Author: Tarek

Introduction Usually, if anyone is interested in a software, a test machine would be setup for the purpose of testing and learning how this software works. What about if you were one of the administrators that you have setup a test machine for ISA Server 2006 Trial version, and then you no longer want to consider this server as a test machine and want to start using it in production? How about if you didn’t setup a test machine and from the beginning you started working with the Trial version in a production environment ? ISA Server Trial Version lasts…

Introduction Lots of ISA Server Administrators look for a way or an add-on to filter URLs based on the keyword that users try to surf to, or search for in search engines. On Daily basis, as an ISA Server admin, you will notice that your users are always trying to find new sites related to Sex, or for example Proxy sites to bypass your ISA Server, well in this article, I will show you how to create Keyword Filtering with ISA Server 2004 / 2006 Configuration Before we go on, be informed that the following procedure only applies on Allow Rules  ,…

Introduction You have enabled VPN on your ISA Server, and you have plenty of users that Dial-in into your company using ISA Server, and they always do not disconnect their sessions, you need a solution for those idle sessions. Well, in this article , we will see how we can disconnect these idle users’ sessions after being idle for a specific amount of time that we can specify. Configuration on Routing and Remote Access 1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Routing and Remote Access 2. From the left pane, click on the Remote Access Policies node. 3. Right click on  ISA…

Introduction If you ever thought about having a 3rd party application for ISA Server 2004/2006,  to filter internet traffic, secure your users downloads, check their internet activities and bandwidth consumption, I strongly advise you to have a look and get GFI WM4. GFI has long been a name in internet security. I have been using GFI WM since its first child, v1, which came with a single page only , then it continued to have a successful version one after another and today we have v4. What I personally like about GFI , is that their support team really…

Introduction Not so many people prefer to do installations remotely, specially for a Firewall Like ISA Server that is well known to have a Default rule upon installation to deny everything that passes through it. But for those who wish to do such installation, go on , its safe, and you will be able to continue having remote access to the machine after ISA Server is installed Configuration on Windows Server Before Installing ISA Server Before installing ISA Server remotely, we need to be able to Remote Access to the server we want to install ISA Server on. so our…

Introduction Lots of you use the CISCO VPN Client, for example you might have visitors to your company that might need to connect to their corporate and they need to establish the connection using the Cisco VPN Client. In this article, we will see how to enable CISCO VPN Client to connect from behind ISA Server. In order to be able to do this, we need to : Create an allow rule to allow the required protocols Make sure to place anonymous rules above rules that require Authentication Configure the Client as SecureNet Configuration on ISA Server 1. Open ISA…

Introduction The Cache functionality in ISA Server is great, it speeds up the Internet and preserves bandwidth for your Network. But sometimes you need to always retrieve the most updated items/parts for specific websites, and that’s why we would need to disable caching for these sites. Lets say that your users visit a specific site, and this site changes / updates frequently and they told you that they do not see the changes instantly. What you can do in this case, is to disable caching of this site, so that the next time your users will try to browse this website, the…

Introduction Many ISA Server Administrators ask how to determine which Service Pack is installed on ISA Server 2004. Some of them inherited an ISA Server installation that was setup by someone else, in other cases, some administrators uses Automatic Updates Software and come to a point where he/she needs to know if the latest Service Pack is installed or not. Note : An Updated article is published and can found here :  ISA 2004, ISA 2006 and TMG Server 2010 Version Numbers Well in this article I will show you two different ways to determine which Service Pack is installed on your…

Thanks to : Sandy Anderson ————————————- Filter Description————————————- This freeware Web filter replaces host’s IP-address by the hostname before logging at the URL-field (Web Proxy logs).Useful for SecureNET and Firewall clients.————————————-Installation Instructions————————————-1. Copy HostLogger.dll to the ISA Server installation folder.2. At a command-line prompt, type the following line and then press ENTER: “regsvr32 HostLogger.dll” ————————————- Uninstalling the filter————————————-1. At a command-line prompt, type the following line and then press ENTER: “regsvr32 /u HostLogger.dll”2. Restart Microsoft Firewall Service.3. Delete HostLogger.dll from the ISA Server installation folder. ————————————- Terms of Use————————————-This software is provided “as is”, without any guarantee made as to its suitability or fitness…

