Bill H
asked on
block website terminal server hosted
hey guys,
we have an offsite terminal server that users connect to. I'd like to block youtube, facebook, etc for the majority of users.
What's the most cost effective way to do this?
we have an offsite terminal server that users connect to. I'd like to block youtube, facebook, etc for the majority of users.
What's the most cost effective way to do this?
Cliff Galiher
The best way to block content has been and still is at the network edge. A simple UTM can do this, and even the basic models can do this easily. Perfect to drop in front of an offsite server as they can often be centrally managed.
ASKER
Cliff, this is hosted outside of our environment. We dont control the network edge.
Ahh. That wasn't mentioned in your question. "Offsite" could be a colo facility or other circumstance as well. But it doesn't change my advice much. Most good hosting environments still provide you a sandboxes network environment where all your host machines can communicate. In that situation, I'd run a UTM as a hosted service. Barracuda, Sophos, and many other UTM vendors can run as software, not just as an appliance. I have this set up for several clients in azure and AWS. But the principle is the same with other hosters as well.
ASKER
a UTM device is NOT an option here.
Well, you've painted yourself in a corner then. There are very few agent-based web filtering products that can run on a server OS. They tend to version-check and run on client OSes only. And the few that do often don't run on RDS (the proper name for terminal services.) So you are looking for that 1% of 1%. And they are not inexpensive, as you asked for.
Add record to host file 127.0.0.1 facebook.com
Do same for other sites.but this will affect for whole server.all users will be blocked.
Thank you
Do same for other sites.but this will affect for whole server.all users will be blocked.
Thank you
Also if server is not a member of any domain, if you can point server dns to opendns you can have perfect filtering for free. This also applies to whole server.
Thank you
Thank you
ASKER
Upalak, yes it is on domain
DNS does not block web traffic *at all.* While it can make finding Facebook 'slightly' harder, it is easy to circumvent.
would suggest to use a content filtering proxy in one arm installation beside the terminalservers and configure the proxy settings via GPO.
These "proxy" can be a UTM (like sophos UTM) also.
These "proxy" can be a UTM (like sophos UTM) also.
ASKER
would openDNS work?
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No.if you have blocked with host or domain name, it does not allow browsing from ip too.
Add facebook & youtube domain to opendns block list. Then block proxy sites catagory it is enough . Now no way to browse fb.
Add facebook & youtube domain to opendns block list. Then block proxy sites catagory it is enough . Now no way to browse fb.