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Overview of Smoothwall deployment setups

Updated

We work with your organisation to determine and deploy the optimal configuration of our Smoothwall products. This article outlines the most common deployment setups for each configuration. We offer:

  • Cloud-only setups.
  • On-Premise Appliance-only setups.
  • Hybrid setups (Both On-Premise Appliance and Cloud Portal).

We also offer centrally managed deployments of multiple On-Premise Appliances for larger customers. Our team will advise you based on your requirements.

Cloud-only setup

A Cloud-only setup uses Cloud Portal (Cloud Filter and Cloud Reports) without an On-Premise Appliance. This is the quickest and easiest setup.

Web filtering is applied to managed devices using one of our Agents and Extensions:

See our Overview of our Smoothwall Agents and Extensions for full details.

Managed devices use Azure or Google Directory to identify and authenticate users, and Cloud Filter applies Web Filter Policies to those users. 

You can’t filter unmanaged devices, also known as Bring Your Own (BYO) devices, in a Cloud-only setup. You need an On-Premise Appliance to filter these devices on your organisation’s network.

On-Premise only setup 

We don’t usually offer On-Premise only setups for new configurations. We typically offer Cloud-only or Hybrid setups. If you have an On-Premise only setup, it will most likely match one of the configurations below.

An On-Premise only setup includes:

  • A physical On-Premise Appliance connected to your network, or in some cases, a virtual machine (VM).
  • Access to the On-Premise Appliance management platform (Admin UI).

Your setup includes reporting functionality and can include filtering and/or firewalling, depending on your licence.

Devices authenticate users with one of the available Authentication Methods. The On-Premise Appliance processes incoming traffic and applies filtering. Because the On-Premise Appliance filters through the network and doesn’t run on devices, it can’t filter devices when they are off-site.

  Note

Any of the three configurations below can be deployed as a Failover pair of Smoothwall On-Premise Appliances, also called a High Availability (HA) pair. This setup includes two Smoothwall Appliances, one active and one in standby, to ensure continuous service. See Set up a Failover Smoothwall Appliance.

Filter and Firewall

The Smoothwall Appliance sits before the ISP’s router or modem as the edge device on the network. It connects to the internal network and has a separate connection to the internet. All traffic NATs (Network Address Translations) to an internet-facing IP address.

Bridged Web Filter

The Smoothwall Appliance sits between the internal network and the upstream router and/or firewall. It has two physical interfaces configured as a bridge and provides Web Filtering on all TCP port 80 and/or 443 traffic from the internal network.  

Proxy-Not-Inline Web Filter

The Smoothwall Appliance connects to the network using a single interface and receives traffic from client web browsers configured to use an explicit proxy.

Hybrid setup

A Hybrid setup includes:

  • Cloud Portal (Cloud Filter and Cloud Reports). Managed devices are filtered using Cloud Filter, as with Cloud-only setups.
  • On-Premise Appliance hardware (or a VM) with access to the Admin UI. Smoothwall Appliance authenticates users on unmanaged (BYO) devices using one of the available Authentication Methods, then applies filtering.

Web Filter Policies sync between the two platforms, allowing you to manage the web filtering experience across different devices from anywhere.