m86 filter

[tlarkin]

Hey Everyone,

Is anyone using this? How are you deploying it, un-installing, and upgrading the client? This company is nearly 100% windows centric, and I had to get their deployment kit to run under WINE on my Mac since it only comes as an MSI file. I now have their deployment kit running and am looking at creating a config file to push out, but it seems when I do this their launchd item fails to show up or even run after install. We upgraded the server so now I have to upgrade the clients, or otherwise it kills the whole Internet connection. Needless to say, users aren't happy when the Internet gets cut. :-/

Before hand on the older version I had zero issues. Their support is no help either with Macs. I keep getting transferred to specialists, who don't even know what a launchd item is....

Thanks, Tom

[tatiang]

We have been using M86's R3000 web filter appliance for about two years. On
the whole, we've been happy with the level of filtering and support for the
device.

Unfortunately, we haven't been so thrilled with their mobile (off-campus)
client. They have a known issue with kernel panics on Mac laptops that has
been reproduced in the field but that they cannot reproduce in-house.
Because of this, quite a few schools -- including ours -- are moving to
other products.

M86 has recommended that schools with kernel panic issues move to a
third-party company they are partnering with that provides a product called
iSheriff <http://isheriff.com/>. My initial take on iSheriff is that it
really isn't ready for prime time, despite the company being 10 years old
and the product being 5 years old.

The product we are currently considering, which looks similar but hopefully
better than M86, is iBoss <http://www.iboss.com/>.

Tatian

*Tatian Greenleaf*
*Associate Director of Technology

*::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

*Saint Mark's School
(415) 472-8000 x1014*

[tlarkin]

I just think it is ridiculous I have to run their package creator under WINE since they don't have a native Mac one. Then when I have a Mac specific problem their "Mac specialist," is very ignorant of how OS X even operates. We have been using it for 5 years now and we have had problems but m86 seems to have been the best we have tested so far.

How do you roll out client updates for the mobile filters? That is sort of what started this issue.

Thanks,

Tom

[donmontalvo]

We can add Guidance Software (the makers of EnCase forensic software) to the list of vendors who are not only clueless about launchd.

Don

[tlarkin]

I spoke too soon on the WINE thing. It crashes when creating the final package in WINE. I had my Windows admin make a package and email me. It is so sad that their Mac client has to be built on a PC...

-Tom

[dkucmierz]

We just moved to it this summer from iPrism. I've been caching the installer package on the local machine, then having a post image script install it via installer command. The generated installer package doesn't seem to work when run directly from casper.
We've had some issues so far... biggest thing is we have some high school labs with their own OD setup instead of using the district AD for authentication, and the client will reset authorization constantly unless the user is logged in with an AD account.