Customers ask me all the time if it is possible to file transfers over a certain amount, and I’m happy to see this feature in Forefront for OCS. It’s pretty easy to configure this particular feature.
There are two ways to configure file filtering – either directly in the file filter area or by configuring a list. Using a list allows you to group multiple settings into one as well as have more control over the rule name. For the latter reason I opted to use a list in my example. To start, I went to the Filter Lists item under the Filtering section and selected Files from the List Types option:
At the bottom I clicked Add and created a list called 1MB File Transfer Limit:
Next select the list and click the Edit button to bring up the Include/Exclude options. For this basic rule I simply created a filter for *.*>=1MB to match files which are greater than or equal to 1MB:
Since we’re using a filter list you could choose different sizes for different types of files or choose to exclude particular file types altogether. Next, head back to the main File area in the Filtering section. You’ll see your new list under the lists section at the bottom. On the right side make sure to enable the file filter and the action you wish to take when a matching file is encountered. In my case I selected to block the file and send a notification:
This resulted in an IM to the person sending the file:
Combining this with the virus scanning, content filtering, and other features of Forefront I’d say this appears to be a pretty useful tool for almost all OCS deployments.
