One of the reasons why I really enjoy being part of SmoothWall is the products (and of course the amazing people!). Really appreciate the efforts, research and commitment that goes into making things happen.
Dion Britz, Jeshurun Consulting
"We have been using SmoothWall products for over a year. We chose Network Guardian because the pricing was a lot more effective than our previous filtering product, we also wanted more control over what pupils were accessing along with tight integration with our active directory infrastructure.
Network Guardian 2008 also features daily updates, including the IWF watch list - this is an essential feature for us, so that we can keep our pupils safe online.
We have also used SmoothWall's support on a couple of occasions, this has been excellent, they have always been able to solve any problems we had, as well as staying in contact and offering us opportunities to test upcoming software and take onboard our comments for any new features."
James Hart Prieto, Network Administrator, Uffculme School
We chose SmoothWall as a solution because its proxy server and content filtering are included in one tightly integrated package, which came at a competitive price point compared to separate packages. The ease of installation and simplicity of setting up the content filtering meant we had a basic working solution within a few hours.
We were also impressed by the high level of service we received from SmoothWall. A fast turn-round of quotes, CD images and licence keys means the whole process was extremely fast.
Simon Austin, Moto Hospitality Ltd
We've been using Advanced Firewall for just over a year and it has remained rock-solid throughout this time. One of the main atractions was the ability to fall over between ADSL lines, something which it takes in its stride - and something which I've not found any other product able to emulate. It also has comprehensive monitoring and notification tools included - so can email you whenever anything changes.
Another major factor in our decision to adopt Advanced Firewall was its ability to balance the load over multiple outbound connections. It seemed a shame to have two ADSL lines running but with only one accessible at any one time - load balancing across two connections allows us to make the most of our investment and works seamlessly.
The ability to use your own hardware is a real bonus - for me its not about being able to use older 'left over' hardware, but about being able to choose hardware which you know to be reliable.
Louis Sabet, Mobiles.co.uk
I am extremely pleased with SmoothWall. It works flawlessly, is simple to configure and easy to manage. I recommend it whenever I have the opportunity.
Mark Woloszyn, Senior Network Engineer, Ford Field/Detroit Lions
For Businesspost, Guardian has proved to be a highly reliable, low cost solution for web browsing.
With its ease of installation and configuration, it means that I can scale the hardware as the business grows rather than the solution as whole.
The flexibility of configuration coupled with authentication against a LDAP service or Active Directory, and the ability to allow temporary access to sites that would be restricted, means that I can provide appropriate access rights to any of our users, which has helped save both on Internet bandwidth, and time wasting, whilst still giving the end user a fairly open but safe browsing experience.
Dylan Lupton, IT Technical Services Analyst, Businesspost
SmoothWall's Corporate Guardian 6 has played a fundamental part in how Peterborough City Council provides Internet Access to its Staff, School and Public Library Users. Guardian provides a well structured and effective filtering solution providing excellent protection from known and unknown web content.
Due to the way in which the application platform is delivered it (Guardian) offered us the flexibility to provide different filtering solutions within the same underlying platform. This helped greatly in the design, implementation and maintenance of the solution.
Becta accrediation, cost effectiveness and a good level of technical support was a big factor for us choosing a new product; SmoothWall and the Guardian product for filled all those requirements.
Mark Van-Kerro, Head of Strategic Resources - ICT, Peterborough City Council
Dominican University of California has been a SmoothWall customer for over 4 years. We've found that SmoothWall does everything we can possibly need from a firewall security product at a fraction of the cost of competing products. Most importantly, SmoothWall is EASY for non-Linux users to setup and administer. We are happy and loyal SmoothWall customers and plan on remaining so.
Jackson Ratcliffe, CTO, Dominican University of California
Student misuse of the internet is prehaps the biggest determinant factor when it comes to impeding in ICT learning. Over the past few years, students' knowledge and ability to circumvent the existing filtering provision, particularly by the use of proxy servers, had become a major cause for concern. As such we made the decision to manage our own web filtering within the college and opted to install Guardian after discussing our specific requirements with SmoothWall.
The initial cost of the software and hardware, together with the annual renewal costs represented excellent value for money as we are now able to effectively police our internet provision, and utilise the reporting procedures to identify further areas of concern.
