Websense

[cava83]

hi people,

hopefully going to implement this at work.

seems like some people here have it at their work,

how do you guys find it in regards to admin and functionality, effectiveness?

nearly 100 users, 3 sites, seems to me enterprise edition is the way to go.

All I need to do is view users net usage, carry out usage reports and also provide limitations to accesible sites.

Many thanks,

Gabi.

 

[dk]

we use it, very effective, no idea on admin though as i don't deal with that side.

 

[KDF]

Administration is easy using the supplied manager software, basically just set up different policies, you can tie it into active directory so that you can manage groups of people differently, even right down to single user accounts.

You can also reserve IP's for different policies aswell... logging facilities aswell .. also you can set custom url's to exclude from filtering etc.

Its pretty good and works really well, we have it running on a linux system and it just works and has never needed rebooting.

 

[Andy.]

I am also looking at upgrading to this from SurfControl. It seems to be a better product on paper and SC has been discontinued since Websense bought them out.

Does anybody use the security suite or just the web filtering?

 

[The Hoff]

We use it here (unfortunately), recently managed to corrupt itself and needed a complete overhaul (major pain in the ass).

It does it's job, but I'd wait a while longer or speak with them directly as I recently went to one of their conventions and they gave word of a completely new system using it's own dedicated box i.e it runs alone on it's own server and filters traffic from their end this time, kind of a hosted service, sounded a lot better than current setup of having it running on another server.

I've got the manuals and associated spiel here which amounts to about 8-9" of paper.

Also check out Postini (owned by Google).

 

[KDF]

We use it here (unfortunately), recently managed to corrupt itself and needed a complete overhaul (major pain in the ass).

How was it a major PITA ? don't you keep backups ? the config files automatically back themselfs up aswell everytime you make a change.

 

[The Hoff]

No we never keep backup's...

Looooong story short, the servers fell over due to a power failure. For whatever reason the server that Websense runs on didn't shut down properly we suspect. On trying to boot up the server the next morning it was just hanging on the logon screen everytime (W2k3).

Anyway, we managed to troubleshoot it down to some of the websense services which for whatever reason was causing the server to not boot. Set that to manual in safemode and the server booted, but then couldn't be started manually because it had fked itself and failed to start.

It wasn't the DB that shot it, it was the install on the server and the support guys were fking useless.

 

[steelee]

No we never keep backup's...

Looooong story short, the servers fell over due to a power failure. For whatever reason the server that Websense runs on didn't shut down properly we suspect. On trying to boot up the server the next morning it was just hanging on the logon screen everytime (W2k3).

Anyway, we managed to troubleshoot it down to some of the websense services which for whatever reason was causing the server to not boot. Set that to manual in safemode and the server booted, but then couldn't be started manually because it had fked itself and failed to start.

It wasn't the DB that shot it, it was the install on the server and the support guys were fking useless.

Servers fell over due to a power failure Mmmmmmm.........not heard of UPS!!!!

 

[Clellandmc]

We're looking at implementing this soon as well.

What kind of price is Websense, say for 100 users?

Does the Linux version connect to AD as seemlessly as the Windows version?

 

[Andy.]

We are looking at 1000 users so couldn't guess what the difference would be. The three year security suite quote was quite a shock when it landed on my desk though!

 

[dk]

anyone wanting competitive pricing, give one of our security consultants a call on 0870 800 1000 (Softcat), we even have inhouse support engineers for websense, its a big security product for us.

 

[ChrisR]

Used it at my last place, easy as hell to use really and worked nicely. Got surf control I think where I am now but it's all managed by another company.

 

[KDF]

Does the Linux version connect to AD as seemlessly as the Windows version?

Yes.

 

[KDF]

We are looking at 1000 users so couldn't guess what the difference would be. The three year security suite quote was quite a shock when it landed on my desk though!

You can use distributed servers with websense.

 

[The Hoff]

Servers fell over due to a power failure Mmmmmmm.........not heard of UPS!!!!

Can't beat the good old CS experts...

In business UPS are a given, therefore I neglected to state the obvious. The servers didn't shut down properly as one of WS's services hung it and it died (we guess) before it could power down.