Introduction any ISA Administrators wanted to know how they can create a report to log who established a VPN Connection into their Networks, when these users established the VPN connections and what did they access ? In this article we will create reports that log VPN Users for the past 30 days and show us in details who established a VPN Connection, when did they establish the VPN connection, and what these VPN Users accessed to. Configuration on ISA Server 1. Open ISA Management Console 2. Under the Monitoring node, click on Logging 3. We will create a report with the following filters…

Introduction Although it is not recommended to browse the internet from the Firewall itself, some administrators require having internet on ISA Server in order to have access to Windows Update or update any Add-on installed. In this article, we will see how to configure ISA Server to have access to the internet . Configuration on ISA Server 1. Open ISA Management Console 2. Expand Configuration  Node, click on Networks 3. Under the Networks Tab you will find a Network called Local Host, this refers to the machine ISA installed on, right click this Network and click on Properties 4. The Local Host Network Properties will be displayed 5. Click…

Introduction In this article I will show you how to publish a server that has ULTRA VNC installed on it so that you can remotely control this server from External Networks using ULTRA VNC. You can download ULTRA VNC which is a free software than can be downloaded from here You can remotely control machines behind ISA server with VNC using either of these two methods: 1  – With VNC Viewer , using inbound TCP port 5900 2  – With any web browser, using inbound TCP port 5800 Configuration on ISA Server We will start with creating a publishing  rule…

Introduction Ever wanted to create your own Reports ??? Are you wondering how to create a detailed report for a specific amount of time ,user, URL, Protocol ,etc… We will not use any 3rd party Application or Web Filter to create our reports. All we need is ISA Server 2006 with MSDE logging (or ISA 2004) plus Excel . Configuration on ISA Server 1. Open ISA Management Console 2. Under the Monitoring node, click on Logging 3. We will create a report with the following filters ( you can customize your reports as needed) a. Logging Last 7 Days b. Action Allowed Connection…

Introduction You can assign a specific IP to each VPN Client, so that each time he/she establishes a VPN connection to your ISA server, he/she will receive the same IP Address. Configuration  1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools , and then click Active Directory Users and Computers 2. Then go to the Organization Unit (OU) that contains the user you want to assign the same static IP each time he/she establishes a VPN Connection 3. Right Click the user, click on Properties 4. Go to the Dial-in tab for the user.  Enable the checkbox beside Assign a Static IP Address, as shown in the…

Introduction This article shows to your how to configure your internal DNS server to forward requests to external servers, a common scenario to your ISP’s DNS servers. Configurations are done on the Internal DNS server and also on ISA Server. Configuration on DNS Server 1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DNS. 2. Right-click DNS-SRV ( ServerName ), where ServerName is the name of the server, and then click the Forwarders tab. 3. Click a DNS domain in the DNS domain list. Or, click New, type the name of the DNS domain for which you want to forward queries in the DNS domain box, and then click OK.…

Introduction Many people have asked over the years how to block selected File downloads, based on Extension and/or Content Type Background This is most useful when you need to block streaming media,  you can use the combination of blocking Extensions and Content Types. Configuration 1. Open ISA Management Console 2. Create a new Access rule, Right click Firewall Policy , then click on New then choose Access Rule This also can be done from the Right Pane, under the Tasks bar: 3. The New Access Rule Wizard will be launched, give a name to your new rule , in this example we will name it Allow Internet,…

Introduction Many people have asked over the years how to enable FTP uploads through ISA server 2004/2006. This article gives helpful hints on how to successfully configure ISA Server to allow FTP uploads. Background By default, when you create a new Firewall Policy with the FTP protocol included, this access rule will only permit to download from any FTP site, but will not allow you to upload ( write ) to these FTP sites. Configuration 1. Open ISA Management Console 2. Create a new Access rule, Right click Firewall Policy , then click on New then choose Access Rule ( If you already have a Firewall…