EXA Networks

[The_IT_Man]

I'm interested to know is anyone using EXA for connectivity and filtering/firewall and if so how do you find it? Is it reliable?

 

The surfprotect filtering sounds like it meets requirements and I've heard they now also offer an onsite filtering/firewall appliance, does anyone have any experience of that?

[mavhc]

I was using EXA until joined a MAT. Connection was good except for 2 times in 6 years, DDoS once, and BT unplugged our cable at their end once.

 

Surfprotect is very well priced, but being their own solution often has sites that are uncategorised, so takes about 10 seconds on a good day to be allowed automatically, or forever when it breaks, have to email to get fixed then.

 

Maybe a couple of times a year it wasn't working at all for an hour or so, they're good at providing status updates you can subscribe to.

 

They sync your AD to their servers, can use AD groups to filter. Doesn't work with non AD computers like ipads in that case though

 

Never seemed to get any new features in the 6 years I used it, asked for time based filtering, but never appeared.

 

Overall great value at £100/site, and not having to power any box on site

[The_IT_Man]

On 03/11/2025 at 14:14, mavhc said:

I was using EXA until joined a MAT. Connection was good except for 2 times in 6 years, DDoS once, and BT unplugged our cable at their end once.

 

Surfprotect is very well priced, but being their own solution often has sites that are uncategorised, so takes about 10 seconds on a good day to be allowed automatically, or forever when it breaks, have to email to get fixed then.

 

Maybe a couple of times a year it wasn't working at all for an hour or so, they're good at providing status updates you can subscribe to.

 

They sync your AD to their servers, can use AD groups to filter. Doesn't work with non AD computers like ipads in that case though

 

Never seemed to get any new features in the 6 years I used it, asked for time based filtering, but never appeared.

 

Overall great value at £100/site, and not having to power any box on site

Thanks for the reply. What do you mean for the delay for uncategorised sites, do you mean once allowed it takes 10 seconds?

 

The iPad situation is an issue as we'd like to be able to assign specific filtering policies based on say IP or MAC to an iPad which i dont think is possible either.

[Patrick_Exa]

@The_IT_Man

 

Thank you for showing an interest in Exa Networks for both connectivity and content filtering.

 

I would just like to confirm that we do offer both IP and user-based filtering for all non-domain/AD devices. We also offer user integration with G Suite, Entra/Azure, as well as the traditional on-site AD.

 

If you would like to discuss the options we have available, please drop me a DM with your details, and I can have one of our account managers contact you, or alternatively drop us a call on 0345 145 1234.

[mavhc]

21 hours ago, The_IT_Man said:

Thanks for the reply. What do you mean for the delay for uncategorised sites, do you mean once allowed it takes 10 seconds?

 

The iPad situation is an issue as we'd like to be able to assign specific filtering policies based on say IP or MAC to an iPad which i dont think is possible either.

If you visit a website no one using Surfprotect has visited before it has to categorized then it will show a blue lighthouse, and after about 10 seconds auto reload to the page if it's decided the category is one that's allowed. However sometimes it gets stuck and never/slowly finishes.

 

You can use IPs but that would require recording who had what device and what ip it has. I never really got internal IP tracking working, but never spent much time on the problem either