Installation by our own technicians was striaght forward and we were able to get telephone support to finally tweak the system to make it do what we wanted.
As was reported at a recent governors meeting, 'SmoothWall in not flavour of the month with the students!'.
Colin Woodcock, Personalised Learning Co-ordinator - Haven High Technology College
We feel it is of the utmost importance that children and young people who access the internet via the school's network - be it on school owned computers or their personal laptop - are able to do so safely and appropriately.
While E-Safety is a whole school responsibility, two key elements looked after by the IT department are the school's firewall and content filtering system.
Bootham School has used SmoothWall's Advanced Firewall and SmoothGuardian systems for firewall and content filtering for a number of years. The systems are easy to administer and provide an excellent level of protection.
We have been very impressed by the ability of the system to not only detect and block access to known sites (listed under various categories that SmoothWall update and maintain), but to also detect and block access to various categories of material on unknown sites by analysing the volume and frequency of inappropriate words and phrases on each page at the moment the page is requested.
Steven Wright, IT Manager - Bootham School, York
SchoolGuardian has had a huge impact on the way we control our internet access for different groups within our school. It has been totally stable and reliable throughout the year that we have now been using the product. It worked straight out of the box, and the support we received from the SmoothWall technical team was excellent. Guardian downloads regular updates to keep itself up to date, and all have installed without any issues.
The most important aspect for us is the speed with which we can alter the filtering for URL, phrase, content and file types. This is all done through the well laid out GUI. The reporting facilities within the product have also given us the means to improve discipline within the classroom, and the reduction of cyber bullying throughout the school. We would recommend this product to anyone who needs to control internet access in an organisation.
Michael Ingham, Systems Manager - Blessed Trinity, Burnley, Lancashire
Kingsford Community School needed a new solution for filtering and managing online content. Having implemented SmoothWall products before, I knew that they are straightforward to use and always deliver exactly what is promised.
As a school our main priority when managing internet access is to control what our students and staff are viewing. SmoothWall Guardian, with its compressive reporting and strong URL and content filtering provided exactly what we needed. Over the last two years Guardian has done a brilliant job at keeping the use of online games and inappropriate material in check within the school.
Before installing SmoothWall, we found a lot of potentially harmful files and application were making their way on to the schools system. Now, thanks to the file blocking policies with Guardian, students and staff can no longer download anything unless authorised by the IT support team.
Steven Blois, IT Network Support and Development Manager, Kingsford Community School
After trying various other products from other companies as well as running our own Homebrew Dansguardian filter we finally decided to go with SmoothWall.
We found it very easy to install and configure and it had all the features we needed. The support is very good and any problems are quickly identified and fixed by their tech support. We have found them very open to suggestions for improvements and new features.
Chris Hindmarch, Network Manager, SS John Fisher & Thomas More RC High School Colne
SmoothWall has been a massive success for us. We previously used a number of hardware firewalls, running a suite from one of the best known firewall vendors. It was slow, cumbersome to manage and expensive. SmoothWall, for a fraction of the cost, was installed in a matter of minutes and has been running flawlessly since.
Support from Smoothwall has been fantastic, we can speak to someone directly who knows the product inside out, rather than the standard 1st level tech reading from a script. The network team love the manageability, our users love the increase in performance and the directors love the price. Long live SmoothWall!
K.Anderson, Network Manager, Avance Group Ltd
Since the introduction of SmoothWall Guardian into our organisation not only have we benefited from the ease of use and configuration of the system, which allows us to make changes to our rules in a few easy steps but gives us Management Information to determine if we are using it in an effective manner.
The Management Information has enabled us to educate our staff in internet usage and brought about a more productive work force with reduced bandwidth issues.
Marcus Spence, Hargreaves (UK) Limited
It has always been a pleasure working with SmoothWall since our relationship started in 2005. We have always had top notch service from SmoothWall and from [SmoothWall Partner] ICE Systems. Such a pleasure to find a piece of software that WORKS and a company that SUPPORTS it. So unusual in today's computer world.
