This article applies to the Smoothwall Filter & Firewall On-Prem solution in either Hardware or VM form.
A Primer on Custom Categories.
On occasion, you may find certain domains/URLs are not categorized by Smoothwall, or are so particular in their use that they require a custom category so they can be actioned. A perfect example of this is web-enabled network appliances, such as VOIP Phones or WLAN equipment, that communicates to a cloud-based service.
Also where URLs/domains are already categorized by Smoothwall, a custom category can be used to provide an exception to filtering rules, for example, you may block for all users the 'News' category, which is built-in, but add www.mylocalpaper.co.uk to a custom category to allow access to that site in particular.
Custom categories have some advanced features to permit the addition of data that is not simply a domain/URL. The available data-types are as follows:
NOTE: Any data entered that is invalid will be highlighted in red - it can be saved but will not be actioned.
- Domain/URL: As basic as it gets, a domain or full URL string to be actioned. Do note that the Smoothwall does not require wildcards (*) in the Domain/URL field, as this is presumed where there is no 'www.' prefix.
- Search Term Filtering: Allows the inclusion of terms to be searched for and actioned according to the policy the custom category is used in. terms should be entered in bracketed, space padded format: [ search term ].
NOTE: Using a bracketed, unpadded format such as [phrase] will look for the contents as a string within other content on the web page, for exact terms, ensure the term is space-padded within the brackets. - URL Patterns: Allows the use of regular expressions to match domains/subdomains or URL strings.
- File Types: Allows file extensions to be nominated for actioning by a Filter Policy, in conjunction with user-added URLs or separately as a 'global' option.
Creating a Custom Category
- Log-in to your Smoothwall Filter & Firewall Admin UI.
- Navigate to Guardian > Policy Objects > Categories.
- Under Manage Categories, name the new category, expand the Advanced setting, and fill out the fields as required.
If working within a multi-tenant environment, you may select a tenant from the additional field to make the new category available only to that tenant's policies.
NOTE: Where lists of URL's need to be entered, you may use the 'Edit in full-text mode' tool under the entry field to paste in the content. - Click Save at the bottom of the Manage Categories field to create the new category.
You may now use the new category in any Guardian Web-Filter, HTTPS Inspection or Content Modification Policy.