SonicWALL Security Appliances - Content Filtering Service (CFS)
SonicWALL Content Filtering Service enhances protection and productivity for businesses and schools by employing an innovative rating architecture utilizing a dynamic database of URLs, IP addresses and domains to block multiple categories of objectionable Web content.
An easy-to use management interface provides network administrators with greater control to transparently enforce acceptable use policies for Internet usage. At the core is a new Web site caching engine that stores URL ratings locally on the SonicWALL appliance, reducing response time to frequently-visited sites to a fraction of a second.
SonicWALL Content Filtering Service combines appliance-based policy enforcement with comprehensive content filtering in a cost-effective, manageable solution.
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Category Blocking and Rating
SonicWALL Content Filtering Service employs an innovative rating architecture that utilizes a dynamic database of millions of URLs, IP addresses and domains to block multiple categories of objectionable and inappropriate Web content such as porn, hate, nudity, violence and others, providing network administrators with greater control to transparently enforce acceptable use policies. The SonicWALL Content Filtering Service architecture caches URL ratings locally on the SonicWALL appliance. These Web site ratings are stored for all future users that attempt to visit the URLs, improving response time to frequently-visited sites.
Continuously Updated Database
SonicWALL Content Filtering Service combines a limitless database featuring millions of URLs, IP addresses and domains with a unique caching system that reduces latency to a fraction of a second, future-proofing your content filtering solution. SonicWALL Content Filtering Service reduces administrative costs and extends protection by automatically updating the content filter database continuously with new and relocated sites.
Appliance-Based, Scalable Content Filtering Solution
SonicWALL Content Filtering Service delivers an enterprise-class, completely scalable content filtering service that runs on all SonicWALL appliances and requires no additional server or deployment costs. Content Filtering can be deployed to run on your SonicWALL appliance in conjunction with other security functions such as firewall and VPN or as a stand-alone function of the SonicWALL appliance. An easy to use Web-Based management interface is used for simple policy configuration.
Flexible URL Filtering
SonicWALL Content Filtering Service provides flexible control over filtered content. Network administrators can specify domains or hosts such as "domian.com" to be allowed (Trusted) or denied (Forbidden). This feature can be used to customize the Content Filter Database, or to allow Web access to sites in a custom database. With careful screening, this can be close to 100% effective at blocking objectionable material. Optionally, both the filename and host fields can be scanned for specific keywords. Any requests that contain these key words are blocked. For example, if the administrator enters the keyword "gambling," access to sites such as http://wwww.freegambling.com will be blocked.
Java, ActiveX and Cookie Blocking
SonicWALL Content Filtering Service's ability to block most automatically downloaded files, increases security beyond the capabilities of firewalls. Java and ActiveX 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 be used to store preference information, and track Web usage history. For this reason, they can cause some privacy concerns. SonicWALL Internet security appliances can be configured to block Java and ActiveX scripts, as well as Cookies.
Block by Time-of-Day
SonicWALL Content Filtering Service allows the network administrator to make filtering active 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 service, cookies blocking, keyword blocking, etc.) will be on or off during specified times.
Reporting
Used in conjunction with the SonicWALL Global Management System or ViewPoint reporting software, organization can create granular reports on Internet usage for capacity planning or usage monitoring. Administrators can generate reports such as Web usage, Web filter, and Bandwidth usage.