I've used Google Postini for email filtering. Everything is filtered in the
cloud. In general, very happy with it and the cost. There are competitors
that might have an edge -- have not looked recently. Has lots of
flexibility, which I like as an admin.
We use Fortinet for filtering, gateway antivirus, intrusion protection,
firewall. Reporting is OK, but not fantastic. Does a decent all-around job
of controlling traffic and stopping access to inappropriate sites. They are
very fast to update their database. LightspeedSystems has fantastic
filtering and reporting features. More reports than you can possibly
imagine. Some highlights: "suspicious search engine queries" report -- very
helpful. I've only heard great news about Lightspeed and they are
specifically designed for k-12 schools. I had an in-house demo for about 2
months.
The current trend in "next-generation firewalls" is to use application
control to determine what users can access. So, for example, you can allow
Youtube, but only up to a certain percentage of bandwidth. Palo Alto
Networks is apparently the leader in this area. Other vendors are just
catching up now.
Best,
Bill Perpelitt
Technology Director
Delphian School
http://www.Delphian.org/
20950 SW Rock Creek Road
Sheridan, OR 97378
503-843-3521
Student view of Delphian:
http://www.delphian.org/interview
On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 4:21 AM, Pamela Livingston <livingstonp@mac.com>wrote:
> Dear ISED-L Colleagues (with apologies for cross posting),
>
> On 5/17 I'll be joining TEAM Charter Schools in Newark, NJ as Dir. of IT.
> I am hoping to ask any Tech Directors/Network Managers out there a
> question.
>
> What content filtering appliance (for incoming and outgoing mail -
> protecting the network and computers and also preventing access to
> inappropriate Websites - and hopefully allowing some easy reports) do you
> use and are you happy with it? Any pitfalls/challenges/caveats to report?
>
> We will have elementary school students, plus we accept Federal money, so
> are required to do some filtering. I've used Barracuda as well as Websense
> before, but that was several years back.
>
> Thanks very much in advance,
> Pamela
>
> ----------------------------------------------
> Pamela Livingston
> livingstonp@mac.com
> Author of "1-to-1 Learning: Laptop Programs That Work"
> Blog: http://1-to-1learning.blogspot.com
> Twitter: plivings
> 973-476-4819
>
>
>
>
> [ For info on ISED-L see https://www.gds.org/podium/default.aspx?t=128874]
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>
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