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In January 2010 Pearl Echo Won TopTen Gold.
See why TopTenReviews ranks Pearl Echo #1 as its "ultimate Internet Management Software." Read Reviews
In addition to enhanced secure site (https) monitoring and control, the latest release of Pearl Echo extends your ability to manage Internet access policy based on the computer that is being used.
Pearl Echo has long provided the ability to set Internet access policy based on user name and Active Directory (AD) group name. They have extended this capability to include policy based on computer name. This is useful in situations where restrictions should apply to a terminal, regardless of who is using it. The Pearl Echo service is Domain-Aware and will automatically find the directory of AD Computers as well as AD Users and Groups against which you can define Internet usage policy. If your environment does not use Active Directory, Pearl Echo provides you with the ability to create access policy by adding the computer or user name you wish to control.
Complete Solution to Employee Internet Monitoring
Pearl Echo enables companies to set user-level monitoring and Internet access policies in a client-server, server-centric and peer-to-peer computing environment. Pearl Echo Employee Internet Monitoring, Filtering, and Control software monitors each user’s web browsing, file transfers, news, chat, e-mail and instant messaging. Pearl Echo’s proven capabilities extend beyond standard Internet mail to include management of Microsoft Exchange mail and Novell Groupwise. Pearl Echo also monitors keywords and phrases to protect against the dissemination of confidential information in web postings, blogs, im, e-mail and even in encoded e-mail attachments.
The product, with a click of the moouse, allows you to easily view how much time users are spending online. For a much more detailed analysis, Pearl Echo includes an enterprise-class report manager with a Quick-Link™ feature. This feature allows automatic links to visited web sites and restores all text from outbound and inbound e-mail, im and news group postings. The Pearl Echo Report Manager consists of over 75 standard reports that can be customized and run interactively or be scheduled for automatic generation/distribution based on your existing Directory users and groups.
Pearl Echo’s powerful Mobility Monitor accommodates customers who are concerned about the continuity of their Internet usage policies extending beyond the company’s internal network. The software also caters to thick or thin client workstations in a Terminal Services and Citrix MetaFrame environment. Pear Echo’s flexible design ensures simple deployment yet can handle your most complex and evolving network infrastructures.
Pearl Echo provides advanced employee Internet monitoring, filtering and management capabilities allowing you to enhance productivity and protect and conserve resources. Pearl Echo's patent pending Mobility Monitor technology enables you to maintain the continuity of your Internet usage policies beyond your company's internal network. Pearl Echo allows you to manage:
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Pearl Echo's Quick Link feature restores the text of incoming and outgoing News, E-mail, Chat and IM items, allowing you to maintain a history of all Internet activity for review.
Benefits
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Increases productivity by reducing nonproductive Internet usage
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Ensures a positive environment by eliminating inappropriate Internet use
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Reduces the risk of unauthorized transactions and communication of sensitive data
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Increases management's awareness by providing informative reports that are automatically generated and distributed
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Preserves access bandwidth for planned and intended use
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Simplifies administration by creating custom Internet access profiles based on existing Directory users, groups and computers
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Maintains accountability by sensing access violations and archiving information for future retrieval
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Supports your Acceptable Use Policy and allows you to display your standards if a user does not adhere to your policy.
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Categorizes surfing habits and provides insight into the amount of time and cost users spend on the web
Enterprise-Ready
Pearl Echo was designed with the enterprise in mind. The Pearl Echo Report Manager consists of over seventy five standard reports that can be customized for your existing Domain users and groups. The Pearl Echo Report Manager allows users to run reports interactively or to schedule reports to be automatically generated and distributed. For larger data handling needs, Pearl Echo optionally integrates with MS SQL Server and is interoperable with MS Exchange mail. If your organization includes a server-centric computing environment, keep in mind that Pearl Echo is the only Internet management software that is certified and fully functional in a Citrix MetaFrame & Microsoft Terminal Services environment. Pearl Echo also supports GPO for automatic and secure software deployment.
Grows with your Business
Pearl Echo is packed with features for the large enterprise but remains based upon the core needs of your growing business. Features like automated deployment, an intuitive standards-based administration console, server-optional setup and self-administering workstation agents allow Pearl Echo to meet the needs of any size organization.
Protects
Pearl Echo features a keyword blocking option which helps safeguard against the dissemination of personal or confidential information. Keyword checks extend to all supported e-communications - even to encoded e-mail attachments. Pearl Echo acts as the enforcement behind your organization's Acceptable Use Policy. All communications can be archived for rapid retrieval, protecting organizations from laws suits related to false termination, discrimination-based claims and regulation compliance.
Controls
Pearl Echo provides custom administrator-defined Allow and Block lists for instances where user content access needs to be limited. Pearl Echo also allows you to set various Internet access profiles based on time of day - perfect when you need to provide some flexibility for your day-extenders.
