Configure Website Filtering

Use website filtering to block users from accessing certain websites based on specific URLs or website content. You either create a blacklist (or whitelist) or block websites based on content type.

When a blacklist is applied, any sites on the blacklist will redirect the device user to the default URL for blocked websites or a blank page, depending on your settings.

A whitelist is more restrictive than a blacklist. The device user can only access the sites specified on the whitelist. Any attempt by the device user to access non-whitelisted sites will redirect the device user to the default URL or a blank page, depending on your settings. Redirect URLs are automatically whitelisted.

You cannot apply both a blacklist and a whitelist within the same profile configuration. If a device receives a blacklist and a whitelist from two different profiles, the whitelist will apply, overriding the blacklist. If a device receives multiple blacklists or multiple whitelists from different profiles, then the websites (and exceptions) from all profiles are unioned.

Websites


Default URL for blocked websites/categories	Enter a URL. When a device user attempts to access a blocked site, they are taken to this URL.
Blacklist or Whitelist	Toggle between Blacklist and Whitelist using these radio buttons.
Specify website filters: Click here to add a new domain...	Enter the web domain(s) or website(s) that you want to block or allow
Import	Opens the Import Filter Domains dialog box in which you can import multiple filter domains from a file. The import file must be in .csv or .txt format with one filter domain per row.
Delete All	Click to delete all domains or websites.
Exclude these websites from the filter: Click here to add a new domain...	Enter the web domain(s) or website(s) that you want to exclude from your blacklist or whitelist rules. For example, if you input `google.*` as the blacklisted domain and then add `google.ca` and `google.fr` to the exceptions list, your users can now access google.ca and google.fr but are still unable to access google.com, google.co.uk and other variations.
Import	Opens the Import Exception Domains dialog box in which you can import multiple exception domains from a file. The import file must be in .csv or .txt format with one exception domain per row.
Delete all	Click to delete all domains or websites.

Web Content

You can block websites based on their content.

Block specific types of content by selecting the check boxes beside the options or use Select All to block all the content categories. Choosing Select All will severely limit the functionality of the SOTI Surf browser.

You can add an exception to web content categories by adding the website to the exception list of a Blacklist web filter.

Note: When the Uncategorized setting is enabled, device users cannot access any website that does not have a website category assigned.

Devices with blocked categories from multiple profiles will have all categories from all profiles applied.