Summary #

If you manage multiple locations, each with their own filtering appliance, there’s a way to make changes on all those appliances at once.  For example, if you unfilter “amazon.com” on at “Location #1”, you can easily add it to a Filter Set at “Location #2” at the same time.  Currently you can modify blocked/unblocked sites using the feature.  As time goes on, we’ll be expanding this to be able to control more of the features of the appliance.

More Information #

In order to setup the Multiple Box Admin feature, you need to perform several steps:

1. You need to have an account on each appliance, with the same First Name, Last Name, Username, Password.  If any account is different, you will not be able to manage that appliance.  The built-in account named “admin” will not work for the Multiple Box Administration feature.  Each administrator must have their own account.  (Note: By default, administrators can see everyone’s password.  If you would like to disable this feature so that administrators cannot see other administrator’s passwords, please call us)
2. On each appliance, the group you are in must have the “Can Administer Multiple Boxes” permission enabled.  Assuming you are in the “Administrators” group, you would go to “User Auth” -> “User Groups” and click on “View Permissions” in the row for the “Administrators” group.  Look for the permission “Can Administer Multiple Boxes” and check it, then click on “Save Changes”.
3. Once you make the changes to the groups and add yourself to all the appliances, it can take up to 20 minutes for all the appliances to update.  Any appliance that has your exact user on it, and the group has the “Can Administer Multiple Boxes” permission, will be able to be managed.
4. After the changes have taken effect, you can now add unfiltered sites to multiple appliances at once.  Go to “Website Filtering” -> “Website Access” -> “Add A Site”.  You should now see towards the bottom of the page more check boxes for the Filter Sets on the other appliances (as well as the local appliance):

   

5. If you add a site to another appliance, it will take up to 10 minutes for the addition to get put on the other appliances.  The changes will not take effect immediately on the other boxes.  If you want them to, you need to login to each of the appliances and go to “Commit Changes” and restart.  Otherwise, they will get applied automatically overnight.