We''ve an uptime of 54 minutes on our current UPS config, but whatever happened that night managed to make a mess of one of our DC's too.

Oh and one of our AC's blew out!

 

[cava83]

Softcat, I get your brochures very frequently, good company with good design work on your marketing stuff

anyone wanting competitive pricing, give one of our security consultants a call on 0870 800 1000 (Softcat), we even have inhouse support engineers for websense, its a big security product for us.

 

[dk]

Softcat, I get your brochures very frequently, good company with good design work on your marketing stuff

anyone wanting competitive pricing, give one of our security consultants a call on 0870 800 1000 (Softcat), we even have inhouse support engineers for websense, its a big security product for us.

lol, cool, every used us?

Our marketing department do love their portfolios/magazines/brochures or whatever they are calling them this month, as long as its not called a catalogue you are fine.

 

[Dafthead]

I just got rid of Websense and moved to a Bluecoat solution, 1000000x better

+ is a caching server too

 

[ChrisR]

I just got rid of Websense and moved to a Bluecoat solution, 1000000x better

+ is a caching server too

We use bluecoat for our proxy stuff.

 

[Dafthead]

I just got rid of Websense and moved to a Bluecoat solution, 1000000x better

+ is a caching server too

We use bluecoat for our proxy stuff.

Aiii tis the daddy, does everything Websense did but with the proxy caching as a bonus

+ if you want, you can use Websense filtering with it

 

[ChrisR]

We use bluecoat for our proxy stuff.

Aiii tis the daddy, does everything Websense did but with the proxy caching as a bonus

+ if you want, you can use Websense filtering with it

It's working ok at our place but could be better, there are 'issues' But again it's something that's run by the guys who look after our network and not us so we don't have much control over it day to day. Seems to have some issues with dloading large files, I have my suspicions though

It's the same for a few things, the whole IT dept was outsourced up until a year or so ago when they started bringing it all back in for various reasons. The network stuff is still one of the things that's outsourced but the company who do it are nice guys and on the whole things are ok.

 

[cava83]

What is the advantage of doing it via a proxy for this?

Is bluecoat a lot more expensive?

Please elaborate.

Thanks for all your input guys

We use bluecoat for our proxy stuff.

Aiii tis the daddy, does everything Websense did but with the proxy caching as a bonus

+ if you want, you can use Websense filtering with it

 

[Dafthead]

What is the advantage of doing it via a proxy for this?

Is bluecoat a lot more expensive?

Please elaborate.

Thanks for all your input guys

Aiii tis the daddy, does everything Websense did but with the proxy caching as a bonus

+ if you want, you can use Websense filtering with it

We pay less as the websense solution was managed by BT, i brought Bluecoat in house and sent one of my lads on the BCCP course so he's s**t hot on it now.

Have a look on their website mate, explains it much better than I ever could, but basically we're getting around a 60% cache hit ratio which is being loaded from the servers cache memory rather than using our internet pipe

P.S. The bluecoat was around £50k including licences for 3500 users + 12 months support.

Beauty of it is that you can put smaller bluecoat boxes at the end of your wan links and they act as both WAN accelerators linking to the main unit + they act as local caching server for both internet AND CIFS traffic etc.

Very clever kit

 

[KDF]

caching can be a PITA though, and most users end up forcing a refresh.

 

[cava83]

Too much for what I need.

We're only 100 users.

I think websense enterprise is the way to go.

Need a new server though, gash.

 

[The Hoff]

^As I already mentioned, speak to WS about this as they're bringing out a new product shortly which is a one box solution, no server needed.

James.

 

[cava83]

Hoff, you;re a legend, on the phone to them now

 

[The Hoff]

NP.

We're looking at it also so we can dump the server, all the block lists and what not are then managed from their end then.

 

[ChrisR]

Beauty of it is that you can put smaller bluecoat boxes at the end of your wan links and they act as both WAN accelerators linking to the main unit + they act as local caching server for both internet AND CIFS traffic etc.

Very clever kit

We'v ejust bought some stuff from/called Riverbed for wan accel, never looked into it myself but sure I'll get to play with it all.

 

[dk]

appliances tend to be more expensive that buying the software plus a server though, you pay for the convenience of buying a single product which just plugs in and needs no installation, plus its normally some shitty dell box with no redundancy, i'd stick with the server idea personally, its not like they are expensive these days.

