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Reporting on Internet Usage Productivity with Fortinet FortiGate

by

Scott Glew

Scott Glew

Fastvue Reporter for FortiGate classifies Fortinet FortiGate's Internet usage traffic as either Productive, Unproductive, Acceptable and Unacceptable. It does this using the Web Filter or Application Filter Category that was logged against the traffic by FortiGate, and matching it Fastvue Reporter's Productivity settings.

Fortinet FortiGate Internet Usage Productivity in Fastvue Reporter

Customizing the Internet Usage Productivity Defaults

Fastvue Reporter for FortiGate comes with some sensible default Productivity settings. However, every organization is different and we recommend changing these to suit your own idea of productive Internet usage.

By default, the really nasty categories such as malware, gambling and pornography are classified as Unacceptable, whereas Social Media, for example, is classified as Unproductive.

Anything that is a bit of a grey area is classified as Acceptable and can be customized to suit your organization. We recommend you review the categories in the Acceptable list soon after installing to ensure the classifications in your reports and alerts correctly represent your expectations of online productivity.

Customising your Productivity settings is done in Settings | Productivity. Simply drag and drop Fortinet FortiGate's Web Filter and Application Filter Categories into the correct lists, and click Save Productivity Settings when you're done. All future reports and alerts will reflect your changes.

Fortinet FortiGate Web Filter Category Productivity Drag Drop

The Full List of Fortinet FortiGate's Web Filter and Application Filter Categories

Here is a list of all Fortinet Fortigate's Web and Application categories, and how Fastvue Reporter for FortiGate classifies them by default.

Fortinet FortiGate Web and Application Filter Categories Fastvue Reporter Productivity Group
Botnet Unacceptable
Discrimination Unacceptable
Drug Abuse Unacceptable
Explicit Violence Unacceptable
Extremist Groups Unacceptable
Gambling Unacceptable
Hacking Unacceptable
Illegal or Unethical Unacceptable
Malicious Websites Unacceptable
Marijuana Unacceptable
Nudity and Risque Unacceptable
Other Adult Materials Unacceptable
Peer-to-peer File Sharing Unacceptable
P2P Unacceptable
Phishing Unacceptable
Plagiarism Unacceptable
Pornography Unacceptable
Proxy Avoidance Unacceptable
Proxy Unacceptable
Spam URLs Unacceptable
Alcohol Unproductive
Alternative Beliefs Unproductive
Arts and Culture Unproductive
Dating Unproductive
Digital Postcards Unproductive
Entertainment Unproductive
Folklore Unproductive
Game Unproductive
Games Unproductive
Internet Radio and TV Unproductive
Job Search Unproductive
Lingerie and Swimsuit Unproductive
Newsgroups and Message Boards Unproductive
Shopping Unproductive
Sports Unproductive
Sports Hunting and War Games Unproductive
Social.Media Unproductive
Social Networking Unproductive
Society and Lifestyles Unproductive
Streaming Media and Download Unproductive
Tobacco Unproductive
Video/Audio Unproductive
Abortion Acceptable
Advocacy Organizations Acceptable
Advertising Acceptable
Armed Forces Acceptable
Auction Acceptable
Charitable Organizations Acceptable
Child Education Acceptable
Cloud.IT Acceptable
Collaboration Acceptable
Content Servers Acceptable
Domain Parking Acceptable
Dynamic Content Acceptable
Dynamic DNS Acceptable
Email Acceptable
File.Sharing Acceptable
File Sharing and Storage Acceptable
Freeware and Software Downloads Acceptable
General.Interest Acceptable
General Organizations Acceptable
Global Religion Acceptable
IM Acceptable
Industrial Acceptable
Instant Messaging Acceptable
Internet Telephony Acceptable
Meaningless Content Acceptable
Mobile Acceptable
Network.Service Acceptable
Newly Observed Domain Acceptable
Newly Registered Domain Acceptable
News and Media Acceptable
Personal Privacy Acceptable
Personal Vehicles Acceptable
Personal Websites and Blogs Acceptable
Political Organizations Acceptable
Real Estate Acceptable
Remote.Access Acceptable
Remote Access Acceptable
Restaurant and Dining Acceptable
Search Engines and Portals Acceptable
Secure Websites Acceptable
Sex Education Acceptable
Special Acceptable
Storage.Backup Acceptable
Travel Acceptable
Update Acceptable
VOIP Acceptable
Web-based Applications Acceptable
Web-based Email Acceptable
Web.Client Acceptable
Web.Others Acceptable
Web Analytics Acceptable
Web Chat Acceptable
Web Hosting Acceptable
Brokerage and Trading Productive
Business Productive
Education Productive
Finance and Banking Productive
Government and Legal Organizations Productive
Health and Wellness Productive
Information and Computer Security Productive
Information Technology Productive
Medicine Productive
Online Meeting Productive
Reference Productive
custom1 Unassigned
custom2 Unassigned
Unrated Unassigned
Unknown Unassigned

Fortinet also publishes this list of Web Filter categories, including handy links to websites that you can test within each category.

Reporting on Internet Usage Productivity

It is important to note that the Internet usage Productivity assignments in Fastvue Reporter for FortiGate have nothing to do with whether or not your FortiGate's policies are blocking or allowing the traffic. This enables you to see the FortiGate categories that you've deemed to be Unproductive or Unacceptable that are being allowed through your policies.

On the flip side, it also lets you see the categories you've deemed to be Productive or Acceptable that are being blocked, potentially getting in the way of people doing their jobs.

Allowed Unproductive Fortinet FortiGate Internet Usage Categories

Although Fortinet FortiAnalyzer can report on the categories visited, it does not provide the ability to group categories by Productivity, making it difficult to quickly dive into these potential problem areas.

Fastvue Reporter for FortiGate has been designed from the ground up to make it as simple as possible to identify issues with Internet browsing behaviour. Try it free today!

Take Fastvue Reporter for a test drive

Download our FREE 30-day trial, or schedule a demo and we'll show you how it works.

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