Anyone use Surf Control

I work in a MS Windows shop and need a Spam filter - web monitoring system. Must have pretty charts and graphs :confused:

Any comments on Surf Control or other monitoring / filter software would be appreciated.

Well, I don't know if this is totally going to help you, but I do, in a fashion, use part of surfcontrol. Another product I use to analyze my firewall logs uses the surfcontrol database to report on web sites visited that are, shall we say, non-business related. I find I have to do a lot of back checking on the reports because of a large number of false positives. Now that being said, I have used similar web monitoring products, and they as well had a high number of false positives.

Whatever you chose, be prepared to re-check the infromation it presents to you before go and rake anybody over the coals for their web-surfing habits.

Cheers:

DJM: WebBlocker huh....... ;)

Dino: Been using it for about 3 years. It creates the "pretty" reports you want in multiple formats or exports to XLS etc. too. It can be a tad squirrely.... It'll stop doing it's stuff from time to time..... It's categorization database baffles me sometimes... It blocks mapquest, 'cos that's travel?????? On the bright side it's rules engine is extremely granular if you have the time to put into it..... You can restrict Bill in Accounting to just www.accountingnews.com if you want while having Julie in accounting be utterly unblocked.

As a recommendation I'd say it's quite reasonable for the price.... I pay non-profit, (that huge 10% discount), and I think I'm paying $2500 per year, (500 user license - $5/user/year)..... With the potential for liability out there I think that's pretty reasonable insurance.....

If you want more detailed info ask away......

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Oh yeah.... DJM is dead right..... there's a learning curve to what you will see..... Not everything is as it seems..... That user with 175,000 hits in the month has no idea they are doing it..... So going down and body slamming them for killing your bandwidth will not go down well...... Been there.... done that.... learned to look more carefully before "castration" springs to mind....... :o

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ClearSwifts MimeSweeper is the best mid-range priced solution.
It comprises of MailSweeper and WebSweeper which cover everything from lexical scanning, very good Anti Spam features and web usage reporting / blocking.
http://www.clearswift.com/products/msw/default.asp

If money is tight look at Trend Micros Interscan Web Security Suite. (IWSS)
This one includes a first class AV scanner for SMTP, FTP, HTTP as well as WebBlocking, email disclaimers, attachment control etc. www.trendmicro.com.

If you have silly amounts of cash go for SurfControl but in my opinion the email control side of it isnt anywhere near as good as Trend and ClearSwifts offerings.

If you got any questions feel free mate.

Cheers.
V$D$

Thanks for everyone's input. I'll chew this over and set up a new server for testing. I'll let everyone know what I find.

Thanks again

Vice: $5/user/year is hardly "silly amounts of cash"..... What are SurfControl charging over there?

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Originally posted here by Tiger Shark
Vice: $5/user/year is hardly "silly amounts of cash"..... What are SurfControl charging over there?

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It's a $300 USD per year, plug-in to my firewall product. This only buys us the database to the URL Categorization, nothing more.

Cheers:

I use 2 versions of the complete web filter, (2 geographically remote T1's).... I use GFI mail essentials for spam etc.

is using LiNUX on your server a possibility?.. I am sure I have seen people using a LINUX server with windows clients.

Tiger, do you get many complaints (I know users always complain) about the filter block legit sites. I have found in the past, filters of these nature, tend to error on the side of caution and will block a whole web host just because it is hosting 1 site which it deemed as a 'bad' site.


Cheers:

Complaints..... No.... Requests to unblock..... Yeah, a few to start with but once you allow them then your all set.

I have the advantage that I am considered "intimidating"..... :cool: So complainers think twice about calling. We are fairly lax in what we block. I really only use the "egregious misuse" categories such as pr0n, hacking, hate speech, violence, webmail, chat etc...... Then I run a search every now and again for any site with the word "mail" in it and block them too if they are uncategorized..... We have public access machines and you'd be surprised where the moron users manage to dig up personal mail sites etc..... :(

Like I said.... It can be a bit squirrely sometimes, but overall I like it..... It's a "fire and forget" solution for a large part, they keep it well updated, it's pretty easy to install and set up initially......

I'd say it is worth the money I pay for it..... That's about as good as anyone can say.....

Tiger Shark the BOFH ;)

Vice: LOL.... I work with a load of little old lady social workers..... If you saw me you would see how they might find me a "little less than sweet"..... ;)

On the serious side though it is an advantage to be seen in that light. I have employees that simply don't have the same demeanour and they get "used". But those employees get told to tell anyone giving them a hard time to reach for the phone as they say "let's discuss this with the MIS"..... It calms down the user rather quickly in all but the worst of cases..... :D

Trying to keep anymore than 2 users happy is an impossibe task.

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..... If you saw me you would see how they might find me a "little less than sweet".....

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Why? Are you 5"4 with blonde hair and a sweet ass or are you 7" hair and tatoos?