Should the Cisco Content Engines be used as a proxy appliance

[thomuff]

Should the Cisco Content Engine be use as a proxy appliance like a Blue Coat appliance, Squid cache engine, ISA server, etc...

I am pretty sure it is but just need some feedback on past experiences. Customer would like to by a Cisco product for Web filtering/proxy.

or is it strictly used to help with web base applications.

[jfoerster]

HI,

the CE is basically able to check every request it supports. If you are using 3rd level products like smartfilter, websense or webwasher you can use the features of those products to supress/forbid certain requests(i.e MSN etc.)

Kind Regards,

Joerg

[h.peter]

I guess the most suitable solution is SmartFilter since it comes within. That software should DO anything, my guess

[jfoerster]

Hi,

some additions, websense is also included on the CE. It only depends on what you are licensing.

Kind Regards,

Joerg

[greg.guhin]

We are using the Content Engine in direct proxy mode with SmartFilter URL-filtering. It seems to work well. We have found some issues where our old ISA servers could handle certain tunneled traffic but the Content Engines can not.