I thought I would do a quickie write-up on the Untangle project. I have ben using his wonderful product for over two years now and I am still just as pleased with it as the day I started.

A Brief History

Back in 2008 I ran into a brick wall. Netgear Prosafe routers were being managed by a bunch of monkeys with broken typewriters. Buggy firmware, unusable VPN, slow speed. My Sonicwall clients were suffering the same fate, with the added insult of having to pay annual "Service Fees" for the privilege.

Frankly I was so upset, I could not see straight. Phone calls to the manufacturers were totally unproductive despite my being level-headed in the matter. They just did not care.

After about a week of research, I came across the Untangle project. It exceeded all of my client needs and has ben a rock-solid platform. So far there is 10+ units deployed with varying amounts of client participation in their management.

The Down Side

Untangle is too good. My router / firewall call-outs have tanked. The service van spends more time in the driveway than on client sites. (Note GoToExpress posting). Now I have more time to keep my forensic and security skills up.

Tags: Router, Firewall, Web Filter, Open Source