gtechwi

Pretty cool stuff, but unfortunately I don't have time to learn command lines. I have to stick with a GUI.....well to be fair, I have been looking at the Ubiquiti products for a long time, and plan to put them in at one of my customer sites, but for now will go with Sophos for my home router.

Does it do web/content filtering? I can't seem to find any documentation on this, all other aspects look fine.

The other thing that would affect system requirements would be when adding integrated wireless access points. I'm curious as to when you might get one of those and we'll see how that affects performance?

What's a Haswell Pentium? Would I have to build something to get that? Last time I used a Pentium was a P4. I'm pretty convinced about the need for a better spec'd machine because a friend of mine tried running Sophos on an older dual core computer, and it locked up when web filter was enabled. Just couldn't handle it. For the Sophos AV, can it be used on a client that's not always on the Lan, like a laptop? Or does it always have to be connected to the Sophos management?

Yup, that's why I want to wait until you and a few others have tested it out a bit more, then I will know more precisely what my needs for the box to run Sophos are, especially with a fully enabled web filter. So far I see people just turning it off to lighten the load on the router and that's just what I don't want to do. I need the web filter working well. I'll stay tuned to your posts. Thanks

This is good information. The issue with webfilter concerns me........I am going to wait a bit for you to fully test out the webfilter, since that is the main reason for me to put together a Sophos box. I have been reading on the forums about the need for more RAM, and also there have been some issues with Atom processors when a lot of features are being used. It seems that a lot of people report real good performance with a core i3, although I don't know how much it would cost to put something together with that. I will have a pretty heavy duty firewall and web filter in Sophos, with a very large blacklist/whitelist, so I need more research before I get that unit from Newegg. I need to know it will work well. I see you've been chatting with someone over at HSS forum, he is talking about lag times. Others have talked about extended ping times with the web filter enabled. So far I haven't found food answers for this. Some have suggested a setting that pulls the web filter database to the local machine instead of going out to the Sophos server with each request. Maybe you'll figure it out! I'm really thinking of going with untangle in the meantime because I have a friend who uses it full-time. Once I'm familiar with this type of setup then can migrate to the more powerful Sophos. Unless you can convince me it will work [emoji56]. I have a high latency rural dsl connection, so this issue with the web filter making it anyway slower is a big deal for me.... Keep me posted, I really appreciate it!

Ok yes I will definitely be using the web filtering and antivirus. It will be hard to find a used box with those specs for the price of the newegg item don't you think? I'll just have to get one of those. I haven't seen these come thru on special, have you? Did you pay full price? Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Drashna, what would you think about using something like this for a firewall/router. http://greenbay.craigslist.org/sys/4349248825.html Would it be worth picking up one of these at the right price? Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Your to-do list is actually perfect, that's the order I will be implementing myself, minus AD because I don't use it. Glad you figured out the problem with the bad RAM. Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Sweet [emoji108] Thanks! I agree with having the vpn in the router, can access anything on the lan at any time as long as it's powered on. I'll keep an eye on your sophos posts this will be interesting. Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

I don't have a tablet, I do all my browsing on my phone, HTC One.... so yes, Tapatalk integration would be nice. Upgrading the PC, ya well, it has to be done. It will be fine, just takes time... So, back on topic finally.....Sophos I'm more interested in the pretty cool VPN features of Sophos vs. the WHS VPN, and I do believe it would be more secure, with true SSL/SSH, which from I can gather from the postings out there, is more hit and miss with WHS? I have friend who uses Untangle, and he thinks the VPN with Untangle is better than using his SBS 2011 server? I'm also thinking that the Sophos VPN will play better with non MS devices, AKA Android?? What do you think? Cool new HTML5 VPN with Sophos: http://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/knowledgebase/117470.aspx http://www.sophos.com/de-de/support/knowledgebase/2450/2500/3450/115157.aspx

Ah, didn't see the mobile theme for the forum, much better. Thanks for the link for the VPN setup. I will check it out. Sent you a little something for your blog via PayPal. Other than that, I should be good for now, I have some PC maintenance and upgrading to do that will keep me busy for a while. Later....

Instructions somewhere for enabling Routing and Remote Access role on WHS 2011? This might fix part of my problem, I can't access the remote web login, tried everything I can find. Thanks for checking on the Tapatalk, it is much easier for me to use in the house when I have time for the forum. I left a msg. on your blog, what happened to the donate button? was going to tip you something for all your help. I'm getting off topic here, maybe should continue this convo elsewhere?

Thanks drashna. I will keep an eye on this thread, and on your blog. I really appreciate that you are taking the time to document this, it is helping me decide to go with Sophos. I am needing to rebuild the drive config on my desktop computer, (as discussed in the other thread about the feeder disk) then will turn my attention to building the Sophos unit with the items you linked to in the first post. Hopefully by then you will have had time to review some of these subjects and write about them!! I have WHS 2011 so will need to use the VPN of the firewall. My network topology is the same as yours actually, so should be fine there. Thanks again PS...really off topic. Will this forum be Tapatalk enabled??

