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I have a Barracuda Web Filter 210 that was stored away in our vast IT junkyard about two years ago by previous IT. I recently came across it and wanted to put it to use but found that it's subscription hasn't been renewed since its removal.

I called and got all the necessary details but Barracuda wanted me to pay for those two years that its been sitting on a shelf before extending my subscription for updates and my boss pretty much called me retarded for considering paying it. He called it a "ransom".

So, before I go throwing it in a dumpster, I wanted to see if its useful at all to use the web filter for a guest network or something without it's updates. Will it still function within a decent threshold or is it just a piece of junk at this point?

user72593
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An old Barracuda Web Filter is way more useful than an old out-of-warranty Barracuda Spam Filter.

Try loading it and seeing how well things work. The proxying functions will work. The basic web category and URL blocking will will work. You simply won't have access to the OS (firmware) updates or updates to content categories. E.g. services like Spotify were added in recent revisions. An old Barracuda unit would not be aware of newer services.

I'd consider paying for support or trying to negotiate a hardware replacement if you need Barracuda protection. You will be forced to pay for the lapsed warranty time. A new unit is probably a better deal, as the hardware has been revised recently with faster CPUs and quieter fans.

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ewwhite
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  • Thanks for the answer ewwhite. I'll try setting it up and giving it a test run, at this point I don't think I can convince the boss to pay for a renewal but he might pay for a replacement if the thing works well. Thanks again for the insight. – user72593 Jan 14 '13 at 04:41
  • Barracuda cares about software, licensing and subscriptions. The hardware is an afterthought. They do have a cloud web filtering solution which is quite cheap (if you don't mind defining proxy servers on your desktops). That's available at a much lower price point than an Web Filter 100/200/300 unit. – ewwhite Jan 14 '13 at 04:44
  • Great, i'll have a look and see it would work well with our users. – user72593 Jan 14 '13 at 04:49