Don Bossung, Southeast Community College, Nebraska
I introduced Corporate Firewall to Mainzeal’s network infrastructure 8 years ago, replacing existing ‘big brand’ products which lacked functionality and were complex to configure and monitor. SmoothWall has provided an extremely stable, scalable, security solution, which deployed on appropriate hardware has far lower cost of ownership than other offerings with the same feature set.
We have been impressed with the regular introduction of new features, and the way SmoothWall has evolved in line with a changing IT environment and the need to address emerging security threats. The filtering capabilities of the Guardian module allow us to set up filtering, at different levels for different groups i.e. some users are only allowed to download content relevant to their role, others have open access.
Having 2 fibre-based internet pipes from different providers we find SmoothWall’s general networking and routing capabilities extremely robust and are able to route traffic through the SmoothWall boxes according to source and destination, and even seamlessly divert traffic if we encounter an outage.
Francis Hollier, Mainzeal Property and Construction Ltd, NZ
SmoothWall has become a key element in our "best of breed" product
portfolio. Their flexible technology and business model is ideal
for our solution providers who are looking to provide a range of
innovative security solutions to value conscious customers in business,
government and education.
Gordon Hubbard, MD, Custom Technology Australia Pty (ANZ)
As a non-profit organization with a small staff who must concentrate all efforts on providing a good service to our member companies throughout Europe, we depend upon reliable IT services. SmoothWall has made life much easier in this respect - easy to install, reliable to use, and with excellent customer support from people who clearly understand their product.
Andrew Dearing, Secretary General, EIRMA, Paris
Corporate Firewall is easy to set up and I have had very good experiences with it. It's extremely stable and very flexible. The first time I had an issue with the product i decided to contact the company. It was a minor issue, I've forgotten exactly what it was. What I haven't forgotten was, that I emailed the company sometime late in the evening. The next morning there was an answer, that solved the problem. The person, who answered me knew exactly what he was talking about. This kind of service and the product itself is well worth the money.
Hans Otto Lunde, System Administrator, Egmont Højskolen (Danish High School)
Aixlink is a small Internet provider primarily specialized in providing Internet solutions for small and medium companies. We are using the SmoothWall firewall for many years and are absolutely convinced of the stability and availability. Due to the well functional update service, the firewall requires almost unnoticeable maintenance.
Dr. Christian Locher, Aixlink, Germany
SmoothWall's Advanced Firewall protects our small but growing data centre in Finland. We have been a SmoothWall customer for many years and this is really an "install and forget" product. Instead of focusing on the flashy and frivolous, SmoothWall has provided an integrated, strong solution that is both flexible and powerful without compromise.
Darren Ingram, Ab Ingram Oy, Finland
The Cayman Islands Ministry of Education implemented SmoothWall's Guardian web-filter in all primary schools, in replacement of another vendor's solution that was difficult to manage and often blocked education sites.
After the implementation of SmoothWall, the ICT team had a robust solution that filters inappropriate sites, while allowing access for students and teachers to online educational material.
The easy to use GUI has made life easier for the technicians and systems administrators who need to respond quickly when configuration of the system is necessary. Regular updates also provide peace of mind that students are protected from inappropriate online access.
Steven A. Durksen, I.C.T. Manager, Cayman Islands Government
Our experience with SmoothWall has been absolutely fantastic! Corporate Firewall has a very intuitive and easy to navigate interface. Downtime is a thing of the past. Updates install quickly and easily and there is no need to know complicated commands or the directory structure of a Linux environment. We tried out other options including SmoothWall's free version, but Corporate Firewall gives you features that you just can't live without. Overall, it's an exceptional product at an exceptional price!
Tyler Gatewood, System Administrator, US Armed Forces Recreation Centers Europe
As an ASP we were looking for a proven solution to protect our web servers and we found exactly what we needed in Smoothwall's Corporate Firewall. Due to its modular design we were able to create a secure yet flexible hosting environment with ease on standard hardware. Combined with a friendly team that has an open mind for suggestions it's a solid investment worth every penny.
Usually I have two words for our clients "Get SmoothWall"
Anon ASP provider, Netherlands
The UTM1000 has proven to be everything we have come to expect from SmoothWall and a lot more. Right from the initial installation and configuration of the unit we have found it a joy to work with, I am still astounded by the power and control this little unit has given us and as ever, the support we have received from the SmoothWall Team has been nothing short of outstanding.
