forum.wfiltericf.com

I have just a few questions prior to purchasing.



1. Is there a separate Wfilter database version? or does the Enterprise version already have database support build in?

2. Do you need to install SQL Server or MySQL in order to track history and past trends?

3. I am planning on deployment on a small network with approx. 75-80 computers on a LAN. Does the software automatically discover the computers or do you have to manually add them one at a time?

4. What about in a full DHCP network where the computers do not have static IP addresses? How does Wfilter handle this say with one computer you unblock from the filtering and this computer's IP address could change?



Please if you can provide me answers to the above questions! Many thanks in advance!

Below are my answers:



>

> I have just a few questions prior to purchasing.

>

> 1. Is there a separate Wfilter database version? or does the

> Enterprise version already have database support build in?



WFilter does support database version. Just download and install it.

Check the installation guide for WFilter database version: WFilter database version installation guide

And WFilter database structure: WFilter database structure



> 2. Do you need to install SQL Server or MySQL in order to track

> history and past trends?



If you use WFilter database version, then "Yes", you need to have an available SQL server or MySQL.

If you use WFilter file-based version, database is not required.



> 3. I am planning on deployment on a small network with approx. 75-80

> computers on a LAN. Does the software automatically discover the

> computers or do you have to manually add them one at a time?



Automatically.



> 4. What about in a full DHCP network where the computers do not have

> static IP addresses? How does Wfilter handle this say with one

> computer you unblock from the filtering and this computer's IP

> address could change?

>

If your network is single-segment, you can use "By MAC address" monitoring mode, which identify computers based on their MAC addresses. So changing IP addresses will not affect monitoring or blocking.

However, "by mac address" monitoring mode is not supported in multi-segment networks, you need to change DHCP to static IP addresses in a multi-segment network.

Or you can enable "Account Monitoring" to block by Active Directory usernames. Please check: How to do monitoring based on AD user accounts?

Got a couple of questions:



1. Can you block by web site Category?

2. Is there a user definable web page that you can have appear if a user's web site is blocked?

Both answers are "Yes". WFilter does have an url database which has 50+ catagorizes. So you can filter websites by category.



Customized deny pages are also supported.

followed you suggestion to download and install your trial version to get familiar with the software.

I have your Wfilter software installed on my web filtering computer now a "Dell C521 with 2 GB's of RAM and a 160 hard drive" and found it very easy to install, in fact installed effortlessly in 1 minute.

I found the menu options very easy to understand and had no problems setting up a new default blocking policy. I also liked your blacklist option where I could add in wild card characters to the URL such as *poker* effectively blocking all game sites with "poker" in the URL name. Found a lot of these gaming sites had no category assignment per say, so the combination of the blacklist and category blocking really helped me achieve my blocking goals.

I also have a 8-port managed switch coming in with port-mirroring and will be using this instead of the hub.



The only questions that you may be able to assist me with are outlined below:



1. I blocked steaming video, but is there a way to have the default blocking web page come up? If I try to access a web site that is blocked the default blocking web page appears, but if I click on a site that has streaming video the streaming video is effectively blocked, but the default blocking page does not appear. Just wondering if this is possible?

2. The second thing I wanted to know is how to effectively block Microsoft security updates? The customer has the majority of their computers setup for automatic download of security updates and also office visitors come in with their laptops and plug into the network. I am setting up a centralized WSUS server that will download the updates once and they deploy to the workstations at different times during the day, so I wonder if I can block the workstations performing their own automatic updates or do I have to visit all the workstations and turn off their automatic Windows update feature.

Actually, "Blocking streaming video" is complicated. WFilter checks streaming video for both HTTP request and HTTP response.

If WFilter is able to know it is streaming video from the HTTP request(for example, if the url is "***.mpeg"), then the blocking webpage will show up. However, if WFilter can not know whether it is streaming from the HTTP request, it has to wait for the HTTP response to decide. In that case, WFilter just terminate this connection and the blocking webpage will not show up.(It is because there is no time for WFilter to push a blocking page).

So it depends. Sorry for that. There is no such an issue for website black/white list and website category policies.



About microsoft security updates, as I remember, microsoft windows connects to some websites to download updates, so blocking certain websites will work. Anyway, we need to confirm it. I will forward it to our testing team to confirm it. Will let you know ASAP.