Lorna Morgan ( Female )

GFI Web Monitor 4.0 Review

Introduction

Gfi Web Monitor for ISA Server is to close the circle of the suite of products needed to maintain a good level of IT security part of a company (small, medium and large).
fact, the GFI Web Monitor, monitors, controls and blocks everything that can 'be dangerous or that has been deliberately blocked by the information systems, and that relates exclusively to the traffic web.


Feature Summary

[Controls]
- Crash immediate internet access for unauthorized
- Block unauthorized downloads of immediate
- Crash considered immediate download harmful
- Antivirus real-time control through three different AV engines
- AntiSpyware Real-time control through three different AV engines
- Control of signature of each file, solving the problem of the renamed files with the extension changed.
- High Quality Control, through a constantly updated database (WebGrade) through membership categories of sites visited.
- whitelist priority over all other rules
- BlackList priority over all other rules
- Quarantine

[Management and Monitoring]
- Real-time monitoring of web
- Email notification manageable , for the most important events
- Monitoring of bandwidth used for both user and Web site
- Web Management Interface

[ISA Server Interface]
- Integration with ISA server through a web filter (see below)
- No rule doubled between GFI and ISA (see below)


versions

The Web Monitor is available in three versions:

WebFilter
Web Security
UnifiedProtection

The following is a summary:

Installation

For installation, as well as having a high performance server (GFI see manual for details), I would like to emphasize two key aspects, without which, the installation will fail:

1). NET Framework Version 2
2) The installation can 'be made exclusively on the same server that hosts ISA server


For the rest, as for all GFI products, the installation process is quick and easy. In tests made by me on win2003 and ISA2006 Server, I was charged a reboot. The only drawback

presented at the end of installation, is the inability to contact the GFI, with the following message:



easily solved by restarting the service on, as shown in the following :





Integration ISA Server

After installation, the only elements that visually connect to GFI ISA are:

1) An access rule is needed to communicate is the internal network to localhost, which is useful for the administration of GFI LAN side ,

2) An access rule with urlset specifically to allow GFI Web Monitor to update their components.

and interface between the core and GFI Web Monitor ISA, the WebFilter :





If the filter is disabled , settings the GFI Web Monitor will ignored.

The communication between ISA and GFI, gives priority to block rules, as outlined below:



integrating the rules created by GFI, with the rules established on the ISA will performed a double-check (GFI -> ISA) only if traffic permits GFI WebMonitor.



PRO
1) Installation Sempice and minimally invasive
2) user-friendly management interface
3) Ability to manage the rules for User / IP / Site and timing
4) Usage statistics well done and detailed enough
5) The on-line updates, that keep the product at a high level of functionality.

AGAINST
1) Installation required on the same machine that hosts ISA
2) Lack of documentation on installing ISA EE clustered
3) WebGrade DataBase closed and non-customizable, this implies the failure of the rules related in some scenarios.

CONCLUSIONS
Overall I found GFI Web Monitor 4.0, an excellent product, easy to install, easy to manage thanks to the web interface is very clear and simple, without losing power and complexity.
Definitely a product to recommend to small and medium enterprises.
The other aspect, which applies to all GFI products, and who rely on the operating system and work alongside applications with which they communicate, making their use stable, reliable and minimally invasive .