 

[dk]

Beauty of it is that you can put smaller bluecoat boxes at the end of your wan links and they act as both WAN accelerators linking to the main unit + they act as local caching server for both internet AND CIFS traffic etc.

Very clever kit

We'v ejust bought some stuff from/called Riverbed for wan accel, never looked into it myself but sure I'll get to play with it all.

very good product, ££££ though, HP used to sell a wan accelerator which was a HP server with riverbed installed, their claims on the compression are pretty amazing!

 

[Clart]

we use it, very effective, no idea on admin though as i don't deal with that side.

same here, annoys the hell out of me!

 

[JackoR26]

We run a Celestix box with Websense installed on it and ISA server

http://www.celestix.com/products/wsx/index.html

Company called e92 Plus came and installed it for us and also provide us with hardware and software support but i do all the admin myself

The main problem we had was that unless the users browser has the proxy listed it was useless and the group policies took a long time to populate to all the machines (approx 200)

We got around that though by blocking all port 80 external access on the firewall unless it was via the proxy server so they have to call us to make sure the group policy is applied :evil:

We were also running Surfcontrol before this but as Websense have bought them out and we had only had our 3 year contract with Surfcontrol for a short time they just transfered us over

 

[Dafthead]

We'v ejust bought some stuff from/called Riverbed for wan accel, never looked into it myself but sure I'll get to play with it all.

very good product, ££££ though, HP used to sell a wan accelerator which was a HP server with riverbed installed, their claims on the compression are pretty amazing!

You're not wrong with the pricing! We're still testing the Bluecoat WAN accelerators, then gonna try Riverbed and Cisco's WAAS offerings.

 

[dk]

We run a Celestix box with Websense installed on it and ISA server

http://www.celestix.com/products/wsx/index.html

Company called e92 Plus came and installed it for us and also provide us with hardware and software support but i do all the admin myself

The main problem we had was that unless the users browser has the proxy listed it was useless and the group policies took a long time to populate to all the machines (approx 200)

We got around that though by blocking all port 80 external access on the firewall unless it was via the proxy server so they have to call us to make sure the group policy is applied :evil:

We were also running Surfcontrol before this but as Websense have bought them out and we had only had our 3 year contract with Surfcontrol for a short time they just transfered us over

e92 plus, they are one of our disti's, they have been in trouble recently for being underlicensed

http://www.centennial-software.com/...e92plus-and-bsa-agree-to-settle-out-of-court/

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has warned it will make no allowances for channel firms caught running illegal software after
revealing it has reached an out-of-court settlement with specialist security distributor e92plus.
E92plus agreed to pay a sum of £4,500 after carrying out an internal audit at the alliance’s request.
The audit showed the firm was running unlicensed copies of Windows 2000 and Windows SQL Server 2000 on some of its PCs and servers.
Julie Strawson, chairwoman of the BSA’s member committee, said the organisation was compelled to issue a statement.
“It is shocking that a network security company is using unlicensed software. If software is unlicensed, it will not be fully supported,
so you run the risk of leaving holes in the security gateway,” she said.
Strawson went on to issue a stark warning to the channel. “It is important to play by the rules and the BSA will take action on any
company using software illegally.”

 

[JackoR26]

haha well they have been fine so far

You work for Softcat? they ring me all the time and annoy me lol

 

[ChrisR]

We'v ejust bought some stuff from/called Riverbed for wan accel, never looked into it myself but sure I'll get to play with it all.

very good product, ££££ though, HP used to sell a wan accelerator which was a HP server with riverbed installed, their claims on the compression are pretty amazing!

meh tax payers money so got loads of it to spend lol

 

[dk]

haha well they have been fine so far

You work for Softcat? they ring me all the time and annoy me lol

let me know who it is and i'll tell them to stop calling

Is it female, she might be fit.......

 

[ChrisR]

My boss seems to be always on the phone to Hannah Matt's down with us for three days next week too.

 

[dk]

My boss seems to be always on the phone to Hannah Matt's down with us for three days next week too.

hannah has a great body, used to go to the gym with her, she works out a lot.