URL filters can be applied at any of the following points: the user‘s application (browser/email reader), the network‘s gateway, at the Internet service provider (ISP) end, and also on a Web portal. For wireless clients, the WLAN infrastructure is the best place to implement these filters.
A URL filter is a set of whitelist and/or blacklist rules. The whitelist allows access only to those Websites and URLs specified in it. All other Websites and URLs, apart from those specified in the whitelist, are banned. On the other hand, the blacklist bans all Websites and URLs specified in it. All other Websites and URLs, apart from those specified in the blacklist, are allowed.
To simplify URL filter configuration, Websites have been classified into pre-defined category-types and categories. The system provides 12 category-types and 64 categories. To further simplify configuration, these 12 category-types have been grouped into five (5) pre-defined levels. (See Usage Guidelines section for the list of category-types, categories, and levels). The actual classification of URLs (on the basis of the pre-defined factors mentioned above) is done by the classification server. A local database also helps by caching URL records for a user-defined time period. The classification server host is specified in the Web filter policy. The Web filter policy also defines the URL database parameters. For more information, see web-filter-policy .
The WiNG software also allows you to create URL lists. Each URL list contains a list of user-defined URLs. Use the URL list in a URL filter (whitelist or blacklist rule) to identify the URLs to ban or allow. For example, a URL list named SocialNetworking is created listing the following three sites: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. When applied to a URL filter‘s blacklist these three sites are banned. Where as, when applied to a whitelist only these three sites are allowed. For more information on configuring a URL list, see url-list.
Note
URL filtering is a licensed feature. Procure and install the license in the device configuration mode. For more information, see license (device config mode).url-filter <URL-FILTER-NAME>
url-filter <URL-FILTER-NAME>
| <URL-FILTER-NAME> | Creates a new URL filter and enters its configuration mode. Specify the URL filter name. If a filter with the specified name does not exist, it is created. |
| Sl No. | Category Type | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adult Content | Alcohol & Tobacco, Dating & Personals, Gambling, Nudity, Pornography/Sexually Explicit, Sex Education, Weapons |
| 2 | Business | Web-based Email |
| 3 | Communication | Chat, Instant Messaging |
| 4 | Entertainment | Streaming Media & Downloads |
| 5 | File Sharing and Backup | Download Sites |
| 6 | Gaming | Games |
| 7 | News Sports and General | Arts, Business, Computer & Technology, Education, Entertainment, Fashion & Beauty, Finance, Forum & Newsgroups, General, Government, Greeting Card, Health & Medicine, Information Security, Job Search, Leisure & Recreation, Network Errors, News, Non-Profits & NGO, Personal Sites, Politics, Private IP Addresses, Real Estates, Religion, Restaurants & Dinning, Search Engine & Portals, Shopping, Sports, Transportation, Translators, Travel |
| 8 | Peer-to-Peer (P2P) | Peer to Peer |
| 9 | Questionable/Unethical | Child Abuse Images, Cults, Hacking, Hate & Intolerance, Illegal Drug, Illegal Sharing, Illegal Software, School Cheating, Tasteless, Violence |
| 10 | Security Risk | Advertisement & Pop-ups, Anonymizers, Botnets, Compromised, Criminal Activity, Malware, Parked Domains, Phishing & Fraud, Spam Sites |
| 11 | Social and Photo Sharing | Social Networking |
| 12 | Software Update | N/A |
| Sl No. | Level | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Basic | Blocks sites/URL categorized as Security Risk |
| 2 | Low | Blocks sites/URL categorized as Adult Content + Basic |
| 3 | Medium | Blocks sites/URL categorized as File Sharing and Backup, P2P, Questionable / Unethical + Low |
| 4 | Medium High | Blocks sites/URL categorized as Gaming + Medium |
| 5 | High | Blocks sites/URL categorized as Communication, Entertainment, Social and Photo Sharing + Medium High |
nx9500-6C8809(config-url-filter-test)#? URL Filter Mode commands: blacklist Block access to URL blockpage Configure blocking page parameters description Url filter description no Negate a command or set its defaults whitelist Allow access to URL clrscr Clears the display screen commit Commit all changes made in this session do Run commands from Exec mode end End current mode and change to EXEC mode exit End current mode and down to previous mode help Description of the interactive help system revert Revert changes service Service Commands show Show running system information write Write running configuration to memory or terminal nx9500-6C8809(config-url-filter-test)#
| no | Removes an existing URL filter policy |