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.
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 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).
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 information on the general behavior of Sophos appliance operations and specific information on troubleshooting
various aspects of Web Appliance deployment and configuration.