CurrentWare AccessPatrol

CurrentWare's AccessPatrol allows organizations to secure company endpoints from removable media, including USB devices, CDs, and DVDs, as well as BlueTooth, Wi-Fi, Firewire, and other portable devices. By restricting what removable media can run on vulnerable machines, businesses can prevent sensitive data from being copied and walked out of the company. With AccessPatrol, businesses can prevent data theft and reduce infections by closing off vulnerable entry points. If the computer can't be infected with infected media, the organization's network can't be compromised with malware.

AccessPatrol is actually just one component in CurrentWare's suite of security products. BrowseControl offers Internet blocking and filtering, BrowseReporter offers Internet monitoring and reporting, AccessPatrol offers endpoint device security, and enPowerManger offers power management. All the products are available separately or as part of the CurrentWare suite.

Pricing for AccessPatrol is based on a per-computer basis, starting at $79 dollars for a single user. Since many users have multiple computers, CurrentWare bundles additional computers into the license as a "pack," with a five-computer pack beginning at $199 and going up to a 50-computer pack for $999. For larger organizations, volume pricing is available, going as low as $20 per computer for less than 100 licenses, or $9 per computer for more than 2,000 licenses.

Setting up the Console
Setup is very fiddly, as there are four pieces of software to install to get up and running. There is a good reason for this, as all CurrentWare products plug into the same server and console. By setting up the server and console components on one machine, the business can add on other CurrentWare components easily at a later date. But for just one product, the process feels a bit too complicated.

I installed the CurrentWare Server and Console on the same Windows 7 machine. It is possible to run them on separate machines, but I found it just as easy to put them on the same test box and CurrentWare's documentation didn't really make a strong case for why I shouldn't do so. The server is about 18MB and the console is about 3655 KB, so all in all, the software is fairly lightweight. During installation, I was prompted to enter the machine's name or the IP address. I used the machine name in case the IP address of the machine ever changed.

CurrentWare also uses open source SQL database Firefird for its internal data storage, which is installed automatically. However, if you have another program using Firebird, CurrentWare won't install.

CurrentWare works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the Windows operating system. However, the company said it hadn't been tested on Home editions, although Professional and Enterprise versions were supported. I tested on Windows 7 Home and had no trouble. I was disappointed that Macs weren't supported.

I tried directly opening the server, and was told I didn't have enough permissions. The Console connects to the Server and retrieves all relevant data, so there was no need for me to try to launch the server directly.

When I started up CurrentWare Console, I was immediately prompted to install one of the products, AccessPatrol, BrowseControl , BrowseReporter and enPowerManger. I still had to download the installer for each component separately. I would have preferred CurrentWare to be able to go ahead and grab the updated software as soon as I initiated the request in the console.

After installing AccessPatrol and restarting the Console, I could see a products panel on the right side of the screen. While all the other products were listed, AccessPatrol was the only one that offered any menu options. All the other products were grayed out.

The console then prompted me to use the remote install feature. The feature lets administrators select all the computers on the network visible by the server to install the client software remotely. I could also just install the tool manually on each client machine. The remote installer is really handy only if there are many computers requiring AccessPatrol and related products, or if the computers are physically not easy to reach.

I tried installing first remotely, and then later manually, and found the process fairly simple either way. With the manual process, I just had to make sure I used the correct server name for CurrentWare server.

With the remote feature I could change the default client password, reboot the machine, and force the software to upgrade to the latest version. I could manually enter the IP addresses of the machines to push the client software on to, or import a text file containing the information. I could also have the console search to find available devices on the network.

The Console automatically detected when the client software had been installed, and listed that machine in the list of computers being controlled.

The enclosed quickstart guide is also very good about laying out the steps. In fact, the help system in the Console was excellent, prompting with the next step at appropriate moments.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Gjqgu0MY0lk/0,2817,2407916,00.asp

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