The internet is a powerful tool for any business but with it comes with some security issues. The need for company’s to both control and monitor internet usage is just a fact of doing business on the internet. You can reduce risk with internet filtering for business.

Statistics show that as much as 40% of Internet use at work is not related to actual work issues. Of course no one should be surprised by this. But this might surprise you. Did you know that as many as 85% of employee computers have as many as 40 Spyware programs on them. On average companies will incur more than $6500 per year/per employee in lost productivity due to abuse of the internet. Other stats show that as many as 75% of employees are actually downloading music or participating in other types of downloads which erodes bandwidth leaving your company more vulnerable to attacks by Malware. So is internet filtering for business something you should be looking into? The answer is emphatically yes!

As unsettling as these stats may sound it simply comes down to the need for business to manage their internet usage and that starts with a baseline for internet access, which can be provided with internet filtering. But how do you decide between software filtering or dedicated filtering devices?

Both types of filtering will offer you standard functionality monitoring internet activity, blocking access to certain sites, and automatically enforcing your company’s acceptable usage policy guidelines’ while reporting any inappropriate usage to your IT department. However, if you take time to look a little closer you will discover that there are some excellent reasons to consider appliance based solutions over software based solutions.

Here is just a short list of the advantages of a filtering device over installation of filtering software.

Software filtering is complex. It’s difficult to integrate and difficult to maintain so you can never be assured of the level of performance. It also degrades performance because resources are shared with the host. A dedicated device uses pass by technology to check a website and it does not use your resources or your bandwidth.

A device using pass by technology will stop network slowdowns as well as single point system failures. The accuracy is maintained by fluid updates, where as software causes bottlenecks because it must check every single request to the system.

Initially a dedicated internet filtering device may cost more than software but over time the software will actually cost more with continuous updates having to be installed, as well as continuous tweaking to make sure it’s operating correctly. An internet filtering device requires very little maintenance and thus reduces the cost of maintenance to a bare minimum.

Internet filtering appliances, like ContentProtect, will use the latest technology so they are able to deliver fast, precise filtering, making it easier for small business to get on board securing their network and obtain optimum coverage and performance with a limited budget.

The ultimate duty of internet filtering for business is to filter both incoming and outgoing internet traffic, protecting employees from visiting sites that do not match your company’s policies, as well as protecting your company from any legal or financial burden as a result of where your employees have visited.

Appliance based internet filtering for your business will protect your reputation, your assets, your bandwidth, and your employees. It’s really the only solution in today’s world.

Terry Fitzroy is an experienced internet writer and entrepreneur specializing in internet filters

spam blockers

and anti spam software

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