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How to block all videos impeded into Webpages?

As the subject says, I want to block all videos impeded into webpages, like the videos you find will browsing Facebook, Instagram or the videos in the news websites for example.

P.s. I have Sophos UTM 9 version: 9.509-3 on SG230



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  • Hala Mohamed and welcome to the UTM Community!

    Although you can block sites like YouTube and Netflix in Web Filtering, you can't accomplish all you want there.  Normally, I would start with adding a new Category on the 'Categories' tab containing just 'Streaming Media' and then add that to blocked categories, but that requires a lot more experience with WebAdmin.

    You want 'Application Control'.  There you can create a rule to 'Control by: Applications', select 'Streaming Media', wait a minute or two for the check boxes to appear and then check the services you want to block.

    Cheers - Bob

     
    Sophos UTM Community Moderator
    Sophos Certified Architect - UTM
    Sophos Certified Engineer - XG
    Gold Solution Partner since 2005
    MediaSoft, Inc. USA
  • Thank you very much for your response, as I understand this is for blocking the whole site but I just want to block the media within the site - streaming videos for particular -

    If I understand you correctly I can't accomplish that with the current UTM version, if I'm wrong please clarify. 

  • There are two ways to accomplish this with UTM, Mohamed.

    The least resource-intensive would be to use URL filtering in Web Filtering.  Since most sites now use HTTPS to distribute videos and some use ports other than HTTP/S, blocking videos this way is not easy for someone new to UTM.

    The second way is Application Control, which is also in the Web Protection section.  There, instead of checking a database of URLs, the UTM actually analyzes the traffic packets to see if they match the pattern of the application you're trying to control.

    Cheers - Bob

     
    Sophos UTM Community Moderator
    Sophos Certified Architect - UTM
    Sophos Certified Engineer - XG
    Gold Solution Partner since 2005
    MediaSoft, Inc. USA
  • Mohammed,

    What Bob said is good advice, but here is some clarification:

    BAlfson said:
    The least resource-intensive would be to use URL filtering in Web Filtering.  Since most sites now use HTTPS to distribute videos and some use ports other than HTTP/S, blocking videos this way is not easy for someone new to UTM.

    Videos are almost always fed by a different URL than the URL of the webpage in which is it being viewed.  Although blocking the video URLs is less resource intensive for firewall, this procedure requires a lot of time and work.  you must do some investigating and reverse engineering to find and identify the correct URLs to block.

    BAlfson said:
    The second way is Application Control, which is also in the Web Protection section.  There, instead of checking a database of URLs, the UTM actually analyzes the traffic packets to see if they match the pattern of the application you're trying to control.

    I use Applications to block media and video feeds in known applications and websites such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.  I find this to be the more effective option if the video you bock are from known sites/apps. In applications, you will find options to allow/diallow all of Facebook or Instagram, and you will find options to allow/disallow just Facebook videos or Instagram videos.  You just need to find the video options and set them to disallow.  You may find a Streaming Media group already made.  You can search for "video".  You may also want to search for "media" and "streaming" too.  For other sites and apps not listed in Applications, you will need to spend some time using the URL blocking method above.

    * There is one thing you need to understand. *  There are several situations in which steaming media will still get past your firewall.  If you don't have Decrypt & Scan set, video streams inside encrypted packets may still get past your firewall.  Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google, Amazon, and many other sites use encrypted communications with your clients.  This means that your firewall may not be able to stop video streams completely encrypted from their servers or from new servers unknown to Sophos.  Anyone on your network using a VPN may be able to get video past your firewall.  That client/user can then redistribute the videos to other clients.  Other environments like Adobe Flash/Shockwave, Silverlight, Java, and some media players may allow video to bypass your firewall.

  • Thank you "BAlfson" for your clarification and thank you "David Birdsall" for this clear and detailed explanation, you both were very helpful to me and I appreciate that.