Constant Smoothwall Issues - Looking to swap ASAP, recommends?

[Space_Munkey]

Hi all,

 

We've been having constant issues with our smoothwall since we were forced on to it via our ISP.

 

Our site previously used lightspeed which worked fine for our site and now after this issue management have asked us to get us moved back to this, find a quote, get it done asap, whatever the cost.

 

Support from ISP hasn't been especially great as all they can really do is escalate to smoothwall. We've raised a ticket numerous times without any resolution to our issue.

 

Essentially every day for the past month and a bit before christmas we have not been receiving notice of breaches, which is incredibly concerning as we have quite a serious situation involving police that's on-going and these reports are critical right now.

 

It seems the filter isn't really working very well anyway and is an absolute headache to use as we only have access to the cloud portal - Which seems to need a physics degree to operate (or i might just be a little slow!)

 

Is anybody able to recommend us alternatives?

 

Many thanks,

[lmrogers]

Give Lee at Wave9 a shout, he is brilliant @Wave9_Lee and the whole team at Wave9 are really good for support.

[Wave9_Lee]

Hi all,

 

We've been having constant issues with our smoothwall since we were forced on to it via our ISP.

 

Our site previously used lightspeed which worked fine for our site and now after this issue management have asked us to get us moved back to this, find a quote, get it done asap, whatever the cost.

 

Support from ISP hasn't been especially great as all they can really do is escalate to smoothwall. We've raised a ticket numerous times without any resolution to our issue.

 

Essentially every day for the past month and a bit before christmas we have not been receiving notice of breaches, which is incredibly concerning as we have quite a serious situation involving police that's on-going and these reports are critical right now.

 

It seems the filter isn't really working very well anyway and is an absolute headache to use as we only have access to the cloud portal - Which seems to need a physics degree to operate (or i might just be a little slow!)

 

Is anybody able to recommend us alternatives?

 

Many thanks,

 

Hi @Space_Munkey

 

I'd be happy to have a chat on Lightspeed or Sophos anytime. If you drop me a pm or you can book a meeting in the link below to suit your diary

[sister_annex]

Give Lee at Wave9 a shout, he is brilliant @Wave9_Lee and the whole team at Wave9 are really good for support.

 

+1 on this, not that we've had to call them often as the service has been rock steady!

[tom_newton]

Would love to chat about the issues you have with the portal - anything we can do to improve would be greatly appreciated. Would be interested to get to the bottom of your issues - drop me an email ([email protected]) so we can arrange a time.

[Face-Man]

We use LGFL so they provide the filtering using webscreen that works well.

 

There are a list of filtering providers who have responded to the government legislation on "Keeping Children Safe in Education" which I would say needs to be a base line for any replacement you are looking into. here https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/teachers-and-school-staff/appropriate-filtering-and-monitoring/filtering-provider-responses

[Space_Munkey]

Hi All,

 

Appreciate the recommendations, tips and those who reached out.

 

We had a number of calls with some account managers / directors across the differing services we were having issue with and the problems we were facing are now rectified.

 

I believe our ISP contract has also been renewed for a year (decision was out of our hands) - but will keep this post in mind when the time comes to find a an alternative supplier for these services.

 

Many thanks!

[Fazza]

We've raised a ticket numerous times without any resolution to our issue.

 

Who have you been logging a ticket with, your ISP or Smoothwall directly?