Full Web Control

Note This feature is not included with all licenses. If you want to use it, you might need to customize your license.

If you have a Sophos Web Appliance, Sophos Management Appliance, or Sophos UTM appliance (version 9.2 or later) you can distribute an appliance-based policy to your users by way of Sophos Enterprise Console.

Endpoint computers communicate with Sophos Enterprise Console in the same way as when the Inappropriate Website Control policy is selected, but the web-filtering rules and web activity logs are synchronized with the appliance that you specify. The policy is stored on endpoint computers and applied, based on the latest Sophos data.

Users are blocked, warned or allowed, according to the web control policy. You can view user activity data using the Reports and Search features on the Web Appliance or Management Appliance, or Logging & Reporting > Web Protection option on the UTM appliance. Web control events are all recorded on the appliance; however, sites scanned and assessed by Sophos Endpoint Security and Control's live URL-filtering (Web protection) are recorded as web events in Sophos Enterprise Console.

Note Although HTTP and HTTPS sites are both filtered in all supported web browsers, in a Web Appliance or Management Appliance user notifications are different, depending on whether the URL is HTTP or HTTPS. With HTTP sites, users see notification pages for sites in categories set to Block or Warn. For HTTPS, users only see Block notifications, and they are displayed as a balloon tip in the Windows System Tray. HTTPS Warn actions are not displayed to users, nor are they logged. Instead, users are allowed to continue to the requested page, and it is logged as a Proceed event in the Sophos Web Appliance or Security Management Appliance.

UTM appliance uses a central cloud-based service called Sophos LiveConnect for protecting and monitoring endpoint computers. LiveConnect allows you to always manage all of your endpoints, whether they are on your local network, at remote sites, or with traveling users—policy updates are distributed to users, and reporting data from endpoint computers is uploaded, even when users are not connected from within the network.

When using Management Appliance or Web Appliance, endpoints can communicate with the appliance either directly or through Sophos LiveConnect.

With Full Web Control selected, a full-featured policy takes effect. Full Web Control offers the following benefits over basic web control, depending on the appliance you use:

  • Users are warned or blocked, based on over 50 categories of URLs.
  • Differentiated Special Hours policies can be applied.
  • Numerous additional policies can be used as per-user or per-group exceptions to the default and Special Hours policies.
  • Detailed logs and reports are available on the Sophos Web Appliance, Security Management Appliance, or UTM appliance.
  • LiveConnect allows distribution of policy updates and uploading of report data, even when users connect remotely.
  • Users can submit feedback regarding the handling of blocked URLs.
  • Customized notification pages that include your logo, and text that is specific to your organization, can be displayed to users. For more information, see the Sophos Web Appliance documentation.
  • Users are automatically restricted from browsing to inappropriate sites from within popular search engines when SafeSearch is enabled.

For more information on configuring a full Web Appliance policy, see Sophos Web Appliance documentation.