Hardware Internet Filter

[misae]

Another request for the guys in the know....

I need help with deciding upon a hardware based internet filtering software to be installed in a school for approximately 30 PC's on a fairly standard network.

Some PC's will be used as internet workstations and therefore need to be "locked down" to non-obscene or vulgar sites.

Any thoughts on what has been recommended to do this job so far:

Watchguard X20e with UTM bundle (WG50026)
dabs.com - WatchGuard Technologies X20e UTM Bundle (Includes appliance) (WG50026) for more info.

[dangel]

try playing with OpenDNS | Providing A Safer And Faster Internet first.

Just a thought.

[Jay]

Look at getting an old DL320, put Ubuntu, Squid Proxy, dansguardian and webmin.

its fantastic and locks down what ever you want with little to no effort at all.

oh and cost will be about £50 on the hardware and £50 for 99 User license for Dansguardian.

[mycarsavw]

Smoothwall with dansguardian - both free, both will run on little to no hardware.

I have a smoothwall running on an old PIII 600 (I think), but had it working fine on a PII 333

[peterb]

<pedant mode>

There really is no such thing as a hardware filter - in the same way there is no such thing as a hardware firewall - the filtering is NOT done by any hardware. What I think you are looking at or mean is a dedicated filtering box which will contain an operating system and some software that actively filters out the content you choose using some rules that you apply.

</pedant mode>

Ways in this can be done have been suggested in earlier posts. Some routers contain filters that will block certain sites by name or content type. A dedicated proxy server could be configured to do the same thing. There are also subscription services that claim to keep track of undesireable sites and keep your filtering mechanism up to date.

Many local education authorities (or whtever they are called this week) operate gateway/portal systems through which schools can obtain inernet access so that the content/access management is applied centrally and consistently with minimal administration for the local sysadmin.

[Moby-Dick]

Saying that , the watchguard appliances are usually pretty good to work with.

I take it RM don't provide your connectivity ? The RM proxy is usually pretty strict.

[Vimeous]

Are you the dedicated IT bod, a teacher or a jobbing Governer / friend of the school?

While schools have little cash man-power is also a concern so adding in custom systems, free or otherwise, may not be desireable.

Despite the cost systems like Watchguard and Sonicwall should take the hassle out of admin.
We use an intY Exoserver to do the task you require. It may be slight overkill for your needs but was designed for environments of your size and above.

[misae]

Thanks to all your responses.

Vimeous you hit the nail on the head I reckon, and I am helping out with some IT stuff for a new start-up independent school.

Agent we did not go with RM in the end due to being locked down to their systems and lack of flexibility once installed.

Following the excellent advice from all you guys I think it would be less hassle if we did just got for a boxed system and paid subscription... less hassle and someone else to blame if things go wrong

[peterb]

<----snip---->

I think it would be less hassle if we did just got for a boxed system and paid subscription... less hassle and someone else to blame if things go wrong

True - these are not really 'fit and forget' things - running your own proxy/content filter etc requires some administration, and the blacklists need to be kept up to date - in fact if you wanted to be very restrictive, you might start by blocking a everything and running a whitelist - and adding sites from the request logs - but it would be initilaly frustrating for the users, and initially a tremendous task.

So yes, a subscription type service would be best (but before you ask - no, I don't have any recommendations but others might)