Content Filtering: Sonicwall, Free Proxy or Other?

[Jay]

I have been looking into some content filtering due to a couple of users downloading porn (again!)

Its only for a small office (maybe 40 PCs) but I just don't have the money to spend. If I have to spend it I will but I would rather not have to cut money from my server upgrade budget.

What do you use for this job?

Thanks

[Splash]

Not something I use currently (no budget to pay for the time to implement it...) but Dansguardian is pretty decent. You can get a preconfigured VM if you want to have a whirl without too much messing around - have a look at Dalmatech - Web Design & Hosting - Software Development - Technical Services

[pollaxe]

We run with a Sonicwall or two at work - the content filtering is quite powerful but quite expensive!

[Jay]

I know the sonicwall costs a bit but I have been told it is very very good.

is the cost per user?

I need to make it so when I move on it will be very easy for a low level IT worker to be able to run the site without loads of support. I am worried squid etc will be a bit much for them.

[Lee H]

Give this a go

DansGuardian - True Web Content Filtering for All

[pollaxe]

I know the sonicwall costs a bit but I have been told it is very very good.

is the cost per user?

I need to make it so when I move on it will be very easy for a low level IT worker to be able to run the site without loads of support. I am worried squid etc will be a bit much for them.

I'm fairly sure it's run on a per node basis (in packs of 50 IIRC) - I'll ask the guy who deals with it tomorrow if you like - it's not something I get involved in (the buying stuff side) but I do administer it quite frequently and it's pretty straightforward.

We have a couple of Sonicwall firewalls & VPN units so it's part of a package - gateway anti-virus and the like - I'm fairly sure it runs on a yearly licence basis.

[gss03]

OpenDNS?

Set the forwarders on your DNS server to use this.
Set up an account with them and turn on all the filtering there.
v.powerful and a very ronseal product - free too :-)

Use it on a couple of my sites (one which has public access PCs) and it works a treat - stopped many a user accessing forum sites (not hexus!) from these PCs. Adding a domain to the blocked list is almost instant.

[Jay]

how about squid with Lee's idear of Dansguardian?

I am assuming dansfuardian is a plugin?

I have an old DL360 G1 PIII 800, 512mb RAM and 2 x 9.1gb HDDs (RAID 1)

I am looking at Ubuntu, Squid and dansguardian.

What do you think?

[Jay]

ok I have setup Ubuntu with Squid and SARG, its working very well. Dansguardian is not so easy to setup. I have it all configed but the process, when started, just takes 100% CPU and I get no error back.

PS

I also setup Webmin to make it all a bit easier to manage for other IT workers.

If anyone can help me with the Dansguardian problem that would be fantastic.

Anyway, while there are no blocks on at the moment I will watch the logs and see what turns up!

[Moby-Dick]

only way to test it ....

[Splash]

It's a while since I set a box up Jay, but as it's something I could do with a refresher on I'm going to build a VM and see if I get the same issues. What version of Ubuntu are you running?

[Moby-Dick]

thats what I like to see

[Jay]

Thanks!!

I am running server 7.04 i386

[Splash]

Ok, will grab the iso while I take a bath and have a look-see

[Jay]

You know what..... I can't remember if I removed the "UNCONFIGURED" section of the dansguardian config!

even so, I wouldn't expect the process to hang with high CPU usage.

[Splash]

Nor would I... the iso's almost here, and I'll see what happens after I've eaten.