as part of the end of support? Any help / update would be great thanks? I have read that the support is ending here, should we be gearing up sooner rather than later for a new product? Have you checked when your agreement expires?
Davit2005 Posted November 10, 2016 Posted November 10, 2016 First school I worked in I did a POC project on Filtering. We tested McFee, Sophos and Bloxx. Decided on BLOXX in the end. No problem with the kit and easy to use. At my last employment we went the Sophos route at the time because the package purchased gave us Sophos Endpoint for no extra cost (and we had no centralised AV). We then went to PaloAlto firewall and used inbuilt filtering (pan-db) but this defo not as good as the Sophos dedicated solution.
jonnykewell1 Posted November 10, 2016 Posted November 10, 2016 Thanks for you replies. It looks like the agreement ends on the 18th. They've said that everything will keep working but like you say no more updates or support. Apparently the option for extended support until 2017 wasn't taken up for some reason and is now passed the shut off date. I think I'm going to have to arrange a meeting and look at our options.
SimonSmoothwall Posted November 11, 2016 Posted November 11, 2016 Hi Jonny, If you are looking to replace the filter can I suggest Smoothwall as a replacement - would be keen to come and see any local schools - to progress this further please drop me an email - [email protected]
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