Proxy - Filter Software

greeny_fastcar · 10 May 2007 at 10:12

Hey folks, just wondering if anyone here works for a college/company and know anything about filtering software.

We currently have Symantec Web Security and its getting rather old, and I was wondering if anyone here uses any alternatives or if they know of any product that can do the same job?

Cheers

CoXeY · 10 May 2007 at 13:37

Microsoft's ISA Server or Squid for an open source alternative are the ones that spring to mind.

Out of interest what are you trying to achieve?

BoomAM · 10 May 2007 at 14:17

We use SurfControl here, not amazingly configurable or feature packed, but does the job, and the support is excellent.

.

greeny_fastcar · 10 May 2007 at 14:43

CoXeY said:
Microsoft's ISA Server or Squid for an open source alternative are the ones that spring to mind.

Out of interest what are you trying to achieve?

Well filter all internet traffic going in and out for the students and staff. But that SurfControl looks to do the job. I'll have a look into it.

The_KiD · 10 May 2007 at 14:46

We use a product called CyBlock SA from Wavecrest.

Does the job nicely for us.

Burnsy2023 · 10 May 2007 at 18:27

BoomAM said:
We use SurfControl here, not amazingly configurable or feature packed, but does the job, and the support is excellent. .

Also a Surfcontrol user. I like the software very much.

Slightly off topic, does anyone know how to manually catagorise a site in version 5.5 for ISA?

Burnsy

Trigger · 10 May 2007 at 18:38

We use Surfcontrol v5.5 with ISA Server 2006 and are very pleased with it

BoomAM said:
We use SurfControl here, not amazingly configurable or feature packed, but does the job, and the support is excellent. .

Don't know why you say that- we've managed to configure it to do everything we need it to do. v4.5 wasn't very configurable but v5.5 certainly is. Must agree on the support comment though- it is very good :cool:

burnsy2023 said:
Also a Surfcontrol user. I like the software very much.

Slightly off topic, does anyone know how to manually catagorise a site in version 5.5 for ISA?

Burnsy

If you could explain what you are trying to do a bit more then I may be able to help

Burnsy2023 · 10 May 2007 at 18:58

Trigger said:
If you could explain what you are trying to do a bit more then I may be able to help

In version 4.5 you could right click on a site and assign it to a catagory. From what I'm aware, you can't do that in 5.5, apparently its all automatic via VCA.

Burnsy

BoomAM · 11 May 2007 at 07:41

Trigger said:
Don't know why you say that- we've managed to configure it to do everything we need it to do. v4.5 wasn't very configurable but v5.5 certainly is. Must agree on the support comment though- it is very good

We use 5.5 at work, and the main problem i have is that its impossible to filter net access per room/set of computers without massive slowdown.
After lenghtly phone calls to their support, it was concluded that its simply not possible, without massive performance overheads. Which is a shame really, because otherwise, im pleased with the software.

mdjmcnally · 11 May 2007 at 10:02

Websense is a highly configurable Web Filtering software, it will link into numerous Proxy Servers such as ISA, Squid, Bluecoat, or if the Network infrastructure allows just sit at the side and sniff the traffic as it goes past.

Personally I think that it is the best out there, although it can be daunting to configure some of the things but it does allow great control over who can do what.

Trigger · 11 May 2007 at 12:46

burnsy2023 said:
In version 4.5 you could right click on a site and assign it to a catagory. From what I'm aware, you can't do that in 5.5, apparently its all automatic via VCA.

Burnsy

That's weird- I've just checked it on our proxy server and I get the set category option when I right click on a site :confused:

Burnsy2023 · 11 May 2007 at 13:28

Trigger said:
That's weird- I've just checked it on our proxy server and I get the set category option when I right click on a site

Hmmm..

I'll install on a test machine and find out. I tried it once and I've not upgraded to version 5.5 because of that.

Maybe I'm being dense...

Any chance of a screen shot so I can see?

Burnsy

Trigger · 11 May 2007 at 15:55

burnsy2023 said:
Hmmm..

I'll install on a test machine and find out. I tried it once and I've not upgraded to version 5.5 because of that.

Maybe I'm being dense...

Any chance of a screen shot so I can see?

Burnsy

I've finished work for the week now mate but I'll get you a screenshot on monday morning if that's ok

I wasn't sure about 5.5 at first either but once I found out where all the options had moved to I really like it- definatley an improvement. Querying the database is also much faster.

Ben