ISA Server 2006 & EMBC - web filtering

Hey all,

I haven't posted here before but I have a question. I'm sure that's not that uncommon. :)

I want to do away with the fairly basic filtering we have in place via Netsweeper and instead do the main filtering with ISA 2006 which we have setup on our network perimeter. I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to ISA but I have played around with it a little and have found some guides which show various ways to enable web filtering. My problem is that I can't seem to get the filtering to work properly. It either doesn't filter at all, or blocks everything. I have tried setting up Access Rules that then filter all traffic via Domain Name Sets and also URL sets. Neither of these methods worked, but it's possible it could be to do with the DNS setup here ...

In conjunction with the above I also tried to configure Web Chaining and use the EMBC proxy as an upstream proxy, but that didn't work either.

I was just wondering if there is a way of configuring our ISA server so we can have finer control of filtering on a local level. The primary purpose of this would be so I could control filtering at a AD group level.

I realise that my inexperience with ISA is probably the main problem here, but I would appreciate any advice on this. :)

Welcome :)

Web chaining shouldn't be a problem, we do that here with EMBC proxy.

We have two rules, one that serves up local sites, and a second that directs everything else upstream.

What issues were you having?

As an aside, I once had a chat with an EMBC guy about ISA Servers, he got very angry and told me to bin ours as it was 'junk'. Very weird conversation.

Ok I'll explain about the setup a little more. At the moment, all PC's that access the Internet have the EMBC Proxy (proxy.embc.org.uk) configured by group policy in IE. There are some laptops that aren't configured via GP and instead done manually.

I setup the web chaining to point at proxy.embc.org.uk, then set a workstation's proxy to the address of the ISA server on port 80. As far as I can tell the ISA server was configured to be a web proxy, but isn't actually being used as such by any clients. It looks to me like it's been setup as a cache and a firewall, and that's about it.

I assumed that since clients have the embc proxy configured, that traffic going via the gateway (the ISA server) would be bypassing the fact that it's also a proxy server. Our local DNS server is AD Integrated and setup on one of the DC's. It's forwarders are set to the EMBC DNS server addresses.

As mentioned in the original post, my efforts thus far to configure filtering on the ISA server have failed. Maybe I didn't configure the web chaining correctly? Does it require authentication?

I went to Networks, Web Chaining, Properties of the Last Default Rule (the only entry in Web Chaining), then clicked on the Action tab. Clicked on Redirecting to a specified upstream server, then put the EMBC settings in.

As I was typing this though, I just noticed that when I tried this before I made a typo when configuring the upstream server. I'll try the filtering again now I have done this. Hopefully it will work. :)

Well now that I have configured the upstream proxy properly, and then applied a new Access Rule that is blocking all traffic to specific Domain Name Sets ... it's working! :)

As has happened many times in the past, describing the problem helped a great deal. We'll just forget that it was a typo that caused the problem in the first place. Apparently proxy.embc.org.k is not valid. :)

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Originally Posted by Modey

We'll just forget that it was a typo that caused the problem in the first place. Apparently proxy.embc.org.k is not valid. :)

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:D Glad its working!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Modey

Well now that I have configured the upstream proxy properly, and then applied a new Access Rule that is blocking all traffic to specific Domain Name Sets ... it's working! :)

As has happened many times in the past, describing the problem helped a great deal. We'll just forget that it was a typo that caused the problem in the first place. Apparently proxy.embc.org.k is not valid. :)

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Might be worth putting the new one in as well - since you're fiddling with it

proxy.embc.uk.com

Whereabouts are you in Northants - are you coming to the IT meeting on Friday?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SpuffMonkey

Might be worth putting the new one in as well - since you're fiddling with it

proxy.embc.uk.com

Whereabouts are you in Northants - are you coming to the IT meeting on Friday?

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Thanks for the new proxy, is that one live yet?

I live in Northampton and work in Wellingbrough. I don't think we would be able to make this meeting you have mentioned, we have a lot on, on Friday's in particular.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Modey

Thanks for the new proxy, is that one live yet?

I live in Northampton and work in Wellingbrough. I don't think we would be able to make this meeting you have mentioned, we have a lot on, on Friday's in particular.

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Seems to be working for us - though they are spoofing the old one.

Shame - the meetings are always useful and its good to put a face to a handle. Mebbe next time.