OK, that settles it for me, we are getting new SSD's! I was already going to upgrade the OS drive, but undecided for the data. My current OS drive is a WD Blue, and has gotten rather pathetically slow (or always has been). I could get a little better performance from a better HDD, but at this point, I will go SSD's all around, for the OS and data drives. I have to get faster file modification write times. This will be the simplest route for me. Thank you drashna and DrParis for helping make up my mind, I appreciate the help.

DrParis, file write caching has always been a problem with this machine. you are correct, file modification write speed is what I'm after. I've played with the page file settings, etc, but am not getting the performance I would like. It is an HP wx8400 workstation, quad Xeon 3.00GHz, 16GB RAM. Should be able to make this thing fly...at least faster than it is... I have never done ramdisk, so this is new to me. Yes the PC is on a UPS.

Hope it's OK to jump in here, feel free to move to new thread if needed. I couldn't find the answer on the forum. I'm wondering about using a feeder disk on a PC, with DrivePool installed. I'm trying to figure out how to cut my write time. I work with large CAD files, and do a TON of writes, average files ~10mb, some larger, and am tired of waiting while the file writes before I can continue working, it's only a second or so, but with the new tech, should be almost instantaneous. I don't feel like spending for a large SSD to hold all of my files, and am wondering about using a couple of HDD's in a pool with a small SSD feeder disk to allow for uninterrupted work when doing a lot of file writes. Using a small SSD will make for inexpensive replacement if it wears out. Will this work as a substitute for a large SSD as a solution to cut file write times on my desktop workstation? I have heard of using a RAM disk, but would 'prefer' using the DrivePool with SSD feeder disk.

Yes, Sophos has more features than Untangle, more IP's, and especially more in the area of internet filtering and firewall, two of my main concerns with young children in the house. will you be detailing more about your thoughts on the Sophos build on your blog? I would like to hear more about some of the features, if they happen to be features that you are using, such as the internet filtering, and I am very interested in the VPN functionality. Also wondering about the built in wireless access point management. Although I should know soon enough when I get mine running, will be several weeks yet. Would you mind giving a topology of your network, how the Sophos appliance fits in? I would like to see this to compare it to how I am planning mine, to make sure I get the best speed possible. Are you using standard hard drive with this, is there any advantage that you would know of for using an SSD?

Drashna, this is perfect timing for me....I've been wanting to put in a custom router for several years, and am now at the point ready to do it. My Netgear routers have the same problem as your Linksys, they can't handle much beyond standard settings. I also have kids getting to the age where they will be on the internet, and I need this thing locked down, besides the great routing features that are gained. I've been all over the forums reading about the different solutions, so far I've been skeptical of pfSense for the reasons you mentioned, mostly because from what I can see, it is not bad software, but it's more of a true geeks solution, if you have time to play, which I don't.... so far I have been undecided between Untangle and Sophos. I like the simplicity of UT, but am drawn more towards Sophos. I've played with it a few times on an old PC. I will read your blog posts about this. This is great timing for me, also thanks for the link to the mini system since low power draw is a big item for me. You had pfSense running on a FireBox right? How do you like the new mini box by now?

Alex, OK, thanks. It seems to be working, and I got an email about a drive that failed, so this is pretty cool. Thanks for your help, I look forward to updates to DrivePool and Scanner.

The stand alone app worked fine. https://bitflock.com/PWX5AJW8 I signed back into the server dashboard and checked, all of the disks showed that the details were submitted to BitFlock. For some reason it toop a couple of days... It gives an ID: 80A9JBL9 Am I able to view this online, or is this ID only for use in Scanner? Screenshot: https://gtechfiles.tonidoid.com/urlqphvye

Hello, I am using the StableBit Scanner, and it has already proved itself useful, in sending out an email alerting of a failed drive. I have a question about the checkbox to submit to BitFlock for analysis. This is in the SMART details...I have the checkbox ticked, and it says "(submitting in a few minutes)" This message never clears. Can you assist with this? The only thing I can think of on my end is...I am using a web DNS filtering service, is it possible the the URL for BitFlock submission is being blocked? Or something else? Thanks

Hello, I can share a few thoughts about upgrading. I just did this myself today, I was running v1.x of DrivePool, and upgraded to the realease candidate of v2.x. I am running WHS 2011. As the instructions indicate, uninstall version 1, reboot the computer then install v2. Reboot again. It recognizes the license key from v1 no issues there. Version 2 is awesome, so far from what I can see, it is balancing better, also is more efficient use of drive space. It recognized the pool and drive letter from before, so all drive mapping stayed in place. As mentioned in a post above, It is correct, this does not speed up dashboard, that is a MS issue. Also a great feature of version 2 of DrivePool. you can specify how many times for duplication. For instance, version one allowed for duplication to one other drive. Version two allows you to specify how many time you want to duplicate. In my case, I have it set to 4, so any files on any particular drive, are also mirrored to 3 other drives. I have critical client info on my WHS 2011, so this takes care of my paranioa of data loss. You can specify whether to duplicate the whole pool, or you can choose to duplicate by folder selection. i'm very happy with v2, the display is different, but all the options from v1 are there, just in different places. You can always uninstall v2 and go back to v1, if it doesn't appeal to you.

+1 for DrivePool 2.x to report temperature in F