About Connect Filter

Note: You can't install Connect Filter and IDex Client together on the same device.

Connect filter enforces your organization's web filter policies on your devices that connect to the Internet outside of your local network. You add the interfaces that the client uses to communicate with the Smoothwall Filter. You can use any interface that you set up on your Smoothwall with Connect Filter, but you must add the interface to Connect Filter for it to be able to use it. External interfaces are for devices that are taken off-site, and internal interfaces are for devices that are logged directly into your network. There's no restriction on the type of interface that you use for communication between the client and the Smoothwall Filter. However, you should treat Bond, Bridge and PPPoE interfaces as external interfaces and VLAN interfaces as internal interface.

For Bond and Bridge interfaces, we recommend that you turn on the "parent" Bond or Bridge interface for use with Connect Filter and leave the Bonded or Bridged interfaces as unavailable for use. Depending on where the Smoothwall Filter sits on your network, you might need to setup a port forward on your Internet Services Provider's router to redirect Connect Filter traffic to the correct port on the Smoothwall Filter.

If you use a load balancer, you can use the virtual IP address assigned to the Smoothwall Filter service as a Connect Filter interface. You can configure such addresses on the Settings page before they can be used on the Connect Filter page.

Connect for Chromebooks

Connect for Chromebooks is a Chrome extension that you can deploy to all Chromebooks on your network. Once the user is logged into the Chromebook, Connect for Chromebooks handles any subsequent authentication requests.

The Chromebook authentication feature allows internal users to authenticate themselves using their Google credentials, whilst enforcing organizational web filtering policies wherever they are located.

You can setup the Connect for Chromebooks extension to trust the user-supplied G Suite domain credentials. This involves:

  • Creating and authorizing a Google Service Account
  • Configuring a Google directory connection from the Smoothwall to your G Suite domain
  • Configure connect for Chromebooks in the smoothwall filter and firewall
  • Distributing the HTTPS certificate from the Smoothwall to all Chromebooks
  • Deploying the Connect for Chromebooks extension to all Chromebooks
  • Creating filtering and access policies on your Smoothwall

If you want to use Google auth on a non-chromebook-based device, see the knowledge base article, How to Setup Google Verification with Connect for Chromebooks.