How to ban a site

[Algeron]

I am just setting up the WinGate proxy service. As a test, I want to know how to ban site names that have specific words. For example, I want to make sure no one can access thepiratebay. Since this site moves around a lot, entering the full URL is not a viable option. I want to be able to block any site that has thepiratebay in the name. If I enter in the complete name (thepiratebay.se), it will be blocked, but if I do not add the extension, the users can still get to the site.

[Aaron Koolen-Bourke]

Hi there.

There are a number of ways you can do this.

• Create a data list with your banned sites (You can use wildcards), using the Manual Classifier, classify URL's that are in the list as some category (Banned Sites for instance) and then create a new Web Access rule that denies access and use that category.
• Use the manual classifier and directly enter the URL (With wildcards), then match on that category
• Add an item to your WWW Proxy Policy that rejects the connection if it finds that the URL matches some value or is found in a specific data list (Data list lookup item).

Looking at the process I see that it could very well be handy to allow wildcards in the WHAT section of Web Access rules or allow the user to specify a data list explicitly when creating a rule.This way you could do what you want with fewer steps.

Let me know if you need any more help
Aaron