I am the network admin of a 700 computer network. Currently my firewall is completely IPTables scripted by me. I understand IPTables, and my scripts, well enough, but should I ever leave, the firewall needs to be administrable by a new admin. This admin may not have the Linux or IPTables skills needed to properly maintain the firewall.

I would like to know, from those of you who have used Smoothwall, currently, and in the past, how you like it.
What are your considerations for its use?
What weaknesses did it pose?
What are its strengths?
How well does it perform in a network environment such as mine?

I have been using Smoothwall for the past 4yrs. I use it on my intranet which comprises of a few server machines and also client machines. I love it. It's simple to setup, simple to use. It has a good range of features (especially the newely added messenger logging). It has great support, and more importantly it works. The web based admin makes checking logs, routing traffic. blocking ips, checking ips a snap.

The only gripe i have is that if the logs are big, it can take some time to parse the info before displaying it.

I would say if possible set one up and test it internally to see if it would meet your needs.

I have been using the new Smoothwall Express 3.0 for about 4-months and it's perfect! Very easy to use and set up. I use it across 3 sites with site-to-site VPN and proxy server.

I really have no complaints about it. It works fine as long as your box is fine.

Thank you for your reply. How many clients do you support?

I'm in an educational environment, 9 servers (3 public), 2 H.323 machines, and 700 clients. Students utilize the Internet for pretty much all of their research, so our connection is quite active. That on top of streaming media (educational videos , and YouTube ).