Cisco - I don't have first hand knowledge.Sonicwall - I've only played with their little routers, which have basic filtering. I have not played with their web filtering appliance.Barracuda - We use a Barracuda 610 Web Filter. It does the two things we require of a web filter: Block content and show us reports. If you have ever seen the Barracuda Spam firewall's log, you can get simular results of a web log using Barracuda. I give it a B+.Fortinet - We tried to use our FortiGate as a content filter. It looks like it has all the right stuff, but we found that it would not provide the correct reports back to us. Since our last attempt with them, they have made updates which may have fixed the problem. Also, their dedicated web-filter/report-server/service may have better results than the one in the FortiGate firewall.Sophos - Sophos's web filter is based off of Astaro, which they purchased some years ago. Astaro was decent, and I'm sure Sophos has done a good job with the product. Worth looking at.
Others I would check out that you're not looking at yet: iBossKerio ControlUmbrella (not an appliance)or something else I've forgot to mention. --Matt Ross Ephrata School District Stefan Jafs <[email protected]> , 12/3/2014 8:53 AM: I’m going around in circles trying to make a decision on a new Firewall and Web filtering appliance. We currently have the SonicWall NSA240 * 2 for HA and iPrism for Webfiltering. We have increased our speed on Rogers fibre to 200 / 200 Mbs, the SonicWall is only 100 Mbs. Also the iPrism can’t handle our 300 + users any more, delays when trying to open a web page. So I have been looking at Cisco ASA, upgraded SonicWall, Barracuda, Fortinet and Sophos SG 330. Cisco – looks very complicated to setup and $$$ SonicWall – probably ok with a separate Web filtering appliance, easy to install can upgrade current configs. Barracuda – looks good, Googling and reviews not so good. Fortinet – looks ok Sophos – looks good on paper and I already have Sophos endpoint protection, leaning towards this solution. Anyone that can give me real hands on recommendations? Thanks __________________________________ Stefan Jafs
