Configuring the Smoothwall Filter to Allow Access to Specific YouTube videos

This article describes how to allow access to specific YouTube videos, while YouTube in general remains blocked. Allowing individual videos for YouTube can be time-consuming and tedious finding, then listing each video's URL in a category.

  • This will not work if the content modification 'Youtube restricted mode' is enabled.
  • This is most appropriate for customers who do not use GSuite for education.

Procedure

  1. Create a new Decrypt and Inspect HTTPS inspection policy with the YouTube category and these settings, see our help topic, Creating HTTPS inspection policies:
    • Who: "Everyone, or the relevant user or groups to apply this policy to."
    • What: "YouTube"
    • Where: "Everywhere, or the relevant location to apply this policy to."
    • When: "Always, or the relevant time slot to apply this policy to."
    • Action: "Decrypt and Inspect"
  2. For each video that you want to allow access to, retrieve the 11-digit video code that appears at the end of the URL. For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPI0bCXiF3U.
  3. Create a new custom category with these settings, see our help topic, Creating custom categories:
    • Domain / URL filtering:
      • s.youtube.com
      • googlevideo.com
      • youtube.com/crossdomain.xml
      • ytimg.com/yt
      • ytimg.com/crossdomain.xml
      • s.ytimg.com
      • c.youtube.com
      • youtube.com/yts
      • youtube.com/api
    • Advanced
      • URL patterns:
        • cache[0-9]\.c\.youtube\.com
        • youtube\.com/.*<11_digit_YouTube_video_code>
          • where 11_digit_YouTube_video_code is the video code copied from the URL.
          • Do this for every video that you want to allow access to.
          • To allow embedded videos, use youtube\.com\/embed/.*<11_digit_YouTube_video_code>.
          • To allow YouTube playlists, use youtube\.com\/.*<22_digit_YouTube_playlist_code>.
  4. Once you have created the category, create an allow web filtering policy with these settings for the group required, see our help topic, Creating web filter policies:
    • Who: "Everyone, or the relevant user or groups to apply this policy to."
    • What: "The custom category that you created."
    • Where: "Everywhere, or the relevant location to apply this policy to."
    • When: "Always, or the relevant time slot to apply this policy to."
    • Action: "Allow"