If you're unable to access Dropbox through the Smoothwall Filter and Firewall, you need to configure it to allow access. Dropbox doesn't support SNI and won't work through a transparent HTTPS Proxy. The Dropbox installer doesn't perform consistently with proxies when installing.
You need to make sure that you allow direct access outbound on port 443 temporarily. You can do this with a port rule configuration.
Procedure
- Add a firewall rule with these settings, see our help topic, Adding new Firewall rules:
- Source IP address: Any
- Inbound interfaces: Any
- Destination IP addresses:
- 199.47.216.0/22
- 207.171.160.0/19
- 66.228.118.0/24
- 50.16.0.0/14
- Outbound interfaces: Any
- Services: Create two new ones with these settings:
- HTTP
- Protocol: TCP
- Port: 80
- HTTPS
- Protocol: TCP
- Port: 443
- HTTP
- Action: Accept
- Shut down Dropbox before you configure the authentication exception.
- Add an authentication exception for dropbox.com, see our help topic, Creating authentication exceptions. You need to ensure that your users have logged in to authenticate their browsing session.
- Create an allow web filter policy, see our help topic, Creating web filter policies.
- Who: "Everyone, or the relevant user or groups to apply this policy to."
- What: "the domains listed in the Dropbox article, The domains that Dropbox uses in an official capacity."
- 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"
- Move this policy above any file and image hosting block policies you have in the Web filter policies table, because Dropbox is part of these categories, see our help topic, Managing web filter policies.
- In your Dropbox app, set your proxy settings by right clicking on the Dropbox icon on the top right task bar once installed.
If you are using Dropbox for PC and the proxy connection fails, the application reverts to using a direct connection.