Something better than cachepilot filtering.. (and free)

[dgsmith]

So, we're a lancs school who have used the cachepilot solution since they were first rolled out, and quite frankly there just isn't enough control over them to do what we want.

 

I have searched these forums endlessly for web filtering etc, and found many interesting discussions about smoothwall/ipcop/dansguardian etc, but I still am slightly confused about how these intergrate with eachother to do what I want.

 

 

How easy is DG/Squid to install? I believe smoothwall is much easier to install and setup, but I am not sure if I can use the content filtering of Dansguardian to compliment any smoothwall installation I may make (which at the moment I am thinking would be an ideal setup).

 

My linux knowledge is verging on extremely basic/not very proficient, so I am searching for a no cost solution which is easy to setup/install and generally manage. For some time I have been eager to setup a solution that we would have complete control over, with (if possible) website content detection amongst the normal blacklists, and AD integration/authentication from the domain.

 

Cheers in advance,

 

Dave

[contink]

So, we're a lancs school who have used the cachepilot solution since they were first rolled out, and quite frankly there just isn't enough control over them to do what we want.

 

I have searched these forums endlessly for web filtering etc, and found many interesting discussions about smoothwall/ipcop/dansguardian etc, but I still am slightly confused about how these intergrate with eachother to do what I want.

Worth bearing in mind that some folks use the Cachepilot as their Espresso server which is what confused me at first...

 

How easy is DG/Squid to install? I believe smoothwall is much easier to install and setup, but I am not sure if I can use the content filtering of Dansguardian to compliment any smoothwall installation I may make (which at the moment I am thinking would be an ideal setup).

There are a number of homebrew installations of Smoothwall 2.0 (and some for version 3.0 starting to appear although with less GUI) that provide you with smoothie, DG, an advanced proxy and more to boot, it's a question of deciding which one and trying it out.

 

I've had the one mentioned here:

http://community.smoothwall.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=146640#146640

 

On a box in one primary for about a year now and the biggest headache was working out how to configure DG properly... or more accurately actually considering just how big a deal content filtering is and how vast the options are.

 

 

My linux knowledge is verging on extremely basic/not very proficient, so I am searching for a no cost solution which is easy to setup/install and generally manage. For some time I have been eager to setup a solution that we would have complete control over, with (if possible) website content detection amongst the normal blacklists, and AD integration/authentication from the domain.

The above may well be what you're looking for... Certainly the main cost will be time learning but DG is pretty standard now so it's time well spent. You could certainly do worse.

[alonebfg]

can i just say that mine was until about 4 months ago and I have just built a server with webmin, squid/dansguardin, nagios, mrbs, ocsng with glpi. and it all works i have also built an access point wireless and wired with squid dansguardian for home. Its not hard once you get you head around cmd line and webmin means you dont even have to worry about that as much.

[dgsmith]

There are a number of homebrew installations of Smoothwall 2.0 (and some for version 3.0 starting to appear although with less GUI) that provide you with smoothie, DG, an advanced proxy and more to boot, it's a question of deciding which one and trying it out.

 

I've had the one mentioned here:

http://community.smoothwall.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=146640#146640

 

That looks like something which would suit us - is it literally a case of burning the image then booting it from disk and letting it install itself (configurating it for your own network of course)?

 

Although it seems to be over a year since this particular one was updated - do you know of somewhere where there might be more updated ones (which the more later versions of the included software)?

 

As that link mentions it uses SME2 & DG, I assume that with some configuration (however technical that might be), it is possible to use both of these alongside eachother in a separate "from scratch" install?

[Jackd]

Id recomend going just installing ubuntu server from scratch and setting up squid and dansguardian. Installation of squid & DG is as simple as apt-get install squid dansguardian then all you need to do is add rules to DG

 

Jack

[jcollings]

So, we're a lancs school who have used the cachepilot solution since they were first rolled out, and quite frankly there just isn't enough control over them to do what we want.

installation I may make (which at the moment I am thinking would be an ideal setup).

Cheers in advance,

 

Dave

 

CLEO are ditching CachePilot in the new year and rolling out a new solution developed at Lancs. Uni by CLEO chaps there. Going to be called NED (Network Edge Device). Just filled in some paperwork for ours with a roll out in Feb 08 if I recall. Maybe worth looking at before you do something different.

[dgsmith]

I'm aware lancs intend on doing this early next year, as we ourself have also signed a form for this. However, I don't have much faith in that it'll do what I want (mainly content filtering and user auth/individual user settings), thus at least if I get a custom setup in we'd also have complete control over it.

