I am new to Sophos UTM, evaluating the Home Edition for my family after having used Endian UTM for a few years. One thing I'm trying to wrap my head around is Transparent vs. Standard for the web proxy. I've been through quite a few posts on the board and just want to make sure I am making the right choice.
My primary reason for putting in a UTM device a few years ago was for smart devices and players (smartphones, tablets, blu-ray players, etc.), so that I could generally provide more control over what those devices could do on our home network. Filtering of course is one part of that. Having said that, Transparent mode seems like the best choice (and what I've been using with Endian).
My understanding (if correct) is that one of the key downsides to Transparent mode is that only HTTP traffic is handled. So HTTPS, FTP, and other ports would (1) have to be opened via the firewall to even get out, and (2) not be filtered. The one exception of course would be ticking the HTTPS scanning checkbox, but from other posts in this forum that seems to be problematic at best. I'm okay with opening ports when needed, but how concerned should I be about the filtering? My initial thought is not really that concerned.
The problem with Standard mode for me is at least two-fold: (1) smart devices (I have no idea how to properly manage those in that case), and (2) forcing the proxy settings on standard computers (we have OS X and Windows 7 and 8). I could install a domain controller and force settings on the Windows boxes via Group Policy, but that seems overkill and doesn't help with OS X which gets a little trickier.
So, my stance right now is Transparent mode. Is my understanding and thought process off base? Any other recommendations or concerns?
Any help is much appreciated!
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