Web access control settings

To access these settings, click Settings / Profiles / Add profile and select Web access control.

If you are a new client and have just purchased the most current version of the product, this feature will be enabled by default for workstations. However, it will be disabled for servers by default.

If the version that you have is not the latest version, you will have to enable this feature in the Web console. To do this, select the Enable Web access control checkbox.

This protection allows you to limit access to specific Web categories, and configure a list of URLs to allow or deny access to. This feature allows you to optimize your network's bandwidth and increase your business productivity.

Denying access to specific Web pages

Web pages are grouped into categories. Select the URL categories that you want to deny access to. You can modify them at any time.

If a user tries to access a Web page belonging to a blocked category, an access denied notification will be displayed. Remember that you can enable or disable these warnings. For more information, refer to the Warning settings section.

Denying access to pages categorized as unknown

You can deny access to pages categorized as unknown simply by selecting the relevant checkbox.

However, bear in mind that internal (intranet) sites that connect on ports 80 or 8080 may be categorized as unknown, resulting in users not being able to access them.

Therefore, it is very important that you analyze those connections carefully before enabling this option. Alternatively, you can enable the option to block access to pages categorized as unknown and later unblock any sites you might need to access by adding them to the list of allowed addresses and domains.

Changing allowed/denied categories and updating computers

After you change the list of allowed or denied categories, it can take up to 4 hours for your computers to receive the new settings.

During this time, the Web access control feature will behave in exactly the same way as it did before the modification.

Nevertheless, if necessary, you can force the update on each computer where the protection is installed. To do this, right-click the protection icon in the taskbar (next to the Windows clock), and select Update.

List of allowed/denied addresses and domains

Additionally, you can set a list of Web pages that will always be allowed (whitelist) or blocked (blacklist).

You can edit these lists at any time.

Enter the URL for the relevant address or domain in the text box.
Click Add.
Use the Delete and Clear buttons to edit the list according to your needs.
Finally, click OK to save the settings.

After completing these steps, go to the Status window to see a summary of the Web pages accessed.

Database of URLs accessed from computers

Each computer keeps a database of the URLs accessed from it.

This database can only be consulted locally, that is, from the computer itself, for 30 days.

The data collected in the database is:

User ID.
Protocol (HTTP or HTTPS)
Domain.
URL.
Category (as returned by Commtouch)
Action (Allow/Deny)
Access date
Access counter (by category and by domain).