tom_newton

Hey folks. You may have noticed I don't post on here as much as I used to. It turns out, as companies get bigger, things get more complicated, and you end up needing more time in the day than you have. I've passed on my product management baton on Safeguarding into our new line of business, run by the inimitable Rob Faulkner, but now it's time I had some help looking after the original bit of Smoothwall - filtering. As such, I am looking for an Associate Product Manager. What does that mean? It means I am looking for someone who will be the subject matter expert on UK filtering. It means someone who is credible in front of you edugeek folks, who understands the needs of School IT folk up and down the country. There's also the small matter of the craft of product management, which involves cutting your coat according to your cloth, and prioritizing the work we do. We always have more ideas, bug fixes, and refactoring than we have engineers (a rule that has held true regardless of the number of engineers we hire). It also involves strong liaison with our customer success (support) teams, sales teams, and the product marketing team. So, you are an edugeek - great start. You can write reasonably well. You would find working with our customers exciting and fun, rather than scary and daunting. You want to make a difference in uk edu. Please, drop me an email [email protected] I'm happy to chat informally to see wether you and Smoothwall are a fit. Yes, we've done this before. Our super awesome (now Senior!) product manager in Safeguarding, Tracy, was a DSL in a school 2 years ago. So we are convinced there's talent among you lot! The job is remote but sort-of Leeds based, in that we have an office there, and you would be expected to appear in that office occasionally (couple times a month). Also the christmas parties and other such events are here. However, I am the only member of the UK product team for 150 miles around, so don't let that put you off. I think that's pretty much the nub of it. Shout if you have questions. **APPROVED**

Someone is looking at this today.

We're not able to get mime types from the extension so the filtering isn't quite as effective at exes etc. I would strongly suggest using applocker to keep students from using unauthorised browsers.

I'd go for just "do not inspect" - DNF is a bit of a blunt instrument. One other option is our ipad app - this gives a filtered browser, along with some safeguards to prevent users using other browsers. This lets apps operate unfettered.

You're correct that the filtering actually takes place on the client with the extension - it's more reliable and scalable.

Sure - drop me an email (faster) or a DM on here

It doesn't talk home to any server - all the work is done locally to try and avoid performance issues. What sort of CPU/RAM are we talking in the CB? Feel free to email me your support ticket and I will escalate it. [email protected]

Sorry - "S month" means I havent been on top of my EG posting Monitor is available on iPad, but not Android. Android is a "yet" but probably longer term. I suspect over the next 18 months we will start to borrow tech both ways between Smoothwall and our new home filter folks Qustodio (who are very much agent based).

Could have been an ARP cache issue I guess? "Random fix on reboot" is often that

Try https://www.qustodio.com/en/ - now part of the same group as Smoothwall - they seem like a very solid bunch of folks, with the right ideas about safety and privacy (based in Barcelona so GDPR as a basis, rather than bolt on compliance). We're very excited to be working with their team.

I'll chase this up. Anyone want to throw me a ticket number so I can see where it's got to?

Glad you have found out how to do it - FWIW the term is categorized already - tho that category is only really suitable for applying a block for younger kids [" huggy wuggy "] p******** 22 Feb 2022, 9:35 a.m. 22 Feb 2022, 9:35 a.m. Inappropriate/Vulgar Search Terms English

Idex agent v2 is just a rebuild that's easier to debug, and talks to our cloud services if needed. No pressing need to upgrade.

I suspect you are right about HTTPS inspection -are the certificates installed ok (a good test is a google search for online poker - if it aint blocked the cert is likely not installed). Differences between sites could be a cert pinning/HSTS issue - try clearing out the cache at edge://net-internals/#hsts

Please do raise a ticket - and PM me/email me ([email protected]) so I can track - our support response times and satisfaction have been pretty solid of late, so if there's areas we are letting folk down, I would love to help.

If you are a Smoothwall customer you can use your Smoothwall to VPN into Azure.

Anyone got an example I can see?

Without. - - - Updated - - - Sometimes I've seen issues if the STUN port is blocked on your firewall - that can stop the filter finding your external IP

All the traffic from the Smoothwall will come from it's IP (we don't routinely spoof source) - so a simple filter bypass on the XG should do it.

I know IOS can be done well - tho often they're not, and many times without consulting IT. Definitely having Apple experts on hand is very useful. We have a few customers doing Shared iPads with inTune - it must have improved slightly since last you looked? Not sure about Classroom tho - we don't tend to cross into that element.

This will be fixed in tomorrow's blocklist update

Interesting thread. iPads always seem to involve wailing and gnashing somewhere. I've had to learn a bit about the accursed things as we built our new filter tool. One thing that's shone through is that microsoft intune is surprisingly decent as an MDM, and many schools already have it as part of their setup, whereas the other "free" MDM options are largely complete cack.

Iiiit's probably possible. Why IP address and not domain? Most browsers won't allow you to navigate to an IP any more - and the domain search is a better option here. If it;s firewall logs tho (say an IP that's been acesssed on SSH) you wont likely be storing em, as those logs get biiig

You should also get a config backup every sunday to our cloud service - we keep 2 weeks' worth.

I hope they can keep up the quality for seasons 4 and 5. Sometimes I wish the TV folks could just think "hey we've milked this enough, let's give it an ending before it turns shit, and remake it in another 20 years"