About web filter policy management

The Smoothwall Filter checks for a matching web filter policy using a top-down approach. Once a match is found, no further checks are made. You can specify the order of the polices in the list. For example, if you've created a policy that means media students can access advertising content during their lunch break and another that blocks all advertising content for all students, drag the "media students" policy to the top of the list of policies.

Multitenant configuration

The Smoothwall Filter checks the tables in the following order but maintains a top-down search in each as well:

• Global, can't be overridden
• Specific to <tenant_name>
• Global, can be overridden

This means that policies that must be enforced for all are found first. If no match is found, the tenant-specific policies are checked next. Because of this, tenant administrators can override policies set by the central administrators where allowed, that is, policies located in the Global, can be overridden table.

New policies

Typically, you create new web filter policies using the web filter policy wizard. However, you can also launch the wizard from the Manage policies page.

You do this by clicking the Create a new policy link at the bottom of the Web filter policies section. For a detailed description of how to use the web filter policy wizard, see our help topic, Creating web filter policies.

If you're using a multitenant configuration, click Create a new policy from the appropriate policy owner's table:

• Global, can't be overridden
• Specific to <tenant_name>
• Global, can be overridden