Network-Ready Out-of-the-Box
Managed users can be connected to your local area network, wide area network, or be completely detached from your private network. Pearl Echo runs as an independent service eliminating reliance on legacy proxy servers or integration issues with firewalls or multiple subnets. Pearl Echo's architecture scales well and allows you to monitor any form of Internet connection (wireless, dial-up, DSL, cable, FIOS, T-1, etc.). Pearl Echo manages Internet access by Windows user and group names. Administration is streamlined by optionally integrating into your Windows Domain or Stand-alone server structure. Unlimited access Profiles can be created to provide varying levels of management for your existing Directory users and groups.
Server Architecture & Network Monitoring Solution
Pearl Echo's design is based on an independent agent-server architecture. By creating an independent service, Pearl Echo is not affected by high traffic volumes, how users access the Internet, or where your end users are physically located. Pearl Echo's agent-server technology does not suffer from the performance and security problems of proxy monitoring solutions or from the overload and network dependency limitations of network sniffer solutions.
The Pearl Echo Server software runs as an independent service resident on one of your Windows Domain or Stand Alone Severs or on a Windows Workstation. The user or group Internet access rules you create at the Pearl Echo server are retrieved by your managed workstations through a secure, zero-maintenance agent you automatically deploy on your Windows workstations or Terminal Servers.
The same secure agent is responsible for sending -- or echoing -- actual or attempted Internet transactions back to the Pearl Echo server. For ultimate efficiency, Internet access decisions are made at the client agent. Data to be logged is first compressed by the agent before being sent back to the server on a path that is not dependent upon the path the workstation uses to access the Internet. The Pearl Echo Workstation agent can be installed from the Pearl Echo CD or automatically deployed with the Windows Installer files provided with Pearl Echo. In a Terminal Services or Citrix environment, the secure agent is simply loaded on the Terminal/Citrix server. Once deployed, the Pearl Echo Workstation agent is self-maintaining; the Workstation agent automatically gathers any updates or upgrades to Pearl Echo when you update your Pearl Echo server
With Pearl Echo's Mobility Monitor technology, managed workstations can be connected to your local area network, wide area network or completely detached from your private network. The Pearl Echo Workstation agent does its job no matter how or where your users connect to the Internet.
Pearl Echo's agent-server technology is extremely efficient, has a small footprint, adds negligible network traffic, and scales well due to its agent-server architecture. Because Pearl Echo runs as its own service, Echo has no dependencies on legacy proxy servers or firewalls.
Configuration Overview - Echo Suite
Internet Monitoring Software
Local Area Network or VPN Configuration
The computer on which you install Pearl Echo Server Software must have an IP address that is visible to managed workstations. When you run Pearl Echo for the first time, the Setup Wizard will ask you the IP address of your server and a service port number.
This IP address and port number will also be used during your automated workstation installations. If you would like to monitor users that roam beyond the perimeter of your private network, enter the Public IP or Fully Qualified Domain Name of your Pearl Echo Server.
Wide Area Network Configuration
Pearl Echo's Mobility Monitor works with a Firewall or NAT device through a specified group of ports. Pearl Echo workstations establish an initial connection with the Pearl Echo Server on a Control Port (Server Port Number). Additional command and control communications occur on three supplemental IP ports. The Server Port Number (e.g. 58000) and three additional IP ports (e.g. 58001, 58002 and 58003) will need to be opened for direct pass-thru on your Firewall device.
Example
Public IP: Server Port Number + 0 «-» Private IP: Server Port Number + 0
Public IP: Server Port Number + 1 «-» Private IP: Server Port Number + 1
Public IP: Server Port Number + 2 «-» Private IP: Server Port Number + 2
Public IP: Server Port Number + 3 «-» Private IP: Server Port Number + 3
Pearl Echo Control Profiles
A control profile is defined by your server's available User and Group names. When Pearl Echo Server Software is installed on a machine that is part of a Domain using the Active Directory Service, Pearl Echo will access and display the available User and Group names from the Active Directory database. If Active Directory Service is not available, Pearl Echo will access and display the available User and Group names from the server on which it is installed. If you have not installed the Pearl Echo Server software on a Windows server, you can manually create the User names of profiles that you would like to manage.
When a managed User attempts to access the Internet, their activity is governed by a Profile's configuration settings. Pearl Echo first looks for a matching User profile. If no matching User profile is found, Pearl Echo looks for a Group profile to which the User belongs. If no matching Group profiles are found, Pearl Echo uses the settings defined by your Default profile. If a User belongs to multiple groups, Pearl Echo selects the first matching Group (alphabetically) to govern Internet access.
