Thanks for: [OT] best (Linux based!) all-in-one NAS-VPN-firewall?

[M. Fioretti]

Many thanks to all who answered this request, and added very useful
general comments. I have synthesized all the feedback collected here
and elsewhere, and forwarded the result to the client. We'll know how
it ends next month.

For the record, and to give more context: both the client and I know,
and agree with, that "putting all eggs in one basket" is a BAD
idea. No question about that. And I am not even supposed to be the one
who makes the final choice, or the one who eventually builds and
manages whatever is chosen. The question came out informally, while
chatting about other parts of my assignment, because neither I nor the
client (who was way more competent than me on this, until he changed
line of work) are not up to date on **specific** products and projects
in this field. And its meaning was "what is the most efficient way,
time-wise, to get this done well?" We needed help to refresh our view
of the "market", and you provided it.

Thanks!

Marco


On Sat, Jun 29, 2019 10:49:49 AM +0200, Marco Fioretti wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> One of my jobs in the next months will be Free Software teaching/
> consulting for a small private school. Part of the consulting consists
> of helping the school to evaluate how to set up some infrastructure,
> using Linux/Free Software as much as possible.
> 
> I have been just asked to, quoting, "suggest an all-in-one
> NAS-VPN-firewall for the school". We are talking ~80 students in the
> 8/13 years age range, maybe more after summer, plus teachers and
> administration. The "all-in-one" part is the key requirement, and also
> the reason why I am asking for recommendations based on your
> real-world experience. I know how to handle this stuff the 100%
> DIY/hacker way, but that is not an option in this case. Me, I wouldn't
> mind but, while the school would like to use more FOSS also for
> administration and internal services, actual teaching has much higher
> priority this year.