On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 1:05 AM, muhammad panji sumodirjo@gmail.com wrote:
On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 9:37 PM, Rudi Ahlers rudiahlers@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
I'm looking for a (preferably free) alternative to SME / Clark Connect.
I basically need the following:
- firewall
- nat
- VPN
- bandwidth limiting / monitoring
- email (SMTP / POP3 / IMAP) & groupware
- file & printer sharing
- RAID support
- if possible fail-over / high availability support.
I need to support about 15 - 30 (some part time) students, so I would like to keep the costs low. If it's free, so much better. SME works for most of the stuff, but it still runs on CentOS 4, and I'd prefer to use 5.
clarkconnect 5 is on beta 2 http://distrowatch.com/5407
just wait a little while :)
-- Muhammad Panji http://sumodirjo.wordpress.com _______________________________________________
Thanx guys, I see what I'm looking for doesn't really exist. SME does what I need, but still runs on CentOS 4.7, and it doesn't offer groupware email out of the box.
The project will be for a bunch of students, so costs need to be kept low. In fact, the PC that will be used was donated by someone, and where I live PC components are much more expensive than in the USA (yes, there are people with internet & computers outside the borders of the USA). I only have 1 PIV with 1GB RAM to my disposal. The ADSL router that will be used had a stateful packet filter, NAT & intrusion detection, so I'm not really looking for a dedicated firewall, but rather an inhouse server, which will mainly serve as PDC with file & print server, email server, possible VPN, and bandwidth monitoring.
I basically want the students to each have a domain login, with his own files storage on the server, and some will connect via wifi, so I would prefer to keep them on a VPN for security reasons. If possible, I'd like to limit & monitor how much bandwidth each user is using, for billing purposes. SME has an option for roaming profiles on Samba, which is nice if a user moves to another PC. The groupware email is also desirable, for this same reason, to allow a user to still get his email on any PC in the lab. so, I would like to keep all documents & email on the server, to make backing up easier.
I won't really manage the network, there is someone with basic Linux knowledge to manage it all, hence my need for something simple & out of the box deployment. With SME & ClarkConnect I can tell the user over the phone (or email) how to re-install the server, restore the backups, and be up & running again in no time. ClarkConnect is much nicer than SME, but only offers 10 email accounts. And, since it's an NGO lab, there is no spare cache for a license, just to get 5 more email addresses.
I hope this makes my needs clearer. I also use SME home, and at various clients, cause I can tell them over the phone how to fix it when it breaks. Even my mom can "fix the server" if need be.