Pearl Echo Control Settings
Security levels are established by selecting the appropriate button under each Internet category in conjunction with entries in the Profile's Allow and Block Control Lists. You can have Pearl Echo block or audit objectionable words and phrases in all segments of the Internet by selecting "Block/Audit content containing restricted Words & Phrases." With the Block option set, Pearl Echo will allow all Internet activity except for content containing words or phrases defined in the Profile's Words & Phrases Control list. The Words & Phrases List applies to all Web, Ftp, E-mail, Chat, and News content.
You can also stop users within a Profile from accessing secure Web sites by selecting 'Block secure site access (https).' Pearl Echo logs
Echo Filters
You can block access to Web sites based on categories of content in the Echo Filters tab of the Profile window. Echo Filters is Pearl Software's comprehensive web URL filtering database, designed to simplify the administration of Internet use. Using the Echo Filters module, administrators can choose from over forty categories that they wish to block as well as run reports on users accessing web sites in these categories.
The optional Echo™Filters URL module allows administrators to set specific access rules to Web pages based on the pages categorized content. Automatic updates to the URL database are done four times an hour as our proprietary search algorithms scour over 1.6 terabytes of Web content each month looking for inappropriate or harmful content including malicious sites that are typically the genesis of most malware applications that infect end-user devices
Blending Approaches
Pearl Software's Web filtering incorporates automated and configurable category lists (Echo Filters), custom white and black URL lists, contextual analysis of Web page content, keyword and phrase analysis and support of existing labeling approaches. This blending produces a powerful and accurate approach to filtering Web content on the Enterprise's network. It is Pearl Software's view that in any approach taken to manage Web content, end-users should have access to how sites are categorized, have the ability to customize filter modes and be able to immediately override and update blocked material.
Echo Filters
You can block access to Web sites based on categories of content in the Echo Filters tab of the Profile window. Echo Filters is Pearl Software's comprehensive web URL filtering database, designed to simplify the administration of Internet use. Using the Echo Filters module, administrators can choose from over forty categories that they wish to block as well as run reports on users accessing web sites in these categories.
The optional Echo Filters URL module allows administrators to set specific access rules to Web pages based on the pages categorized content. Automatic updates to the URL database are done four times an hour as our proprietary search algorithms scour over 1.6 terabytes of Web content each month looking for inappropriate or harmful content including malicious sites that are typically the genesis of most malware applications that infect end-user devices.
Reports - Echo Suite
Pearl Echo Report Manager
The Pearl Echo Report Manager consists of over seventy five standard reports that can be customized for your existing Active Directory or stand-alone users and groups. Pearl Echo reports categorize surfing habits and provide insight into the amount of time, cost and bandwidth users spend on the Internet. The Report Manager allows you to run reports interactively or in "hands-off" mode where reports are scheduled to be automatically generated and distributed. The Pearl Echo Report Manager allows you to save reports in a wide variety of file formats for deeper analysis and interactive filtering and drill down. Reports can be published to any accessible directory including your organization's intranet so users can easily access reports through their web browser. In addition, the Pearl Echo Report Manager can distribute reports via e-mail using Pearl Echo's built-in email feature.
Here are some example report titles:
Cost on Site
Web Catergories
General Stats
Top Users
Time on Site
User Bandwidth
Time on Domain
Hourly Bandwidth
User Activity
Top Web Sites
Mobility Monitor - Echo Suite
Pearl Echo's unique agent-server technology provides administrators with the ability to manage Internet activity on client stations no matter where those machines are located. Pearl Echo works in a networked or non-networked environment and is ideal for organizations with multiple sites, terminals services, traveling salespeople, and telecommuters. Pearl Echo requires no special network connections, VPN's, LAN's, or WAN's and will provide full reporting functions no matter how the Internet is accessed (wireless, dial-up, DSL, Fiber, T-1, etc.).Before Pearl Echo, organizations with multiple locations were forced to rely upon limited proxy server technology or required to construct an expensive, complicated series of inter-dependent servers at each site or sub-net that were managed by a centrally located "sniffer" computer.
Pearl Echo is the next generation solution. With its unique architecture, Pearl Echo eliminates yesterday's hardware and provides administrators with a secure, comprehensive tool to effectively manage local and remote users and enforce your Internet Acceptable Use Policy.
For more information on configuring Pearl Echo with roaming or remote users, please refer to the Pearl Echo Configuration page.
Server Centric - Echo Suite
Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server and Microsoft Terminal Server Pearl Echo enables organizations to set user-level monitoring and Internet access policies in a MetaFrame, Presentation Server, Terminal Server, client-server or peer-to-peer environment. Pearl Echo is the only Internet management software that is certified and fully functional in a Citrix MetaFrame & Microsoft Terminal Server environment. Pearl Echo's patent-pending agent-server technology enables each instance of a user session to be managed as if it were a stand-alone PC.
