looking for a firewall solution for a smaller and school has about 300 students (k-8) not all on devices at same time in addition to approximately 150 staff.
Would Wouldn’t be against having lately higher performing device that would allow for growth over the next 2 to 3 years, but not significant growth.
I don’t use either in any production environments but I have never had any good experiences with Sonicwall over the years.
Would you use pfsense? I almost feels that’s more for the home user and not a production environment.
We use pfsnese in many small and large businesses. Even the US Military has pfsense in some of their networks USNS Mercy
Being a school, what are the reqiurements of the firewall ? Do you need layer 7 , webfiltering ?
When you have your requirement, then match them against the firewall
PFSense is not for home user, it is used in the enterprise market - have you looked at the models Netgate does Are EdgeRouters Secure? - YouTube
Fortinet is a great budget option if you need security services such as web filtering, AV protection, etc.
What is your budget because with Sophos XGS you need to consider your subscriptions as well and if you are wanting full integration with client equipment , Sophos gets up there in price, the upper 1U Sophos XGS models (4300+) alone are 20K + plus your subscriptions.
I use both Sophos and PFSense and Sophos is great tool to show off to Management and show what it is doing, very easy to manage but again oranges to apples when comparing it against prices. PFSense is a bit more intimidating but with Toms excellent youtube videos I was able to quickly deploy one for a remote site and it’s been working really well since Jan 2022.
I like both systems but if price is a consideration then look closely at PFSense, it’s well developed product. We are using PFSense with the Netgate lineup.
I agree, PFSense with a DNS service will help you manage and filter staff and students browsing.
pfsense FTW. I use pfblocker for content filtering, it’s done a good job. The only think I’ve ever liked sophos for was to host my pfsense FW’s.
PFBlocker will not work in a school enviroment, as you can only have one pfblocker profile.
Guessing in a school, you will required different access for staff, students, etc
yes that is correct, different access for different users
For a school go SonicWall. Sophos is cool and all but SonicWall you see used in alot more government facilities things like that. I didn’t LIKE sonicwall but I believe if you want the higher end SonicWall (Properly configured) is the way to go.
What kind of blocking are you trying to implement? DNS?
If DNS you can use nxfilter.
I personally don’t like sonic wall or sophos. I think they are complete trash. The only other alternatives that I would even consider, even though still not a fan of, is fortigate.