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How to block websites

I have some experience with the UTM, but today I inherited a dozen of Web Appliances without any explanation... .

It should be the easiest task imaginable, but I can't find out how to block single websites instead of categories from the Management Appliance. I need to block Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but blocking their respective categories would block a lot more than what I want. The only place where I could add URLs is the local site list, but if I understand it correctly that should include only URLs that are not in the Sophos DB (or things that need to be overruled).


Could anyone point me in the right direction?



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  • The SWA does application blocking for some applications such as Facebook so start there.  Note that this is quite different (more efficient) from UTM application blocking as it only looks at HTTP/HTTPS traffic rather than the UTM's packet sniffing.

    Using the Local Site List is correct.  You can create a tag called "Social Sites to Block" and then create a policy rule that blocks everything with that tag.

    One important difference between the UTM and the SWA is that in the SWA the policies "fall through".  In the UTM once a Filter Action has been chosen that action fully defines everything that applies.  In the SWA, you can have an additional policy that only has a single tag=block and sites that don't match that tag fall through to the next additional policy.

  • Hi Michael,

    That was all I needed. I see the logic now. The interface is very slow (low bandwith sites) so I hadn't seen the Additional Policies.

    Thanks a lot. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are no more :)

    --------------------

    J. Janssens

    Sophos Certified Architect
    Sophos Certified Engineer
    Sophos Certified Sales Consultant
    Gold Partner