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Block Application traffic through an Ethernet Bridge

Updated
This article applies only to On-Premise Appliance, not to our Cloud products.

Use Ethernet bridging Application blocks to block access to Applications and drop or reject SSH, NTP, or gaming traffic. If you have a Bridge interface that passes traffic through it, use this feature instead of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) filtering.

A typical scenario for using this feature is when you don’t use Smoothwall as your Firewall and an Ethernet bridge passes traffic from a Smoothwall interface to one of your Firewall interfaces.

Before you begin

You must have:

  • The Zone module installed to see the Ethernet bridging page. 
  • An interface with the Type set to Bridge on the Network > Configuration > Interfaces page.

Block a service

Add a block

  1. Go to Network > Firewall > Ethernet bridging.
  2. In the Application blocks section, you can see a list of Application Themes or select the + icon to see individual Applications within that Application Theme. 

    Important

    If you only see File Transfer and Networking in the list, you aren’t licensed for Layer 7 Application Control. You can’t manage this from the Licenses or Modules pages, so contact your CSM.

  3. Select the checkboxes next to any combination of Themes or Applications.
  4. Select Save changes.

Remove a block

  1. Clear the checkbox for the individual Application or Application Theme.
  2. Select Save changes.

Managing exceptions to the block

Exceptions allow traffic through for Applications for specific Source IP addresses, IP ranges or subnets.

Add an exception

  1. Select Add new exception.
  2. Ensure Enabled is selected.
  3. Enter the Source IP to exempt from the block.
  4. (Optional) Add a comment.
  5. Select Add.

Edit an exception

  1. Hover over the exception.
  2. Select Edit.
  3. Edit as required.
  4. Select Save changes.

Remove an exception

To delete an exception:

  1. Hover over the exception.
  2. Select Delete.
  3. Select Delete again.

Alternatively, to keep an item in the list but have Smoothwall ignore it:

  1. Hover over the exception.
  2. Select Edit.
  3. Clear the Enabled checkbox.
  4. Select Save changes.