Filtering policies Page

Use this page to add new policies to your Smoothwall Filter configuration and manage existing ones.

If you have a multitenant setup, you will see three different sections and you might have policies in each of the three sections. The policies are processed from the top of the first table down to the last in the bottom table. You won't see these three sections if you don't have a multitenant setup and will only see a single table of policies.

Navigation: Portal Home > Filter > Policies.

Global (cannot be overridden) Policies to be enforced for all students no matter the tenant can be found here. You only see this if you have a multitenant setup.
Tenant specific Policies specific to users on a specific tenant are found here. You can select each tenant to see the policies that apply to it. You only see this if you have a multitenant setup.
Global (can be overridden) Policies to be enforced for all students no matter the tenant but might be proceeded by another policy in previous rows in the previous two tables. You only see this if you have a multitenant setup.
Filtering policies
Indicates that your network administrator is signed in and making changes in the on premise Smoothwall Filter and Firewall and their changes will update in the Cloud Filter user interface, once they sign out.
Search Filters your list of policies in real time by the letters or numbers that you type.
Expands the view to display the Policy details / Folder details section so that you can see the policy objects for policies or the list of policies in the folder.
Where you can click and drag the policy or folder to another position in the table.
Indicates if the row is a policy folder. Expand the view to see all the policies within the folder. Place your mouse cursor over this icon to drag the policy to another position in the table.
Indicates if the row is a single policy. Place your mouse cursor over this icon to drag the policy to another position in the table.
{number} Indicates the order number in which the policy is processed by the Smoothwall Filter.
{policy name} The name of the policy. Try to make this descriptive so that you know at a glance what this policy is blocking or allowing, for example, Everyone - Social Media.
{Action} Indicates what the policy does to content if matched with the category. For example, Allow, Block, Whitelist or Overridden. If you have our other solution, the Smoothwall Filter and Firewall hardware appliance, and have policies with a whitelist action, these are treated as allowed in the Cloud Filter solution. You can change the action by clicking the arrow and selecting another action from the list.
Enabled / Disabled Indicates whether the policy is in use or not.
Add folder Displays the Create policy folder section on the page so that you can add the details for a new policy folder. This button is at the bottom of the table. Therefore, if you have a lot of folders and policies you might need to scroll down the page.
Add policy Displays the Create policy section on the page so that you can add the details for a new policy. This button is at the bottom of the table. Therefore, if you have a lot of folders and policies you might need to scroll down the page.
Delete Right-click a folder or policy to see this option.
Policy details / Folder details
Child-inheritable properties The top section of a policy folder. It shows which policy objects are set at the folder-level and therefore used by all policies in the folder, and which can be set per each policy in the folder, shown with the word "Overridden" at folder-level.
Indicates who the policy applies to. "Everyone" is a user group that contains all your users.
Removes the policy object from the policy.
Indicates the categories or category groups applied to the policy. If this is a custom category that appears blue, you can edit it by clicking on it. "Everything" is a category that contains all categories including content not categorized. Therefore, this would either block or allow all content. For example, if you had a block web filter policy with the category of Everything, none of your users would be able to access anything.
Indicates the physical location of the device and user that the policy applies to. "Everywhere" is a location object that allows, or blocks content requested by users located anywhere.
Indicates whether there is a time restrain on the policy. For example, during lunch time. "Always" is a time slot that applies the policy all the time.
+ Add child policy Adds a new child policy section so that you can add the details of the child policy. Click Add child policy again to confirm your changes.
Child policies The list of policies in the policy folder. The policy objects for each policy are either set at policy-level or are inherited from those set at the folder-level.
Create policy folder
X Closes the section without saving any changes.
Name The name of the policy folder. Try to make this descriptive so that you know at a glance what this policy is blocking or allowing.
Action

The action that you want all the policies in the folder to take.

Action Description
Block Requests that the specified categories and category groups are blocked.
Allow Requests that the specified categories and category groups are allowed through the Filter. Content is scanned for antimalware if an antimalware policy is in place. The Filter might also categorize the content and apply any content modification policies that you have in place. You can use this option to create specific exceptions to broad blocking policies. You can also prevent over-blocking of diverse content such as news articles, which might fall under a variety of categorizations depending on the type of news article.
Whitelist

When content is added to a safe list, Guardian doesn't examine it any further. Content is added to a safe list early on when Guardian is checking URLs. Content added to a safe list isn't subjected to outgoing filtering or dynamic content analysis. Content modification policies might still be applied, unless the categorization of the original, unmodified URL matches the content added to the safe list. Adding content to a safe list might help to conserve system resources and prevent unintentional blocking when dealing with trusted content, such as online banking sites or Windows updates.

Note: White-listed content is not scanned for potential malware.
Status Indicates whether the policy is in use or not.
Who... The user group to which the policy applies.
What... The categories or category groups applied to the policy.
Where... Indicates the physical location of the device and user that the policy applies to.
When... Indicates whether there is a time restrain on the policy. For example, during lunch time.
Add folder Displays a new section on the page so that you can add the details for a new policy folder.
Create new policy
X Closes the section without saving any changes.
Name The name of the policy. Try to make this descriptive so that you know at a glance what this policy is blocking or allowing, for example, Everyone - Social Media.
Action

The action that you want the policy to take.

Action Description
Block Requests that the specified categories and category groups are blocked.
Allow Requests that the specified categories and category groups are allowed through the Filter. Content is scanned for antimalware if an antimalware policy is in place. The Filter might also categorize the content and apply any content modification policies that you have in place. You can use this option to create specific exceptions to broad blocking policies. You can also prevent over-blocking of diverse content such as news articles, which might fall under a variety of categorizations depending on the type of news article.
Whitelist

When content is added to a safe list, Guardian doesn't examine it any further. Content is added to a safe list early on when Guardian is checking URLs. Content added to a safe list isn't subjected to outgoing filtering or dynamic content analysis. Content modification policies might still be applied, unless the categorization of the original, unmodified URL matches the content added to the safe list. Adding content to a safe list might help to conserve system resources and prevent unintentional blocking when dealing with trusted content, such as online banking sites or Windows updates.

Note: White-listed content is not scanned for potential malware.
Status Indicates whether the policy is in use or not.
Who... The user group to which the policy applies.
What... The categories or category groups that this policy applies to.
Where... Indicates the physical location of the device and user that the policy applies to.
When... Indicates whether there is a time restrain on the policy. For example, during lunch time.
Add policy Saves your changes.