Barracuda Web Security Gateway

Score9 out of 10

29 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Barracuda Web Security Gateway are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Seamless Integration with Other Barracuda Products: Users highly appreciate the seamless integration of this product with other Barracuda products, such as the Barracuda Web Application Firewall and the Barracuda Email Security Gateway. This integration allows for a comprehensive network security solution, which has been positively received by many reviewers.

Effective Bandwidth Management: The product effectively manages bandwidth, resulting in significant improvements in network performance. Reviewers have consistently mentioned how this feature has helped them optimize their network resources and achieve better overall performance.

User-Friendly Interface: The product boasts a user-friendly interface that receives praise from users across multiple reviews. Its intuitive design makes it easy to navigate through various settings and features, ensuring that users can quickly understand and utilize its functionality without any steep learning curve.

Reviews

9 Reviews

Ideal for tracking network usage to improve security.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 19, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The Barracuda Web Security Gateway is a reliable and easy-to-use web security option for any organization. It is equipped with a series of tools that allow you to view web traffic and analyze it to determine usage and risks. I am a Software Engineer, in my case, The Barracuda Web Security Gateway allows me to control and manage web traffic efficiently. It also helps protect our applications, social media platforms including Instagram and Twitter against threats and detect untrustworthy content in real time. We also easily connect the Barracuda Web Security Gateway with other Barracuda products, including the Barracuda Web Application Firewall and the Barracuda Email Security Gateway, to provide maximum end-to-end protection.

Pros

Integrates with other Barracuda products, including the Barracuda Web Application Firewall and the Barracuda Email Security Gateway.
Helps manage bandwidth to improve network performance.
Easy to use.
Allows you to perform SSL inspections to view content on social networks.
Help prevent data loss.
Protect our privacy.

Cons

My experience with the Barracuda Web Security Gateway is exceptional, it is easy to use, affordable, and offers a variety of security features, including the ability to check SSL content.

Likelihood to Recommend

Barracuda Web Security Gateway is a secure solution. This solution offers advanced filtering for web content, application control, access control, network monitoring, and user authentication to control network access. It is easy to use, helps prevent access to harmful content. Therefore, I highly recommend the Barracuda Web Security Gateway to enhance your network security, secure remote administration, and approve and control application usage.

Sharon Cienci

Software Engineer in Information Technology at Agoda (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Barracuda Web Security Gateway Review

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

January 14, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Barracuda Web Security Gateway is employed by our IT team for all network users who have company email. It blocks email messages that may be insecure. The system is very sensitive in what it holds back from delivery, so it is important to check regularly. Anytime you start using a new site, the registration emails will get caught in the filter. Additionally, verification code emails will get caught.

Pros

Security
Compliance
Safety

Cons

Too strict
Captures safe emails

Likelihood to Recommend

I've found Barracuda Web Security Gateway somehow catches safe emails while spam/junk emails still make their way to my inbox. I work in HR and I continue to receive phishing scam emails that impersonate actual employees. The emails are asking for financial/banking information and are fraudulent yet somehow they do not get filtered out in my experience.

Danielle Davidson

HR Manager in Human Resources at Greenbrook TMS NeuroHealth Centers (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

Barracuda WSG Rescued Us!

Rating: 10 out of 10

March 25, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We currently use the Barracuda Web Security Gateway across our entire company and organization. It allows our organization to benefit to use online applications, websites, tools, downloads, etc., without exposure to web-borne malware and viruses. We can control what areas or sites users are allowed to visit, as well as monitor user sites/domains visited, time spent, bandwidth used. For us, bandwidth can be easily consumed by a few users or a division and we always want to control it.

Pros

Control of domains/sites allowed for access. We can be sure our users are not using their online activity to accidentally, or intentionally, to go to malicious, threatening, intolerance, hate, or pornography.
Reporting is easy and informative. Reports allow you to summarize for specific time periods, and then drill down to see time spent, or bandwidth used.
Blocking and/or allowing instantly for a specific user or groups is easily done and takes effect immediately.

Cons

I don't think I have anything to mention here. The Barracuda Web Security Gateway does everything we need it to do.

