Request/Recommendation: Spyware/Malware gateway appliance

After a bit of a read over there, Untangle looks like quite a promising open source Malware Gateway. But from what I gather it is already in an appliance format (rather than a package) and is distributed as an ISO which installs an Untangle dedicated OS (which is Debian based).

It seems they did have an Ubuntu installer but have discontinued it due to support issues. As its Debian based it should be possible to install to Debian easy enough (although the documentation seems a little out of date) but until TKL releases a range of Debian based appliances (which has been discussed and is a long term goal of the Dev team, but not anywhere on the horizon from where I sit). Untangle devs don't really seem to keen for people to take that path (probably because of the same reasons that TKL devs don't want .

The only thing I don't really like about the look of Untangle is that it relies on local config via a GUI that requires a desktop environment. Obviously there are tools to access a desktop remotely, but I really don't like the idea of a server running a desktop environment. I'd much prefer seeing a web based UI.

Sorry about that.  I didn't know that it required GUI-side configuration.  I'll keep looking for other options.

I looked at your TKLPatch and Developing Live CDs options, so I'll try my hand at creating a patch once I find a useable package.  I'd also like to have a mail server appliance with a web interface (Squirrel Mail?), so I may end up experimenting with one of those patches as well.

I really like this idea of pre-installed VM-based solutions, rather than installing multiple applications on one OS.  It really makes evaluation easy.  It helped me to rule out WordPress and Joomla as possible CMS options for my employer, and helped me to explore and select Drupal.  It would have taken me several days to install and test all of that stuff from scratch -- and then wonder if I had configured it properly.  With your images, I just assigned an IP address and started testing!

Thanks!

 Hi,

I find your collection of appliances really great and I have tested several of them and I think you are doing an outstanding job. On the groupware and messaging appliances, I would like to recommand two appliances that I think should be a great addition to your list.

Groupware: Citadel groupware ( a phenomenal groupware like no other I tested), they already have a vm to download, but it has a fixed HD size and no webmin for monitoring it.

IM: Openfire and its sparkweb chat portal, I think it is also a great piece of software and compared to your ejabberd appliance it is much easier to intall and work with.

Whatever you decide, thanks a lot for the great work you are doing, trying to make opensource software and linux os much more accessible to use by non tech savvy people.

Thanks,