Xatrix Security

[itengineer_09]

Is RM Community connect software the best software for our production environments ?

I have worked in alot of networking environments round about and to be honest a few places round here swear that RM stuff is garbage, one of the biggest problems is the Smartcache. Smartcaches always seem to be killing themselves!!!

I would say (I know from hands on) that nearly everywhere round here running RM are swithcing from the Smartcache;s and are going down the linux root for proxy servers!

So what do y'all think ? - I was thinking about going down that old Novell road lol, Running AD on my new server 2008 ent, and running Netware 6 alongside with the novell client on my workstations ???? I tested it for a day and my network was going alot faster as where my workstations!!


Have a good day dudes,

Your Friend


Chris

[muto]

AD on 2003/2008, clients running XP, locked down the GP.

Ideally, the whole lot running on Linux, so you can keep the system secure, while actually giving users enough freedom to make the system useful, but that's not happening.

[RMSuck]

RM Smartcache is a linux proxy with RM branding basically and i dont see why a company would use one lol their aimed at schools

Get a BLOXX Proxy server they seem stable unless your network has lots of pervs on it, there is a chance it could fail aswell but i suppose thats what WE IT PROS are for cleaning up the mess of the Idiots in the rest of the company lol

[muto]

My school has Websense Enterprise running on a couple of Red Hat boxes...

Pretty much the only thing in the school that doesn't go down :>

[jd2kuk]

I remember seeing a linux distro targeted specifically at schools with simplified management- looked pretty good.

I agree with muto on this one though- use technologies native to windows (AD, MSI etc..), along with some management tools to make the job easier (by this I do not mean community connect), and some stable, open source packages such as squid and dansguardian. Not only will you save yourself money, but things are less likely to blow up in your face.

[muto]

Are you referring to Edubuntu?


What I'd do for a standard school, is to have 3 servers.

DC running Windows Server 2003.
Gateway running Squid, dhcpd and iptables.
NAS for file storage running FreeNAS.

Clients running Windows XP Pro, locked down with group policy, with FOSS software installed (Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, etc).

[cheesepuff]

I wonder could you build a whole school infactructure on free software (assuming the windows xp clients were shipped with xp) Using a linux server (with support for windows DC) and open source software on all machines?

i.e. only the cost of hardware.

Or am i on something?

[muto]

Linux as a DC is not nice. You'd be better off running without the Windows at all.

[itengineer_09]

from seeing the replies, I don't see why admins can't see like us and not use RM connect, It's good but there are better systems!

I suppose most of it is cost and ease of use.

am off to study




take care dudes!

[ICT Tech]

In a recent survey conducted by ourselves (RM), school Principals and Senior Management Team Officials (Councils, etc.) have all said RM saves time, effort and money.

They all agree that RM is brilliant, the only reason they think that is because they don't need to do anything, if a school wants a network setup they tell us, we tell them what exactly they need to buy, then we set it up, if there are any problems we resolve them, the admin staff are there to install printer toners, reset passwords and manage printing credits