Website Categories

Using the Website Categories section, thousands of websites can be instantly blocked by category or subcategory. When a parent category is selected, all sub-categories will be checked initially, but individual subcategories can be excluded by clicking the down arrow and unchecking the desired subcategory. 

Overriding Category Blocks

When a website is unintentionally blocked by a selected category, the block can be overridden by adding an Allow Rule for the site in the Website URLs section. We recommend overriding category blocks on the same policy in which the category is selected. 

Check a Website 

Use the "Check a URL" search bar to see if a website belongs to a category or subcategory.

Multiple Policies

When multiple policies are applied to an OU, the selected categories across each policy are combined. To see the result of selected categories of multiple policies, use the policy comparison tool, then select the Website Categories section (shown below).

Policy Conflicts 

As locally applied policies take precedence over inherited policies, selected categories can override inherited "allow rules."

For example, for an OU that has two policies applied: 

• facebook.com is allowed on an inherited policy
• The social category is blocked on the locally applied policy
• The category block on the locally applied policy overrides allow rule
• facebook.com is blocked for this OU

To override this behavior, an allow rule for facebook.com must be added to the locally applied policy where the social category was blocked.