Welcome to the new Smoothwall

[Simcfc73]

Did anyone else receive the flyer for the 'new Smoothwall' today.

 

I may have missed the boat as I've been preparing to jump ship but it talks about Online reporting which may be the reporting we've all been craving for for the past 15 years.

 

Lots of lovely stock images but no screenies.

[Dos_Box]

You can find out more here - https://smoothwall.com/about-us/welcome-to-our-new-brand

[caffrey]

Cloud filter too,

 

Not much info except a new logo - I'm about to jump ship too

[Arthur]

New classroom management app too...

 

https://smoothwall.com/solutions/classroom-manager/

 

It will be interesting to see how it compares to Impero and Senso Cloud.

[AlanD]

Cynically...this just appears to be a "make over" in how they market their product...new web site....new talk....but the same stuff really. Smoothwall have always talked a lot...but in reality have been pretty slow to deliver what customers are asking for (better reporting....) but often get side tracked with other bits and pieces which customers are not asking for - and certainly don't have the money to spend on.

 

Don't get me wrong - Smoothwall is basically a good product...one of the best..and one of the most expensive...and has good safeguarding reporting...and ticks a lots of boxes, acting as a filter/router/proxy/radius/BYOD/etc/etc

 

...but it increasingly seems somewhat clunky and limited...and therefore over priced.

[mrbios]

I'm going to view a demo of this on Wednesday, so i'll report back on what it's like.

 

I was looking to jump ship from Smoothwall this year too, however having argued the price down significantly to be the cheapest solution (compared to Sophos and SonicWall), and looking at their upcoming changes, i decided to stick (especially given i have a job list as long as my arm, so not dealing with firewall and filter changes makes thing so much easier on me...)

[tom_newton]

Hi folks,

 

Yes, the new brand *is* a makeover - but not *just* a makeover. We have been investing in products both old and new, and will continue to do so. You'll start seeing the benefits soon, with Classroom Management, and the Cloud filter (which can integrate with your existing system to provide offsite filtering). Reporting is still being worked on, we're getting our first drips of data into our new cloud system at the moment. A totally new report system is a big job though so it is taking a while.

[Simcfc73]

I'm going to view a demo of this on Wednesday, so i'll report back on what it's like.

 

I was looking to jump ship from Smoothwall this year too, however having argued the price down significantly to be the cheapest solution (compared to Sophos and SonicWall), and looking at their upcoming changes, i decided to stick (especially given i have a job list as long as my arm, so not dealing with firewall and filter changes makes thing so much easier on me...)

 

Any news on the demo?

[mrbios]

Any news on the demo?

 

ah yes i had the demo of smoothwall classroom. At the moment it's very bare bones and lacking in features, but I've sent a list of features i think it needs over to them.

 

It's very much designed to be a teacher tool only, no admin stuff in it at all like we get with impero/senso etc. It will eventually sync classrooms from MIS, rather than creating static computer groups (currently syncs with google classroom only), so it was all dynamic based off school data rather than being setup statically with computer/user groups like we do with most solutions.

 

Looks like they've got a very very basic product at the moment, but seems like a good foundation to build on. I'll be paying close attention to how it develops. If it goes the way i hope then maybe in the future i'll be removing the various teacher used modules from my senso service and putting the money saved from that into paying for this, but depends if they get the price right and the features in place....or if senso beat them to it by introducing MIS synced dynamic groups first, as that and its simplicity is currently its only selling point.

[tom_newton]

Thanks, a fair review. There's a team behind the product who will continue to work on classroom, so expect plenty of advancement!

[timbo343]

Thanks, a fair review. There's a team behind the product who will continue to work on classroom, so expect plenty of advancement!

I'm sure the team will get loads of input tomorrow when we see them too [emoji6] Edited March 14, 2019 by timbo343

[Simcfc73]

ah yes i had the demo of smoothwall classroom. At the moment it's very bare bones and lacking in features, but I've sent a list of features i think it needs over to them.

