Add Web Filter Policies

Smoothwall’s Web Filtering functionality allows you to block or allow access to different web content.

Hybrid (Both Cloud and On-Premise Appliance)

In a Hybrid setup, you can manage your Web Filter policies from Cloud or the On-Premise Appliance using the instructions below.

Do Not Filter, Soft Block, and Limit to Quota policy actions aren’t available in Cloud, but you can create policies with these actions in On-Premise Appliance and sync them to Cloud.

• Smoothwall Browser and the Cloud Filter Extension treat Soft Block policies as Block, while the Android Filter App treat them as Allow.
• Do Not Filter and Limit to Quota are treated as Allow by Cloud Filter Extension, Smoothwall Browser and Android Filter App.

In Cloud Filter, you can only change a policy’s action to Block or Allow. Use On-Premise Appliance to change it to Do Not Filter, Soft Block, or Limit to Quota, then sign out to sync the changes.

On-Premise Appliance

There are three ways you can block or allow access to content:

• Create new Web Filter Policies.
• Use the Quick block/allow feature.
• Have User Portal users block or allow URLs and domains from their Filter > List page.

Create a new policy

1. Go to Guardian > Web Filter > Policy wizard, or go to Guardian > Web Filter > Manage Policies and select Create a new policy. If you are part of a multi-tenant setup, select the Web Filter Policy type.
2. Fill in each field using the Add or Remove buttons. Select Next or the down arrow to expand each step.

1. In the Who section, select who the policy applies to. Select either:
   • Everyone to apply to all users.
   • One or more User Groups.
   • The single user icon and enter a username. This option can only be set up in On-Premise Appliance, but is synced to Cloud Filter and applied using Cloud Filter Extension, Smoothwall Browser or Android Filter App.

2. In the What section, select the type of content to be actioned by the policy. Select either:
   • Everything
   • A category or group of categories (built-in or custom)

3. In the Where section, select where the policy should apply. Select either:
   • Everywhere
   • One or more network locations (IP or range of IPs)

4. In the When section, select when the policy should apply from your list of Time slots.

5. Use the Action selector to choose how the policy should work: 
   • Block: Deny access to the content defined in the What field.
   • Allow: Permit access to the content defined in the What field. 
   • Do Not Filter (treated as Allow when Cloud Filter applies filtering): Permit completely unfiltered access by removing HTTPS Inspection and any Content Modifications.  

       Important

     Using this action on the Search Engines category, or any custom category containing search engines (google.com, etc) will remove the Search Term Filtering functionality for that site and compromises content filtering in search engines.

   • Soft Block (treated as Block for Smoothwall Browser and Cloud Filter Extension, but Allow for Android Filter App when Cloud Filter applies filtering): Initially deny access but provide an option to proceed to the site - useful for cautionary notices, such as Terms of Use or Fair Use Policies. 
   • Limit to Quota (treated as Allow when Cloud Filter applies filtering): Permit access to the content defined in the What field only for a limited time, then deny after this time is reached until the quota is renewed.

3. Make sure Enable policy is selected.
4. Select Confirm.
5. On the next page, select Save.

Go to Guardian > Web Filter > Manage Policies to see the new policy at the bottom of the policy table. You can reorder, turn off, edit or delete policies and folders.

Cloud Filter

1. Go to Filter > Policies. If you are part of a multi-tenant setup, select the Web Filter Policy type, and select Add policy in that section.

     Tip

   • Create a policy folder to manage your policies more easily.
   • Right-click a policy or folder to Expand or Collapse the editor for all policies and folders.
2. Enter a name for the policy, then configure each setting:

1. In the Who section, select who the policy applies to. Select either:
   • Everyone to apply to all users.
   • One or more User Groups.
   • The single user icon and enter a username. This option can only be set up in On-Premise Appliance, but is synced to Cloud Filter and applied using Cloud Filter Extension, Smoothwall Browser or Android Filter App.

2. In the What section, select the type of content to be actioned by the policy. Select either:
   • Everything
   • A category or group of categories (built-in or custom)

3. In the Where section, select where the policy should apply. Select either:
   • Everywhere
   • One or more network locations (IP or range of IPs)

4. In the When section, select when the policy should apply from your list of Time slots.

5. Use the Action selector to choose how the policy should work: 
   • Block: Deny access to the content defined in the What field.
   • Allow: Permit access to the content defined in the What field. 

3. Ensure the Status is set to Enabled.
4. Select +Add policy.

You can reorder, turn off or delete policies and folders, then go to Filter > Publishing and select Publish to apply changes to devices and sync to On-Premise Appliance.