Firewall Recommendations

[BFish]

Hi everyone,

 

My school is a BYOL school in secondary and a 1:1 iPad or Chromebook school in primary (about 420) students and an extra 150 staff members in total. We are currently using Impero (although not for filtering since kids can easily uninstall the software) as an application level policy detection to have a better idea of what the students are browsing and doing on their computers.

 

In terms of a firewall, we are currently using Fortinet - Fortigate 500D. I have a mixed opinion as I think their application level blocking / filtering is pretty good but their reports and analytics leave a lot to be desired. We currently use several VLAN's and a wide variety of policies depending on students / staff credentials, time of day, grade level and Fortigate honestly isn't the best in this area but is okay. We also employ safe search with Google through it and YouTube content filtering.

 

Next year it is time to upgrade and I really want to give special attention to filtering controls, statistics/analytics, and the ability to use active directory integration. I would really like to drop Impero due to the bug related issues but need a firewall that can give me way more information and control in comparison to what our current one does. Currently, our students have to go to a portal when they sign on our Wi-Fi and edit their wi-fi credentials again which lasts only a few hours in order for us to be able to track who is doing what and even then it usually gives incorrect information or very generic ip logs. It's very annoying.

 

If you can let me know of some of your experiences out on the market it'd be appreciated.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hello @BFish,

 

being a Fortinet Gold partner in the UK I'm sure we're slightly biased but the Fortigates are great. If you want the type of advanced reporting your eluding to then I suggest purchasing either Fortianalyzer or Forticloud which allows you to store lots of logs and perform all sorts of analytics. Forticloud is pretty cost effective but doesn't have quite the functionality of Fortanalyzer. Still it depends what you want exactly.

 

Also make sure you are using v5.4 FortiOS as that gives lots more information too.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[Wave9_Lee]

Appreciate you want some user experience rather than a 'reseller' perspective, but you could do worse than look at Sophos firewall. Vert extensive feature set, loads of control, good reporting and ability to upgrade to filtering etc. If you would like a trial, let me know,

 

cheers

 

Lee