Zentyal Reviews

Open source, well integrated, easy to use.

When I started to work as a IT manager at an Argentinian branch of my company, in order to find solutions to implement, the users browsed directly on the internet for a solution. As I'm an open source enthusiast and have 10 years of experience deploying firewalls and proxies, I decided to implement a Squid + Dansguardian + ClamAV server (over Debian box) but didn't have the time to dedicate to this. After a quick search we started evaluating a few out-of-the-box solutions and found Zentyal.
One of the main goals for me is that, if I should pick open source software to make an gateway/secure appliance, it should be the same set of software (Squid, OpenVPN, Dansguardian, etc) and the integration needed to be done very well.
The great web interface makes me forget the complexity of the integration of this software.
After the implementation I was able to: 

• Minimize the bandwidth utilization (thanks to proxy cache)


• Filter web content and eradicates malware download


• Apply different browsing profiles for each area


• Authenticate navigation and users utilization of internet
  I only use Proxy / AV service because have the corporate mail services and VPN structure.

5 years.

The only issue I found was in LDAP authentication with Active Directory corporate domain. Didn't work but don't spend any time researching a possible solution.

Didn't use because I downloaded the Community Edition.

Yes. I always make my own installations of Squid.

Very easy.

I downloaded and deployed on my own.

Didn't spend any money. Only the hardware where it runs.

IPCop

Great solution for stand alone companies, when you don't have any budget for securing navigation or when you want to deploy a solution without being dependent on third party technicians.

Proxy and firewall

Works as IDS/IPS and filter http for users.

SSL squid functions

1 year

We didn't encounter any issues with deployment, it's very easy to deploy.

We didn't encounter any issues with stability, when nmap was active on the network, Zentyal performance dropped down.

It scales very nicely.

There is community support and it works well.

Yes, I've tried many solutions such as pfsense, Monowall, Smoothwall, but Zentyal was simply the best. It's easy to install, configure, stable, intuitive.

It's very easy to setup.

The main cost was the hardware. I bought an IBM server for about $1,000.

I also considered Checkpoint and Fortinet but after a price-power comparison I decided to give Zentyal a chance.

Don't be afraid and try it. It's a good piece of software and it's free.