Likelihood to Recommend

We used to have about 2-3 PC's a month being infected from users browsing to undesirable sites. This was taking a huge toll on my IT resources. Since implementing the Barracuda Web Security Gateway we have, maybe, one PC infected a year. Incredible improvement!

We also had an HR incident with an employee being accused of looking at pornography while at work. After reviewing the Barracuda Web Security logs, we determined the user did not, and could not, browse to any pornographic websites. This cleared the accused employee of the false allegations and also allowed us to take action against the employee who made the false allegations.

Jay Glatt

Director of IT in Information Technology at Giumarra (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

A sturdy and efficient web filter

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 13, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Barracuda Web Security and Filtering is used across most of our company. It provides a layer of security needed by restricting access to websites that are malicious, or have their use prohibited on the company network. It can provide logs of web activity if required, so for example you can keep a track of anyone that has tried to access prohibited sites. There are a number of options available to allow/block sites, which can allow you to be quite flexible in access control.

Pros

It can integrate with active directory to place restrictions based on a specific user or group if required - or alternatively to allow a user/group to access more on the web if needed.
The application blocking features have been especially useful in our enterprise, and there is a large number of applications & web applications available to block/allow as needed.

Cons

More configuration in the reporting options would be helpful; there are a number of reports available to run, however more options for customisation would be useful.
The ability to add a list of domains/URL patterns to whitelist or block would be beneficial; while you can do a bulk edit, you can't just copy and paste the URLs in, you have to modify the line of text so that it matches the format, and adds it to the list. The ability to just import a list of addresses would be a huge time saver.

Likelihood to Recommend

Because of the range of devices available, Barracuda Web Security and Filtering can be suitable for many sizes of business, and is quite reasonable in terms of cost for each device as well. They do need some degree of technical knowledge to initially configure, however some of the ongoing configuration could be done by someone with less technical knowledge if needed, as adding sites to block/white lists is quite a simple task. This could be beneficial in smaller environments where you might not have a big IT team to support the network. Also because they can provide restrictions based on AD users or groups, it would be very useful in any environment where different departments have different requirements; for example if you want one department to only be able to access a few specific sites, whereas another department could have more access to a range of sites.

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

Barracuuuuuuuuuuda keeps you protected

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

August 30, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use a Barracuda Web Filter at multiple locations here in the US. It is used to help prevent users from accessing malicious sites. It is also used to lock down different user groups from accessing certain websites and applications. This is done through the filter and Active Directory users and groups.

Pros

Provides an easy to use weblog that is searchable by a number of different criteria.
Blocks malicious sites and helps prevent malicious downloads.
Gives you multiple ways to set up policies. You can use content filtering, block certain applications, certain domains, and web applications.
Easy to export policy and import to another filter at a different location.

Cons

There are 2 different policies; authenticated and unauthenticated. Sometimes the filter does not pick up the user that is logged in. When this happens, that user could potentially access sites that would normally be blocked.
Sometimes blocking one thing could block something you need. We had an instance where we use remote software. We block BitTorrent but for some reason, the filter was seeing this remote software as BitTorrent traffic. I got support on the line and we were eventually able to figure out a solution.
We put in certain applications. One of them is supposed to be blocked but a lot of the time it doesn't get blocked.

Likelihood to Recommend

I think it is well suited for all companies. The only difference would be on the size and model of the device you would want to go with. I have not had too many problems with this device and the support has been very helpful. It is also usually pretty quick.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

Barracuda Web Filter Review

Rating: 8 out of 10

December 27, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are resellers of the Barracuda Web Filter. Our clients use the Barracuda Web Filter for several reasons. Content filtering, web usage tracking (by site/category/user), security measures, reporting, bandwidth usage and compliance. Not only do our clients benefit from the features listed, but it also keeps employees on track by limiting them to work-related websites, and/or only granting access to specific types of Internet during certain hours (ex. during lunch hour Facebook is accessible) or access to specific people/departments.

Pros

Content filtering
Security
Reporting
Ease of setup
4 year refresh cycle

Cons

It may be a tough sell, as a lot of firewalls have some type of content filter built in (but the Barracuda Web Filter is exponentially better)
It may be cost prohibitive for a smaller company
It will likely need an engineer to properly install/configure it

Likelihood to Recommend

For a larger organization, this is a must. It provides insight into what the users are doing online and most malicious sites will no longer be accessible if access is denied. This can also give access to non-work related sites, but in a limited capacity, based on user or time of day. Though a smaller company would benefit from the features, it may be cost prohibitive.