If you are looking for a cost effective and reliable security solution that will grow alongside your business, we cannot recommend another product. Without a doubt SmoothWall is partially responsible for the way our business has safely grown & it has helped earn us a reputation for offering a secure and reliable internet solution.
Nigel Crump, D.S.S. Limited,Cyprus
At least as good as Inteliguard in its filtering capability, with far superior logging and reporting. It is easy to install and works straight out of the box. An excellent product.
Colin Sutherland, IT Manager, Sale High School
A superb product, easily the equal of any commercial alternative costing many times as much
David Elliott, Regent's College, London
Far more flexible than any competing product at a fraction of the price! Well worth the time and effort - a brilliant product
Andrew Foulsham, IT Support Officer, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford University
From my first contact with SmoothWall I knew I had made the right choice.
The software delivered what sales and the website promised. I even pushed up my plans to go live by a week after only evaluating the software for a few days. Advanced Firewall2 is absolutely awesome. Support has been fantastic. Within only an hour or so I had my SmoothWall box up and running with custom firewall rules, port forwarding, multiple VPN tunnels, even load balancing with the check of box! Real time log and traffic monitoring is a great touch.
I would certainly recommend this (and already have) to anyone looking for a robust solution for their network edge.
Thomas LaCicero, Artemide Inc., Farmingdale, NY, USA
Service of the highest standard
James Carroll, Information Governance Manager, Sunderland TPCT
Twice as effective as our previous content filter
David Palmer, Rock Creek Schools, Oklahoma.
The 'Rolls Royce' of web filtering software
Rachel Dombrowski, Governor Mifflin School District, Pennsylvania
SmoothWall is very reliable, it just works.
Kurt Jennings, Fellers, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
It is a great solution that works well. I have been very pleased with its reliability and ease of installation.
Jack Lillie, Director Of IT, Rising Sun - Ohio County School Corporation, Indiana, USA
I have been very pleased with our SmoothWall software and even more pleased with the SmoothWall staff.
(Corporate Guardian systems serving several school districts)
Dave Dziedzic, District Technology Manager, Midland County Educational Service Agency, Michigan, USA
The ability to use our own hardware is a real benefit to us. You can install the SmoothWall software on almost any PC or server hardware. This has helped us keep costs to a minimum and we can be a much more self sufficient when it comes to maintenance and expansion.
The SmoothWall system does not require a full time security administrator to maintain or configure the product. In the unlikely event of a hardware failure, IMI can support the system internally with non-proprietary components for an unbeatable turnaround. This gives us a great deal of confidence in the SmoothWall solution, notwithstanding the excellent support available from both ESI [SmoothWall reseller partner in Indianapolis] and SmoothWall.
ESI has provided excellent advice and support on various aspects of our technology infrastructure. We consider ESI a trusted partner and expect to grow this successful SmoothWall solution out across Indiana and Tennessee with them.
For more information about Irving Materials Inc. (IMI) see their website.
For more information about Electronic Strategies Inc. (ESI) see their
website.
Jerry Howard, Director of IT for IMI, Irving Materials Inc. (IMI), (Greenfield, Indiana, USA)
For me, SmoothWall Guardian has proved to be a highly reliable, low cost solution for Corporate web browsing.
With its ease of installation and configuration, (roughly around 20 minutes from putting the CD into the tray, to putting the proxy live!), it means that I can scale the hardware as the business grows rather than the solution as whole.
The flexibility of configuration, coupled with authentication against a LDAP service or Active Directory, and the ability to allow temporary access to sites that would be restricted, means that I can provide appropriate access rights to any of our users, which has helped save both on Internet bandwidth, and time wasting, whilst still giving the end user a fairly open but safe browsing experience.
I would like to comment on the support provided, but I've never had need for it, which alone is a testament to the product.
For more information about Business Post see their website.
Dylan Lupton, IT Technical Services Analyst, Business Post Group PLC (Slough, UK)
I can honestly say that I can't fault School Guardian so far, its done everything I wanted/expected it to do and more. Since migrating to School Guardian in April 2006 the school's Internet performance and productivity has increased considerably. As IT manager here at Fartown my anxiety about Internet security and misuse is at ease thanks to this fantastic package.
