Content Filter

SonicWALL Content Filtering Subscription Service increases business productivity and reduces legal and privacy risks by automatically enforcing acceptable use policies while minimising administration overhead. Integrated with the SonicWALL Internet security appliance, the SonicWALL Content Filtering subscription service automatically updates the filters protecting you from unwanted URLs.

SonicWALL Content Filtering provides network administrators with a flexible tool to provide comprehensive filtering based on keywords, time of day, trusted and forbidden domain designations, and file types filtering such as Cookies, Java and ActiveX for privacy.

SonicWALL Content Filtering can be customized to add or remove specific URLs from the blocked list and to block specific keywords. When a user attempts to access a site that is blocked by the SonicWALL, a customised message is displayed on the user's screen. SonicWALL Internet security appliances can also be configured to log attempts to access sites on the SonicWALL Content Filter List, custom list, and keyword list to monitor Internet usage before putting new usage restrictions in place.

SonicWALL Content Filtering enables organisations to maintain Internet access policies tailored to their specific needs to improve productivity and restrict inappropriate online content.

• Automatic content filter updates to reduce administrative costs
• Flexible control over filtered content for enhanced protection
• Comprehensive Java, ActiveX and Cookie blocking

Content on the Internet is constantly changing. SonicWALL's Content Filtering automatically updates content filters on a weekly basis to ensure that access restrictions to new and relocated sites are properly enforced. Automatic updates also reduce administrative costs.

SonicWALL Content Filter provides flexible control over filtered content. Network administrators can specify domains or hosts such as yahoo.com that access can be allowed (Trusted) or denied (Forbidden). This feature can be used to customise the Content Filter List, or to allow Web access to sites on a custom list to provide close to 100% effectiveness in blocking objectionable material.

SonicWALL Content Filter is easy to customize because SonicWALL Internet security appliances can optionally scan both the filename field and host field for specific keywords, and block any requests that contain them. For example, if the administrator enters the keyword "sex," access to sites such as http://www.hotsex.com will be blocked.

SonicWALL Content Filtering can block most automatically downloaded files to increase security beyond the capabilities of a firewall alone. Java and ActiveX scripts are often used for hacker attacks. "Cookies," which direct a remote Web browser to save small amounts of data on its local hard disk, can cause some privacy concerns. SonicWALL Internet security appliances can be configured to block Java and ActiveX scripts, and Cookies.

SonicWALL Content Filtering allows network administrators to make filtering active only during certain times of day. A school could, for example, have filtering on during school hours and then remove filtering controls after school. A business could allow unfiltered Internet access to employees during a lunch hour and after work hours. When Time of Day filtering is activated, all filtering functions (filter list, cookie blocking, keyword blocking, etc.) will be on or off during specified times.