Gateway.Management is a next-generation content filter and Internet gateway designed with a purposeful architecture to maximize on-premise performance with cloud-based intelligence. DNS, as a fundamental building block of the Internet, is at the core of this software along with strategic and dynamic firewall rules designed to allow a homeowner, a business owner, or an enterprise IT team to enforce desired policies without the use of proxies, SSL inspection, or other traditional techniques.
Gateway Management Home gives you granular control over each user’s Internet experience. The following features can be applied network wide or on a device by device basis:
To maintain speed, Gateway Management Home performs all filtering on your ClearOS box. It is controlled with a Cloud based interface. For extended information see the Gateway.Management website for more details.
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Before you begin the installation, you will want to document the following items that will help you with your deployment and configuration:
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To deploy this app you will need to make arrangements with your IT staff to decommission certain services and functions that may be running. The following items should be done to accomplish the transition to Gateway.Management:
Plan on a maintenance window of 30-60 minutes for the deployment and initial configuration of this app.
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If your system does not have this app available, you can install it via the Marketplace.
When installed and configured, an email will be sent to the account of record for the registration of your ClearOS server. If you are unsure about what email address this is, please log into your ClearSDN portal for your account.
You can find this feature in the menu system at the following location:
<navigation>Gateway | Filtering | Gateway Management Home</navigation>
Once you have Gateway Management Home installed on the server, it is time to configure and initialize the service.
The Box ID is a unique identifier used by the Gateway Management cloud system. You may need this information if you re-provision your ClearOS system.
When a web page is blocked, Gateway Management displays a block page. This allows you to select from which IP that page will be displayed. This IP must NOT be on the same subnet as the LAN interface and it must not be in use. You typically want to use the IP address given by default unless that address lies in a range already used by your environment.
The Gateway Management dashboard controls all of your related settings.
After completing the setup, visiting the Gateway Management Home page in your ClearOS web-based configuration tool will give you a link to open your cloud dashboard.
You can also visit https://dashboard.gateway.management directly.
Key to the management of your new gateway's management is the use of policies that you will create. These lists include authoritative lists, black lists, white lists, and rainbow lists. The following order of operations exists for all policies:
Once a match has been achieved, the other policy rules are disregarded for a particular DNS request.
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One important additional security feature provided by Gateway.Management is the “Don't Talk to Strangers” feature (or DTTS.) This feature makes it so that connections that do not have a DNS resolution are proactively blocked by the gateway. This means that a number of applications and services that try to circumvent DNS (like many Bittorrents, unauthorized VPNs, botnets, et al.) will be blocked.
To create bypass rules, look for the DTTS Bypass feature.
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The more you customize your environment the more difficult it will be for internet abusers to circumvent or exploit your network.
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If you are using Active Directory in your environment, you will want to customize and tailor the mechanisms of your DNS resolution to properly configure Gateway.Management and AD DNS to work together.
Please see this DNSThingy support article for setting up Gateway management in an Active Directory domain.
You can edit the device names of devices behind your gateway to make them more manageable and to increase visibility in reporting. In the Devices section, click the 'edit' button to manage individual devices.
You can also add devices manually if layer 3 discovery is not in place. Simply add the device.
Tags can be used to group larger networks for more efficient management
The Block Page Assistant is a plugin for Google Chrome that allows your secure browser to give a descriptive block message instead of a security warning.
Users who are blocked can request unblocks from their block page. These will queue in your 'Unblock Requests' page in the Gateway.Management portal. You can manually or automatically whitelist the requests.
You can only auto-whitelist as long as the page is:
You can add Managers so that additional people can manage your whitelists and unblock requests can be processed by multiple trusted individuals.
You can customize your block page in the interface. Don't forget to whitelist your block page!!!