 

I am leaning towards SWE3, as I have seen from screenshots DG can integrate into this with various popular addons, although at what cost to performance and what difficulty this will create I am unsure about.

[dezt]

Have you taken a look at censornet? we're running this for the kids with the built-in AD authentication and the built-in web filters it's a great little proxy server.

[JamesC]

I run and highly recommend IPCOP. I use this with a few 'unofficial' addons - i.e. not supported. These are Cop+ (dansguardian) and BOT or Block Out Traffic.

 

It works really well. I have my blocklists update automatically, most outgoing ports blocked using BOT to stop p2p and torrents. I've installed these in a few schools now as our borough seem to be having problems with their own firewall and schools keep getting blasted by worms etc.

 

IPCOP: http://www.ipcop.org/

 

Addons: http://firewalladdons.sourceforge.net/

[SimpleSi]

Free and easy == nope

 

If you'r happy using VMServer then I'd suggest having a play with one of the many virtual appliances that are on the site to do filtering.

 

regards

 

Simon

[webman]

We're using IPCop too, but use the Advproxy and URLFilter addons instead.

[dgsmith]

For the past week or so I have been trialing both SWE2 and 3, but for some reason DG (which now that I have used it, is a must) seems to randomly cut out or fail to start (and now it wont start at all).

 

Essentially, I am just looking for a url filtering solution (don't need the proxy as that is covered), so I suppose even IPCOP would suffice, even though that comes with proxy too.

 

SimpleSi, would I not be better off just installing ubuntu/dg if that where the case and use a dedi box? I have no idea the implications on performance running a proxy solution have alongside any filtering additions, although we like the idea of using a web-based GUI to amend filtering at ease (I am just lazy ).

 

I may install IPCOP with the DG addons etc and see where that takes me.

[georgebush]

I'd have a look at Policy Central Enterprise, it pretty much does the lot. Filters internet, email, ims and application use. As well as the logs it also flags filtered words and takes screen dumps of the users screen and then displays them through a web interface. You can use it to ban the internet, or one step better put certain users in a group where they can only access certain curriculum essential sites.

 

Put Bebo and proxy as filtered words and you'll soon end up with a list of every proxy site they use as well as loads of screenshots of them breaching your aup. Once word gets out that a few people have been caught with screenshot evidence the level of abuse drops of rapidly.

 

Depending on how your school monitors the use of its equipment you can also put it on staff laptops and it'll upload everything they've done at home to the server when they connect to the network next, you can also use it to ban limewire and other such things that teachers never use

 

It takes a while to get it configured properly both to detect everthing you want and reduce false positives but compared to cachepilot its simply on another level.

 

Unfortunatly its not free

[Simcfc73]

I built a smoothie with all the bells and whistles but got frustrated with the support, I know its free and all that but its nice being able to get a solution when you need it.

 

Saying that it just worked but it does like some hardware more than others.

 

I went over to SchoolGuardian (pay version of Smoothwall) over 12 months ago and I am very happy with it. You get a CD with all the installers included and yu just pay for what you use.

 

Been really happy with mine and it hasn't let me down. Great filtering and NTLM authentication makes it a dream to use.

 

DoI get a discount for next year?

[SimpleSi]

My linux knowledge is verging on extremely basic/not very proficient, so I am searching for a no cost solution which is easy to setup/install and generally manage.

 

Implied a Linux knowledge level which you now seem to have undersold :-)

 

regards

 

Simon

[dgsmith]

Unfortunately, the likelyhood of us getting "more" money for the next year will be extremely difficult, as we are overhauling ICT at the school (including rebuilding and refurbishment, which is costly), so I doubt we could get a costly solution (especially with recurring costs), when as far as SMT are concerned we already have one..

 

In saying that, from what I have seen from free solutions, they do more than I initially was searching for, so anything else is a bonus, if at all more than required.

 

SimpleSi, "knowledge of linux" from my side implied general usage - i'd have thought anyone could download/burn an iso, install and do a few make/make installs

I'd have been sold with just a dedi box with ubuntu/dg, but the lack of user interface might not go down too well, although I may very well be trying it if these solutions I have tried to now prove not to be reliable...

[tom_newton]

Just FYI.... Equiinet have recently completed a Cachepilot-with-guardian system - it isn't quite as flexible as guardian-on-smoothwall (yet) but im told its quite good - so your Cachepilot may see some improvements.