The Custom URL page allows configuration of
custom categories of sites, which can then be Allowed or Blocked in the
relevant filters. Defining a category here does not indicate whether the
category will be blocked or denied in any particular policy, this is achieved
in the policy definition (see Working with
Policies).
Figure 8.3 shows the
submenu options.
Figure 8.3 - The URL Filter Submenu
At least one
category must be defined before adding URLs. Selecting Categories from the drop-down menu brings up the Add New Categories page (Figure 8.4).
Figure 8.4 - Custom URL Filter Categories
The words (BLOCKED) or (OVERRIDE) in this page indicate categories imported from previous
releases of the product. To add a new category, type a unique name in the Category Name box and click the Add button. Categories can be deleted by
ticking the box next to the category name and then clicking the Delete Selected button.
In order to add URLs
to a category, select the URL Manager
option from the menu. Figure 8.5 shows the first half of a typical screen.
Figure 8.5 - The URL Manager Screen - top
When first visiting
this page, the existing URLs are listed from all categories. Over time, this list is likely to become
large, especially as multiple categories are added. To narrow down this list,
select the appropriate category from the drop-down box and click the Filter button. Only those URLs in that
category will be displayed. Alternatively, enter a partial URL in the Show URL’s matching box and click the Filter button. Both of these features
can be combined to filter the URL list more efficiently.
To add a new URL to
a category, simply enter its name in the Add
URL to Block box, and select the category from the drop down box. Then
click Add URL.
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Note URLs should be added without http:// or www. So
bbc.co.uk/games is a valid URL, http://www.bbc.co.uk/games is not. |
Wildcards in the
URLs can also be used. The following table gives some examples.
URL Filter Would Block------------------------------------------bbc.co.uk/news *bbc.co.uk/news*bbc.*/*news *bbc.*/*news*1.2.3.* *1.2.3.*/*1.2.3.4 *1.2.3.4/*
In general, wildcards
can be added at the end of the domain part or at the beginning of the path
part. There are automatic wildcards at the beginning of the URL and the end of
the path. The URLs displayed in Figure 8.5 show these.
The Bulk Import button allows importing of a
large list of sites from a CSV file. See
Bulk Imports later in this
section.
Related Topics
Working with Filters
URLs that are blocked by default