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@Some Dude: First of all, welcome to the forums! Before I reply, just want to make it known that I'm a home user too, I don't resell Untangle into businesses or anything like that. I'm not a network engineer either, so forgive or point out any errors!
I hear your frustration, but maybe the fact that request has been on the list since 2018 without being added is all the answer you need? That's not to say that Untangle shouldn't just say "It's never gonna happen" if that's the case, but the truth is that it might... someday - who knows.
What we need to remember is that Untangle's overwhelming customer base is enterprise and education. So their time is probably being spent working on things that those customers want to see in the product. I should imagine that customers like that (who are spending thousands on licences) have a direct line into the ear of an account manager or real person at Untangle. Perhaps the feature request list is not the only way that what gets done soonest is decided? Just because something is number one, two, three or four on the list, it doesn't mean that it's actually anywhere near being the top on the list of things to do. But yes... to anyone who is interested in those features, Untangle could do a better job of sharing their plans. Do they do a worse job of that than any other company who lets you submit feature requests? I don't know. I'm also not saying that home users don't matter; just that most companies will probably focus on what the majority of their users are asking for - and I don't think Untangle's home users are their majority. To be honest though, if I had to choose, I'd rather Untangle focused on features and improvements that made my network as secure as possible - the kind of features that enterprise customers want in their NGFW.
If you want to stick IoT devices into a separate VLAN (I've done that too...) then you're kinda saying that putting those devices in their own broadcast domain is a good way to go. If you then realise that now they don't work as intended and you look for a technology to essentially break the separation you put in place, then maybe a VLAN isn't the best answer for those devices? If you're worried about them being attacked and accessing the rest of the devices on that network, then a VLAN is not the only option you've got to stop that.
In my humble opinion, Untangle beats all of those on the factors that matter in an NGFW way more than mDNS support; so if that's the price I have to pay, so be it. Deep down, that's probably why you went with Untangle too, but sure... there's always room for improvement.
Indeed. And I too had the same grief trying to get certain IoT devices to play nice over VLANs. I wanted to see how the pros do it and I reached out to a few of my colleagues that install high-end home cinema/automation systems etc. The answer was basically if something needs to be controlled from within a VLAN, then they provide a means of doing that from within the VLAN. So that might be a dedicated control/touchpad, dedicated PCs or rPIs etc etc. mDNS works fine and is easy, convenient in a home setup, but it's considered a workaround.
The funny thing is, "ease of use", "plug and play", "user-friendly" etc, etc are typically the things that go hand-in-hand with something being less secure. As you've seen... Security tends to get in the way of things "just working".
Should they be in their own VLAN? Im not attacking you here... Like I said, I've done the same with my IoT devices. I only have one (ChromeCast) that is useless if not in with my trusted devices, but it's not hard to lock that down. Since you mention "the key use cases for these devices" I think it's fair to say that use case was probably never intended to be across VLANs and if it was, then many like Amazon, Philips, Ubiquity have figured out how to make their apps work by essentially going out and in again.
As I said earlier; Untangle could probably do a better job of keeping the wider community in the loop. And you're right, people can vote with their feet and their dollars too. But in all honesty, if you're looking for a grown-up security product that gives you everything Untangle does, in the way that it does it, (and crucially) at that price - you'd be hard-pressed to find somewhere better to spend those dollars - mDNS or not.
Originally posted by some dude
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What we need to remember is that Untangle's overwhelming customer base is enterprise and education. So their time is probably being spent working on things that those customers want to see in the product. I should imagine that customers like that (who are spending thousands on licences) have a direct line into the ear of an account manager or real person at Untangle. Perhaps the feature request list is not the only way that what gets done soonest is decided? Just because something is number one, two, three or four on the list, it doesn't mean that it's actually anywhere near being the top on the list of things to do. But yes... to anyone who is interested in those features, Untangle could do a better job of sharing their plans. Do they do a worse job of that than any other company who lets you submit feature requests? I don't know. I'm also not saying that home users don't matter; just that most companies will probably focus on what the majority of their users are asking for - and I don't think Untangle's home users are their majority. To be honest though, if I had to choose, I'd rather Untangle focused on features and improvements that made my network as secure as possible - the kind of features that enterprise customers want in their NGFW.
If you want to stick IoT devices into a separate VLAN (I've done that too...) then you're kinda saying that putting those devices in their own broadcast domain is a good way to go. If you then realise that now they don't work as intended and you look for a technology to essentially break the separation you put in place, then maybe a VLAN isn't the best answer for those devices? If you're worried about them being attacked and accessing the rest of the devices on that network, then a VLAN is not the only option you've got to stop that.
Originally posted by some dude
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Originally posted by some dude
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Originally posted by some dude
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Originally posted by some dude
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As I said earlier; Untangle could probably do a better job of keeping the wider community in the loop. And you're right, people can vote with their feet and their dollars too. But in all honesty, if you're looking for a grown-up security product that gives you everything Untangle does, in the way that it does it, (and crucially) at that price - you'd be hard-pressed to find somewhere better to spend those dollars - mDNS or not.
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