Monitoring web activity is key to any business, institution or organization that is concerned about productivity loss, security and bandwidth cost management. Internet is critical for operational continuity but at the same time offers an impressive number of distractions. And it is easy for employees to forget how long they have been on Facebook, or the size of the HD YouTube video they’ve been watching for the last 30 minutes.
GFI WebMonitor is a secure web gateway solution that enables IT admins to monitor, manage and secure their organization’s web activity. It also enables IT managers to identify how much time and bandwidth is spent on productive activities, and how much is wasted on personal web surfing or entertainment during working hours or on company-owned equipment.
Its main real-time dashboard offers insight into web categories and users that consume the most bandwidth and time. On the other hand, the activity and bandwidth-related dashboards deliver all the information needed to understand how the Internet is being used in your organization and take the required actions.
GFI WebMonitor allows soft blocking or blocking access to websites based on parameters like: User name or IP, Website category or Website name, Application category or Application name, Size of the traffic generated and File type being downloaded. At the same time, it allows you to set exceptions and thresholds based on time windows and bandwidth.
All these help you build and enforce discretionary web access policies for your entire environment. So for example you can choose to allow 10 minutes of Facebook per hour, or 300 MB of YouTube per day. Ably managing web activity also helps you avoid legal issues. When cybercrimes, online abuse and other felonies are conducted via Internet access that has been provided by an organization, most legal systems place the responsibility, at least in part, on that organization.
For example, if a child is exposed to adult or abusive content while browsing the Internet at a school, library or hotel, it is that institution that faces charges.
By using HTTPs-inspection techniques, GFI WebMonitor covers a typical blind spot in web filtering functionality and widens your reach by enabling you to block or allow supported web applications. GFI WebMonitor’s application control feature is an easy way for IT admins to block applications that use HTTP or HTTPs without interfering with web browsing activities and without having to modify firewall or router configurations.
For example, IT admins can choose to allow social media applications for certain departments, while opting to block file-sharing and gaming applications for all users, without affecting their browsing experience.
Apart from the need for bandwidth and productivity management, web security is mission-critical. GFI WebMonitor provides solid web security by combining a multi-layering several security features, giving IT admins additional peace of mind. So that your users do not access dangerous websites, GFI WebMonitor can block any sites that pose a threat to your business, by using continuously up-to-date databases of potentially malicious phishing and compromised websites. To ensure safe downloads and zero-day threat detection, it scans all users’ downloads in real time, using up to three antivirus engines.
Certain user or security actions might require immediate action. GFI WebMonitor is equipped for these scenarios through an alerting system that can notify IT admins via email and in its alert center when an event is triggered. Alerts can be set on a per policy basis - so you can receive alerts whenever a user tries to access a blocked web category or ignores a soft block warning when accessing a certain website or category. You can also receive security alerts as the issue occurs, such as notifications upon malware detection on a downloaded file and access denial to a malicious website. You can also set alerts that are triggered when users reach their bandwidth quota, or consume a large amount of bandwidth.
Through the main console, you can generate reports based on a set of templates provided with GFI WebMonitor. You can also create your own custom reports to meet your specific needs. These reports can be created ad-hoc, or you can set them to be automatically created and sent to the recipients of your choice.
For example, you can generate monthly reports that show the top 10 bandwidth users in your organization, the most visited websites on your network, and much more.
Today’s workforce is mobile, and ties to the office network are sometimes miles away. That doesn’t mean that remote users shouldn’t follow your Internet use policies when not in the office.
Through GFI WebMonitor’s remote agent technology, IT admins can ensure that remote users’ Internet access is in line use policies, even if they are connected through private or public wired or wireless networks outside the organization’s infrastructure. Thanks for taking the time to learn about GFI WebMonitor’s main highlights. Click here to try it FREE for 30 days.
