Reporting on Internet Usage Productivity with Fortinet FortiGate

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.

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.

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 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.

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!