The Sophos Web Appliances and Sophos Management Appliances include a powerful, highly effective,
and easy-to-use administrative web interface that provides configuration and reporting tools, automated software updates,
and self-monitoring to minimize the administrator’s day-to-day involvement in web security and control maintenance. You
can customize the appliances’ default URL-handling policy and message pages, and accept or reject end user requests for
changes to the handling of blocked URLs submitted via an end user feedback system.
The Sophos Web Appliance is designed to function as a web proxy that provides HTTP security at the gateway.
Potentially risky content is scanned for various forms of malware. URL requests are compared to the Sophos site list, in which
sites are assigned a risk class and a site category. Access to sites can be blocked on the basis of degree of risk or
by site category.
Dashboard
The Dashboard tab provides a quick overview of Web Appliance activity and status in several panels: Select View, Summary
Statistics Today, URL Test, Virus Updates, Web Traffic, Blocked Sites, Viruses and Malware, and Traffic Patterns.
The Configuration tab provides an interface for setting web security, browsing policy options, and performing appliance
network configuration and administrative tasks.
The Reports tab provides graphical and textual data on a variety of aspects of Web Appliance activity and performance.
Use the search functionality to search user activity, sandbox activity, and user requests.
The icons on the System Status tab indicate the system’s alert level by their color. If it is a joined appliance, the
System Status button on the navigation bar becomes animated if the appliance is synchronizing with other appliances. The
status indicated by these icons is shown in the following table. Differently shaped icons are used for the Web Appliances
(disks) and the Management Appliance (network icons).
The user help provides several mechanisms to help you master the use of the appliance.
Configuring Ports
To ensure the functionality of the Sophos Web Appliance, configure your network to allow access on the ports
listed below. Some ports are required only for specific situation, such as when you enable FTP backups or central management.
This section contains instructions for configuring your browser to use the Web Appliance web proxy server.
This section contains information on the general behavior of Sophos appliance operations and specific information on troubleshooting
various aspects of Web Appliance deployment and configuration.
Interpreting Log Files
This page provides the information required to interpret a Web Appliance log file.