URL/Content filtering ideas for small organization

[Devistater]

I'm going to be doing a recomendation to a small non-profit organization that currently has about 10 computers connected, and probably will not grow beyond about 20 or so. I was wondering about brands of hardware or software content filters. If they come with firewalls or antivirus thats also ok.

I'm mostly looking for some ideas of what brands or products are availible, I'm not really an IT guy. I dont mind doing the research myself if I just have an idea of some places/brands to start.

Also, we can aquire a Cisco PIX 501 or 506 for cheap (like $85 or less) from cisco. The specs say they do content filtering but only with 3rd party software, I'm wondering what brands of 3rd party software I can use to do that? So far I've found 2, websense and sentian.

Some of the products I like the looks of so far are the firebox edge x5 (not sure if I need a larger one, I'm going to call them up) and sonicwall tz170.

Thanks!

 

[Devistater]

Surely someone has an idea of some brands that do this?

 

[InlineFive]

We have a Sonicwall TZ-170 at work which works quite well. For a yearly subscription you can have content filtering and gateway antivirus (the latter should be released by January) provided by Sonicwall and in the case of the antivirus in cooperation with a large AV company (in the past it has been McAfee and probably still is). You should still keep antivirus software installed on all the clients.

Their basic content filtering service is about $175 and the full version is about $995. You should look through their documentation and call the Sales Hotline for better information.

-Por

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: PorBleemo
We have a Sonicwall TZ-170 at work which works quite well. For a yearly subscription you can have content filtering and gateway antivirus (the latter should be released by January) provided by Sonicwall and in the case of the antivirus in cooperation with a large AV company (in the past it has been McAfee and probably still is). You should still keep antivirus software installed on all the clients.

Their basic content filtering service is about $175 and the full version is about $995. You sould look through their documentation and call the Sales Hotline for better information.

-Por

Thanks, thats exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I dont mind doing the research or calling the company, I just want a little pointer on where to start 🙂

 

[randal]

If you have a cheapo box laying around and are familiar with any unix, you can utilize Squid + DansGuardian to do this. It's an extremely good filter - I use it at my cybercafe - and it's FREE across the board.

 

[hawk82]

www.clarkconnect.org
either the consumer or home version.
then put dansguardian + webmin and you are set.
granted, takes some knowhow of linux, but works very well and is free.

 

[Devistater]

Unfortunately I'm not familiar very much with linux, although I'm trying to learn a bit. But in addition they are wanting things such as exchange server. Plus they can get the MS small buisness 2003 server software for under $50 so... I think in this case I'm going with windows. Which is why I like the idea of a hardware type solution, in the future if they change away from windows they can, or if they stick with windows it takes part of the load of the ineffecient MS stuff 🙂

But I'll defiantely check into those things you guys mentioned, clarkconnect and dansguardian.

Wow, dansguardian looks pretty nice.

 

[randal]

Originally posted by: DevistaterWow, dansguardian looks pretty nice.

Yea, as I mentioned, we use it at our cybercafe to keep all the junior & high school kids from seeing the naughty bits. (Wow, Punny!) The cool part about it is that they maintain a large list of sites to block content from and it is updated very frequently. Oh, and did I mention free? Good stuff.