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Cajuntank
Contributor III
May 26, 2018
Question

EMS or Fortigate for web filtering from FortiClient?

  • May 26, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 10379 views

I am in the process of implementing and testing FortiClient which is being managed by EMS. The web filtering options in EMS are not a feature rich as the Fortigate. I do have another on-premise web filtering solution that I use to filter on and off network (via proxy) and investigating my options now with the FortiClient. My question is, can I provision my clients with EMS but somehow utilize the Fortigate for webfiltering (main focus is while off network) since it does have more web filter functionality?

    4 replies

    Cajuntank
    CajuntankAuthor
    Contributor III
    May 29, 2018

    azh wrote:

    Hello, 

     

    You can use FortiGate for compliance check and enable there "Security Posture Check" to use FortiGate Security Profiles for FortiClient. You will centrally manage via FortiEMS and do other security things on FortiGate.

     

    Here is example - http://cookbook.fortinet.com/enforcing-network-security-forticlient-profile-54/ 

     

     

    But this is just for while on-net. What I am after is seeing if there is a way to get the Fortigate to be the web filter (since it has better web filter features) instead of the EMS while off-net. I know I can VPN in, thus putting me on-net, but I am looking to do this with over 3000 users. Having over 3000 users VPN is not really something I want to get into.

    SteveRoadWarrior
    New Member
    June 8, 2018

    In order for the Fortigate to filter EMS Client traffic, it needs to be in the traffic flow.

    VPN is the normal way to accomplish this.

    Which aspect of web filter do you prefer on the Fortigate?

    Cajuntank
    CajuntankAuthor
    Contributor III
    June 9, 2018

    SteveRoadWarrior wrote:

    In order for the Fortigate to filter EMS Client traffic, it needs to be in the traffic flow.

    VPN is the normal way to accomplish this.

    Which aspect of web filter do you prefer on the Fortigate?

    The other biggies for me is the "Search Engine" section and to a smaller degree, the "Proxy Options" section. Since I am a K-12 school, being able to safe search search engines, restrict YouTube, and log all keyword searches is huge. We tie into Google, so restricting accounts to specific Google domain is something I am used to being able to do now with my current filter. I was kind of hoping that EMS had those features for macOS/Windows like they currently do for Chromebook or that I could use the FortiClient to proxy back to my Fortigate, thus replacing my current web-filter.

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