Joeloman

The Smoothwall Cloud Filter is not intended to work on private devices. It is extremely easy to bypass the filter when the devices are not managed. Check with your Smoothwall contact if there is Qustodio's Schools Offer. Since Qustodio, which is part of the same group as Smoothwall, is made for private devices and parents.

I can only say that in Sweden it is quite common for students with a foreign background to try to get past the filter by searching and going to other countries' pages to avoid being blocked. Just like England, we have quite a few immigrants, e.g. Ukraine. Smoothwall has good support for other languages (at least for those you want to block in a school environment) https://kb.smoothwall.com/hc/en-us/articles/12780179073052-Languages-that-Smoothwall-filters Securly probably only supported English and Spanish, but that may have changed the last year.. Smoothwall has chosen to have its own browser for the iPad, which actually works quite well.

This page might be helpful? https://documentation.meraki.com/Platform_Management/SM_-_Endpoint_Management/Design_and_Configure/Profiles_and_Settings/Using_the_Managed_App_Settings_Payload

They have been having issues, but should be better now. https://downdetector.co.uk/status/microsoft-365/

The Smoothwall team have refactored some of their content analysis rules to prevent the ai santa search from being blocked as porn. Today it is possible to search for AI santa images without them being classified as porn.

I don't think there should be any problem, but it's probably more about IDex not being able to be used simultaneously for both On premise and Cloud, but as I wrote: "It's been a while since we used IDex, so check with support how to deal with the old one, etc."

You can now have all reports in Cloud Reporting and the handling of Safeguarding reports / instant alerts is easier and more secure via the cloud. Many have hybrid but all reports and alarms via the cloud.

If you currently only use Cloud Reporting, there is a version 2 of the IDex agent that works for Cloud. https://monitorhelp.smoothwall.com/hc/en-us/articles/21885529160988-Set-up-IDex-Agent-to-sync-Active-Directory-for-Cloud-only-setups It's been a while since we used IDex, so check with support how to deal with the old one, etc.

If you also have a Smoothwall Cloud Filter and Smoothwall Cloud Reports license (Hybrid setup), the alarms are managed via the cloud. Since August, you can set direct alarms to any person, before only suicides went directly to the admin.

In Smoothwall Cloud Filter (under safeguarding) you will find a new setting for how quickly safeguarding alarms should be sent.

I would really advise against running these. There are extremely many security holes in such old ones, today they are on version 142. Today you can get laptops that do not support Win 11 very cheaply. You can then install ChromeOS Flex on these, even though that version is not officially supported by Smoothwall and many others, they work great. A large Google reseller has never heard of any problems (other than that something in the hardware may not work, as there are missing drivers) but never problems with the software.

Quite right Microsoft Connected Cache can be a good newer alternative that is available both as an installation file for Windows but also for Linux. However, I don't know if it is included in the Edu license. As for WSUS was included in Server 2025, WSUS will work in a supported state until at LEAST 2035, so you have at least 10 years of use.

To be completely honest, I don't think a Proxy/cache is the solution for you. For many years we have used Smoothwall Firewall with Web Filter proxy but as bandwidth has increased and websites that do not display/work correctly with proxy, it is now more just Smoothwall Cloud Filter that has been in effect for a couple of years. Today it is not worth using a central Proxy The number of files used in the cache decreased constantly as almost all pages today are created completely dynamically and often depend entirely on the user. That is, completely different ad images and news feed are displayed based on the user.. We turned up the cache storage to accommodate more files but unfortunately it was not very often hit. WSUS My advice to you is to start using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). Change cache in Edge I know that we previously also increased and turned on the cache in Internet Explorer, I don't know if it is possible with Edge, but it may be worth looking at. Use 5G I don't know what it's like with connections, but here in Sweden it's pretty cheap with 5G if you can't get more fiber and the speed is usually around 700-900 Mbit/s, but soon many operators will increase the speed. Some people I know also use satellite, but it's pretty expensive and has pretty high latency.

Take a look at Qustodio. https://www.qustodio.com They usually come out on top in various independent tests. They are part of the Qoria group which also includes Smoothwall... So they will probably continue to develop with more high end features.

I would recommend looking at Smoothwall Firewall. As far as I know, it lacks nothing that a school needs.. Good Layer 7 app control and Geoblocking etc. If you have a higher bandwidth than 10 Gbit/s, it works to run in your own hardware. Then Smoothwall Cloud Filter is also included, which then relieves the firewall... You run your own Smoothwall browser on the iPad's, which actually works really well. It is also possible to use Smoothwall Firewall as a Core Switch with authorization control for the different networks.

I don't have much more to say other than to check that there is a Firewall rule that allows traffic from the internal network to the external one. Just like Tom says, contact support.

Are you sure you have set the role of the new interface to External?

Maybe this article can help you? https://www.anoopcnair.com/address-bar-search-suggestion-for-chrome-intune/

Side effects that may be good to consider are, for example, when the staff is traveling. Since the blocking applies to all services that you have internally, such as VPN, telephone exchange, various other services.. For various fixed services, it is no problem to make exceptions as long as you know the IP addresses. Good to know is that Turkey in this system is counted as Asia and not Europe.

Probably something else but there is a new feature "Content Filter Plugin" that can block different domains outside the browser itself. See this kb: https://kb.smoothwall.com/hc/en-us/articles/6401257533980-Block-access-to-web-content-outside-of-Smoothwall-Browser-on-iPads

You should talk to your Smoothwall contact, to get a review of your setup. If all your clients use unified client, you can turn off the local web filter. Your Smoothwall is probably currently set up for BYOD with login requirements... There are several different options such as Secret knock, IDex Directory, Azure AD and more. So the best thing is if a technician looks at your setup and then suggests some options...

That's not how it should be, as soon as everyone is logged out of OnPremsie the text should disappear.. Sounds like something went wrong when S9 was installed and it needs to be resolved via support.

Make sure you have the latest update, as they have fixed some issues in Hybrid setups. You can easily tell if the Cloud Filter is synced when you are logged in to OnPremsie. Under Cloud: Home/Filter/Policies, it should say "Your policy has been locked due to an active login on your Smoothwall device." at the top in red background banner and white text.

The most common error is that the browser needs to be updated.

In Smoothwall you can block ECH https://kb.smoothwall.com/hc/en-us/articles/16651254132252-Ensure-BYO-devices-with-Encrypted-Client-Hello-ECH-are-filtered