SchoolProtect - URL & Keywords Entry Types

There are a number of different types of entries that can be set to be allowed or denied.

Validation rules apply to "Allowed" & "Denied" entries with the rules varying depending on the entry type. These are in place mainly to prevent the accidental unblocking or blocking of websites. For example adding a keyword of "sex" impacting access to http://www.sussex.gov.uk

By default, you can add URLs and keywords. Other options are also possible but in order to be used, you must enable them in System Config page in the Settings menu. These additional options are recommended for advanced users and are particularly useful with HTTPS Decryption.

There are five different entry types currently available in SchoolProtect:

URL
Keyword
Path
Extension
Query

URL

A URL is the default option within SchoolProtect, which will be the majority of the entries in an establishment's list.

When adding a URL to a list it's common, but not recommended, to include many URLs when a single entry would do.

Adding a domain will usually provide the best results & will automatically allow for future page additions or changes.

This is highlighted in the below examples, with the * representing a wild-card

Would cover *.www.facebook.com/* or www.facebook.com/*

Would cover *.facebook.com/* or facebook.com/*

As you can see from the above, adding the second entry would cover a request to https://en-gb.facebook.com/login/ , currently used for a Facebook login, whereas the first one wouldn't.

When adding a URL to a list, SchoolProtect will automatically remove the prefixes HTTP or HTTPS as they are not needed. This is done to keep lists tidier and to help with processing speeds. Although the time needed to process a single URL in an Allow or Deny list is very small, it may become significant if thousands of unnecessary URLs must be processed for every URL request.

Filtering IP Ranges

In the same way as websites can be added as URLs, IP addresses and IP ranges can also be added. This is particularly useful for certain software to work & negates the need to allow the SchoolProtect category 'Host is an IP'

When adding an IP address, this can simply be added as 192.168.0.0 for example.

It's also possible to add ranges of IP addresses.

To do this simply add the first IP address in the range you wish to add followed by a "-" & then the last IP address in the range.

Would cover the entire subnet from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.0.255

Keywords

Keywords are strings of characters that appear in a URL. Adding an entry as a keyword will match the entered phrase anywhere in the request.

For this reason Keywords can be very powerful, as they can easily cause the blocking or unblocking of more sites than intended. Therefore, wherever possible, it's advised to use a URL entry instead.

To demonstrate the effect of adding a keyword, please see the following example

Would cover a request to http://www.sussex.gov.uk or http://example.site.org/path/essex.zip

Path

Path searches in the path section of the URL and ignores the host.

All path entries begin at the ‘/’.

Adding a path entry of video (/video) would affect access to domain.com/video but would not affect access to www.video.com

Please be aware that this entry type will only work on HTTP websites, or decrypted HTTPS websites if HTTPS Decryption is being used.

File Extension

File extension support allows you to enter extensions such as ZIP or EXE. This can be used to complement your filtering policy by preventing access to various file types that are suspect or simply not allowed as part of your IT Acceptable Use Policy.

The extension entry type will only match a file extension in a URL.

Adding a extension entry for zip would match http://www.download.com/compressed.zip but not http://www.download.com/ZIPformat/filelink or http://www.zip.com

Query

The Query entry type searches the "CGI query" of a URL only & ignores the host and path. In other words, this entry type is used for searches on Google for example.

All Query entries begin with a ‘?’. You can add query entries without the leading ? as it will be added automatically, if not present, by SchoolProtect.

It should be noted that different websites will use different formats for their searches.

Google for example uses this format q=word whereas YouTube does it as search_query=word

This will match a query of 'sex' in any URL that uses the form ‘q=word’.

Please be aware that this entry type will only work on HTTP websites, or decrypted HTTPS websites if HTTPS Decryption is being used.