Security_Services_securityServicesCFView

Security Services > Content Filter

The Security Services > Content Filter page allows you to configure the Restrict Web Features and Trusted Domains settings, which are included with SonicOS Enhanced. You can activate and configure SonicWALL Content Filtering Service (SonicWALL CFS) as well as two third-party Content Filtering products from the Security Services > Content Filter page.

For complete SonicWALL Content Filtering Service documentation, see the SonicWALL Content Filtering Service Administrator’s Guide available at
http://www.sonicwall.com/us/Support.html .

This chapter contains the following sections:

SonicWALL Content Filtering Service

SonicWALL Content Filtering Service (CFS) enforces protection and productivity policies for businesses, schools and libraries to reduce legal and privacy risks while minimizing administration overhead. SonicWALL CFS utilizes a dynamic database of millions of URLs, IP addresses and domains to block objectionable, inappropriate or unproductive Web content. At the core of SonicWALL CFS is an innovative rating architecture that cross references all Web sites against the database at worldwide SonicWALL co-location facilities. A rating is returned to the SonicWALL security appliance and then compared to the content filtering policy established by the administrator. Almost instantaneously, the Web site request is either allowed through or a Web page is generated by the SonicWALL security appliance informing the user that the site has been blocked according to policy.

With SonicWALL CFS, network administrators have a flexible tool to provide comprehensive filtering based on keywords, time of day, trusted and forbidden domain designations, and file types such as Cookies, Java™ and ActiveX® for privacy. SonicWALL CFS automatically updates the filters, making maintenance substantially simpler and less time consuming.

SonicWALL CFS can also be customized to add or remove specific URLs from the blocked list and to block specific keywords. When a user attempts to access a site that is blocked by the SonicWALL security appliance, a customized message is displayed on the user’s screen. SonicWALL security appliance can also be configured to log attempts to access sites on the SonicWALL Content Filtering Service database, on a custom URL list, and on a keyword list to monitor Internet usage before putting new usage restrictions in place.

SonicWALL CFS Premium blocks 56 categories of objectionable, inappropriate or unproductive Web content. SonicWALL CFS Premium provides network administrators with greater control by automatically and transparently enforces acceptable use policies. It gives administrators the flexibility to enforce custom content filtering policies for groups of users on the network. For example, a school can create one policy for teachers and another for students.

Configuring General Content Filtering Settings

The following sections describe how to configure the settings on the Security Services > Content Filter page:

Content Filter Status

If SonicWALL CFS is activated, the Content Filter Status section displays the status of the Content Filter Server, as well as the date and time that your subscription expires. The expiration date and time is displayed in Universal Time Code (UTC) format.

You can also access the SonicWALL CFS URL Rating Review Request form by clicking on the here link in If you believe that a Web site is rated incorrectly or you wish to submit a new URL, click here .

If SonicWALL CFS is not activated, you must purchase a license subscription for full content filtering functionality, including custom CFS Policies. If you do not have an Activation Key, you must purchase SonicWALL CFS from a SonicWALL reseller or from your mysonicwall.com account (limited to customers in the USA and Canada).

Activating SonicWALL CFS

If you have an Activation Key for your SonicWALL CFS subscription, follow these steps to activate SonicWALL CFS:

Activating a SonicWALL CFS FREE TRIAL

You can try a FREE TRIAL of SonicWALL CFS by following these steps:

Content Filter Type

There are three types of content filtering available on the SonicWALL security appliance. These options are available from the Content Filter Type menu.

Clicking the Network > Zones link in Note: Enforce the Content Filtering per zone from the Network > Zone page , displays the Network > Zones page for enabling SonicWALL Content Filtering Service on network zones.

Restrict Web Features

Restrict Web Features enhances your network security by blocking potentially harmful Web applications from entering your network.

Restrict Web Features are included with SonicOS. Select any of the following applications to block:

Trusted Domains

Trusted Domains can be added to enable content from specific domains to be exempt from Restrict Web Features .

If you trust content on specific domains and want them to be exempt from Restrict Web Features , follow these steps to add them:

To keep the trusted domain entries but enable Restrict Web Features, uncheck Do not block Java/ActiveX/Cookies to Trusted Domains . To delete an individual trusted domain, click on the Delete icon for the entry. To delete all trusted domains, click Delete All . To edit a trusted domain entry, click the Edit icon.

CFS Exclusion List

IP address ranges can be manually added to or deleted from the CFS Exclusion List. Content filtering is disabled for IP addresses in the CFS Exclusion List. These address ranges are treated as trusted domains. Select Enable CFS Exclusion List to enable this feature.

The Do not bypass CFS blocking for the administrator checkbox controls content filtering for administrators. By default, when the administrator (“admin” user) is logged into the SonicOS management interface from a system, CFS blocking is suspended for that system’s IP address for the duration of the authenticated session. If you prefer to provide content filtering and apply CFS policies to the IP address of the administrator’s system, select the Do not bypass CFS blocking for the administrator checkbox.

Adding Trusted Domains to the CFS Exclusion List

To add a range of IP addresses to the CFS Exclusion List, perform these tasks:

Modifying or Temporarily Disabling the CFS Exclusion List

To modify or temporarily disable the CFS Exclusion List, perform these tasks:

Step 2

To edit a trusted domain entry, click the Edit icon.

Step 3

To delete an individual trusted domain, click on the Delete icon for the entry.

CFS Policy per IP Address Range

To configure a custom CFS policy for a range of IP addresses, perform these tasks:

Web Page to Display when Blocking

You can fully customize the web page that is displayed to the user when access to a blocked site is attempted. To revert to the default page, click the Default Blocked Page button.

For information on setting up Content Filter Properties, see Configuring SonicWALL Filter Properties .