Site-blocking tools for BorderManager

There’s very little that my friend Marcus Williamson and I agree on, at least when it comes to politics, food, religion or any of those other topics you should always avoid when trying to make a sale. What we do agree on, though, is that nothing beats NetWare as a server operating system and nothing beats Novell’s BorderManager when it comes to securing your network.

Marcus is a former Novell consultant (back when the title “Novell consultant” had a distinctive cachet), and also a former Novell Support Connection sysop (as am I). Through his company Connectotel, he’s provided a number of good, free NetWare utilities over the years (see link below) and is the acknowledged guru of time synchronization (contributing numerous articles to the late, lamented Novell AppNotes on time and other subjects).

Today, though, he wants me to tell you about a suite of Connectotel add-ins for BorderManager that could make your job easier and (if you use them) should keep your expenses down. Interested?

LinkWall, AdWall and FileWall add valuable functionality to BorderManager by providing for the blocking of unwanted sites, advertising and defined file types, respectively, using site blocking lists in the public domain. The products are significantly less expensive than competing third-party solutions that require costly ongoing annual subscriptions.

That’s it. That’s the whole marketing message.

What these add-ins do is to keep your users away from Web sites that could be potential problems while blocking Web site advertising from coming inside your firewall. They also ensure that particular types of files (especially those prone to carrying worms, Trojans and viruses, or those that might violate intellectual property rights, for example) never get past your border.

Laws about harassment-free workplaces as well as provisions of current copyright law mandate that you do all within your power to comply. Connectotel’s LinkWall, AdWall and FileWall allow you to do that without having to continuously pay subscription fees for blocking lists you can’t examine and that may or may not be actively maintained. Only Connectotel’s suite allows you to choose among various third-party, publicly examinable public domain blocking lists, such as the squidGuard Blacklist and DMOZ lists. And list updates are always free to download.

You can try before you buy by downloading the 45-day evaluation version of the products, something you should do if you’re considering another blacklist product. While you’re doing that, you might also check out the beta version of the new LinkWall Suite for Microsoft Proxy Server and Microsoft ISA Server – not that either Marcus or I would ever believe you were running those Microsoft products, you understand, but just so you’ll be informed and able to tell your less-enlightened friends about them. You know, those friends who are in thrall to Redmond.

So there you have it, I got through an entire newsletter about NetWare without mentioning the “L” word. You know, that other operating system. Next time, we go for two in a row!