Verified User

Director in Information Technology (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

Reseller

6 years of experience

Barracuda Web Filter - the "Cadillac" of Content Filtering and Reporting of Website Usage

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

December 27, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have implemented Web Filter appliances for clients when they are needing to perform thorough Content Filtering. The Web Filter appliance does an amazing job of producing detailed reports of web usage as well as blocking / allowing websites for different groups of users across an organization.

Pros

Extremely detailed Content Filtering allows for customized access based on Username or Security Group within Active Directory or simple IP Address filtering.
Reporting features to review website usage, duration, and frequency. Executives love to review these reports to determine employee productivity.
Useful categories of websites to blanket stop access to social media, shopping, gaming, etc.

Cons

As a web filtering appliance, it truly does not have any flaws. There are multiple appliances based on throughout and storage space. As long as the appliance is adequately sized it works very well.
Pricing could be a consideration. There are many products that perform thorough Content Filtering, but this is the "Cadillac" of Content Filtering for companies that want thorough reporting.

Likelihood to Recommend

The only reason one would not choose a Barracuda Web Filter is due to pricing limitations. There are many firewalls and appliances that perform Content Filtering, but this is the best solution for long-term storage of data for reporting on web usage.

Derek Schroeder

Service Manager in Information Technology at Accellis Technology Group (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

Reseller

6 years of experience

View profile

Cuda is Great!! But there are alternatives out there....

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

April 6, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Barracuda web filter is being used by our Retail division to limit internet access to certain websites. This is a great tool with an easy to use interface that you can log into to monitor web browsing activities from your end user. There are many great features within the the management interface to whitelist and blacklist certain sites and also grant access to specific users. The web filter works great at limiting certain categories of websites without denying access to those that are needed.

Pros

The ability to whitelist and blacklist websites easily
The ability to see which end user prompted an alert and which web page they attempted to access clearly.
Compatibility with many different web browsers

Cons

They can work on the interface a bit more. Other products are a bit easier to work with.
Can use more categories to choose from to really narrow down specific sites
Other products have built in functionality to limit hardware usage for example, lock down CD Rom drives but not sure if Barracuda is capable of that

Likelihood to Recommend

Barracuda is really great to use in the corporate environment but it has a slight learning curve. Once you have a solid list of sites to white and black list, you just set it and you are good to go as long as all web traffic passes through it. As always, the only place the web filter will have issues is with your web development team as it will block access to sites they may need to get to for downloading tools etc that may be flagged as malware.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Barracuda Web Filter Review

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

March 20, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use the Barracuda Web Filter server as our primary device to control access to websites used by our employees. All web requests are scanned by the device for content, blacklists from Barracuda, and our own internal blacklist. Our primary firewalls can also do web content filtering, but we were limited to the number of groups that could be used. Barracuda allows us to get down to the individual level for access/denial.

Pros

Easy reporting.
Allows customization down to the individual level.

Cons

Setting up specific rules for a website or user can be confusing.
Would like to be able to create a rule from the usage log. Example: Find a site that should not be allowed, right click on it, and have the option to create a rule from the information already found.

Likelihood to Recommend

Barracuda Web Filter is best suited for what it was built - filtering web access.

Troy Smith

Vice President of Information Technology/Network Administrator in Information Technology at VFCU (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

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A sturdy and efficient web filter

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 13, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

It can integrate with active directory to place restrictions based on a specific user or group if required - or alternatively to allow a user/group to access more on the web if needed.
The application blocking features have been especially useful in our enterprise, and there is a large number of applications & web applications available to block/allow as needed.

Cons

More configuration in the reporting options would be helpful; there are a number of reports available to run, however more options for customisation would be useful.
The ability to add a list of domains/URL patterns to whitelist or block would be beneficial; while you can do a bulk edit, you can't just copy and paste the URLs in, you have to modify the line of text so that it matches the format, and adds it to the list. The ability to just import a list of addresses would be a huge time saver.

Likelihood to Recommend

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience