Increase DirectAccess Deployablility

Feed: Forefront Experts
Posted on: Monday, February 15, 2010 11:39 AM
Author: Hal Berenson
Subject: Increasing DirectAccess Deployability 

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Installing and Configuring the Email Hygiene Solution on the TMG 2010 Firewall

There is a pretty good 3 part tutorial over on ISA Server.org by Deb Shinder on setting up an Email Hygiene solution on the new TMG Firewall.  This is a powerful solution but care must be taken to install things in the right order.  The tutorial provides step by step instructions with screen shots.

Installing and Configuring the Email Hygiene Solution on the TMG 2010 Firewall – Part 1: Installation.

Installing and Configuring the E-mail Hygiene Solution on the TMG 2010 Firewall – Part 2: E-Mail Policy.

Installing and Configuring the Email Hygiene Solution on the TMG 2010 Firewall – Part 3: Configuring AntiSpam Policy.

Snowstorms Pummel Worker Productivity, Citrix Survey Finds

Published Friday, February 12, 2010 5:27 PM by David Marshall 

Behind the traffic pile-ups, cancelled flights and power outages caused by recent record storms in the Middle Atlantic States, there’s another sobering story – the enormous cumulative loss of business productivity caused by employees’ inability to work from home when commuting became impossible. A survey of 500 people in four states and the District of Columbia, commissioned by Citrix Online, found that 52% of respondents have lost six or more hours of work due to this winter’s severe storms; this represents a potential loss of nearly 50 million total man hours of productivity in these states. Half have been forced to cancel or delay a meeting in the last year due to inclement weather. Further, 47% stated they have no technology tools, flex time, telework provisions or alternate assignments to assist when commuting is a problem.

“Enabling your employees to work from anywhere is simple,” said Chuck Wilsker, President and CEO of the Telework Coalition and a member of Citrix Online’s Worldwide Workplace Council. “The keys are to plan ahead, determine the specific needs of your organization, identify best practices for managing your virtual workplace, and using technologies, which are both suited to productivity and can address your benchmarks for success. The first application I ever used that allowed me to work remotely was GoToMyPC and it’s still a wonderful solution. Citrix Online’s Worldwide Workplace Council has authored a paper outlining the five steps to a virtual workplace program.”

For example, Ira H. Siegal, CPA, of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, an affiliate of 123College.com, inc., turned to GoToMeeting     when he saw that snow threatened to prevent attendees from coming to a seminar last week. He recalled, “As I watched the snow get deeper, some of the people who had registered to attend my seminar started to question whether it would occur. I polled them, and they said they would have trouble shoveling out their cars and navigating the roads to make it to my event. I realized I needed a back-up plan, and decided to conduct an online seminar instead. GoToMeeting     saved the day for me, and allowed me to conduct business from the safety of my home.”

The Citrix Online survey, which covered New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia/D.C., and Maryland, found that 38% of respondents were unable to commute to work at least once during the storms in December 2009 and January and February 2010. For many, this meant a lost day of productivity; results revealed 50% of those surveyed had no work situation away from their office.

For more information about Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS), or Work Shifting, visit http://www.citrixonline.com/ or http://www.workshifting.com/.

Filed under: Survey

Microsoft DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant

Feed: Bink.nu
Posted on: Saturday, February 13, 2010 4:48 PM
Author: Steven Bink
Subject: Microsoft DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant

Forefront TMG 2010 Email Protection Updates

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Forefront TMG 2010 Web Protection Services Licensing

Introduction

Forefront TMG 2010 adds two new subscription-based features, known collectively as Forefront TMG Web Protection Services (WPS). These features include URL Filtering (URLF) and Anti-Malware or Enhanced Malware Protection (AM or EMP). One thing that makes these features unique within Forefront TMG is that they are licensed separately from Forefront TMG itself. This blog will discuss the various licensing and purchasing options available for URLF and EMP subscriptions and guide you through managing the license details in Forefront TMG management.

WPS Purchasing and Pricing

The first thing most people want to know is “How do I get a Forefront TMG WPS license and how much does it cost?”

Forefront TMG WPS is subscription product licensed per user or per device.  This subscription is only offered through Microsoft Volume Licensing programs, and must be purchased separately from Forefront TMG 2010. Forefront TMG WPS is included in Forefront Protection Suite and ECAL.  You can find information on purchasing Forefront TMG WPS through Microsoft or a Microsoft partner at http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/threat-management-gateway/en/us/purchase.aspx.

The Forefront TMG WPS pricing structure is outlined in http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/threat-management-gateway/en/us/pricing-licensing.aspx.

Verifying the Evaluation License

You may want to take advantage of Forefront TMG WPS while you wait for your license to arrive; or perhaps you want to give WPS a test drive before you decide whether you want to purchase a license. Regardless, TMG provides a free 120-day trial subscription that goes into effect as soon as you deploy Forefront TMG 2010.

Using the Getting Started Wizard (GSW)

The Getting Started Wizard (GSW) provides one way to configure these options. During this process, you can choose to enable HTTPS Inspection, URLF and EMP as well as whether to use the evaluation license (selected by default). The following steps show you where you make these choices in the GSW.

Note: if the TMG computer is a member of an array, the GSW is not available. In this case, you must use the Without the GSW steps

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Still confused about what Direct Access really is and what it can mean for your business?  Bookmark the DirectAccess FAQ for answers to many of your DirectAccess questions.  Learn how your users can be seamlessly and securely connected to your network any time they have an internet connection.  Keep your users up to date with security and system health policies using DirectAccess. 

Announcing the Forefront TMG Best Practices Analyzer Version 8!  This announcement discusses new features and functions found in the latest release of the Best Practices Analyzer tool, including URL Filtering, ISP Redundancy, HTTPS Inspection, Anti-Malware protection and much more!   

Forefront TMG Case Studies – Many of our customers will wait a while and look to see how a software product performs in the real world before making the decision to adopt a new technology.  The same goes for the Microsoft Forefront TMG product, the successor to the popular and proven Microsoft ISA technology.  Customers want to know why TMG is being adopted, why they should change from their current ISA platform, and what benefits they will realize when they decide to make the move.  A great way to answer those questions is through real world case studies such as those found here where customer testimonials can help illustrate some of the benefits found in Microsoft TMG.