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Content Filtering

  • 18-04-2008 10:45am
    #1
    sweno
    Closed Accounts Posts: 83 ✭✭


    Hey fokes,

    I'm presently doing an overhaul on a small company network and I'm looking to implement some form of web content filtering / hardware firewall. Specifically I'd like something I could implement with user authentication or something like that. I've been looking around at the likes of smoothwall but I'm just wondering if anyone else has any experience / advice on the topic. The office at present is small enough, 4 employees but will be scaling up in the months to come hence the overhaul now to allow scability in the future. Any thoughts or input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks


Comments

  • #2
    rmacm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,039 ✭✭✭rmacm


    I installed Smoothwall with the content filter module for my old secondary school and they were very happy with it. It's quite easy to install and configure too. You could also consider a prebuilt firewall appliance of some sort e.g.

    http://www.smoothwall.net/products/smoothguard1000/

    or

    http://www.barracudanetworks.com/ns/products/web-filter-overview.php


  • #3
    sweno
    Closed Accounts Posts: 83 ✭✭sweno


    rmacm wrote: »
    I installed Smoothwall with the content filter module for my old secondary school and they were very happy with it. It's quite easy to install and configure too. You could also consider a prebuilt firewall appliance of some sort e.g.

    http://www.smoothwall.net/products/smoothguard1000/

    or

    http://www.barracudanetworks.com/ns/products/web-filter-overview.php

    Thanks for your reply rmacm,

    I had actually been looking at both of these products however they are quite pricey given the size of the network. I have looked at the various open source solutions however they all seem to lack the ability to define rules based user auth.


  • #4
    rmacm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,039 ✭✭✭rmacm


    Have you checked out DansGuardian as far as I know you can do some customisation of filtering based on user authentication.


  • #5
    sweno
    Closed Accounts Posts: 83 ✭✭sweno


    rmacm wrote: »
    Have you checked out DansGuardian as far as I know you can do some customisation of filtering based on user authentication.

    I've only really glanced at it and not as of yet gone into it in detail. As soon as I get a chance I'll have a good look through it.... Thanks


  • #6
    FusionNet
    Closed Accounts Posts: 695 ✭✭✭FusionNet


    Before anyone else makes a suggestion can you save us a little time and tell us what the budget actually is? This makes an awful differnce to what will be available to you. There is no point advising a 1000 euro hardware firewall if your budget is 200.. Please advise as what it is you can afford to spend for this company?


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  • #7
    rmacm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,039 ✭✭✭rmacm


    FusionNet wrote: »
    Before anyone else makes a suggestion can you save us a little time and tell us what the budget actually is?

    Good point there isn't much point in recommending one of those firewall appliances if you haven't got the money to spend on it.


  • #8
    sweno
    Closed Accounts Posts: 83 ✭✭sweno


    FusionNet wrote: »
    Before anyone else makes a suggestion can you save us a little time and tell us what the budget actually is? This makes an awful differnce to what will be available to you. There is no point advising a 1000 euro hardware firewall if your budget is 200.. Please advise as what it is you can afford to spend for this company?

    The budget would be in the region of about 200 - 300 ish, so those high end firewalls would be out of the question.


  • #9
    ZENER
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,163 ✭✭✭ZENER


    +1 for smoothwall. Polar (version 3.0) offers im proxy which is neat for keeping an eye on things. The mail proxy is a bit flakey in my experience though.

    As said above, easy to install and administer but doesn't support the DansGuardian plugin.

    If you need that then can I suggest SME server which is well supported with add-ons and plugins such as LDAP, web mail server, Windows/Apple File sharing and corporate calendar/appointment apps.

    It also offers a gateway mode although without the features of Smoothwall. DansGuardian is a plugin used by SME but it's not configurable via a web browser unless you pay for it.

    ZEN


  • #10
    joePC
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,637 ✭✭✭joePC


    Censornet is quite good also have a look at ClarkConnect its very cheap and would do the Job. You still need some hardware to install it on - Dont like recommending non-RAID systems unless the company accepts the risk.

    Cheers, Joe


  • #11
    sweno
    Closed Accounts Posts: 83 ✭✭sweno


    joePC wrote: »
    Censornet is quite good also have a look at ClarkConnect its very cheap and would do the Job. You still need some hardware to install it on - Dont like recommending non-RAID systems unless the company accepts the risk.

    Cheers, Joe

    Censornet seems very promising, I have available hardware to use it on so that isn't a problem. I'll set this up in the next couple of days and give it a test run.


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