topic Re: "Stupid" Custom URL Filtering Question in General Topics

"Stupid" Custom URL Filtering Question

apackard — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:37:46 GMT

If I want to block all derivations of "acme.com" in URL filtering how should I format the domain in my blocklist/custom blocking category?

If I add "acme.com" then that doesn't appear to match "www.acme.com", but if I add "*.acme.com" then it doesn't match "acme.com" (although it does it that redirects to another URL such as www.acme.com).

Ultimately I wan to be able to say I am blocking ALL traffic associated with a specific domain with as few repeated entries as possible!

Cheers

Re: "Stupid" Custom URL Filtering Question

zarina — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 18:09:24 GMT

You should be able to block www.acme.com and acme.com with the patterns:

*.acme.com

acme.com

Re: "Stupid" Custom URL Filtering Question

apackard — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 18:20:51 GMT

Thanks - this is what I thought - is this 'behavior by design'?

However, as I understand it this means that if I add:-

acme.com

*.acme.com

and they add a new tier:-

bypass.www.acme.com

then it won't match my filters and will be allowed, and I'll need to add:-

*.*.acme.com

Seems a bit cack-handed - and reactionary - when all I want to do is say - block "ACME"..!

Re: "Stupid" Custom URL Filtering Question

zarina — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:24:01 GMT

Yes, this is expected. When you need to block bypass.www.acme.com, the wildcard to be used will be *.*.acme.com.

Re: "Stupid" Custom URL Filtering Question

James — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 20:01:10 GMT

Hi There,

Here is a thread with some more expansion on all the delimiters other than 'dots'.

Thanks

James

Re: "Stupid" Custom URL Filtering Question

mikand — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 02:26:19 GMT

When you setup:

acme.com

*.acme.com

doesnt that second line include what.ever.www.acme.com ?

And to answer apackard: this is quite common when it comes to url-filtering, I have seen this behaviour on more devices than PA. I guess those who doesnt have this in the GUI will actually do the same thing in the backend.