Wave9_Lee

I recommend a good hard look at SOPHOS. Ref Meraki, we love the APs and Switches, but not overly keen on the firewall - easy to manage but we've found you need to significantly over-spec to get a bxo that will cope with all the features turned on. We provide SOPHOS as a managed service, so although the cloud managed dashboard is pretty user-friendly, we're there to support and assist as and when needed. Fully supports PREVENT initiative too.

I don't think any vendors are particularly brilliant at dealing with end-users, that's why most have reseller arrangements so that the company you buy your kit from continue to support you as a customer. The right partner will provide you with ongoing support, warranty replacements, out-of-warranty options and advice and guidance.

Hi Caffrey, in answer to the second question - yes, it does manage Layer 7 applications. It's very configurable and feature rich. ref BYOD, I guess it depends on the specifics of your question. You can segregate VLANS and provide different policies to each. You can configure it as transparent proxy. Is there anything specific you are trying to address? cheers Lee

Hi Mike, one last shout for SOPHOS, happy to provide a price/demo which I think you would be pleased with, cheers Lee

Hi Bossbob It is required that you have HTTPS decrypt and scan running so have to distributed a self signed certificate out to the end clients, otherwise all you can do is block all access to the sites.google.com domain via the SNI information in the HTTPS header. You can then use a regular expression to blacklist any URLs with the text ‘unblockedgames333’ in for the domain ‘sites.google.com’ (though you could just globally block it for any domain if you wanted to). *It doesn’t come under any blockable category – unless you want to cripple all Internet Services – and there is something in the URL that prevents a normal URL block from working – I think there’s a redirection involved, the HTTP header is pretty complex for a simple site. Hope that helps, Lee

Hi Synaesthesia, Sophos provide a free trial that you can install on your own server. Link is here https://secure2.sophos.com/en-us/products/utm-9/free-utm-trial.aspx If you need help with configuration and set up, get in touch, happy to help. If you don't have any spare hardware, again, get in touch. regards Lee

+1 for Wave 9 ; )

If you would like a demo of the SOPHOS UTM and info on future roadmap, configuration advice etc, then we'd be happy to help. cheers Lee

Hi Rama, can you not ask your supplier? regards Lee

Hi SOPHOS does this. Let me know if you need detailed info, cheers Lee

Both Capital Bytes and Capita use Netsweeper in empsn.

Updata were acquired by Capita about 2 years ago. The main principles (MD, Sales Director) left the business and it's now been incorporated into Capita IT Services. If you need an alternative quote, I'd be happy to oblige! kind regards Lee

Hi there, we offer WaveConnect - a hybrid cloud server platform on a low capex basis and include migration and configuration services where required to fit with your skillsets. The solution allows you to integrate with o365/AD, utilise cloud for backup but retain local services where necessary (file/print/local shares) It includes additional VMs for you to host your own applications and services if required. Happy to provide some info and guidance if you;re interested, regards Lee

Of course, it's sometimes in the providers interest to leave things too late to change...! Anyone interested in a quote for an alternative, we'd be pleased to help. cheers Lee

Plus one for SOPHOS. We think it's excellent feature-wise, have deployed hundreds without issue. As you say, you need to get the hardware right, and stick with the current operating system for now. Some interesting developments coming too! Cheers Lee

Hi there, we offer a cost effective alternative to Entrust in Staffordshire, including telephony where required. There is more info now about SAP charges and the impact of leaving. If you want any more info please feel free to PM me.

We're more than happy to provide you with a quote for fibre or fttc with an on-premise firewall that you can manage (or we manage) as required, cheers Lee

It's hard to say which option is best without knowing the price as well as the criticality of your service. 200Mbps will be over a 1Gb bearer, so there could well be a significant price difference. A 4-6 hour outage might be acceptable to some, not to others. 100Mbps and 1 or 2 FttC might be a good compromise.

KCom sells national network to CityFibre > Link Kcom announced on 30 November that its national network assets, excluding Hull and East Yorkshire, were up for sale. The move is in line with the company's strategic shift towards cloud services and away from the carrier market

If anyone is interested in a quote for a hosted system, then we'd be happy to provide some pricing and guidance. regards Lee

When we were involved in the design of some of the large regional networks, we always proposed a dual internet service, one from JANET, one from a commercial provider. This clearly increased costs, which provided a level of resilience, but also some commercial terms around the service - i.e. commercial providers/ISP are willing to provide an SLA with service commitments and Credits when service falls below certain thresholds. JANET wouldn't provide an SLA for their free service (it's free, why would they). Obviously getting some money back, doesn't really help when you have no Internet, but it does create the right behaviours in service design and fix times. I'm sure that every effort is being made to resolve these issues, but it does highlight the benefit of supplier diversity for mission critical services.

No money back from JANET.

What you might find is that you lose access to on-net services that you take from current empsn partners (i.e. Capital Bytes, Openhive, perhaps mail filtering etc) My understanding is that not all these services are accessible from the Internet. I'm not certain - but if you take any additional services, it's worth checking.

KCOM Group Moots Sale of UK Network Assets Outside of East Yorkshire - ISPreview UK

No, this is not usual in my opinion. A Cessation fee is often payable when a contract is terminated WITHIN its initial term, as you have signed a contract for a fixed period. This can sometimes include set up costs that have been incurred by your supplier that are amortised over the term, or discounts that have been achieved as a result of a term commitment, so in my view, are fair. If you are outside your initial term, in my view its not usual to incur additional charges. The cost of 'detaching' you from the service should be built into their charges from the outset, not sprung on you as a gotcha at the end. It can sometimes be the case that there is a charge to migrate you to a new service, as there is additional work required, but not to simply terminate. It's the suppliers job to entice you to stay by making sure you are pleased with the service or price (ideally both). We wouldn't look to punish customers for not renewing - we would see that as our​ fault. Having said that, if it's in your contract, there's not a lot you can do but ask nicely.