Nigel Lane, IT Manager, Fartown High School (Huddersfield, UK)
We've been using SmoothWall Advanced Firewall for just over a year now with no problems whatsoever. It has remained rock-solid throughout this time.
One of the main attractions to us was the firewall's ability to fail over between ADSL lines - something which it takes in its stride - and something which I've not found any other product able to emulate.
We have two lines from two different providers to guard us against network issues - SmoothWall identifies network problems and immediately switches over to the other line - usually faster than it takes for a human to notice there has been a problem.
It also has comprehensive monitoring and notification tools included - so can email you whenever anything changes.
Another major factor in our decision to adopt SmoothWall Advanced Firewall over any other vendor's product was its ability to balance the load over multiple outbound connections. It seemed a shame to have two ADSL lines running but with only one accessible at any one time - load balancing across two connections allows us to make the most of our investment and works seamlessly.
The ability to use your own hardware is a real bonus - for me it's not about being able to use older "left over" hardware, but about being able to choose hardware which you know to be reliable.
For more information about mobiles.co.uk see their website.
Louis Sabet, mobiles.co.uk (UK)
Moto is Britain's biggest motorway service area operator with 42 sites that are visited by more than 100 million people a year in a network that stretches across all major motorways from Devon to Stirling, the gateway to the Scottish Highlands. Following its sale to Macquarie Bank of Australia, Moto needed to install its own internet proxy server and content filtering system to allow around 1,000 users at its sites and at head office controlled internet access.
Simon Austin, Moto's Systems Architect, said: "We chose SmoothWall as a solution because its proxy server and content filtering are included in one tightly integrated package, which came at a competitive price point compared to separate packages. The ease of installation and the simplicity of setting up the content filtering meant we had a basic working solution within a few hours.
We were also impressed by the high level of service we received from SmoothWall. A fast turn-round of quotes, CD images and license keys means the whole process was extremely fast."
For more information about Moto see their website.
Simon Austin, Moto Hospitality Ltd. (Bedfordshire, UK)
I deal with multiple vendors and their technical support on a daily/weekly basis and your model exceeds all others in both customer service skills, response speed, and technical acumen.
Mike Magie, ICE Systems, Kansas City, USA (SmoothWall Reseller Partner)
Congrats to the team. SmoothTunnel 3.1 works out of the box.
Richard Hinder, Richard Hinder Associates Ltd
In December 2002 the parent Danish company purchased an subsidiary company in England. We were already using Corporate Server and SmoothTunnel in Denmark to allow home workers access to our company network. So the choice to connect the new company to our main company was easy. After 2 hours work in UK we were connected to the main company in Denmark. The uptime has been virtually 100% except for when installing SmoothWall updates.
Ole K. Hansen, Riegens A/S, Denmark
I'm just mailing to congratulate you for your outstanding product. We've just completed rolling corporate server 3 out to our high-bandwidth video ad serving network (www.adshadow.com) and it's performed flawlesly, handling over 500k requests in the last 48hrs.
Keep up the good work.
Joseph Denne, Airlock Group
A huge problem arose when I was given the task to upgrade the company's internet gateway to use a broadband connection. After a little thought I was struck by the absolute need for the company to have the very latest and very best firewall. This was mainly due to the company moving into 24/7 internet access and the absolute imperative that no hackers had an easy path to the company's systems. After spending the best part of 2 weeks searching the web I was presented with a number of options. There were a number of companies offering the latest firewalls for astronomical costs and a number of companies trying to bamboozle me with the absolute need to spend thousands of Pounds for a small businesses firewall system. In my final days of searching, I found the Smoothwall site after reading a review by a firewall expert. I was intrigued that this Smoothwall firewall was up with the top security companies firewalls, yet when doing a search for firewall companies it rarely turned up. I decided to contact Smoothwall directly. A number of question emails later, I was impressed with their product and the thought that had went behind it. I was also impressed with the quality of the answers and the fact I was not treated like a laymen (unlike other firewall companies sales tactics). The main two aspects that impressed me the most were the cost versus security. Smoothwall were offering a system that other companies were charging astronomical amounts for.
