For small and mid-sized companies in the San Francisco region, Northern California, and cities nationwide, Progent's Microsoft authorized professionals offer network help and IT consulting expertise for the entire line of Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers, Windows Server 2003, and Microsoft line-of-business applications. Progent's set up, management, support, and application programming services include system architecture, configuration, and deployment. Progent is experienced in offering expert and affordable support to cut customers' IT expenses and reduce system downtime.

Progent offers project management and documentation, on-site and remote technical support and troubleshooting, Help Desk Support Outsourcing, expert security consulting, and turn-key IT outsourcing.

Microsoft ISA Server 2004
Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 is a popular application-layer firewall, VPN, and Web cache solution that improves IT system throughput and helps protect business networks from web-based attack.

ISA Server 2004 provides high-level security, ease of use, and fast and secure access for all varieties of networks. ISA Server 2004 secures environments that are running Microsoft applications such as MS Web Outlook, Microsoft Internet Information Services, MS Office SharePoint, Routing and Remote Access Service, and Microsoft Active Directory.

Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 performs intensive examination of transport protocols such as HTTP, enabling it to expose many attacks that traditional firewalls cannot sense. The combined firewall and Virtual Private Network design of Microsoft ISA Server 2004 enables stateful filtering of all VPN data. The firewall also provides Virtual Private Network client inspection for Windows Server 2003-based isolation solution, helping to protect networks from threats that enter through a VPN link. In addition, an intuitive user interface, setup wizards, and a variety of administration utilities help administrators to avoid common security configuration problems.

ISA Server 2004 incorporates extensive administration features to simplify key tasks such as policy definition, data flow, server publishing, and monitoring. Microsoft ISA Server 2004 draws on Windows Server security, directory, VPN, and throughput control. The firewall and web cache can be implemented on dedicated machines or integrated on a single physical computer. In either scenario, ISA Server 2004 can dramatically enhance network security, promote unified Internet usage policy, accelerate web connectivity, and increase employee productivity.

Benefits of Microsoft ISA Server 2004
Important advantages that differentiate ISA Server 2004 from ISA Server 2000 and other outdated firewall solutions include its powerful security capabilities, simplicity of operation, and ability to provide fast and safe Internet connectivity.

  • Advanced Protection
    Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 is designed to protect against attacks by providing stateful packet and packet and circuit filtering. Stateful packet filtering decides what packets will be allowed to travel to the protected network circuit and application-layer proxy services. This filtering intelligently enables ports only as needed and then closes the ports when the session terminates. Circuit filtering offers application-transparent circuit routing for mixed-platform access to Windows Media technologies, Telnet, IRC, and many other Internet protocols and services. The circuit-layer protection of Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 complements dynamic packet filtering to improve protection and ease of use.

    In addition to stateful packet filtering and circuit filtering, Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 also controls application-specific data with application, command, and data-aware filters. By intelligent filtering of VPN, HTTP, FTP, SMPT, Post Office Protocol 3, DNS, H.323 conferencing, streaming media, and RPC traffic, ISA Server 2004 can allow, reject, redirect, and edit traffic according to content.

  • Ease of Use
    Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 is feature-rich yet simple for administrators to use. ISA Server 2004 offers multinetworking architecture functions, unified Virtual Private Network, firewall administration via a robust visual policy editor, easy-to-use system templates, streamlined wizards, and enhanced analysis utilities. ISA Server 2004 also simplifies firewall setup by automatically installing both firewall and Web-caching features. In addition, it allows translating configuration parameters to Extensible Markup Language, real-time firewall traffic monitoring, and firewall user groups.

  • Fast and Secure Access
    ISA Server 2004 delivers quick and secure Internet connectivity by incorporating Virtual Private Network capability into the firewall design, accelerating Web caching, and optimizing firewall filtering speeds. Built-in IPsec tunnel mode functions for site-to-site Virtual Private Network access makes it easy to connect ISA Server 2004 to branch office Virtual Private Network providers. IPsec tunnel mode support also enables deep Virtual Private Network client inspection and firewall policy support for Microsoft Windows Server 2003-powered quarantine solutions, offering a company's user communities more protection. Compatibility with advanced third-party filters and a comprehensive software development kit further extend the capabilities of Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004.

New Features of ISA Server 2004
MS ISA 2004 offers many innovative features and enhancement, particularly when installed on a system powered by Microsoft Windows Server 2003. These include:

  • A redesigned, simplified user interface
  • Improved VPN support
  • VPN quarantine support
  • Ability to create custom firewall user groups
  • Customized protocol definitions
  • MS OWA Publishing Support
  • Improved support for FTP upload/download policy
  • Improved cache rules for centralized object storage
  • RADIUS support for Web proxy client authentication
  • SecurID authentication
  • Firewall-generated forms (forms-based authentication)
  • Improved HTTP filtering
  • Improved monitoring

How Progent's Consultants Provide Microsoft ISA Server 2004 Help
Firewalls and security policies can be difficult to design and implement in a way that is best suited for your organization. Excessive security rules can clog workflow and hinder productivity, but excessively lax policy leaves your system vulnerable to destructive intruders and viruses.

Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants have extensive experience developing Microsoft-based security solutions for IT networks with multiple sites, remote workers, and mission-critical eCommerce applications. A Progent consultant is ready to give your company access to a security expert who can plan and implement a configuration of ISA Server 2004 that supports your business requirements without adversely restricting your network.

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