Built-in and Custom Categories

This article applies to organisations with a 'Hybrid' setup (both On-Premise Appliance and Cloud), as well as On-Premise only and Cloud only setups.

 

Smoothwall filters web content using Built-in and Custom Categories in the What section of Web Filtering and HTTPS Inspection (On-Premise Appliance) policies.

Built-in Categories

Built-in Categories are available on every Smoothwall Cloud and On-Premise Appliance and are maintained by Smoothwall.

Note

You should create a Custom Category instead of editing Built-in Categories in On-Premise Appliance. You can’t edit Built-in Categories in Cloud Filter.

 

Custom Categories

Use the Blocklist Feedback form to inform us about content that is not in a Built-in Category. If the content can't be added to a Built-in Category, we’ll advise you to create a Custom Category for filtering.

Custom Categories are unique to your Smoothwall and must be maintained by you.

For example, you may need to create a custom category to:

  • Allow web-enabled network appliances, like VoIP phones or wireless LAN (WLAN) equipment.
  • Provide an exception to filtering policies. For example, you may block the 'News' category but add Mylocalpaper.com to a custom category to allow access to that site.

What can we block and allow using Custom Categories?

The table below outlines what can be added to a Custom Category.

Feature Used for
Domains/URLs Block or allow access to websites, subdomains and Top Level Domains (TLDs). Full details: URL or domain filtering
Search Terms Block or allow searching for specific words or phrases. Full details: Search term filtering
Videos Block or allow access to videos and playlists. Full details: Video filtering
(On-Premise Appliance only)
URL Patterns		 Allows or blocks regular expressions to match domains/subdomains or URL strings. Use a PERL-compatible regular expression per line. For example, adultsite|gambling looks for URLs containing either the word adultsite or gambling.
  • Avoid using brackets ( ), dots, or asterisks *. They use a lot of memory on your On-Premise Appliance, which can impact performance.
  • We presume all prefixes and suffixes, so you don’t need to add ‘www’. Adding smoothwall.cloud/ includes portal.smoothwall.cloud and smoothwall.cloud/filter.
(On-Premise Appliance only)
File Types		 Allows or blocks specific file extensions. Enter the File types or file name extensions, one per line. You must include the dot, such as .doc.