Competing Internet solutions work at the firewall, proxy or switch level causing Internet transactions to appear as a single IP address or single user. Pearl Echo's compatibility with server-centric setups provides user-level and group-level Internet monitoring, filtering and control based on an organization's existing domain or active directory structure.
Pearl Echo's user-level capability ensures your entire user and group level monitoring and control policies are appropriately applied. Pearl Echo will also monitor each user's session even if the session is run as a published application.
SQL Server - Echo Suite
Microsoft SQL Server Pearl Echo stores monitored Internet activity in its native Microsoft xBase database format. For installations with high volume monitoring loads and large storage requirements, Pearl Echo can easily be configured to store monitored Internet activity to a Microsoft SQL Server. The Pearl Echo Server Software can be loaded on the same server that is running Microsoft SQL Server or any other Microsoft server that resides in a trusted Domain. Data stored on Microsoft SQL Server can be viewed and reported upon from the Pearl Echo Administration Console.
Configuring Pearl Echo to store data to Microsoft SQL Server provides additional flexibility to your organization: Pearl Echo Servers can be placed at various locations to provide distributed Employee Internet Monitoring and Control yet all data can be centrally stored and managed for global reporting and increased security and reliability.
Exchange Mail - Echo Suite
Microsoft Exchange Server
Pearl Echo is designed to monitor any e-mail client using the POP3, SMTP or IMAP e-mail protocol. If Exchange mail is configured for one of the listed protocols, Pearl Echo will automatically monitor and control all e-mail activity based on the rules you define for e-mail access.
By default, Exchange e-mail clients communicate with the Exchange server via Exchange's native Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol. In this Exchange configuration, Pearl Echo can be easily set to monitor all Exchange e-mail as it enters and leaves your Exchange Server. This is accomplished by installing the Pearl Echo Workstation software as a service on your Exchange Server. Pearl Echo's installation wizards prompt you for your setup preferences when installing the Pearl Echo Workstation agent.
PURCHASE OPTION DESCRIPTIONS:
ANNUAL MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT
Telephone technical support is provided free for 30 days from the date of purchase. For license quantities greater than 10, annual maintenance agreements are available and can be purchased at any time during the free 30-day support period only. By purchasing a maintenance agreement, you are entitled to receive, at no additional charge, all major releases, minor releases and lettered releases made available by Pearl Software, Inc. during the period of the agreement. The maintenance agreement also entitles you to receive product support at no additional charge. Support after 30 days from the purchase date, without a maintenance agreement, will be billed on a per-incident basis.
PREMIER SUPPORT - Premier Support is Pearl Software’s proactive host system analysis. Pearl Software’s Integrated Health Monitoring System will automatically communicate metrics to our support personal so that our technicians can monitor your server’s performance to help you manage Echo maintenance considerations. Should system parameters appear to be a cause for concern, Pearl Software will proactively alert you of the identified situation in order to remediate the issue before it causes application performance issues or poses a threat to your intended Internet security policies.
ECHO-FILTERS URL CATEGORY DATABASE
Pearl Software offers Echo-Filters Category Module as an optional add-on. This is Pearl Software’s comprehensive web URL category database, designed to simplify the administration of Internet use. Using the Echo-Filters module, administrators can set specific access rules and permissions to Web pages (URLs) based on the pages’ categorized content. By using the Echo-Filters category module, administrators can monitor, control, block and report on URLs by the category they belong to. Click here for a more detailed description on this module.
MICROSOFT SQL SERVER
Pearl Echo stores monitored Internet activity in its native Microsoft xBase database format. For installations with high volume monitoring loads and large storage requirements, Pearl Echo can easily be configured to store monitored Internet activity to an existing Microsoft SQL Server. This additional module provides long-term, high volume storage capability, expanding the reporting periods for which reports can be generated and facilitates comprehensive compliance auditing.
WEBSITE-ECHO VS PEARL ECHO SUITE
Website-Echo can be purchased a stand-alone module which is contained within the Pearl Echo-Suite. Website-Echo provides network administrators with a comprehensive tool to monitor, control and manage access to specific web sites. Using Website-Echo, administrators can set web access permissions based specific users, time of day and URLs. Website-Echo also allows the use of keyword triggering as a means to audit or control access to web sites. Pearl Software also sells Echo Filters, a web category database that complements Website-Echo by providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date list of web categories used to define the enterprise’s web access policy. For more complete details on Website-Echo compared to the Pearl Echo Suite click here
NOTE: PLEASE CONTACT SALES@DBL.CO.UK OR CALL 0845 226 0512 FOR QUOTATION + PRICES FOR ECHO FILTERS URL CATEGORY MODULE AND SQL SERVER MODULE
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