 

It's very much designed to be a teacher tool only, no admin stuff in it at all like we get with impero/senso etc. It will eventually sync classrooms from MIS, rather than creating static computer groups (currently syncs with google classroom only), so it was all dynamic based off school data rather than being setup statically with computer/user groups like we do with most solutions.

 

Looks like they've got a very very basic product at the moment, but seems like a good foundation to build on. I'll be paying close attention to how it develops. If it goes the way i hope then maybe in the future i'll be removing the various teacher used modules from my senso service and putting the money saved from that into paying for this, but depends if they get the price right and the features in place....or if senso beat them to it by introducing MIS synced dynamic groups first, as that and its simplicity is currently its only selling point.

 

Ah ok so just a demo of classroom. I wish they'd come out and say we have given up on reporting and are concentrating on new products instead.

[tom_newton]

We haven't given up on reporting, classroom was built by a brand new team, with no impact on the filter team.

[kennysarmy]

New products?

 

School's have no money!

 

Just make the existing products work better (ie reporting) and then you might keep more business.

[ibpalle]

Why not both?

[howartp]

I'm sure the team will get loads of input tomorrow when we see them too [emoji6]

 

That they did...!

 

Remind me, was it the whole desktop, the whole desktop or just the whole desktop that it locks when you lock a client...?

[RobFuller]

+1 "introducing MIS synced dynamic groups"

 

also the ability for us to pre-program some simple block / allow lists for the teachers to click on, them manually typing in urls etc each time is just a non starter.

[ibpalle]

Excellent suggestion

[supportman]

Lets hope its not just a rebranding...

 

Still no reporting improvements after the lady came on here 5 years ago to promise it. I've still got the uservoice conversations saved somewhere as well as email communication with lots of suggestions.

 

We were looking at other solutions as well, as the current reporting system has been not fit for purpose for anyone who lacks a degree in Linux and DNS.

 

Cloud filtering looks good, but they really need to look at their pricing model and product development road-map. I think the cost has almost tripled over the last 10 years and I don't remember a single new feature that has made my life easier when someone asks me to lookup a students history on the internet. I see they still don't offer an SSD option for the larger appliances 7 years after I emailed them about it either. Just poor development progression from a product that started off so brightly and does a great job at its most basic level for filtering. Hopefully this is a fresh start.

Edited March 27, 2019 by supportman

[ibpalle]

Hi supportman

 

We have recently added a few KBs about cleaning up report results etc and reporting webinar sessions are always available if there are issues with creating reports that give the desired output. You can talk with your account manager to get one setup.

 

Recent KB are these one here:

https://kb.smoothwall.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003658579-Modifying-template-reports-Executive-user-summary

https://kb.smoothwall.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003044019-Cleaning-up-reports-by-excluding-back-end-domains

 

I don't agree that you need a degree in Linux or DNS. Knowledge of URLs, domains and how web pages work are good prerequisites for being able to interpret the report output and of course, playing around with the templates and looking at the different types of output that the various sections can generate is also helpful. A webinar would help a lot there.

[gshaw]

When the reports don't crash the box (even on the S14) I might have some faith in the product having moved on. Still waiting for the cloud reporting demo we were promised at BETT...

[asengupta]

This is part of "Focused Learning" feature we are working on, but the pre-programmed block gets created by the teacher (which they can re-use/edit) not the tech admins/network manager, we do not want to create any more work for network managers than they have at the moment. This works under schools current block list so the overall block list remains same.

[RobFuller]

This is part of "Focused Learning" feature we are working on, but the pre-programmed block gets created by the teacher (which they can re-use/edit) not the tech admins/network manager, we do not want to create any more work for network managers than they have at the moment. This works under schools current block list so the overall block list remains same.

 

Not sure if I 100% follow, are you saying this will marry up with Guardian Categories/Custom Categories ?

[caffrey]

I for one, don't trust giving the teachers anything....

[ibpalle]

Not sure if I 100% follow, are you saying this will marry up with Guardian Categories/Custom Categories ?

 

I believe so - similar to custom categories. It is intended to unify this in the Smoothwall GUI, cloud or on-prem afaik.