GFI WebMonitor For Microsoft ISA Server Review
“GFI WebMonitor is a comprehensive monitoring tool that plugs in and compliments the functionality provided by Microsoft ISA Server to enable you to monitor and filter network users’ web traffic (browsing and file downloads) in real time. It enables you to block web connections in progress as well as to scan traffic for viruses, trojans, spyware and phishing material.”
GFI WebMonitor installs on top of Microsoft’s Internet Security and Acceleration Server adding much greater and simpler control of ingress and egress web traffic. WebMonitor installs directly on top of your existing ISA Server installation so there are no other pre-requisites required in order to run the installation. The installation is a simple and short step by step wizard making deployment easy.
After installation of WebMonitor is complete, management is done via an integrated management console. The management interface is a two frame window, with a tree driven menu system on the left and a display view on the right. All settings can be reached from the left menu.
The main Dashboard allows for easy reference to some key statistics including, the Total Bandwidth Consumed, which is a key number for businesses with a limited amount of bandwidth. Blocked AV & Anti-Phishing, Downloads & IMs and also Web requests. All of which can be mapped to the User/IP and time at the bottom of the screen.
Some of the Key Features include:
Bandwidth consumption. After selecting Bandwidth Consumption from the menu the administrator has multiple report options which will be beneficial for reporting to management including, Top Sites and Top Users, allowing you to easily identify users breaching company Internet policies and using large amounts of bandwidth.
User History. This section allows the administrator to view reports pertaining to user specific data, including Top Surfers which shows how much time a user has been browsing for. Top Hit Count and Top Policy Breakers.
Both Whitelists and Blacklists can be specified for user, IP, or site to block or allow certain types of access irrespective of settings configured in WebMonitor. This allows you to easily block specific domains and subdomains.
Web Filtering Policies can be defined for groups of users to control access to the Internet and a time schedule can be configured on each policy. This could be used to allow users access to social networking sites like Facebook during lunch time only for example.
Download Policies can be defined similarly to Web Filtering policies, which allows an administrator to define what types of files users can and can’t download. This would come in very helpful, as an administrator could block file types such as ZIP from general users but allow ZIP to another group of users who need access to these types of files to perform there daily roles. Additional Content Types can also be added.
Access to IM can also be controlled using administratively defined policies.
WebMonitor is a welcome add on to ISA server which lacks the much needed functionality it provides.
For more information visit the GFI WebMonitor product page using the following links:
This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Blogged By Jason Neurohr
