In my last post, I described GFI WebMonitor’s filtering features. Today, I will introduce the tool’s security functions. If you want to have a chance to win a license for 500 clients worth 8,500 dollars, please refer to the end of the article.

As noted in the first post of this series, there is a Web Security edition, which can be purchased separately, or with the Web Filtering edition. The Web Security edition consists of four modules: Download Control Policies, IM Control Policies, Virus Scanning Policies, and the Anti-Phishing Engine.

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In my last post, I described GFI WebMonitor’s monitoring capabilities. Today, I will introduce the tool’s web-filtering features. If you want to have a chance to win a license for 500 clients worth 8,500 dollars, please refer to the end of the article.

The main purpose of web filtering is to prevent your company’s employees from spending time on the web for personal interests. Since many of the sites with the most popular web content—you know what I’m talking about—often contain malware, it will also improve security if you block them. The temptation to use the web for private matters at work has been growing along with the possibilities of the web.

The WebGrade database

GFI maintains a list of sites that are most likely unrelated to work in the so-called WebGrade database. I tried a few popular sites and GFI WebMonitor always blocked access to them. In such cases, WebMonitor displays a message in the user’s browser that the web site has been blocked from viewing.

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• Hyper-V Manager: Sits in the System Tray and allows you to Start, Stop, Save State, and Pause the VMs running on the box
• WindowsITPro magazine: Understanding Microsoft’s Virtualization Technologies Good introduction for virtualization newbies
• Everyone who needs VDI already has it Good point by Brian Madden. VDI has always been overrated.
• UK Security Breach Investigations Report, An Analysis of Data Compromise Cases (35 pages, PDF)

We recently migrated our Windows Server 2003 based DHCP Server to Windows Server 2008 R2 because I wanted to use Network Access Protection to improve our network security. After half an hour the software was installed and I started to configure the DHCP server. I quickly defined scope, NAP configuration, and all the other options and all I had left to do was move the DHCP reservations to the new server. I had no intention of transferring the addresses manually—it’s not that I am lazy, but copying and pasting many items is an error-prone process—and so I started looking for a migration tool.

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In my last article, I introduced GFI WebMonitor 2009, the product of the latest 4sysops contest. Today, I will discuss its web monitoring features in more detail. If you want to have a chance to win a license for 500 clients worth 8,500 dollars, please refer to the end of the article.

Active Connections and Past Connections

Before you start configuring Web Filtering and Web Security, you should monitor the web activity of your users for a while. This will give you hints as to where the biggest problems are. The Activity Log gives you an overview of what kind of URLs have been accessed and by whom. WebMonitor enables you to monitor active connections and past connections. Hidden downloads, i.e. downloads unattended by the users (for example by applications), are displayed in a separate folder. Note that you will only be able to catch those downloads, if you have configured GFI WebMonitor as a gateway.

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GFI, a longstanding 4sysops sponsor, has a very generous offer for our readers. You have the chance to win a GFI WebMonitor 2009 license for 500 clients that is worth 8,500 U.S. dollars! You will find more information about this raffle at the end of this review.

Microsoft ISA Server veterans will probably know GFI WebMonitor, a web filtering and web security software that ISAserver.org readers have voted year after year as the best ISA Server add-on. Last November, GFI released a new version, GFI WebMonitor 2009, which is also available as standalone, gateway, and proxy software. This review is about the standalone version. Please note that there is also a free edition of GFI WebMonitor.

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Submitted by Doug Z

Remote Reboot X is very useful for sys admins to install updates on MANY remote computers simultaneously and then reboot them all with real-time monitoring.

The tool works in conjunction with WSUS, so if you have a WSUS server (or use Microsoft’s update server) but need precise control over when your computers install the updates and reboot, you can use my tool to handle the process.  So, for example, I have about 150 servers that need to be updated and rebooted once per month, but I only have a 1-hour maintenance window.  I’m able to load the list of 150 servers into my tool and initiate the updates installation and reboot on all machines simultaneously while monitoring the status in real-time.

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• IE patch is now available:
• Analysis of 32 million breached passwords
• Nmap 5.20 released (free utility for network exploration or security auditing) Also check out Zenmap
• Microsoft integrates virtualization capabilities in System Center Essentials 2010
• OS Deployment enhancements in Configuration Manager 2007 R3

Amazon has added an interesting new feature to EC2 that allows you to boot from Elastic Block Storage (EBS) volumes. If you are not familiar with EC2, please read my review of the Amazon AWS Management console first.

I have criticized EC2’s complicated OS image creation process (AMI bundling) before. Thus far, it was only possible to store images on Amazon’s storage service S3. S3 and EC2 don’t really harmonize well, and that is probably the reason why Amazon needed to introduce EBS in the first place. Until now, you could only attach EBS volumes to instances (virtual machines), but could not use an EBS volume as boot device. I suppose, many EC2 customers were asking for this feature, and now it is here. It simplifies many things, but it also has some downsides compared to using S3 as AMI (Amazon Machine Image) storage. Note that the original method is still available. Amazon calls the corresponding images instance-store, or S3 AMIs, as opposed to the new EBS AMIs.

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• Microsoft Calls for New Cloud Computing Laws
• Microsoft will deliver IE patch for “Google hack” on Thursday, 10:00 a.m. PST (UTC -8)
• System Center Essentials 2010 Release Candidate Available
• Bill Gates joins Twitter: @BillGates and launches web site

Submitted by Dennis Smith – Blog: Gourami

Farm Commander looks a lot like Norton Commander and ‘Total Commander, but the functionality is very different. With Total Commander both the left and right panel are file systems. With Farm Commander the left panel displays file system, where you can select files and directories. In the right panel are the Windows 2000/XP/Citrix/Terminal/Domain workstations/servers listed. First you have to select the files in the left panel, and then the servers in the right panel. Next you have to choose an action, such as copy, move or delete. Farm Commander then copies/deletes/moves the selected files to or from the selected server. In particular in Citrix/Terminal Server environments you often have to copy files at once. Farm Commander also features detailed reports. As administrator you should know whether some of the actions failed.

Farm Commander

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• Win a copy of GFI MailEssentials for your business
• WSUS Client Diagnostic Tool
• Microsoft to release out-of-cycle IE security patch
• Germany, France warn against using IE Don’t believe that anyone in the German government has an idea about IT

In my last post, I gave an overview of the new Windows Troubleshooting Platform. Today, I will discuss the limitations of this new Windows 7 feature.

With this Platform, users won’t allegedly be bothering you any more with trivial issues so you can focus on the more interesting stuff, and CIOs can save costs by reducing help desk staff. It all sounds too good to be true. Unfortunately, these implicit promises in Microsoft’s paper are a bit exaggerated, at least in my experiences with the Windows 7 Troubleshooting Platform.

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One of the new but rarely discussed Windows 7 features is the Troubleshooting Platform. Troubleshooting is usually the job of Windows admins, and so I took a closer look at this new Windows component. The introduction in Microsoft’s white paper sounds quite promising:

For many information workers and IT professionals, solving computer problems feels like nothing more than trial and error. It can be frustrating for users to try to solve their problems, but it can be expensive for corporations to maintain a fully staffed support center. To compound the problem, many support calls involve routine, recurring issues.

Windows® 7 takes steps to address both of these problems with the Windows Troubleshooting Platform, which allows users to solve many common problems on their own and improves Help desk efficiency by allowing IT administrators to extend the platform to solve routine issues that are specific to their environment.

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• Office 2010: The Pros and Cons for Businesses
• Windows 7 Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals (updated Jan 12)
• Why the IE-Google Incident Should Worry You
• Exploit Code from Google Attack Goes Public on Web