Calling all Network/System Administrators

[JRock]

What Software and or Hardware devices do you use on your network to Monitor/Block Internet usage? We are looking into a few costly options and before I continue I would like some input. Just shoot some links and brief descriptions if possible. Thanks.

[Our Company is over 2000 Employees at 8 different locations. Currently running frame-relay] - Just some extra info.

 

[Pepsi90919]

a microscope with which i examine each electron as it passes by. a trained monkey substitutes in when i can't be there.

 

[mzkhadir]

you can use websense for your internet needs, its a great piece of software that updates by itself and takes care of everything.

http://websense.com/global/en/

 

[Rogue]

BlueCoat proxy all the way. Those things are absolutely awesome. They are flexbile and completely customizable. If money is no object, BlueCoat proxies are hard to beat. BlueCoat.com

 

[vi edit]

I'm typically the last guy to shout "wrong forum", but you really want to dump this to "networking". It'll take a bit longer to get replies there (especialy given the holiday tomorrow), but there are some very good admins in there that are quite helpful.

As for a quick response, before I left my previous position, I was really liking what I saw with the Sonic Wall 2100CF.

http://www.sonicwall.com/products/csm2100cf_features.html

For the money, it was very nice. Plus I had a full Sonic Wall infrastructure set up so I was familiar with the products and the plug & play was a snap.

 

[JRock]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
I'm typically the wrong guy to shout "wrong forum", but you really want to dump this to "networking". It'll take a bit longer to get replies there (especialy given the holiday tomorrow), but there are some very good admins in there that are quite helpful.

Prob a good idea. Not thinking too clear at 1am running on 4 hours sleep.

 

[Rogue]

Here's a report from yesterday from our BlueCoat proxies. The number is the number of site visits for that category. Yesterday was a very slow day, normally site traffic is about 4 times what you see listed here:

PortalSites 6340
Chat 3986
Webmail 2521
Dating 2333
OnlineSales 2201
Personal 1961
Games 1478
Gen.News 1042
Entertainment 1020
Sports 967
HighBandwidth 776
Sex 533
Crim.Skills 236
Travel 148
Nudity 147
Humor 76
Mature 72
JobSearch 64
Art/Culture 35
Investing 31
SelfHelp/Health 28
Gambling 21
Politics/Religion 7
Anonymizer/Translator 2
BlockedURLs 1

 

[vi edit]

Here's a report from yesterday from our BlueCoat proxies. The number is the number of site visits for that category. Yesterday was a very slow day, normally site traffic is about 4 times what you see listed here:

Do you cross track that back via IP address or a login/user name?

 

[Rogue]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Here's a report from yesterday from our BlueCoat proxies. The number is the number of site visits for that category. Yesterday was a very slow day, normally site traffic is about 4 times what you see listed here:

Do you cross track that back via IP address or a login/user name?

Only IP right now. I'm still working on AD integration. Just haven't had time. They work and they do a damn fine job at it. There are other priorities at the moment in my shop.

I can set them up though to filter access by hostname, username, site, date/time, category, etc. I can also use any or all of the major filtering apps (Surfcontrol, SmartFilter, Websense, etc.). I have been extremely impressed with the product if you can't tell.

 

[Lifted]

I second Sonicwall if you are in need of a Firewall, VPN and Content Filter device. The Content filtering is an addon, but seems to work pretty well. You can also set up options such as

1) making people accept an Internet Useage Agreement before surfing.

2) enable web surfing for certain IP ranges and/or "users" during certain times of the day (lunch for instance).

3) block certain websites for certain users/groups/ip ranges

and more.

All of this, plus a full featured firewall, IDS, thousands of VPN connections, etc., all in one device.

It's not Checkpoint, but most smaller organizations ( < 1,000 employees) don't need that level of control and don't want to spend the $$ for it.