Fortigate for Filtering - Suitable?

[gsk]

Hi All,

 

Currently using managed filtering services from RM, emPSN and Schools Broadband and are considering doing it in-house. I'm looking at Fortigate as a firewall and to get the UTM Bundle licence and use it for web filtering too. What are people's thoughts and experiences?

 

Thanks,

[TechMonkey]

I looked at it a while ago. One minus would be it isn't on the accredited for UK schools list from UK Safer Internet Centre.

 

It will more than likely filter adequately, but it won't be geared towards education. Why not use it as a firewall and get a dedicated filter?

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hi All,

 

Currently using managed filtering services from RM, emPSN and Schools Broadband and are considering doing it in-house. I'm looking at Fortigate as a firewall and to get the UTM Bundle licence and use it for web filtering too. What are people's thoughts and experiences?

 

Thanks,

 

You can already get the full Fortigate filtering stack from us on your own Fortigate Virtual firewall.

 

No need to buy a new box.

 

I'll PM you shortly.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[RLR]

We've used Fortigates for about 7 years now and it's been pretty rock solid. The filtering categorys are usually correct but if we come across a website that needs changing we can over ride it or ask fortigate to recatorgorise it which usually takes 5-10 minutes.

 

We combine it with FastVue which also helps with keyword searches students are doing.

[slugshead]

On prem filtering all the way - I would never consider a hosted solution again. Been there done that and it's not a good experience.

 

Two Smoothwalls on site and it ticks every box.

[Aprice]

On prem filtering all the way - I would never consider a hosted solution again. Been there done that and it's not a good experience.

 

Two Smoothwalls on site and it ticks every box.

 

Agreed, had lots of problems with hosted solutions. Having full control of the solution makes life a lot easier.

 

Do like Fortigate as a firewall though, not much experience with it for filtering though.

Edited July 26, 2024 by Aprice

[Simon_EXA]

We often find that higher bandwidth users will encounter issues when trying to have a box on premises doing both filtering and firewall functions, whichever way you do decide to go then we often recommend splitting these functions. As said above a Smoothwall appliance on site will filter well but when you ask them to function as a firewall as well CPU usage does suffer. The same we often find with on site firewalls when you ask them to filter as well. The problems our customers encounter are when they attempt to have an appliance do both tasks. If you do want to look at the Fortinet/Fortigate portfolio feel free to get in touch.

[speakercon]

We use FortiGate's with Securely for filtering (having previously used the FortiGates for filtering) and wouldn't choose anything else now.

[gsk]

We use FortiGate's with Securely for filtering (having previously used the FortiGates for filtering) and wouldn't choose anything else now.

 

This is interesting, thanks. What do you find better about Securly vs FortiGate? What firewall features are you using on your FortiGates?

 

Thanks,

[speakercon]

This is interesting, thanks. What do you find better about Securly vs FortiGate? What firewall features are you using on your FortiGates?

 

Thanks,

 

The fortigates are just doing the firewall function, we renew the forticare for the firmware updates and hardware replacement. Securly works off site, removes the filtering/inspection burden from the appliance, if you have multiple sites the filtering is all in one place, easily scalable and just works better/quicker/easier for blocking/unblocking. No AD integration required as it authenticates with the O365 account to apply users to the correct filtering group, easy to set up.

[gsk]

The fortigates are just doing the firewall function, we renew the forticare for the firmware updates and hardware replacement. Securly works off site, removes the filtering/inspection burden from the appliance, if you have multiple sites the filtering is all in one place, easily scalable and just works better/quicker/easier for blocking/unblocking. No AD integration required as it authenticates with the O365 account to apply users to the correct filtering group, easy to set up.

 

Are you using any specific features or modules on the fortigate?

[speakercon]

Are you using any specific features or modules on the fortigate?

 

Not really, just firewall features and still renew the forticare for firmware/hardware replacement.

[njreynolds]

About a year ago, I switches from Smoothwall to Fortigate.

No one has noticed any difference to the filtering and I've had no major complaints.

[Wave9_Lee]

I'm a big fan of on-premise firewall/web-filtering and we offer the Sophos suite of solutions. Contrary to some, I think that visibility and control of your own solution (with the correct support) is a much more flexible and responsive approach - and especially when considering the increase in cyber threats, a joined up approach is very useful - the 'filtering' on a firewall is not just that, it will include web protection as a module, scanning for threats on websites as well application control. Sophos links up with their endpoint product (CIXA) in a pretty unique way, managed via a single dashboard.

 

Many happy customers with this approach - if you want to compare Sophos with your current shopping list, let me know.

Edited November 18, 2024 by Wave9_Lee

[PurpleTentacle]

Quick FYI: we use Wave9 and a Sophos firewall appliance. Very happy with their support.