Summary
This article explains how to block a TLD in the Guardian web filter.
Problem
Typically, companies use a different top-level domain (TLD), or country code, for customers in different countries, for example, www.google.com
typically for the US and www.google.co.uk
for the UK.
Sometimes it may be desirable to block a full TLD with the Smoothwall web filter, for example, to block all websites from a particular country.
Solution
- Create a custom category, adding the TLD to block to the Domain/URL filtering field. See our help topic, Creating custom categories.
The Domain/URL filtering field automatically infers a wildcard and a dot (.) to entries placed in it, that is, entries are assumed to be*.<text>
.
For example, to block all UK websites which have the top level TLD ofuk
, it is only necessary to adduk
to the category. So addinguk
is the equivalent of the more familiar*.uk
format, just as an entry ofbbc.co.uk
is equivalent to*.bbc.co.uk.
- Create the necessary filtering block rules as required see our help topic, Creating web filter policies.