Smoothwall or Bloxx or ........

[MK-Jester]

We are reviewing our web filtering solution at the same time as introducing a whole school wireless solution. We are looking for a solution that can differentiate between traffic coming from different SSIDs/VLANs so that the different wireless devices can be treated differently.

 

The solution needs to support a school of 1500 students where in the long term students are able to bring their own devices to school. And the school wants to use iOs devices.

 

We are considering offerings from Smoothwall and Bloxx. Has anyone got any feedback on these products?

 

Is there another solution that we should be looking at?

 

Any comments much appeciated.

 

Cheers

John

[Abaddon]

Be aware that there are "issues" with proxies on iOS. It's been a problem for several iOS revisions now, and still is not working properly.

 

WE use BLOXX here, and the capabilities and support are superb. I'm sure Smoothwall users will say the same though - in the end it's down to personal preference I think.

[MYK-IT]

We use a combination of Ruckus and (2x) SmoothWall UTM-1000 appliances.

 

With the SmoothWall appliance multiple LANs(VLANs) can be configured, along with different (types of) proxies, configurations and filtering rules for each and every one.

Our (BYOD/Guest) Wireless is totally managed by the SmoothWall box handling all the DHCP, DNS etc services therefore it is totally isolated from the school network LAN.

 

Speak to @seanlaz

[Iain.Faulkner]

Smoothwall here, as has been said, I think it is down to personal preference to be honest.

 

But having said that, we're very happy with Smoothwall :-)

[sonofsanta]

Smoothwall would be able to handle iOS devices with a transparent proxy, so long as those devices don't need to contact other domain services (as the transparent proxy works by you setting the default gateway for guest devices to the Smoothwall)

 

Also, their support could only be improved by them installing a hob nob dispenser in your office and releasing one every time you phone up.

 

Palo Alto also has a good reputation but is supposedly quite pricey.

[dave.81]

Smoothwall and Ruckus here. We did recently trial Censornet and was impressed by the ease of use and some of the functions. It's not as complicated as Smoothwall.

[Roberto]

We are considering offerings from Smoothwall and Bloxx. Has anyone got any feedback on these products?

 

I can't recommend Bloxx at the moment. We deployed it in January and we've had no end of problems with it ever since, both in terms of general use and specifically in how it works with wireless devices.

[tom_newton]

Thanks to those who said nice things about us. @sonofsanta if you happen to be in the Leeds area pop into our office and I will repay you at a rate of 1 hobnobper support ticket

 

iOS is great fun. But we know its foibles Smoothwall also has a filtered iOS browser which you can use to redirect browsing through your filter if you have off-site iPads.