Remote Filtering Communication Screen

Applies to:
  • Forcepoint URL Filtering, v8.5.x

This screen appears if Remote Filtering Server is selected for installation. Remote Filtering Service is available to Forcepoint URL Filtering customers who have purchased the Remote Filter module.

The external IP address or hostname of the firewall or gateway must be visible from outside the network. If you enter a hostname, it must be in the form of a fully-qualified domain name:

machine_name.domain_name

  • Remember whether you entered an IP address or a hostname here. When installing Remote Filtering Client on user machines, you must enter this address in the same form (IP address or name).
  • It is a best practice to use IP addresses, rather than hostnames, unless you are confident of the reliability of your DNS servers. If hostnames cannot be resolved, Remote Filtering Clients cannot connect to Remote Filtering Server.

The external communication port can be any free port in the range 10-65535 on this machine. This port receives HTTP/HTTPS/FTP requests from external Remote Filtering Client machines (i.e., user machines, running Remote Filtering Client, outside the network). The default is 80. If a web server is running on this machine, it may be necessary to use a different port.

Note: The external network firewall or gateway must be configured to route traffic, typically via PAT or NAT, from Remote Filtering Client machines to the internal IP address of this machine.

The internal communication port can be any free port in the range 1024-65535 on this machine. The default is 8800. This is the port to which remote client heartbeats are sent to determine whether a client machine is inside or outside the network. The external network firewall must be configured to block traffic on this port. Only internal network connections should be allowed to this port.

For more information, see the Deploying the Remote Filter Module technical paper.