Simon_EXA

If you could message me the post code we can look at what is already available to the site, we can also access mapping that will show us whats actually in the ground near the site from any fibre provider, there are some good low cost fibre options available now.

Our recommendation in the ideal scenario is to have a Primary Leased line that has symmetrical bandwidth, is capable of going up to 1 Gbps, is not contended and has a good SLA included. As an ISP with our own 'IP Space' we can then deliver if available FTTP as an autofailover to the primary connection. If you can not get FTTP yet then FTTC can be used in the same way and then upgraded to FTTP when FTTP reaches you. Typical cost for a back up FTTP/FTTC are going to be around £450/£650 a year. While Starlink can be seen as cheaper there will always be configuration issues and if it goes down can be difficult to configure an autofailover that still maintains the other services that you have. These risks can be mitigated if you have something like an SDWAN which can be configured to accommodate the routing of traffic. On the cost of back ups specifically the assumption is that you wont be using it which cost the provider less (no traffic moving through a network). The provider is assuming it will only be active when the primary fails. Hope that helps a bit?

The Fortigate data sheets are available if you do a quick search, a 90G would certainly be more than capable

Excuse my ignorance here (understand WAN more than devices)! Is this something that impacts agents more than Cloud based filtering, asking for my own knowledge!

Smaller schools can really benefit from low cost hosted firewall options, if you are using a less than 300 Mbps connection the cost can be good value. Not always as many features as on premises firewalls, sometimes less reports and stats but the important stuff is there. This may take your Smoothwall costs down if you have a renewal cost for Filter and Firewall and if you do have a Smoothwall appliance on site it may reduce the CPU load if its just in Filter mode. Many of our smaller schools will just have our managed router on site, hosted firewall and then a per user cost for Smoothwall Filter and then add if required Smoothwall Monitor.

Would agree with the above, Fortinet are a Cyber Security business and it is their area of expertise. From our own customer feedback and our own experiences it appears better to keep Firewalls with Firewall specific vendors and filtering with filtering specialist. The issues we get feedback around is when trying to have a vendor do both. Smoothwall filtering and monitoring is very good, our recommendations is to let them do what they are good at and let a Firewall specific vendors do what they are good at.

Agree with the above, we would recommend Smoothwall to keep doing the filtering and use a dedicated firewall for what you are looking to do.

I would agree with others, a Fortigate Firewall could do this for you, there really are some great deals around as well for Fortigate hardware and licensing at the moment. We can get you some indicative costs if you message me, certainly good value at the moment for Fortigates.

We often find that higher bandwidth users will encounter issues when trying to have a box on premises doing both filtering and firewall functions, whichever way you do decide to go then we often recommend splitting these functions. As said above a Smoothwall appliance on site will filter well but when you ask them to function as a firewall as well CPU usage does suffer. The same we often find with on site firewalls when you ask them to filter as well. The problems our customers encounter are when they attempt to have an appliance do both tasks. If you do want to look at the Fortinet/Fortigate portfolio feel free to get in touch.

Are there any stand spaces left for us- Exa Networks, [email protected]

If you would like us to give you a formal quote drop us an email to [email protected] and we will get one of the team to get you anything you need, regards Exa.

Also happy to get an Exa quote over to you for comparison if you need a proposal from us, you can contact me direct at anytime