Likelihood to Recommend FortiGuard Web Filtering Service is well-suited for an organisation that is able to funnel all its Internet connectivity through one device, i.e., the office environment - or perhaps where WFH workers are using a remote desktop or VPN. It allows management/IT to minimise risk by blocking websites that may be harmful, as well as websites that may enable data leakage, or even are websites that people ought not to be visiting in the workplace.
Read full review While DNSWatchgo offers the same categories as Application Control offers on the Watchguard firewalls, the WebBlocker categories are not offered. This is really a disappointment and Watchgurad should really consider adding the extra WebBlocker categories to DMSWatchGo. In my opinion, reporting in DNSWatchGo is minimal to say the least and could use drastic additions. as it is today it does offer very little info to the admins. The identification of registered clients is flawed. It seems that the same clients are registered multiple times on the management platform, thus unnecessarily consuming licenses. In my experience, it is really annoying to have to remove the duplicate clients every time again and again. On the positive side, when one already has Watchguard firewalls seting up DNSWatchGo is really easy, as it shares the same categories with Watchguard firewall Application Control. So easily one can almost the firewall functionality on laptops. And we say almost, because DNSWatchGo is missing the WebBlocker categories / blocking capabilities to be considered a full firewall replacement.
Read full review Pros FortiGuard Web Filtering Service effectively protects websites. There is no need to install the root certificate on all PCs inside the network. The database signature updates every hour, so we don't need to spend time updating the website to blacklist or whitelist. It can protect very well. Whereas, some traditional proxies can not do that. For example, others can not block Youtube or Facebook. It can also protect the search keyword, like in Youtube or other social media, Google, etc. Read full review protect from phishing, ransomware content filtering no vpn needed cloud based Read full review Cons Some websites are classified as Meaningless content, especially links used in emails to unsubscribe from lists. Luckily FortiGuard Web Filtering Service is responsive about reclassifying those quickly. Read full review While DNSWatchgo offers the same categories as Application Control offers on the Watchguard firewalls, the WebBlocker categories are not offered. Reporting is minimal and could use massive upgrades. The identification of registered clients is flawed. It seems that the same clients are registered multiple times on the management platform, thus unnecessarily consuming licenses. Read full review Likelihood to Renew We really need an extra layer of protection for our laptops. Choosing the DNSWatchGo makes sense as we have Watchguard firewall. If we had another brand of firewalls we would probably use anther product instead!
Read full review Support Rating Took a little longer for support to get our problem solved, but when the upper tier tech support was involved, we got excellent customer support.
Read full review Alternatives Considered We selected FortiGuard Web Filtering because it came in the service bundle with our FortiGate unit. After testing the service for a couple of months, we disabled the web filtering that was running on our client machines and have not looked back. It's been easy to manage, effective, and fast. There isn't much more you can ask for from a filtering solution.
Read full review At the time we were looking for a DNS based protection solution we had also tried "Blue Shield Umbrella". Both programs had similar behavior, but the main reason we eventually decided to go with DNSWatchGo was the fact the we have WatchGurd firewalls. So deploying DNSWatchGo was easy as we just copied the Application Control settings from our firewalls to the DNSWatchGo setup. Also Watchguard firewalls already have the DNSWatch service for the PCs that are connected to them while inside the company network, so it makes sense to equip them with the same shield while outside the company network.
Read full review Return on Investment We can be confident staff cannot inadvertantly or deliberately access websites that contain porn, or other non-safe for work content We can be confident staff cannot inadvertantly or deliberately access harmful and malicious websites We can be confident data leakage is minimised Read full review easy to mange you can have control over external pc or cellphone Read full review ScreenShots