Policies

With web policies, you can create rules to control end users’ web browsing activities. Policies take effect when you add them to firewall rules. The default set of policies specifies some common restrictions. You can modify one of the default policies to fit your requirements or create new policies.

To edit a policy, find the policy you want to change and click .
To test and troubleshoot policies, click Policy test.

Policy rules

Rules specify the following criteria:

Users to whom the rule applies.
Note Users specified by firewall rules take precedence over those specified by policies.
Activities that describe the type of usage to restrict. These include user activities, categories, URL groups, file types, and dynamic categories.
Content filters to restrict web content that contains any terms in the lists specified.
An action to take when the firewall encounters HTTP traffic that matches the rule criteria.

You can also specify a separate action for HTTPS traffic and set a schedule for the rule.

The firewall evaluates rules from highest to lowest. For example, if a rule that allows all traffic precedes a rule that blocks a specific type of traffic, the rule that allows all traffic is the effective rule.

Note For a rule to be effective, it must be on.

To turn on a rule, click the Status switch.
To add a rule to a policy, click .
To clone a rule, click .
To position rules within a policy, click and drag the rule handle ().

Positioning rules

The following policy includes a separate rule for .mdb files. Because the rule is positioned above the rule for database files — which itself includes the .mdb file type — the policy allows access to .mdb files and blocks all other database files.