I bought Corporate Server immediately and it came promptly with clear instructions on how to install it. After the best part of 45min I had the system up and running and in less than an hour I had replaced the internet gateway with a state of the art firewall and only a small amount of hassle (I had to restart some of the machines). It has now been running for the last month, and has deflected every rouge packet. It has neither crashed nor caused me any problems. It simply sits there and does what it was meant to do. I cannot recommend Smoothwall Corporate Server 3.0 more highly and I intend to continue using Corporate Server for every network I establish (in the future).
Corporate Server cannot be beaten for ease of use, customer support and most importantly of all cost and security.
Stuart Mains, First European Ltd.
A no hassle, no fuss product which makes it so brilliant. Easy to install, quick and 100% reliable - just what we wanted.
Sean McInnes, IT Manager, Architects Co-Partnership
I just want to say thanks, and what a tremendous support service. It's very rare to have such pro-active support these days, especially in this country. :)
Tony Treadwell, CEO Aardwork Software Ltd
We're very impressed with the speed and ease with which SmoothWall Ltd resolved our problem. In contrast, a client of ours has a Nokia IP330
running Checkpoint Firewall, which is broken. Their tech support has kept us waiting for weeks. If it's not fixed soon, it's going on ebay and getting replaced with Corporate Server and SmoothTunnel, which will cost about 10% of what they paid for that thing.
Joe Williams, European Business Solutions
SmoothWall is simple to understand and quick to use.
Matthew Butt, Cre8tive Ltd
The amount of qualified help we received and the speed of response to our various queries were amazing.
Jesper Juhl, Danish Sports Federation
It has saved us thousands of dollars while giving us more functionality than some of the more costly hardware solutions.
Erik Burgess, MPI Research, Michigan, USA
I was impressed by the usability, functionality and stability of the product ... We've managed to combine low cost and high performance in SmoothWall.
Ric Wadsworth, Caspian Publishing, London
I highly recommend SmoothWall Corporate Server as an excellent product for businesses, schools, and institutions that need a powerful, flexible and easy to configure firewall.
Mark Worley, Temple Christian College, Adelaide, Australia
Assured of the highest level of security.
Liam Dasey, Expotel
Easy installation, rock solid stability, excellent manageability and secure protection.
Gerry Aquino, Sessler Ford, Illinois, USA
It is a pleasure working with your company, Hurricane too, and thank you for making a great product at a great price! It is so hard to find value and quality in today's economy and yet you guys are consistently spot on in both respects.
Bill O'Reilly, Seattle Prostate Institute
As part of my six-monthly review of the systems we have in place at Regent's College I have taken a long, hard look at the way our Internet perimeter configuration, with a view to improving the services we deliver to our internal customers, whilst maintaining a high level of data security.
SmoothWall Corporate Server, coupled with SmoothHost and SmoothRule to give us port forwarding and outbound checking, have formed the backbone of our security since we purchased them last autumn. I am pleased to say that they have performed superbly, and have enabled me to progress the plans for the re-design of our LAN and Internet presence speedily and effectively. After my review of the systems, I can also say that I have no hesitation in continuing to use the products on an ongoing basis - they give me a solution which is easily the equal of any commercial alternative costing many times as much, particularly in an environment of this nature.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to your Support team for all the assistance they have rendered when we have needed help with specific issues. Please pass this on to all the staff concerned.
I look forward to version 3.0 of the product, safe in the knowledge that it will add new features and security to what is already a superb product.
David Elliott, Regent's College, London
We are using SmoothWall here at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford University (300 users in a medical research institute). We've just moved to the Corporate Server from the GPL version - well worth the small amount of money spent. We wanted the additional logging and content filtering options.
We've kept the default set-up for blocked ports (but none of our servers are behind it at the moment - they are mostly highly resilient Netware 5 boxes), but the major change has been a bigger squid cache (500MB), and a line in the crontab to sync time using ntpdate.
It's been a very big win as far as our IT staff and administrators are concerned! Far more flexible than any competing product at a fraction of the price!
Well worth the time and effort - and a brilliant product, guys.
Andrew Foulsham, IT Support Officer
Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford University
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