[gptalk] Re: Website
- From: "Michael Pietrzak" <mpietrzak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:06:14 -0700
Omar,
I completely agree with you. A web proxy (ISA 2006) would be an optimal
solution. In my case, I work for a public university in CA and believe it or
not, we cannot implement any kind of web monitoring due to UNION rules. It's
quite frustrating. I was all set to bring in WebSense last year when our union
rep gave it the stop order and sent it up the political chain for review.
Sometimes it's not just budgetary restrictions but policitcal as well. Oh well,
I said, I just block the traffic instead. Crazy as it sounds, that was
acceptable.
Michael
All of these suggestions are good ones but- as the IT administrator you should
present to your manager, and he or she should present to the execs that to
effectively manage web access including restrictions, monitoring and reporting,
a web proxy server should be deployed and all outgoing web requests should be
forwarded through the proxy via network routing or browser proxy settings with
tight outgoing port restrictions controlled at the network gateway.
Using the IE restricted sites, HOSTS files or creating a IPsec policy or a
placeholder bogus DNS zone to solve this political issue is a workaround and
not really a good one.
Restricting web traffic is a political issue and as the IT admin or IT manager-
hand off the responsibility of creating the policy or owning the approved site
list if you can and make the company pay.
Now of course if you are administering public institution or school that is
limited in funding and administrative staff- and you can't get an educational
discount of a functional feature rich proxy solution- any of the suggested
work-arounds will work.
I have to go and get off my soap box now..
Omar
From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Michael Pietrzak
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 9:21 AM
To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [gptalk] Website
Craig,
You can use the IPSec techniques outlined in this walkthrough...
http://www.petri.co.il/block_internet_but_allow_intranet_with_ipsec.htm
to enable you to block certain websites via a group policy. It's VERY easy to
do. We had a problem with users visiting naughty sites and with this technique,
I can effectively block all web access, allow local intranet browsing, allow
only specific sites to be allowed, or finally, what you are looking for, block
individual sites.
Read through it. Again, it's very easy to alter the IPSec rules to block a
single web site.
Alternately, in your DNS servers, I use MS DNS so I can't say this could apply
to you, but you could create a new domain, say myspace.com, and make a bogus
DNS entry for it. That way, when any machine tries to go to myspace.com, it
will not resolve.
Either of those techniques should work great for you.
Michael
SDSU
Hi guys
Can i block a website through a GPO?
Craig Meyer
"He had no servants - yet they called Him Master, no degrees - yet they called
Him Teacher, no medicine - yet they called Him Healer, no army yet the Kings
feared Him. He won no military battles yet He conquered the world. he commited
no crime yet they crucified Him. He was burried in a tomb yet He lives 2day...."
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